Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

20 The creation of St. Helen’s Dave Gregory, later famous – or notorious – for telling the mighty Lord Harris where he got off. But the tourists were a pretty tired bunch, having got in at 4.30 a.m. after a nightmare journey from Twickenham, John Moore of Neath, the Secretary of the South Wales CC, under whose aegis the fixture had been arranged, had been fretting all week that the Australians would not bother to make the 200 mile journey to meet an obscure Welsh side, but they honoured the fixture with the two umpires – Willaim Bancroft (senior) and James Lillywhite junior – walking out to the middle as play began on time at 11.30 a.m. after JTD won the toss and following a chat with his team, invited the Australians to bat first, hoping that they were still weary after their long, overnight journey. JTD also delivered the first over with the Bannerman brothers, Charles and Alec, at the crease. He had an easy action, bowling off-cutters, but his first ball was short of a length and Charles Bannerman leant back and elegantly cut it for four. Sharing the new ball was Charles Prytherch Lewis, a fine all-round sportsman, educated at Llandovery College and Oxford University and a man who a few years later was in the first wave of Welsh rugby internationals. He was a much quicker bowler than JTD with a low slinging delivery. His first ball slammed into Alec Bannerman’s thin gloves, jarring his fingers before shortly afterwards getting a delivery to rear up at Charles Bannerman with the ball flying off the edge of his bat and through the hands of the fielder of short-leg for three runs. Another short ball followed in his next over – this time Alec Bannerman missed it, but Edgar Davies, who was keeping wicket for the South Wales team did not. However, in taking the ball, the solicitor from Crickhowell split the webbing on his hand and with blood seeping out from his gauntlets, he left the field for treatment leaving his side without a regular gloveman for the rest of the game. After half an hour or so, Thomas Babington Jones replaced JTD with the Oxford Blue from Brecon delivering his brisk off-breaks. His first over was a maiden, before Charles Bannerman took a liking to Jones’ bowling, with a couple of drives and cuts bringing the Australian further boundaries. Lewis continued at the other end and his mood was not improved as another edge was dropped at slip. But it did not prove to be too expensive a miss as two balls later, a ball breached Bannerman’s defensive stroke and knocked back off and middle stumps. With the tourists on 37-1, Tom Horan made his way to the middle, sporting enormous bushy sideburns and wearing a curiously shaped white hat with a broad peak all the way around. His arrival saw the introduction into the attack of Frank Cobden, the famous Cambridge University bowler who had settled in Mid Wales. He was not the Cobden of eight years before, when he had prevented Oxford winning the Varsity match by taking the last three wickets in as many balls. In his prime, at 12 stone, he had been a fast bowler. Now with a larger waistline he had lost some pace but, even so, he was still able to find the edge of Alec Bannerman’s bat as he tried to cut a ball too close to him, got a top edge and was caught at third man. Cobden claimed a second wickets as Dave Gregory, pushed forward with