Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

66 (SACA) had become aware of Buck’s revived good form; when they met on 10 August 1910, they formed a selection committee for that major event which was looming large on their collective horizons, that is the first tour of Australia by a South African team. There was discontent in other parts of the newly united dominion at the dominance of the Transvaal – all the selection committee came from that territory. They soon met and their very first resolution was to ask SACA to discuss the advisability of inviting Buck to become a member of the touring party; they suggested that his fee be £300. Their next recommendations for selection were Dave Nourse, one of the great names in South African cricket, and Ernie Vogler, who had bowled so successfully on the South African tour of Britain in 1907. Each, as a professional, was to receive a salary of £150, plus expenses, for the trip to Australia, which indicates the value which they placed on Buck. At this time South African cricket, and events in the Union, did not move far without the intervention of Abe Bailey, financier, politician, prospector for gold, property developer and company chairman. (He still found time to breed race horses and to farm at the Cape!) The selectors must have felt that their status was increased by his presence, when around 20 August he was added to their number. They decided to cable Hampshire asking leave for Buck to join the touring party. Jimmy Sinclair, his old colleague in the Test side seconded the proposal. He then moved that they ask the county to offer Buck on their behalf a salary of £250, as well as travelling and hotel expenses. The amateur tourists were to be paid 12 shillings (60 pence) a day. If Buck accepted this package, he would leave England on the S.S.Commonwealth on 15 September 1910, 12 days after the end of the county’s fixtures. Buck accepted this remunerative offer at about the same time he received another, from Accrington, the Lancashire League club, which he also had no hesitation in accepting. He must have passed a pulsatingly frantic ten days or so, sorting out accommodation for his wife and daughters, who now had no reason to stay in Hampshire, and making his farewells – perhaps his cricket gear would be waiting for him in Australia. He had burned his boats; by choosing to tour he would forfeit his qualification to play with Hampshire, but as he was committed to Accrington that no longer mattered. Most of the details were in the public domain by 1 September 1910, when Cricket magazine reported: Llewellyn, who was left perfectly free to choose whether he would or would not go to Australia this winter as a member Events Minute By Minute