Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

1871 by a group of the town’s young professional men, including Lewis Kempthorne, an Old Llandoverian, who like C.P. had picked up the rugby ‘bug’ from W.P.Whittington. In fact, the latter’s brother, Tom, was their first captain and played for Scotland in 1873 when a student in Edinburgh. However, the College withdrew from the contest with Neath in 1881, largely because of the increasing competitiveness of the matches which sometimes contradicted Lewis’ more Corinthian ideals, as clearly evidenced in the rumpus with St. David’s College, Lampeter. When Llandovery College played a number of clubs in the early 1880s, the College side which took the field included several Old Boys in its line-up, suggesting that there was a need for more world-wise and robust young men, rather than ‘callow and innocent youths’ in these heated and quite physical contests. Indeed, when the Llandovery College XV played St. David’s, Lampeter in 1882, C.P. played in a side containing no fewer than six current or future Welsh internationals, with the College’s line-up including Edward Alexander, Edward Bishop, Thomas Judson, Alfred Mathews and Rowland Thomas, some of whom, in addition, subsequently played Minor Counties cricket for Carmarthenshire. In 1879 the South Wales Football Club metamorphosed into the South Wales Football Union, and the seeds had been sown for the creation of a body which would oversee the organisation of rugby in the region. Once again, C.P. and his good friend J.T.D.Llewelyn were in the vanguard of developments, with C.P. as the captain of the South Wales side, and J.T.D. the President of the Union and, in the words of a letter to the Union’s secretary, ‘eager to do what he could to further the effectiveness of South Wales sports.’ However, there were others who were equally eager to form a Wales side and, through Richard Mullock of the Newport rugby club, a match was arranged at Blackheath against England on 19 February 1881. It is regarded now by rugby historians as the first Welsh international: at the time, though, there were heated discussions about how representative the Welsh side was. C.P. may have been amongst the early dissenters, and as a staunch member of the South Wales Club, he might have from the outset not seen eye to eye with Mullock, and may have rejected an invitation to play for what he regarded as a renegade outfit. What is known for certain is that Lewis’ name never appeared on any of the team lists published before the game. The Lone Full Back 79