Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

It also opened up other possibilities, as in the first week of August 1869, C.P. participated in the athletics meeting staged by the recently-formed Oystermouth club at their ground adjacent to the road leading to Langland Bay and described by the Western Mail as ‘the snuggest of all the snug nooks with which this marine retreat abounds.’ Many of the leading cricket clubs at that time held such events and the manly pursuits attracted a decent crowd, as many of the great and good of local society took the opportunity to see, and be seen, at the Sports Day. The fifteen-year-old really enjoyed himself as he won two of the events – starting with the competition for throwing the cricket ball at a set of stumps fifty yards away. The teenager, plus two other club members each hit the wicket with one of their three throws in the first round, before hitting the stumps again in the throw-off which saw the youngster duly win the prize of a new cricket bat. Buoyed by his success in this first event, C.P. then participated in the second running event – a handicap race over 250 yards around the boundary of the cricket ground – and to his delight, and that of the watching Bancrofts, he beat his five rivals to win the race and add an impressive silver cup to his tally for the afternoon’s sporting endeavour. This rounded off an excellent summer for the fifteen-year-old. Back in May, he had been invited by Bancroft to play in a special match at Penmaen, where the cream of the talent from Norton Lodge joined with the scholars from Rev. John Colston’s academy at Thistleboon House (where Bancroft also coached) to play a ‘Gower XI’. It proved to be a successful match for young Lewis as the match report in The Cambrian described how ‘the fielding of the boys was much admired and the bowling of C.Lewis and C.Buckley was highly effective.’ A few weeks later, he shone with the bat as the young gentlemen from the two Oystermouth schools defeated the Ffynone club. ‘The highest scores were made by C.Lewis whose play was much admired,’ reported The Cambrian, and he might have also played a hand in the defeat of the Swansea club by the Oystermouth club in August 1869. No scorecard survives, but perhaps it was Lewis who was instrumental in the Swansea cricketers being dismissed for 37 and 49 to give Oystermouth an innings victory. Rev Charles Williams was also delighted by the progress that C.P. showed in academic affairs. Williams had attended Jesus College, School Days in Llandovery, Swansea and Gloucester 18