Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

and William Mycroft, two ‘heavyweight’ professionals of the era, is a measure of the premier club’s assessment of their Welsh opposition. The South Wales fixture list for 1879 also included home and away matches against the Clifton Club – the leading side in the Bristol area. Lewis missed the match in Bristol, but turned out for the second, staged at Rodney Parade in Newport alongside the rugby ground on the steep, muddy banks of the River Usk. Clifton included six first-class cricketers in their side. Lewis scored 24 at number five, but the match was ended by the weather on the first day with the South Wales team on 186 for five. Llandovery College enjoyed a good run in the Challenge Cup in 1880, and all after having a lucky escape in the first match, once again against Newport at the neutral venue of Swansea. Newport scored 145, with 53 from Harding. When Lewis was dismissed for just three it looked all over, but two tail-enders added 70 and held on for a draw at 117 for nine. It was enough to get Llandovery a replay, and next time around they turned the tables: Llandovery 233, Newport 55. Their next opponents were the powerful Cadoxton club which J.T.D.Llewelyn – whose first home was in the area – had resurrected in March 1863 from the wreckage of the now defunct Neath club whose finances had taken too many big hits after an overambitious committee had arranged a series of exhibition matches the previous decade against the All England Eleven. After several years of inactivity, J.T.D. breathed new life into the organisation, paying the rent for the use of the lavish grounds of Gnoll House, the home of the owner of the town’s copperworks, and hiring, entirely at his own expense, a professional. With one of the grandees of Welsh sport as their patron, the Cadoxton club rapidly expanded its operations. Within a couple of years, they had over 120 members, including most of the major figures in the social and political world of south Wales, plus a fixture card which listed games against other leading clubs such as Swansea, Llanelli, Brecon and Cardiff, as well as by the end of the decade a match against M.C.C. at Lord’s. To play the premier club in the region, and a side regarded by many as ‘the M.C.C of Wales’ was perhaps quite a daunting prospect for the Llandovery students, especially as they had won the Challenge Cup the year before. But they had been well A Cup Held Aloft 59