Empire Cricket Booklet

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TWO CRICKETERS AND A WRITER

in that season's Currie Cup tournament at Port Elizabeth. Western Province, however, objected to Transvaal fielding Llewell yn 'on the grounds that he is a professional cricketer and therefore debarred by the laws of the South African Cricket Association'. At a meeting of the national body at Port Elizabeth on 4 April 1903, Frank Mitchell, a triple Blue at Cambridge who had played cricket and rugby for England, spoke on behalf of Llewellyn and Transvaal. Six years earlier, he had spoken against a working class that did not accept its place in the English social order of sport. 'The Rugby game, as its name implies,' he had said, 'sprang from our public schools. It has been developed by our leading London clubs and universities; and why should we hand it over without a struggle to the hordes of working men players who would quickly engulf all others?' 61 Mitchell clearly had great difficulty in arguing the case of the Hampshire professional but had no choice, as he had recently taken up a position in South Africa as one of Bailey's secretaries. He 'contended that Mr Llewellyn is at present an amateur cricketer in South Africa, that he is a clerk in the Wanderers Club office at Johannesburg, and that he has not and does not receive a penny piece for playing cricket in the Transvaal or South Africa'. He also reminded delegates that against Australia 'Mr Llewellyn had played as a bonafide amateur and on exactly the same terms as the other South African players'. Llewellyn was invited into the meeting to answer questions prior to a vote being taken. One of the Transvaal players, Gordon White, represented Natal as they did not participate in the tournament. He abstained from voting but Western Province (Midgeley), Eastern Province (Harvey) and Griqualand West (Backmann) voted that Llewellyn be debarred from playing. Transvaal (Mitchell) received support only from Border's Bruce Gordon and was thus defeated. The delegates who voted against Llewellyn had a point in that he had played for Hampshire in the previous summer and intended 'to return to them to continue in their employment as a professional during the coming summer'. 62 And the fact of his employment at the Wanderers made his status at least dubious. Western Province no doubt wished to keep Transvaal in check but they

might also have had a hidden agenda that stemmed from the Cape's rigid adherence to a colour division in cricket. Whatever their motives were, Llewellyn did not play cricket in South Africa again. Further political changes were taking place in South Africa that would affect a person of colour. The Treaty of Vereeniging which ended the South African War in 1902 saw Britain sacrifice black aspirations in order to promote unity between English- and Afrikaans speaking whites. Cricket was just one aspect of life that felt the force of the new order. Sinclair, for example, was on the elite Wanderers committee that barred coloured people from entering their ground as spectators. Yet he was a voice of moderation and gave support to the campaign to gain access that was spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi. Sinclair was referred to as one of the 'original proposers to allow coloured people to use portions of the Wanderers ground to watch cricket'. 63 With Bailey financing the next South African tour to England in 1904, Llewell yn was called upon to assist the side. His appearances were restricted to six matches because of county commitments but he easily topped the batting averages (338 runs- average 56.33) and collected sixteen wickets at 25.31. He was obviously going to be a loss to South African cricket, even though the emergence of the googly quartet was to take the side to new heights. R. 0. 'Reggie' Schwarz, who was imported as Bailey's private secretary, 'almost revolutionised bowling' in his promotion of the googly. Ian Peebles added: 'Vogler, Faulkner, Schwarz and White - this was relatively and possibly in fact, the greatest combination of pure spin ever to appear in any single team.' 64 MCC teams were beaten in 1905/06 and 1909/10, whilst the South Africans impressed but were defeated in the Test series in England in 1907. Llewellyn's left-arm spin would have added a further dimension to the attack during those years. It is widely reported that he learnt much from Schwarz and he is said to have been a pioneer of the 'chinarnan' which is the mirror image of the 'wrong'un', a leg-spinner's 'googly'. Had he been allowed to play in the Currie Cup during the early 1900s, he might have then been in a position to help edge the South African team a little closer towards becoming a truly great side. The