Charlie Llewellyn

Charles Bennett "Buck" Llewellyn (29 September 1876 – 7 June 1964) was the first non-white South African Test cricketer. He appeared in 15 Test matches for South Africa between 1895 and 1912, and played in English cricket as a professional for Hampshire between 1899 and 1910.

Charlie Llewellyn

Llewellyn in about 1905
Personal information
Full name	Charles Bennett Llewellyn
Born	29 September 1876 Pietermaritzburg, Colony of Natal
Died	7 June 1964(1964-06-07) (aged 87) Chertsey, Surrey, England
Nickname	Buck[1]
Batting	Left-handed
Bowling	Slow left-arm wrist-spin
International information
National side	South Africa
Test debut	2 March 1896 v England
Last Test	12 August 1912 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1894/95-1897/98	Natal
1899–1910	Hampshire
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 15 267 Runs scored 544 11,425 Batting average 20.14 26.75 100s/50s 0/4 18/52 Top score 90 216 Balls bowled 2,292 45,372 Wickets 48 1,013 Bowling average 29.60 23.41 5 wickets in innings 4 82 10 wickets in match 1 20 Best bowling 6/92 9/55 Catches/stumpings 7/– 175/–
Source: Cricinfo, 20 April 2019

Cricket career

Career in South Africa

Llewellyn was born out of wedlock in Pietermaritzburg on 29 September 1876 to a Welsh father, Thomas Buck Llewellyn, from Pembroke and a black Saint Helenan mother, Ann Elizabeth Rich.^[2] His father was employed as painter and decorator, later forming his own business which enjoyed success.^[2] Despite being born to mixed-race parents, his fair skin colour saw him regarded as a "white man" (Wilfred Rhodes would describe Llewellyn as looking "like a rather sunburned English player")^[2] by the South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBC),^[3] thus helping to clear a racial hurdle to him progressing in the game; this contrasted with other coloured players, where the racism of late nineteenth-century South Africa had led to other leading non-white players being prevented from pursuing cricket as a career. Before coming to prominence as a cricketer, he was employed in Durban by the father of the cricketer Herbie Taylor as a "coloured clerk", an employment he maintained as his early career as a cricketer developed.^[4][5]

Aged 18,^[5] Llewellyn would make his debut in first-class cricket for Natal against Transvaal in April 1895 at Pietermaritzburg in the Currie Cup,^[6] taking match figures of 4 for 71 with his slow left-arm wrist-spin bowling,^[7] which he had developed under the guidance of Reggie Schwarz.^[8] His performance did not equate immediate success to the Natal selectors, with it not being until the following season that he would feature for Natal again.^[9] On this occasion, he was chosen to play for a Natal XV against Lord Hawke's touring England XI; his steady bowling performance in the match led to his selection for the South African team for the Second Test against England at Johannesburg in March 1896.^[9] In a match dominated by England, Llewellyn bowled 14 wicketless overs in England's only innings, conceding 71 runs.^[10] He was not retained for the Third Test.^[9] During Lord Hawke's tour, he also featured for a Pietermaritzburg XV, taking seven wickets in the match and impressing the Hampshire batsman Robert Poore.^[5]

Following the Test match, it would be over a year before he played first-class cricket again. He would make three appearances in the 1896–97 Currie Cup for Natal,^[6] with success.^[9] Against Western Province, he took match figures of 9 for 128,^[5] claiming his maiden five wicket haul in the process; he followed this up with match figures of 11 for 123 against Eastern Province.^[5] His three appearances yielded 30 wickets at an average of 12.13, taking five wickets in an innings on five occasions and best figures of 7 for 73.^[11] He began the following season by playing in a first-class match for Natal against Abe Bailey's Transvaal XI, before making three appearances in the 1897–98 Currie Cup.^[6] He took 16 wickets in his Currie Cup matches that season, with his consistent performances earning him a recall to the South African Test side.^[9] He played in the First Test against England at Johannesburg in February 1899,^[12] but despite taking five wickets in the match, he was not retained for the Second Test.^[9]

Move to England

Early years

At the end of the 1898–99 series Llewellyn, perturbed by the actions of the selectors and seeking financial security, left South Africa to play for English county side Hampshire County Cricket Club as a professional, on the recommendation of Poore, who was on military assignment with the British Army in South Africa.^[13][14] In order to play for Hampshire in the County Championship, he had to qualify to play for Hampshire through a two-year residency period, the first year of which was sponsored by Hampshire.^[8] He would spend his two-year qualification period living at C. B. Fry's training establishment Mercury.^[9] He would make his debut for Hampshire in a first-class match against the touring Australians at Southampton in August 1899,^[6] with immediate success.^[9] With the ball, he took figures of 8 for 132 in the Australians first innings, while with the bat he made scores of 72 and 21.^[15] As a result of his performance against the Australians,^[9] Llewellyn was chosen as one of Ranjitsinhji's twelve-man touring team to North America in the winter of 1899.^[16][17] He played in five matches during the touring, including two first-class matches against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia,^[6] taking eight wickets across the two first-class fixtures.^[18] He did not feature in any first-class matches for Hampshire in 1900, but did play a minor match against the touring West Indians, taking 13 wickets across the match and scoring 93 runs in Hampshire's first innings.^[19]

