Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

side, but they still included Walter Read, Kingsmill Key, Bobby Abel and Ted Barratt, who between them eventually clocked up over 1,600 first-class matches. The Cardiff player William Morgan took eight for 80 in Surrey’s first innings, his best return for the club. Barratt took nine wickets with his slow left-arm bowling and Surrey won by nine wickets. The journey back home resulted in a change in form as Clifton were beaten in Cardiff by seven wickets. Lewis was in fine form with the ball, taking six wickets in the first innings and nine for 39, 23 bowling throughout in the visitors’ second innings. But in 1882 Clifton were not the force that they had been when they hosted the first-ever South Wales Club match over twenty years before, with Gloucestershire’s teacher/batsman Frank Townsend – the father and grandfather of Test cricketers – the only ‘name’ player. Lewis continued his good bowling form when M.C.C. visited Cardiff, claiming the scalp of their star batsman William Gunn in each innings – bowled for seven in the first, and caught by J.P.Jones for six in the second. But William Hearn made 96*, whilst J.T.D.Llewelyn, in a rare appearance for M.C.C., made 33 batting at number nine, before being bowled by his vice-captain Lewis. Lewis took eight for 67 in 33 overs in the first innings, with five of his victims first-class cricketers, and a further five off 42 overs in the second innings. He hit a half-century in his own side’s second innings, but these huge efforts did not bring a Welsh victory as M.C.C. won by three wickets. There was one new addition to the South Wales C.C. fixture list for 1882, as Wiltshire were introduced with matches at the Arms Park starting on 11 August, and at Marlborough College on 25 August. In Cardiff, Lewis batted at number three, scoring 45 and took five wickets, all bowled, as Wiltshire scored just 78. He then took two for 55 as they made 189 for seven in the second innings. In the return match, much reduced by rain, he took one for 27 and scored 34. The averages published in the red Lillywhite annual of 1883 later showed him as the club’s leading run-scorer, with 211 at 23.44, and the leading wicket-taker, 37 (more than all the other bowlers combined) at 11.24. Lewis continued playing well after the South Wales club’s fixture list was complete, appearing for the College in mid-September against Llandeilo. A Gentleman of South Wales 69 23 This was his best innings return for the South Wales Club in an eleven-a-side match.