Page 29 - Studio International - May 1974

Two fishermen

1 An appreciation batsman, for five. In 1890 he won the high wickets for 68. His victims included names
that have become legend, Hirst, Rhodes and
jump, hurdles, weight and throwing-the-
cricket-ball. He was also easily the best fives Lord Hawke.
An even more illustrious victim in matches
of CM Wells, angler player at Dulwich and one of the best boxers. against Gloucestershire was Dr W. G. Grace
He started playing Rugby football at the age
of 17, deputizing at short notice for an injured whom Wells twice clean bowled. He had
With the death in August 1963 in his 93rd forward in the School XV and thereafter bowled him earlier when a 17-year-old
year of Mr Cyril Mowbray Wells, there becoming a permanent member of the team. schoolboy in a match of less importance.
departed a man of rare distinction who In his first term at Cambridge he won his place According to Wells, it was the custom of the
combined classical scholarship and exceptional at full-back in the Trinity College XV and his great man as he left the crease to stroll down the
ability at games and sport. blue as a three-quarter. He played against wicket and address a few words to the offending
Those acquainted with his record will Oxford from 1891 to 1893. bowler. To Wells he said in a menacing tone
perhaps form the view that in the realm of Wells played half-back for six times `You little beggar', or something which
scholar-sportsman the attainments of C. M. between 1892 and 1897 and also regularly for sounded like that. But Grace always remained
Wells can scarcely ever have been equalled. the Harlequins. a warm friend.
There can be little doubt that his catch of very In later years, as an old international he was At Eton, Wells was responsible for school
large Norwegian salmon, of which more anon, entitled to an honorary seat at Twickenham cricket for twenty years and many old boys
remains unchallenged. but would not make use of it when he became will recall the evening scene on Agars Plough
Born in 1871, his first academic distinction the oldest surviving international declaring with C.M.W. and George Hirst in adjacent
came with a scholarship from Yorkgate House that it was a 'dead man's seat'. nets deceiving the young batsmen with their
School, Broadstairs, to Dulwich College, where At cricket, although a brilliant all-rounder, immaculate length, crafty flight and spin.
in 1886 he became senior scholar and three years it was mainly Wells's bowling which gained Wells's attitude to fly fishing, which he took
later captain of the school. In 1890 he won an him a place in the Cambridge, Surrey, up at 45 when a damaged knee brought games
open classical scholarship to Trinity College, Middlesex and Gentlemen's teams. He to an end, was strictly in accordance with his
Cambridge, and a year later won the Browne developed his medium-pace spin bowling approach towards all he attempted. Nothing
medal for Greek, graduating in 1893 with a first towards the end of his time at Dulwich to such short of mastery satisfied him. Method and
in the Classical Tripos. From 1893 until his effect (a match average of 7.5) that he won equipment had to be just right and this
retirement at the age of 55 he was a master at his Cambridge blue as a freshman. He also requirement, allied to splendid casting with fly
Eton and a housemaster for many years. was a hard-hitting and aggressive middle-order and bait, brought him success with trout and
Wells taught classics in the sixth form under batsman with a top score in County cricket of salmon which can scarcely ever have been
three headmasters, Dr Warre, Dr Edward 244 at Trent Bridge for Middlesex against equalled and will never be surpassed.
Lyttleton and Dr C. A. Alington. It has been Nottinghamshire in 1899, in which match he Although an occasional visitor to the Usk,
said that under Dr Alington and Wells the sixth also took nine wickets. Brora and Scottish Blackwater and also to
form received the finest classical teaching in its Wells played in three inter-Varsity matches Ballynahinch in the time of his friends there,
history. and figured prominently in the match of 1893 Ranji and C. B. Fry, it is his 25 years' tenancy
One of his old pupils recalls the excellence when, as reported in The Times, he not only of the Bolstad (known also as the Vosso) river in
of Wells's teaching and his enthusiasm for any took seven Oxford wickets for 66 but provoked Norway and long membership of the Houghton
piece of work which showed originality. Thus, much comment by bowling, at the end of the Club at Stockbridge which figure so
for a parody of life in C.M.W.'s form in the first innings, two wider to the boundary, thereby prominently in the records he has left.
style and language of Aristophanes this pupil giving Oxford the 8 runs needed to prevent the The Bolstad is a short, deep, fast-running
was warmly commended and 'sent up for good' follow-on and ensuring thereby that Oxford river which flows for about three miles from
(an award for work of special distinction). batted last on a crumbling wicket. Wells himself Osen lake to a fjord north-west of Bergen. Wells
At the end of his teaching life, Wells was always renounced his claim as the originator fished it in June-July and sometimes in August
induced to publish his 'Greek Versions', a of subsequent changes in the follow-on rule from 1920 to 1939 and from 1946 to 1950.
collection of Iambic, Lyric and Elegiac verse affirming that he did not detect any sinister In a period of 207 weeks, fishing two rods he
in the style of various authors. His classical gambit in that mid-wicket consultation between and his guests killed 1,496 salmon weighing
interests were retained long after retirement the last two Oxford batsmen. 40,896 lb at an average weight of 28 lb. Wells's
and he and some of his friends exchanged Wells played for Surrey in summer vacations personal record at Bolstadogri is of such
postcards in Latin and Greek, often for the from Cambridge and then for Middlesex in interest in that he killed every weight from
observance of some anniversary. the Eton holidays from 1894 to 1909. Amongst zo to 58 lb, missing only 55 lb, that it is set out
Wells's record as a remarkable games player the old score-cards he left behind is one for below. It will be seen that fish of less than
and athlete began at Dulwich College, where he the Yorkshire v. Middlesex match of 1900 at 20 lb were only deemed worthy of collective
played in the Rugby football 1st XV for two Headingley. Under the captaincy of his lifelong mention and that 12 of the bag exceeded 5o lb.
years and in the cricket XI, as wicket-keeper/ friend, P. F. Warner, Wells took thirteen The absence from the list of any fish of 6o lb
215