Wisden
Obituary

Charles "Buck" Llewellyn

LLEWELLYN, CHARLES BENNETT, who died at Chertsey, Surrey, on June 7, aged 87, was a great all-rounder in his day. A forcing left-hand batsman, a slow to medium left-arm bowler and a splendid fielder, particularly at mid-off, Llewellyn, who was born at Pietermaritzburg, appeared in 15 Test matches for South Africa, five against England and ten against Australia, between 1895 and 1912, scoring 496 runs, average 18.37, and taking 48 wickets at 27.27 runs each.

It was as a professional for Hampshire that he did his best work, however, and between 1899 and 1910 he hit 8,772 runs for the county, average 27.58, took 711 wickets for 24.66 runs apiece and brought off 136 catches. Five times he scored over 1,000 runs and five times dismissed more than 100 batsmen in a season, achieving the "double" in 1901 and repeating the performance in all matches in 1908 and 1910.

He created a stir in his first match before he had qualified for Championship games by hitting 72 and 21 against the 1899 Australian touring side and taking eight wickets for 132 in the first innings on a true pitch. That performance gained him a place in K. S. Ranjitsinhji's team who toured America the following winter. One of his best all-round feats was against Somerset at Taunton in 1901 when he played an innings of 153 in one hundred minutes and took ten wickets at a cost of 183 runs.

Against the South Africans at Southampton the same season he reached the highest of his fifteen centuries, 216, put together in three hours and including thirty boundaries, and followed by sending back six batsmen for 105 runs and holding three catches. Twice he registered two centuries in a match: 102 and 100 against Derbyshire at Derby in 1905 and 130 and 101 not out against Sussex at Hove in 1909. His second innings at Hove occupied only an hour.

A bowler skilled in variation of pace and spin, he gained his best match-analysis at Southampton in 1901, dismissing 14 Worcestershire batsmen for 171 runs.

A disagreement over terms resulted in him severing his connection with Hampshire, but after touring Australia with P. W. Sherwell's South African team in 1910-11, he returned to England and played in League cricket.

Incidentally, he might once have assisted England, for he was among the fourteen players from whom the team who met Australia in the first Test at Edgbaston in 1902 was selected.

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