Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

13 and England bowler, whose seven wickets for 68 brought victory to the Province. In four matches for them Lohmann took 34 wickets at 12.26 each, to finish marginally behind Buck and George Rowe in the competition averages. In the 1897/98 season, Natal did not repeat their success largely because their batting was so feeble, although Buck retained his form, his victims numbering 16 at an average of 20.81 each. He also played an innings of 63 against Transvaal, but his effort was frustrated by his team-mates’ second- innings collapse. By this time his talent had attracted the attention of Captain Robert Poore, whose own performances in Natal for various sides (1,600 runs in 25 innings) were noted by Hampshire County Cricket Club, for whom he batted with success in 1898 (but this was nothing in comparison with what he achieved a year later) and of Dan Taylor, a successful Durban businessman, and the father of Herby Taylor, South African’s star batsman in the first thirty years of the twentieth century. Taylor senior was for many years a member of the Natal legislature and later a Provincial Councillor. He was also a splendid worker for cricket in Natal, both on and off the field; over the period of Buck’s appearances for the colony, Dan provided employment for him in his business at Durban Point, at a time when he had the Government contract for transporting goods off the ships into town. It is ironic that Buck’s occupation was described as that of a ‘coloured clerk’, although as already noted there is no evidence that he played cricket in that community. This occupation may have been a mixed blessing for him and makes it all the more remarkable that Buck remained a regular member of the Natal side. He may not have had to experience anything which was overly racist, but his awareness of the ambivalent status of persons of St. Helena descent, and of increased racism directed at non-whites in general, can only have increased his discomfort. On the field events were also tending against his progress. In 1899, there was no Currie Cup competition for several reasons; following the Jameson Raid of 1895, which was a reckless attempt to provoke an uprising against the government of Transvaal, the Onward and Upward Dan Taylor, Natal captain in 1889/90, encouraged Buck at the start of his career.