Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

40 ‘Not Quite As Sharp As He Used To Be’ It was a time for reflection, as he looked back on an unbelievably patchy season, in the knowledge that there was no future for him in his native country. For Hampshire, again last in the Championship, his batting figures in 15 matches were 542 runs at 20.07, with a single century. Sprot, with 835 runs at 36.30, was way ahead of him; several occasional amateurs had better batting averages too. His bowling return was described as an ‘utter failure’ by Wisden ; 39 wickets at 39.64, in the shadow of Hesketh-Prichard (45 at 19.95), Langford (42 at 13.95) and Soar (36 at 18.44). * * * * * * * If Buck was of a worrying disposition, he would have been even more anxious in 1904. For him the season began a little late, as he missed Hampshire’s opening fixture, before making a start with a score of 33, and four wickets for 52 against Derbyshire. Two weeks later he dismissed six of his opponents from Leicestershire for 64, in a second successful performance with the ball (unless you include in that category his return of five for 160 against the South African tourists). He achieved little more before finishing the season by taking four for 20 in the Bournemouth Festival. He conceded over 100 runs in an innings on four further occasions that season; against Somerset at Taunton, on 14, 15 and 16 July his analyses read one for 107 and none for 102. Is this a unique performance? Perhaps he was depressed by this lack of achievement, as from that point he captured only ten wickets in his next nine matches. Or he may have been handicapped by injury; alternatively he may have been experimenting with a novel type of delivery to the detriment of his orthodox slow-medium left-hander’s style. How much his deliveries had declined in estimation may be judged from his figures in the match against Kent at Tonbridge beginning on 18 August : 5-0-18-1 in the first innings and just 1-0-7-0 near the end of Kent’s second innings. His opposite number, the great left-armer Charlie Blythe, in contrast showed these returns: 22.4-14-30-9 in the first and opening the bowling in the second innings, 15.3-3-46-6, giving overall fifteen wickets for 76 off 38.1 overs. Kent won by eight wickets. What baffled the members of the Hampshire executive was that when he turned out for the South Africans that summer, he showed splendid form. The South African authorities, despite the financial backing of several big names in business, seem to have underestimated the playing resources needed for a visit