Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

10 A Need for Friends The following year he was banned from playing in any match of consequence, and as late as 1904, the WPCU relied on that precedent to continue kicking him off the cricketing pavement. No details of his appearance survive, but the fact that he had emerged fromnon-white cricket was something the selectors could not stomach. Buck did not face this hostility, but the martyrdom of Hendricks must have hung over him. How did Buck avoid this? Patrick Ferriday gives as the reason a combination of influential friends, great cricketing talent, relatively light skin colour, and deliberate myopia. The last of these elements may be difficult to analyse objectively, but there was never any doubt about his talent, and as we go through his early career, we shall discover the debt he owed to influential backers.