Golden summer at Lord’s for Merthyr’s Meyrick
William Meyrick can lay claim to being the first Welsh cricketer to score a century at the hallowed cricket ground of Lord’s. The then 18-year-old hammered the Harrow School bowling in Winchester College’s second innings in their annual clash on 2 August, 1826, to amass 146 not out in a total of 380. Winchester won the game by a massive 384 runs. It was Meyrick’s second appearance in the fixture and he also faced Eton College at Lord’s two days later – scoring 50 and 38 not out in another convincing win. In his six innings for Winchester at Lord’s he averaged 66 runs and remained unbeaten. He made seven more appearances at Lord’s, but never with the same success as in his teenage years. The biggest game of his career was an appearance for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord’s in July, 1837, when he unfortunately bagged a pair in an innings defeat.
