WHEN we look back and consider who might have been the greatest Irish cricketer of the last 100 years, there are a handful of men in the frame. Alec O'Riordan will have many proponents, and Jimmy Boucher, of course. Alf Masood's batting average is second to none, while Eddie Ingram, Bob Lambert, Ivan Anderson and Dermott Monteith are worth a spot on any selected XI. In time Ed Joyce might be an automatic choice. But put yourself back 100 years, and there was only one man who could have filled that title - and he probably should be called Irish cricketer of the millennium too. His name was Lucius Henry Gwynn.
Gwynn was a batting all rounder who played just 11 times for Ireland (these were days before games against Gibraltar, the Duchess of Norfolk's XI and Northumberland were counted as 'caps'; Ireland played just one game in the last four summers of the century.) and ended with 499 runs at 38.38, the best average until Masood.
Born in Ramelton, Co Donegal on 5 May 1873, Lucius was the fourth son of a family of eight boys and two girls. Their father was the Very Rev John Gwynn, a lecturer at Trinity, and their mother was Lucy, daughter of the exiled Young Ireland revolutionary William Smith O'Brien, to whom Lucius bore a strong resemblance.
They were a remarkable family: the eldest son, Stephen, was a prolific writer and nationalist MP who died in 1950 aged 86. The other great sportsman of the family was the fifth son, Arthur (AP), born 11 June 1874, who also won cricket and rugby caps. Robin (RM) played rugby for Leinster and cricket for Ireland - James Connolly held meetings about founding the Irish Citizen Army in his rooms in Trinity - while John (JT) was a fine cricketer at Trinity who went to India and played first-class for the Europeans in the Madras tournament.
Sport had an important place in the family, but not to the exclusion of study and Lucius, Robin and Edward joined their father in lecturing at Trinity, EJ rising to Provost, the senior position in the university. The Irish Times wrote, on the death of Lucius, that one wag had suggested changing the name of the place to 'Gwinnity'. The boys were educated at the celebrated cricketing academy St Columba's College -- then known as 'the Irish Eton' -- where their father was Warden before being appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Trinity. Lucius was a brilliant student, winning many academic prizes at St Columba's, a streak he continued at Trinity with several Gold Medals and Firsts in Classics and Ethics.
At school, between 1885 and 1890, and for the early part of his time in college, Gwynn was foremost a bowler. The wickets in those days were unreliable, at best. He entered Trinity in 1890, and the following summer played 15 times for the XI under Jack Meldon. He took 33 wickets at 13, while scoring just 112 runs at 8.62. He doubled his batting average the next summer, and again in 1893 when he scored his first century for Trinity, 143 against the Curragh Brigade, an innings containing five fours and one five.
That 1893 season -- under the captaincy of Clem Johnson, who was to play a test for South Africa three years later -- saw Gwynn established as a leading all-rounder, with 44 wickets captured at an average of 8.14. It was one of the greatest seasons in the history of the club, with 10 wins and two draws recorded -- including wins over Oxford University, Leicestershire, Warwickshire (who were bowled out for 15) and a draw with Essex.
In Gwynn's early years in College he played with Frank Browning, a doughty wicketkeeper batsman who played for Phoenix and Ireland. Browning was killed in Northumberland Road on the first day of the 1916 rising, shot dead by 'rebels' as he led an unarmed column of home guard soldiers back from an exercise in Kingstown.
Lucius was elected captain for 1894, and again in 1895, ironically the two least successful seasons for the club in all his time there. That record is probably due to the high calibre of fixtures organised for those summers (Cambridge University twice, South Africa, Gloucestershire, MCC and Leicestershire), the loss of Johnson, Meldon and Browning and the high number of draws in the second season was caused by a spectacularly hot, dry weather (there was no rain from March to October) when Trinity topped 300 on four occasions and 250 on nine others.
