Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

In 1874 C.P. moved up the college batting order to three – a position he retained for the remainder of his time in Oxford – but once again, it was his feisty bowling which caught the eye, with his best performance being eleven wickets in the two-innings match with Magdalen College, who were bundled out for 32 and 54 by the joyous Welsh students. The next year, he took nine wickets in an innings as Wadham were bowled out for a mere 19, followed by five- and six-wicket hauls against Exeter College and St Alban’s Hall. He also struck an impressive fifty against the latter, but it was his bowling which earned C.P. an invitation to the final cricket trials on 10 May with Jones, no doubt, having sung his praises. C.P. duly appeared for the Next Sixteen against the Oxford XI, but despite taking five wickets he did not come any closer to selection for the Dark Blues in 1875, and remained in college games. His reward finally came the following summer – one which saw Lewis in fine form for Jesus College with both bat and ball. By now he had settled for a pass degree – a general degree in arts – rather than take an honours degree in Classics, and had already taken papers in political economy and the ‘Rudiments of Religion’, a compulsory exam. His batting for the college in previous seasons had been full of promise, but he had yet to post any sizeable scores. In 1876 he blossomed into a hard-hitting No.3, scoring a memorable 206 against The Queen’s College with his forthright strokeplay dominating the Jesus innings, and the match, with his double-century coming in a total of 331 and all on a wicket upon which only two other batsmen got into double figures. With 102 against Oriel also under his belt, C.P. won selection for the final trials in 1876, and to his delight, was included in the Oxford side which opened its season at the end of May against M.C.C. on the Magdalen College ground at Cowley Marsh, as its 24 Oxford and a Lost Cause Young hopeful. C.P. as an undergraduate in 1875.