Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

square and the outfield, were tolerated by the cricketers, although as one later ruefully wrote ‘football was played over the cricket pitch and consequently the wickets began to get in decent conditions about the end of August, if we were favoured with wet weather.’ In ‘fine weather they were never, at any time, fit to play on.’ There were occasions as well when the Bryn-y-Mor Field became so wet that the games were transferred onto the beaches a mile or so away in Swansea Bay. The young sportsmen also used Primrose Field, a ground in a more central location in the town which subsequently became the headquarters of Swansea’s Working Men’s Club. The Club for a while became an unofficial club house for the footballers, but the field they used had a pronounced slope, and there must have been several sighs of relief during the winter of 1874/75 when the new purpose-built and freely-draining facility at St. Helen’s – as first suggested by The Cambrian correspondent in 1867 – became permanently available for both the ball games during the summer and the winter months. Although they started out playing Association football during the winter months, they may also have played a few games of rugby. The hazards posed by the various pitches they used, and their damp nature, encouraged players to run with the ball in hand rather than kick it, as some of them had done on the rugby fields of their public schools and universities. These games of rugby steadily became more popular than football and in October 1874 – at the time of their move to St Helen’s, and at the start of C.P.’s third year at Oxford – a motion was put to the members of Swansea Football Club that they should permanently adopt Rugby Union rules rather than those of Association football. The rugby code was then adopted, and a formal fixture list drawn up. C.P. was one of the relatively affluent young gentlemen involved in these early games of rugby, and his contacts at Llandovery were no doubt behind the agreement to play home and away fixtures against the College from 1873. Interestingly, C.P. held qualifications to play for both sides, and who he played for in the autumn of 1873 is shrouded in mystery. However, for the 1874 encounter at Llandovery, he joined the College team as The Cambrian reported: ‘Messrs Price, Williams, Jenkins, Lewis and little Davis contested the game pluckily and well for the College.’ ... ‘The Warden, Rev Watkins, acted as umpire and the match passed off without accident or dispute.’ The Western Mail also records 34 Undergraduate Athlete and Rugby Player