The year of 1895 was an epic one in cricket history - it was the year of WG Grace's annus mirabilis, when the old man, aged 47, scored nine centuries and 2,346 runs at 51. It was to be LH Gwynn's biggest year too: the 1896 Wisden shows the young Irishman astride the national batting averages with 455 at an average of 56 - five runs more than the doctor! The Trinity season kicked off with a bang: a visit by MCC to College Park and a 55 run victory despite trailing on first innings by 63 runs. The Marylebone side were a bit thin: three army captains and two knights perhaps shows the selection priority, although one of the latter was the great Sir Timothy O'Brien, who played for Middlesex, Oxford University, England and Ireland. The MCC bowling was carried by J T Hearne, who took 3-63 and 5-75. Gwynn failed to shine, making 10 and 3. It was a different story by the time of the tour in mid June. Lucius kicked off with 63 and 106 at Cambridge, and carried his bat to 153 not out and 24 at Leicester. Gwynn was also the best bowler as Trinity were heavily defeated in both games, taking 4-93 in Cambridge's innings of 398, and 3-43 and 4-81 at Grace Road. In each innings Gwynn was comfortably top batsman, scoring around three times the next best total, except in the final innings of the tour when his great friend Dan Comyn (grandson of Daniel O'Connell) made 48.
Gwynn played several other games in England that summer: 10 and 63 for Ireland v Surrey at the Oval, 80 for Ireland v MCC on his first visit to Lord's, and 80 and 0 for Gentlemen v Players at the Oval. Cambridge came to Dublin in July and got much the better of the draw. WG Druce and HH Marriott made centuries as they compiled 474 and then bowled DUCC out for 264 (Lucius c Frank Mitchell b Rev CEM Wilson 0; Arthur 130) and fell victim to Dublin weather on the final day as Trinity finished on 25-6, with Lucius making 16 not out to finish his season for the club with 801 runs at 50.01.
Gwynn had spent the three days before that Cambridge game playing for the Gentlemen against the Players. That fixture was the highlight of the summer in the years when there was no visit from the Australians, and selection for either side was a great honour. Gwynn was selected on the personal recommendation of WG Grace, who described him as "one of the most finished bats I have ever played against".
Gwynn let down neither himself nor Irish cricket as he compiled a marvellous 80, top score in the Gentlemen's first innings of 320. He added 135 with CB Fry, facing two all-time great bowlers in Tom Richardson and George Lohmann. The Times wrote: "He has a steady and finished style, which yesterday he exercised for three hours and a quarter. His defence, too, came at an opportune time for the Gentlemen, who did badly at the start, and it was his batting which laid the foundations for the big total." Gwynn eventually "threw away his wicket" going for a short run. He was bowled by Rawlin for a duck in the second innings, and bowled a handful of inexpensive, but wicketless, overs in each innings. The game was probably his finest hour in big time cricket. The next summer he was invited back, but made just 24 and 1.
He made three hundreds for DUCC in College Park in 1896, kicking off with 120 v MCC and then making 178 v Leinster and 100 v County Kildare. That summer was to prove his best for the club, becoming only the second man after Comyn (1,174 in 1895) to score a thousand runs, while also chipping in with 93 wickets at 9.73.
That summer saw the most mysterious event of Gwynn's cricket career. It was reported inThe Irish Times that Lucius had been selected by the Lancashire committee to represent England in the Second Test at Old Trafford. It was then reported that he would be unable to turn out due to scholarship examinations in Trinity, and his place was to be taken by the Indian prince Ranjitsinjhi. Ranji went on to score 154 not out, joining Grace as the only man to score a century on test debut by that time, and also the first to make a hundred before lunch.
Gwynn's final year in the XI was 1897, when his brother Arthur was again captain. He played in fewer games -- presumably academic considerations taking precedence -- and his batting form was considerably below the previous two years with an average of 24 and a highest score of 67.
He finished his Trinity career with 3,195 runs at almost 33 (8 centuries), and 311 wickets at 11.33. Now working at the college, he turned out regularly for various XIs, most notably the Long Vacation XI for whom he scored six centuries.
Gwynn was not a big man, being described as "almost delicate" at about 5'9" and 11 stones. Stephen Gwynn described his brother batting thus: "I remember seeing Lucius bat once on the Leinster ground, which is very narrow; and the bowler sent down a short one, which he pulled across, low to mid on, without any special appearance of putting his weight into it. But I never saw a cricket ball travel so hard; and what fixes it in my mind is the narrow escape of our old nurse, whom it missed by a couple of inches..."
