Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

16 The creation of St. Helen’s creation of a freely-drained sports field – suitable for the playing of cricket and rugby – through the further reclamation of sandbanks adjacent to Oystermouth Road. The negotiations with Colonel Morgan did not go well at first, but by October 1874 and agreement was reached, with local surveyor (and cricketer) Phillip Warren drawing up plans for the new sports field – at a cost of £2,000 – with a level and freely-drained surface. The initial agreement covered a 20 year lease to the cricket club and in the names of JTD and Livingston by Colonel Morgan. The latter however, added a clause that the land would revert to him should building development be permitted by the Corporation. Warren then oversaw the work on creating the new cricket field, with levelling, turfing and rolling of the former sandbanks as well as creating a series of purpose-made wickets. Whilst John Tucker supervised the laying of the turf, the man who was responsible for the creation of the wickets and practice areas was William Bancroft (senior), the patriarch of a sporting family whose name became synonymous with cricket and rugby for many years at the St. Helen’s ground. 1 Born in Barnwell in Cambridgeshire in 1824, William (senior) took up a boot-making apprenticeship in his early teens in Cambridge, before getting married andmoving to Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. During the early 1850s, he moved again, with his wife and young child, to Shoreditch in London, with their move to the capital being not entirely related to William’s desire to develop his boot-making skills. Instead, it was cricketing reasons as he also had shown great promise as a cricketer whilst in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and held ambitions to become a professional cricketer, believing that he might gain a trial as a professional bowler with the MCC. Whilst there are no surviving records of him having a trial at Lord’s, legions of Welsh sportsmen have become eternally grateful that he moved to London as during his time in the city, he became aware of a professional appointment with the ambitious Swansea club. It is not known whether he was spotted by an official from the Welsh club, or whether he was personally recommended by someone who had seen him perform in the London area, but the 1861 Census dutifully records the expanding Bancroft family as being residents of Swansea, with William plying his trade as a bootmaker, and playing as a professional for the town’s cricket club. His move to Swansea was hugely successful as he quickly became one of the leading professionals in South Wales, with the all-rounder being regularly chosen for the Glamorganshire side which played a number of inter-county fixtures during the 1860s, including their inaugural fixture against Carmarthenshire at Llanelli in August 1861. Bancroft batted regularly in the top-order, and proved to be a consistent run-scorer in these days of round-arm and under arm bowling. On several occasions, he also showed his own prowess with the ball, including a fine return of 6/64 in the match against Carmarthenshire at Neath in 1864. His duties with the Swansea club also included coaching and helping