Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

68 Events Minute By Minute note in the biography he wrote in Wisden 1911, when he selected Buck as one of the five Cricketers of the Year alongside H.K.Foster, Alfred Hartley, W.C. ‘Razor’ Smith and Frank Woolley. Pardon wrote that Buck ‘made a good end for the county … when he found that the Hampshire Committee were not disposed to renew his engagement on the terms he asked, he secured a place in the South African team for Australia, and on his return to England he will play for Accrington in the Lancashire League.’ After describing Llewellyn’s early successes in South Africa, followed by his high-profile performances in 1901 and 1902, Pardon concluded: after that his medium-pace bowling, once full of life and spin began to fall off. No doubt he was a little overworked in Hampshire matches. However, he remained a first-rate batsman, and last season, recovering his form in a remarkable way, he bowled as well as ever. Llewellyn is, in the fullest sense of the words, an allround cricketer, his fielding being every bit as good as his batting and bowling. As a batsman he is one of the most punishing left-handers now before the public, his driving powers being tremendous. A contemporary of Buck in the Hampshire team also struck a kinder note over forty years after his departure. E.I.M.Barrett wrote: ‘I suppose the greatest all-round cricketer that ever played for Hampshire was the South African, C.B.Llewellyn, a fine forcing bat, a slow left-hand bowler, second only to Rhodes, and a magnificent mid-off in the class of George Hirst and George Brown.’ The effect on the Hampshire side of his departure was at first disastrous. In 1911 they missed his allround skills and in particular Jack Newman declined to a remarkable degree. In 1910 Newman’s bowling figures were 156 wickets at 18.45 off 1,012.1 overs, but in the following summer his return showed just 67 wickets at 33.37 off his 666.2 overs. In the last three seasons before the war, Hampshire attained their greatest heights up to that time, yet it was ten years before they found in Stuart Boyes a worthy successor to Buck.