Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

Indeed against the latter in 1871 he almost single-handedly won the game for the Cathedral School after they batted first. Whilst other batsmen struggled on the Dean’s Walk wicket, Lewis scored a magnificent 125 as the Gloucester school rattled up 218. Only two other batsmen got into double figures and, when the Grammar School batted, they were dismissed for just 14 and 26, with C.P. taking six wickets and a couple of catches. The Cathedral School won by an innings and 178 runs and as the Gloucester Journal rightly said, ‘the victory was chiefly due to the superb batting of C.P.Lewis.’ There were other ways as well by which C.P. might also have left his mark on cricket at the Cathedral School, especially through his big hitting in cricket practices. Indeed, the young Welshman might well have been the person responsible for the ‘alleged damage to the roof of Mr Clutterbuck’s house by cricket balls’, as reported in the 1872 school accounts to the tune of £2 10s 8d. A few games of rugby were also played against local schools, but without such a dynamic figure as W.P.Whittington, there were not as many matches as at Llandovery, with the emphasis at the School Days in Llandovery, Swansea and Gloucester 21 Cathedral School, Gloucester in C.P.Lewis’ time.