Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

William junior was also a talented cricketer, having benefited from the many hours his (no doubt) doting father paid to him at the Bryn-y-Mor ground which the town’s cricketers used in the Uplands area, a mile or so away from Swansea Bay. Like other professional cricketers across the country, the Bancrofts helped to supplement their income from the town club with coaching the players at junior clubs in the area and also at the various academies and schools where cricket was encouraged. C.P.Lewis could have had no finer tutors, as the Bancrofts coached the promising schoolboy and the other similar young gentlemen at the various academies in the area around Swansea, in the fashionable suburbs of Oystermouth and Mumbles. It was probably through the Bancrofts’ suggestion that the burly youngster joined the Oystermouth club, allowing him to continue to play in a decent standard of cricket when the school term was over. School Days in Llandovery, Swansea and Gloucester 17 Tutorial influences. Hugh Fowler’s teaching and influence probably secured a place for Lewis at Jesus College, Oxford. Billy Bancroft senior (and later his son, also Billy) cultivated C.P.’s abilities as a cricketer, from the family base at St. Helen’s, Swansea.