By the following season, Llewellyn had successfully completed his two-year residential qualification period. He made his County Championship debut in 1901 against Lancashire at Portsmouth.^[6] In eighteen appearances that season, he took 115 wickets at an average of 23.25; his bowling average that season was the best by a Hampshire player since their admission to the County Championship in 1895.^[19] During the season, he took five wickets in an innings on fifteen occasions and ten-wickets in a match on four.^[20] His best bowling figures during the season of 8 for 72 led Hampshire to a 121 runs victory against Leicestershire.^[21] The cricket historian Patrick Allen credited Llwellyn with carrying Hampshire's weak bowling attack in 1901, with him delivering over 2,000 balls more than Victor Barton.^[9] His all-round credentials were further enchanced by him scoring 1,025 runs across the season, with two centuries.^[22] What was his maiden first-class century came at Southampton against the touring South Africans, when he made 216 runs in three hours. His performance subsequently led to him being asked to assist the South Africans in two tour matches against London County and Liverpool and District, where he took 25 wickets and scored two half centuries.^[9] His performances in 1901 were said to have "[changed] the face of Hampshire cricket".^[19] Amongst all-rounders in the 1901 season, he was third only to George Hirst and Jack Mason.^[19]

His impressive form with the ball continued the following season, with Llewellyn taking 170 wickets at an average of 18.61 from 26 matches.^[11] In the County Championship, he took 94 wickets at an average of 17.67; his tally of wickets was 56 more than Hampshire's next highest wicket-taker, Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard.^[23] He spent the early part of the season playing for W. G. Grace's London County,^[6] for whom he took his career-best bowling figures of 9 for 55 against Cambridge University at Crystal Palace,^[24][25] which included three wickets in four balls.^[26] Despite his efforts with the ball, London County lost the match by 5 wickets.^[25] Llewellyn scored 832 first-class runs at an average of 21.33 in 1902, recording one century (109 runs) against Derbyshire in the County Championship in August.^[22][27] Such was his form in 1902, that he was selected in Englands fourteen-man squad for the First Test of the 1902 Ashes Series against Australia at Edgbaston,^[28][29] but did not make the starting eleven.^[9] His inclusion was controversial to the Australians, with Warwick Armstrong allegedly questioning if Australia were playing England or South Africa.^[28] Toward the end of the Australians tour, he played against them for the Players at Harrogate.^[30]

Returning to Test cricket

Llewellyn returned to South Africa in the winter of 1902, where he was selected in the South African team to play Australia on their maiden tour of South Africa, that followed their tour of England.^[31] In the drawn First Test at Johannesburg, he batted at batted at number three,^[5] scoring 90 runs, his highest Test score, in South Africa's first innings, whilst sharing in a partnership of 173 runs for the second wicket with Louis Tancred. Their partnership was a South African record for the second wicket against Australia,^[9] remaining so until it was broken by Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith in 2011.^[32] With the ball, he took 6 for 92 in Australia's first innings, with overall match figures of 9 for 216.^[5][33] In the Second Test, also played at Johannesburg, he played an important role with the ball, taking figures of 5 for 43 and 5 for 73 in the Australian's innings',^[9] though could not stop South Africa losing the match by 159 runs.^[34] In the Third Test, played at Cape Town, Llewellyn took figures of 6 for 97 in the Australian's first innings,^[5] but was unable to stop South Africa succumbing to defeat by ten wickets.^[35] He led the South African bowling with 25 wickets at an average of 17.92;^[8] the next highest South African wicket-taker was Jimmy Sinclair with nine.^[36] Llewellyn's status as a professional was deemed unacceptable by some in South African cricket, thus he never played first-class cricket in the Currie Cup during his return to the country.^[1]

Returning to England for the 1903 season, Llewellyn played four first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's in May, followed by another in June.^[6] For Hampshire in the 1903 County Championship, he lost his bowling form,^[37] with Allen remarking that "staleness" had crept into his bowling.^[9] In the County Championship, he took 39 wickets at an average of 39.64, a significantly higher average when compared to previous seasons, and claimed five wickets in an innings just once.^[38] With the bat, he placed second behind Edward Sprot's 835 runs in Hampshire's batting aggregates, with 542.^[39]

Llewellyn continued to shine for Hampshire, capped by his selection as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 1910, his last year at Hampshire. He then toured Australia with the South African team, where his bowling served as fodder for Victor Trumper, before returning to England in 1911 to join club side Accrington,^[40] thereby becoming the first Test cricketer to play in the Lancashire League.^[13]

In 1912, South Africa brought him out of first-class retirement to play in the Triangular Tournament, scoring 75 in the first Test against England at Lord's and a further half-century against Australia at Lord's.

Llewellyn retired from Test cricket after the triangular tournament, having played 15 Tests (five against England and ten against Australia), scored 544 runs at 20.14 and 48 wickets at 29.60. He however continued to star in league cricket, finally retiring in 1938 at the age of 62.

Llewellyn broke his thigh in 1960, affecting his movement for the remainder of his life and died in Chertsey, Surrey in 1964, aged 87. Even after his death, Llewellyn remained a controversial figure, as Llewellyn's daughter, resident in England, in 1976 publicly contested claims that he was not white, stating that his mother had been an English-born white woman.^[9]

Llewellyn's legacy as the first non-white South African Test cricketer remains large. During the apartheid period he was used to show that non-white cricketers could perform as well as their white counterparts, while modern day commentators have pointed to the erratic selection of Llewellyn for South Africa throughout his career as the result of prejudice due to his skin colour.

While Llewellyn was the first non-white South African Test cricketer, it was not until Omar Henry took the field against India in November 1992 that South Africa had its second.

Notes

While the racism of late nineteenth-century South Africa had led to other leading non-white players being omitted from representative sides, Llewellyn's ability to pass himself off as white in some cases (Wilfred Rhodes described him as "like a rather sunburned English player"), helped clear the racial hurdle to selection and he was chosen to make his first-class debut for Natal against Transvaal on 13 April 1895, where he took four wickets. While now accepted as a cricketer, Llewellyn would be referred to as "coloured" throughout his career and there are reports of his race-related mistreatment by other South African players.