Lives in Cricket No 27 - CB Llewellyn

88 bowler in the world, with 189 Test wickets at 16.43 each to his credit, he did. Barnes’ success was immediate and staggering. In mid-May against Bowling Old Lane, he took eight wickets for eight runs in five overs and followed up by taking all ten wickets against Baildon Green for 14 runs. By the end of the 1915 season his victims numbered 92, at an average of 4.42 each. Significantly, his debut attracted a crowd of 6,400 – a record for the Bowling Old Lane ground. Immediately after that match, a rival club, Booth’s Idle wrote to Jack Hobbs who soon accepted the club’s offer of £5 per match plus £2 expenses. Soon Frank Woolley joined Keighley, the latest addition to the League, while Eccleshill signed up Northamptonshire’s George Thompson. Elsewhere in the north, other leagues were still functioning, but without paid players, so that the Bradford League sides found themselves as almost the sole purchasers of professional cricketers’ skills. At the beginning of the 1916 season, several exiles from the Lancashire League joined Bradford clubs. These included George Leach, Cecil Parkin, and Buck Llewellyn. Parkin and Buck now joined forces as members of Undercliffe, situated to the north-east of Bradford, who had been members of the Bradford League since its foundation. They had been Division One champions in 1907, but had not repeated the feat, though they had won the Priestley Cup knock-out competition in 1908 The Bradford League Buck (left) and Cecil Parkin played Bradford League cricket for Undercliffe in 1916, but elsewhere often found themselves on opposing sides.