Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

For their return visit to the Arms Park later in August, M.C.C. sent down another strong eleven with three professionals from Nottinghamshire who later won England Test caps – the medium-pace bowler William Attewell, all-rounder Wilfred Flowers, and the elegant middle-order bat William Gunn. It wasn’t a great game for South Wales. They were bundled out for 72 in the first innings by Flowers’ eight-wicket return and in the second for only 46, courtesy of Attewell’s eight-wicket analysis, for only twelve runs off nineteen overs. Lewis, though, did get top score for the home side, a modest 23. Having left Llandovery College, it was the town’s cricket club which increasingly grew in importance in Lewis’ life. During the 1880s, he duly acted as their treasurer, whilst Douglas Jones served as secretary. These were boom years for the town club, with its colours of chocolate and blue, and it grew in importance as Lewis gave it his full attention. Llandovery teams no longer took part in the Challenge Cup competition, which had started to decline in importance. The club were able to employ the services of various professionals – a bowler called Edwards fulfilled this role in 1883, followed by another called Shaw in 1884 and then another called Prytherch, a curious coincidence, from 1885 until 1888. C.P. also acted as a benefactor to the club’s less affluent members, giving generous donations towards their kit and clothing. With such prominent cricketers as Lewis and Jones in their ranks, Llandovery Town C.C., playing for the most part in one-day matches, enjoyed a very successful period and recorded many fine victories. For example, in 1884 Jones made a magnificent 114 in the Town v Gown match, and also collected seven wickets. Later that summer, Lewis’ bowling decimated the batting of the Builth Wells club, from another droving town in mid-Wales. Llandovery scored 113, then bowled Builth out for 29 and 44, with Lewis returning figures of eight for 4 and six for 10, with his second innings analysis including four bowled in successive balls. A couple of days later Llandovery played Swansea and Lewis scored 112. Detailed records still exist for quite a few of Llandovery’s matches in the seven years 1883 to 1889 and these show that he scored 24 fifties in those matches, the highest being his 169* v Llandovery College in 1883, and took thirty-five five-wicket hauls, one of the best being eight for 19 at Llandeilo in the same year. No doubt there were other games whose details have been lost. 88 South Wales Cricket Club: A Dream Dies