Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

114 Afterwards of Basil D’Oliviera, another black cricketer who left South Africa for England to advance his cricket career over sixty years after Llewellyn. Yet while superficially in terms of background they can be compared, their careers contrast in almost every way: Buck had prospered in the Currie Cup as a youth, and already represented South Africa before he ventured to England at the age of 22. Dolly was over 30 – his given age varied from time to time – and in his own opinion past his prime when he reached the United Kingdom in 1960. He considered that he was at his peak when he played with non-whites in the 1950s. He progressed from the Lancashire League to a place in the Worcestershire county side and on to selection for England, which resulted, after a great controversy, in the cancellation by MCC of their tour of South Africa which should have taken place in 1968/69. It was not long before sporting relations between that country and the rest of the world ceased for a generation. Buck, pursuing his quiet way through nearly forty years in English cricket in a state of denial, avoided involvement in racial debate, at what cost to himself we do not know. ‘His quiet way.’ Buck lived in this bungalow in Willow Walk, Chertsey, for the last twenty years of his life.