Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

36 Local rivalries Swansea also departed at the quarter-final stages in 1880 having defeated Llanelli in the opening round. This time a more relaxed approach to choice of venues saw the contest take place at St. Helen’s. The South Wales Daily News reported how “the field was in capital order” but the wicket was not to the liking of the batsmen from Carmarthenshire with only one getting into double figures as they were dismissed for 76, before the Swansea men knocked off the winning runs. The visit to Cardiff on 10 July ended again in defeat for Swansea, and on a wet and windy day which was more suited to rugby than cricket. The conditions though did not affect John Price Jones, a leading architect in the town with the man who eight years later helped to convene the meeting at The Angel Hotel which led to the creation of Glamorgan CCC, top-scoring with 36 as Cardiff ended on 111, before dismissing the visitors for 45. Their defeat in the Challenge Cup was the second piece of bad news that summer for the Swansea officials as their prestigious two-day match on 4 and 5 June against the Gentlemen of Canada had been cancelled on the eve of the match. The Canadians had organised matches at both Swansea and Cardiff, after matches in Scotland and Yorkshire. But on the day before the game at St. Helen’s, the manager of the touring team sent a telegram to the Swansea secretary from Leicester, saying that the early matches on the tour had been financial disasters and that an advance of £15 would be needed if the two games in South Wales were to go ahead. It later transpired that their captain, a Yorkshireman called Tom Dale, had been arrested having deserted from the Royal Horse Guards in November 1872. All of the tourists’ money had gone with him, and with the Welsh officials unable at such short notice to meet their request, the two matches on Welsh soil were cancelled, with the Canadians heading instead to London for more lucrative games at Lord’s and Crystal Palace. Swansea CC as senn during the late 1890s and in front of the St. Helen’s pavilion. Billy Bancroft is seated second left. David Gwynn, the Welsh rugby international, is the umpire standing far right.