Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

Bridgend C.C. who had just won a place at Oxford, where he subsequently won three Blues in cricket and rugby. The Cardiff club had several representatives – Edmund David, a fine all-rounder for St Fagans C.C. and a man who in 1889 would lead Glamorgan in their first fixture; Francis Dickenson, another forcing all-rounder; Edwin Jones, a middle order batsman and one of Cardiff’s leading stockbrokers; Cuthbert Riches, a steady opening batsman, who was an engineer with the Taff Vale Railway; Bertie Young, another cricketing engineer, who was a prolific opening batsman; and Alex Morris, a free-scoring batsman with a fine record for the Cardiff club. The South Wales line-up was completed by acceptances from Edward Bannerman, a Scottish batsman who had played for Shropshire and was working in south Wales, and from E.W.Curteis – who had played first-class cricket for Kent and had helped organise the South Wales club’s annual tour to the south-east – who was in Wales on military duty. A fair side, C.P. must have thought, with five players who had played first-class cricket, and the cream of Principality club cricket. While C.P. was organising his side, the Australians were criss-crossing the country on their tour. By the time they reached Swansea in mid-July they had already played fourteen games in seven weeks, appearing in Nottingham, then London, back up to Yorkshire, then Birmingham, back to London, up to Leeds and Sheffield, across to Stockport, back to London. On and on they went, a dozen young men – seven of them under 25 – creating the enduring legend of competitive Australian cricket, with its fast bowling, fine outfielding and, inevitably, umpire-goading. Most famously, they had beaten M.C.C. in a single day, dismissing the premier club for 33 and 19, 20 with Spofforth and Boyle taking nineteen wickets between them. Spofforth, ‘the demon bowler’, bowled with a very high action, rarely seen before in England, and undisguised hostility, leading elderly journalists to refer to ‘frenzy’ and ‘maddened crowds’. The week leading up to their prestigious fixture in Swansea saw Lewis organize several practice sessions as the young Welshmen prepared for the challenge of taking on the tourists, whose exploits across England had attracted much press attention. But, as the days ticked by, rumours started that the Australians, whose Schoolmaster at Llandovery College 49 20 A match aggregate of 52, at the time the second lowest ever recorded by one team in a completed first-class match.