Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

Indeed, by 1879 matches were scheduled to take place against a West of Scotland fifteen and a South of Ireland team. A few days before the contest with the Scottish side at Newport, the ambitious Welshmen had to cancel their first quasi-international game as the Scottish officials telegrammed to say that they were unable to send down a full team. However, later in the year the game against the Irish side went ahead, with C.P. contributing to the comprehensive victory, with The South Wales Daily News reporting how ‘Lewis rendered invaluable service as a back, his kicking was clean and very effective.’ Some of Lewis’ early appearances in the black and white shirts of the South Wales club had seen him play in the forwards. As in his early days with the Swansea club, Lewis was one of the Welsh forwards when the Clifton club visited Newport, in January 1878. His good friend T.B.Jones, who was the captain of the Abergavenny rugby club, was chosen as full-back for the South Wales side in what ended up as an acrimonious encounter, with the game ending in a draw after disputes over one of the conversions kicked by the Clifton team. When he started to play regularly as a master at Llandovery College, C.P.’s playing position switched from the forwards to the backs. No doubt he found it easier to coach (and direct) his pupils by standing outside the scrum, rather than being in the hurly-burly of a maul, which in those days often involved far more of the fifteen team members than it does in twenty-first century rugby. His running skills were also put to good use in this new position, as evidenced in the match against Swansea on the College sports field at the end of October 1877, when he made several strong runs from his new position at full-back. ‘The superior play of the boys soon began to tell,’ wrote the Western Mail ’s correspondent, ‘Mr C.P.Lewis got the ball and from the centre of the ground, by one of the most brilliant runs seen on the field, ran through the visitors and obtained [another] try.’ His strong bursts became a key tactic in the College’s play, and helped to win several games – an example being the contest the following year against Cowbridge Grammar School at St. Helen’s, when he made a series of fine runs through the Cowbridge defence. One of these saw him brought to earth just short of the try-line, but the Llandovery forwards were in close support and drove over the line for a match-winning score. When weather conditions were wet, or the turf was saturated and less conducive The Lone Full Back 76