The Cardiff Book of Days (20 page)

1921:
At the Arms Park Glamorgan were playing the second day of their first-ever match in the County Championship. Over the three days they beat Sussex – who included their top bowler Maurice Tate – by 23 runs. It was a very exciting game with a close finish. When their last batsman Henry Roberts was caught by Glamorgan's Percy Morris, the visitors were just short of their target of 334 to win. Many of the spectators came onto the field to congratulate Glamorgan's skipper Norman Riches and his team. Afterwards both teams gathered on the pavilion balcony to celebrate the occasion. Sussex captain Arthur Gilligan made a most gracious speech, typical of the spirit of cricket in those days: ‘Glamorgan have given us a magnificent game. We do not mind being beaten in the slightest. We have been down until today – but today we might have won. We did not – Glamorgan did and I congratulate them.' (Andrew Hignell,
From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff
, The History Press, 2008)

1958:
The Labour Party takes control of Cardiff Council for the first time. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1763:
Burial at St Hilary of Thomas Lewis ‘ye best fiddler in Glamorganshire' also described by William Thomas (
see
July 29th) as ‘the Master of Vice in St Fagans for every summer this twelve years past'. He and William Morgan, the harper, played at St Fagans for ten guineas and ‘had much joy of their vanity til Lewis fell ill with a fever and died in four weeks lingering therein'. The ‘Pop Idol' of his day, Lewis's effect on his young female fans was described in a poem in
The Gentleman's Magazine
:

'Tis he can all the virgins move

And set the nymphs on fire,

At every shake they pant with love

At every trill expire.'

(Charles F. Sheppard, ‘The Parish of St Fagans')

1903:
Official opening of the electric tram route to Splott and Roath Dock performed by the Mayor of Cardiff, Alderman Edward Thomas. Mr Thomas was usually known by his Bardic name of Cochfarf (‘Red Beard'). (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1826:
At a service at Lambeth Palace Charles Sumner (26) was consecrated Bishop of Llandaff. Within a year he had been translated (the approved ecclesiastical term) to the Bishopric of Winchester, exchanging Llandaff's £900 per year stipend for £12,000 there. As Ieuan Gwynedd Jones tartly observes in his book
Mid Victorian Wales
(1992), ‘everything suffers in translation – except a bishop'. Apparently, when Winchester became vacant in 1827, George IV hastened to bestow it on Sumner, remarking that he was determined that ‘the see should be filled by a gentleman'. In his short time at Llandaff Bishop Sumner clearly found the remoter parts of his diocese somewhat daunting. On a rare foray into the interior, he visited Dowlais to consecrate the Iron Company's new church and induct Revd Evan Jenkins as Vicar. Jenkins escorted him a few miles of the road back to Llandaff. When they parted Sumner is reported to have said, ‘Farewell, I leave you as a missionary in the heart of Africa'. (
Dictionary of National Biography
, OUP)

1864:
Henri Marc Brunel, Isambard Kingdom's youngest son, was in Cardiff. He does not seem to have enjoyed his stay. Four days earlier he had written ‘Awfully hot here, a man died of sunstroke.' And then, on the 22nd: ‘Cardiff's not only a horrid place from its costive properties with regard to her acquaintances but has always looked upon it as a dirty place in itself, a dirty town with bad inns, his tradition based on once when IKB and IB were here, the landlord of the inn occupied his leisure moments in dying of cholera as also did the judge of the circuit.' (Stephen K. Jones,
Brunel in South Wales, Vol.3
, The History Press, 2009)

1968:
Harlech TV takes over the ITV franchise for Wales and the West from TWW (Television Wales & West). This was part of a wider shake-up which introduced London Weekend, Thames and Yorkshire to the network and the disappearance of Rediffusion and popular big-money game shows such as
Double Your Money
and
Take Your Pick
. On May 21st 1963, all Welsh programmes on TWW's predecessor, the year-old Cardiff-based WWN (Wales West & North) station had been suspended because of financial difficulties. (Jane Harboard and Jeff Wright,
40 Years of British Television
, Boxtree, 1992)

1120:
Bishop Urban of Llandaff had the remains of St Dyfrig reinterred on the north side of the High Altar in the cathedral. The tomb of St Teilo was placed on the south side. The occasion was marked with great ceremony, the Holy Cross and religious relics being carried in procession. Urban was a great reforming bishop. According to Rees in
Cardiff: A History of the City
, his ‘genius was to unite the Welsh tradition with Roman organization'. Dyfrig, known in English as St Dubriocus and in Norman French as Devereux was a sixth-century ecclesiastic venerated in the Middle Ages as a saint. He founded monastries at Hartland and Moccas and went on to become the teacher of others later proclaimed saints, including Teilo and Samson. There are churches dedicated to him in Somerset and Herefordshire, also Llanvaches in Monmouthshire. (Wikipedia)

1858:
The Somerset Central Railway opened a pier at Burnham-on-Sea and started a steamer service to Cardiff, where the Bute East Dock had recently been opened. The journey cost 3 shillings and took about three hours. By 1865 the SCR had become part of the Somerset & Dorset and was advertising a new service from Cardiff ‘to Paris, Caen, Bordeaux and the South of France via Burnham, Poole and Cherbourg on the swift and powerful steamer,
Albion
. However, the opening of the Severn Tunnel killed off the Cardiff to Burnham ferry traffic and the service came to an end in July 1888. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1967:
Glamorgan played their first match at their new ground at Sophia Gardens. Rain prevented any play on the first day, or before 3.35 p.m. on the second. Unsurprisingly, the match was drawn – Glamorgan scored 117 for 8 declared and the Indian touring side 94 for 6. (Andrew Hignell,
From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff
, The History Press, 2008)

1968:
A Nationalist activist group MAC
2
(Mudiard Amddiffyn Cymru) bomb explodes at the Welsh Office building in Cathays Park. Many windows were broken by the blast but there were no casualties. This was the seventh such attack since the campaign began against Liverpool Corporation's scheme which flooded farmland at Treweryn in Snowdonia to create a reservoir. As John Humphries states in
Freedom Fighters: Wales' Forgotten War, 1963-1993
, ‘given the dismal record of the Welsh police', there seemed to be no alternative but for MI5 and Special Branch being brought in to investigate the campaign.

1994:
Construction began of the controversial Cardiff Bay Barrage (completed in November 1999). To make up for the loss of important wetland habitat for birds, a new reserve was created on the east side of the River Usk at Nash near Newport. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1928:
The first greyhound race meeting was held at the Arms Park. It seemed very likely that the track would not be ready in time. Work was still being done on it only hours before spectators were admitted. However, all went well. Five thousand people turned up and they were entertained by a band in between races. Beef Cutlet (
see
April 7th) won the 500 yard Glamorgan Gold Cup. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002)