On Thursday 19 June, a very special party of Australians visited Swansea Cricket Club at the St. Helen’s cricket ground as part of the Cricket Walkabout – 2025 activity and a celebration of the first visit to Wales by any overseas sporting team.
The visiting party comprised the direct descendants of the Aboriginal cricketers who undertook a 47-match tour of the UK in 1868, with their itinerary including a match against the Gentlemen of Swansea – a team assembled by JTD Llewelyn, the man who founded Glamorganshire County Cricket Club the following year and also financed the creation of the St. Helen’s ground in Swansea during 1875.
At the time, Swansea CC were leading something of a nomadic existence on the western fringe of the town and had used a series of fields at several locations for their games, and for 1868 were using the Bryn-y-Mor Field opposite the Uplands Hotel. Across the region as a whole, there were also attempts by several gentlemen to form county teams following the success of the formation of the South Wales Cricket Club in 1859, with JTD Llewellyn acting as its captain, besides being one of its successful bowlers.
JTD – who lived at Penllergaer, to the north of Swansea - had huge ambitions for cricket in south Wales and realised that the two-day game against the Australian Aboriginals would firstly help to raise funds for the creation of a purpose-built cricket ground on the foreshore of Swansea Bay and secondly help to cover the costs which were likely to be required for the county team representing Glamorganshire that he was poised to create in 1869.
JTD’s father was the pioneer of photography in Wales and to further help boost the income from the cricket match in 1868 at the Bryn-y-Mor ground, JTD used his father’s contacts to arrange for James Andrews, a local photographer, to take an image of the tourists which was sold as a postcard and memento of the game to further raise funds for the new home of Swansea CC.
Although the Glamorganshire Club subsequently folded during the mid-1870s, there is a fascinating legacy to the visit of the Australian Aboriginals to Swansea as the photograph is one of the few surviving objects from the tour in 1868 and has recently been used by Cricket Australia in a unique celebration of the integration of Aboriginal people into Australian society.
The Mullagh Medal, seen above and named in memory of Johnny Mullagh, one of the leading players on the 1868 tour, is a belt buckle from that tour with the Swansea photograph as its centrepiece, and since 2020 has been presented to the Player of the Match at the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
Returning to the visit on Thursday to Swansea, Cricket Australia had given special permission for the visiting party of Australians to bring with them on their visit to the UK the Mullagh Medal, which is regarded as a national symbol of the integration of Aboriginal people into modern Australian society. As a result, those attending the event staged in the pavilion at St. Helen’s, including a party of enraptured school-children from Sketty Park Primary School, were able to hold and wear the Medal themselves.
Andrew Hignell, Glamorgan Cricket’s Heritage and Education Co-ordinator was one of the speakers at the event and said “Little could JTD Llewelyn have imagined that the photograph which he was arranging to be taken and sold to help raise funds for the creation of a permanent home for the Swansea cricketers and seed-fund the creation of a county team would end up as the main feature in a medal which would be awarded at the world’s most famous Test Match, and one which regularly draws crowds in excess of 75,000 on it’s opening day over the Festive period.”
Mike Hayden, the Chair of Swansea CC also added, “2025 is a very special and emotional year for Swansea Cricket Club in that it is our 150th and last year at St. Helen’s. As we prepare to move to our new home, it is amazing to know that a key part of our heritage remains in place with the Mullagh Medal. Forever, Swansea CC will have a special part in Australian cricketing history, and the most famous day of Test Match cricket in the world.”