Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

The firm-set mouth, the searching eyes, the dignified bearing, the sonorous mouth – all had their effect upon the boys.’ Fowler was an outstanding teacher, and Lewis’ success in the Oxford entrance exams owed much to the Headmaster’s wise counsel. The two also shared a common interest in cricket, with Fowler being another disciple of the school of ‘muscular Christianity’ – so much so that fines that were levied on errant pupils went towards a fund for the levelling of the school’s cricket field and the building of a small pavilion to house the cricket equipment as well as the boat which the school used on the adjoining River Severn. At the time, the teaching staff at the school numbered just a handful, with Herbert ‘Badger’ Haines as Second Master, plus another gentleman who served as master in-charge of the choristers, and two other assistants. With 80 or so enthusiastic youngsters in their charge, it must have been a bonus to have the presence of the teenage sportsman, and perhaps his helping hand on the games field for rugby and cricket was part of the deal brokered with Rev. Williams, reducing even further his fees and helping his nephew build up his savings, which were likely to be heavily drawn upon at Oxford. Despite the Headmaster’s encouragement, the Gloucester school had quite modest sporting facilities in the 1870s, including a small gymnasium, known as ‘Fowler’s Shed’, where wrestling, fencing and boxing took place, and a two-acre field where Kingsholm, the current home of Gloucester rugby club, now stands. It was, though, a far from ideal location, bounded then on one side by a noxious open sewer, whilst in the middle was a farm building called, not surprisingly, Castle Grim. 3 Some of the fields were levelled for a cricket square, though parts of the outfield remained uneven, but there was a general incline in a southerly direction towards the sewer, resulting in an unsavoury hazard for any boy sprinting after a ball, to say nothing of the subsequent task of fishing out the ball from the foul-smelling water. Despite these hazards, successful matches were played against two local clubs – Minchinhampton and Dymock – as well as Cheltenham Grammar School. School Days in Llandovery, Swansea and Gloucester 20 3 By way of contrast, the school’s current playing field, Archdeacon Meadow, has staged a Gloucestershire first-class match each season since 1993, and other county matches since 1990.