Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

55 would have purchased a fine house in 1908. Buck can have had little expectation that his reward would equal those of George Hirst, who had taken home £3,703 in 1904 or of Johnny Tyldesley who had netted £3,111 two years later. Hampshire were not in the same league as Yorkshire and Lancashire, who employed the two great northern professionals. Earlier Hampshire players had not fared anything like as well as Buck; Harry Baldwin in 1897 had actually lost money on his benefit and Arthur Webb’s reward in 1904 was only £150, although he had amassed 162 not out in his match. Heartened by the anticipation of his benefit, Buck enjoyed in 1908 his best season for the county since 1902. He was soon off the mark with a score of 56 against Surrey at The Oval, out of the county’s total of 100, and capturing four wickets when the home team, with a first innings lead of 133, went for quick runs in the second. Jack Hobbs stroked his way to 161 before falling to a catch off Buck’s bowling – and Surrey went on to trounce Hampshire by 342. There followed a surprising accumulation of fixtures at Lord’s where, of course, Buck was still on the ground staff. In the second match of the spell he top-scored for Hampshire against MCC in each innings with 76 and 39, but the home side went on to victory by nine wickets. Opening the batting for MCC against Worcestershire, he took the leading role in a third-wicket stand of 230 with George Thompson of Northamptonshire. At the wicket for 235 minutes, Buck smote 20 fours in his score of 154. Worcestershire failed by 88 runs when set 371 to win. He also dismissed seven of their batsmen. In his next fixture, this time for Hampshire against Middlesex, the home side, beginning on 25 May, he shone, first taking part in a second-wicket stand of 133 (W.N.White 80, Llewellyn 54), and later after the home side, with 502, had secured a first-innings lead of 128, rescuing Hampshire following the dismissal of numbers two and three who both failed to score. First Phil Mead, with 35, helped in a stand of 111, then A.J.L.Hill contributed 23 to a partnership of 72. Buck monopolised the scoring and when he was fifth out, had hit 130 out of Hampshire’s total of 207. There was not enough time to finish the match. It was now the end of May 1908 and in five matches, Buck’s batting figures stood at 515 runs at 57.22, and he had captured 15 wickets at 28.80. June was a quiet month for him. His best piece of bowling came in the match with Leicestershire beginning on 1 June when his The Beneficiary