As a result of this fine performance Ranjitsinhji invited him to tour America in 1899 and, although his team proved too powerful for the local opposition, the company of the calibre of Jessop, Sammy Woods, Ranji, Archie MacLaren, Stoddart, Bosanquet and Townsend must have broadened the cricketing horizons of the young Llewellyn. Appearing against the 1899 Australians at Southampton he scored 72 and 21 inĪddition to taking 8 for 132. His qualification period for the County Championship during 18 was spent at CB Fry's training ship Mercury, and was not without its highlights. The end of the 1898-99 series saw Llewellyn turn his back on South Africa when, on the recommendation of Major RM Poore, the Hampshire batsman stationed in South Africa, he took a professional engagement with Hampshire. His consistency earned a recall in the 1898-99 series against Lord Hawke's touring side, but although taking five wickets, he was dropped for the second Test. The 1897 Currie Cup featured a series of considerable successes for Llewellyn with 30 wickets at 12.13, including match figures of I1 for 123 v Eastern Province and 9 for 128 v Western Province, and with a further 16 wickets in the 1898 tournament he had, in the words of one observer, become a most destructive trundler, bowling at slow-medium. He was not retained for the third Test, although collectively South Africa put up a dismal performance. This must have proved a somewhat chastening experience, for England scored 482, with a century from Tom Hayward and half-centuries from Fry, Hill, Wright and Bromley-Davenport, the luckless Llewellyn finishing 14 overs with 0 for 71. Although not an instant success, batting low down the order and taking only four wickets, he was invited the following season to represent a Natal XV v Lord Hawke's England XI, and as a result of his steady bowling he was selected for the second Test, at Johannesburg. "Buck" Llewellyn was born at Maritzburg (now Pietermaritzburg) on September 29, 1876, and made his debut for Natal against Transvaal in March, 1895. He remains as far as is known the only coloured man to have played Test cricket for South Africa. Charles Bennett Llewellyn: the first coloured man to play Test cricket for South Africa?Īt a time when there are increasing signs of South Africa returning to the fold in terms of international cricket it is perhaps significant to remember a man the centenary of whose birth falls in 1976 - Charles Bennett Llewellyn.
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