Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

of 85 and taking four for 21 in the second innings as Breconshire won again by eight wickets. He was clearly in much demand as later in the summer he also played for Llandeilo Wanderers against Devynock and Sennybridge, the towns where the Tawe Valley meets the Tywi Valley. This was followed shortly afterwards by an appearance for the Gentlemen of South Wales against their professional equivalents, a two-day match at Neath, organised by the South Wales Club to emulate the Gentlemen v Players fixtures which were at the time amongst the most important in England. Lewis batted at number three and scored a majestic 112 out of 305, before taking six wickets in the Players’ first innings. If evidence were needed of C.P.’s all-round abilities, it was clear to everyone at The Gnoll ground that the youngster could lay a strong claim to being the finest cricketer in south Wales. In the following summer, 1875, between his third and fourth years at Oxford, C.P. went on the South Wales club’s ‘London’ tour in early July, playing in three two-day matches, against M.C.C. at Lord’s, the Gentlemen of Sussex at Hove and Surrey Club and Ground at The Oval. The visitors won only one of their matches, at The Oval, but here C.P. scored 64 facing the bowling of W.H.Game, who had already been elected Oxford captain for 1876. 16 It can have done his prospects for the next season little harm. On the Cricket for Breconshire and South Wales 42 T.B.Jones, a right-arm medium pace bowler, was a couple of years older than Lewis. Born at Maesteg, he attended Christ College, Brecon and Jesus College, Oxford. Like Lewis he won a cricket Blue: he played for and against Lewis for various cricket and rugby sides, particularly for Llandovery, until his death in Somerset in 1890, aged only 39. 16 Game, a hard-hitting batsman and ‘brilliant’ outfield from Sherborne School, who was an exact contemporary of C.P., at Wadham College, had already won three cricket Blues and had some thirty first-class matches under his belt by this time. He had made appearances in August for the full Surrey side from 1871. He was also a rugby Blue and had a famously strong arm, having thrown the cricket ball 127 yards in the 1873 University sports.