Gwynn's play off the back foot "rivalled Ranjitsinjhi", according to Pat Hone, who remembered him in his "Cricket in Ireland" (1955) for his "glorious straight drives, and the combination of predominantly back play in defence, with quick-footed driving in attack, which is a mark of the highest flights of batsmanship".
His 11 Irish caps were spread over the decade 1892 to 1902. He had a high score of 81 not out (v London County at Crystal Palace in his last summer) and took 14 wickets at an average of 18. Perhaps his finest innings for Ireland was against the 1901 South Africans at Phoenix. A row had developed over the method of selecting Irish sides and several clubs withdrew their players. The result was that Ireland lined up with one Co Kildare player and ten men from Phoenix, including L H Gwynn who was playing his first game for Ireland for six years. Dan Comyn made 68 and Lucius 34 in an innings of 177, to which South Africa replied with 207. Ireland made just 137 next time around, to which Gwynn contributed 68. It wasn't enough and the tourists knocked up the 106 to win with ten minutes to spare.
In 1902 Lucius went on the Gentlemen of Ireland tour of England, sponsored by the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Cadogan, and got up by Sir Timothy O'Brien. Gwynn was unavailable for the second half of the tour, but was persuaded to play against a weak London County side (albeit one that did include W G Grace, W L Murdoch and L O S Poidevin) and against MCC at Lord's. Gwynn had to return after the match to Dublin for academic duties. His last game for Ireland was at Lord's, when he made 11 and 5 in a rainy draw. In senior club cricket, Gwynn was also prolific for Phoenix, and in minor games for Dundrum and Stedalt.
The Gwynns were great rugby players, too, and both Arthur and Lucius played for Ireland, while Robin was capped at provincial level. In "Experiences of a Literary Man" (1926) his eldest brother Stephen Gwynn erroneously attributes to him five caps, a debut at Blackheath in 1894, and a career in which the Irish team "never lost". In fact Lucius won seven caps in all, made his debut against Scotland in 1893, and played on two XVs that lost to the Scots.
In 1894 he was part of the Irish team that won the Triple Crown, winning famously against England at Blackheath despite facing a front five a stone heavier per man, and a couple of inches taller. Arthur played once, as winger in the defeat to Wales in 1895, a game that Lucius missed. Lucius was also a selector of the 1899 team that won the Triple Crown
Neither of these two most talented sportsmen lived to see their 30th birthday. In January 1898 AP travelled to Rangoon in Burma, where he took up a job in the Indian civil service. After just six weeks -- in which he made a mark on the local cricket scene by scoring two centuries -- he died, aged 25. He had ignored an abscess in a tooth and when septicaemia set in it poisoned his whole system. He died at 2am on the morning of 14 February 1898, "as a doctor and dentist cut deeply into his gum in a vain effort to remove the offending tooth".
Arthur was also a noted Trinity cricketer, making 2,736 runs in a career exactly contemporaneous to his brother. He also played for Ireland, and in Trinity's four first-class games in 1895, scoring 267 at 33.38, including 130 against Cambridge in College Park. He scored a brilliant 43 against Essex at Leyton in 1893, savagely driving and cutting the famous Charles Kortright, the fastest bowler of all-time according to John Arlott.
Lucius played throughout the 1902 season while feeling unwell. It is a mark of the man that, for club and country, he scored over 1,000 runs at 50, and made four consecutive centuries on the Phoenix ground. That autumn, with his health declining rapidly, his doctors sent him to London to see a Harley Street specialist who diagnosed tuberculosis. He had been married less than two years, to Katharine Rawlinson of Clifton, and his daughter Rhoda had been born that September.
With his sister Lucy, he travelled to the sanatorium in Davos Platz, Switzerland. Two days before Christmas, Lucius died. The next day's edition of The Irish Times carried the short note that the death had occured of L H Gwynn, "MA, fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Dublin, aged 29". An editorial in the same paper paid tribute: "Surely, never before has a career opened so brightly and closed so suddenly... Lucius Gwynn's career awoke unbounded admiration amongst his fellows and of envy or jealousy no trace".
Wisden penned an obituary which included this tribute: "There can be little doubt that if he had had regular opportunities of playing in first-class matches in England he would have earned a high place among the batsmen of his day."