William Henry Brain of Cwrt yr ala House Brains the brewers, moved to Cardiff in 1882 from Bristol, and in 1891 became associated with Glamorgan cricket, then languishing among the Minor Counties. The founder of the Brains Brewery Company, A S Brain, brought with him two first cousins who both eventually succeeded him as Chairmen. Both became prominent Glamorgan batsmen. William Henry Brain scored the clubs first century in 1897 and in 1893 achieved a wicket-keeping feat that has still never been equalled - three stumpings off consecutive balls in a first-class fixture. While Oxford Blue J H Brain regularly topped the averages, frequently kept wicket and captained the side. He was a driving force on the committee, threatening to resign in 1894 because of his great disappointment at the apathy of players and the difficulty of putting a good team in the field. That obviously had an effect because he did not resign the captaincy until 1906, going out on a high note with 24 catches and 17 stumpings in 12 Minor Counties games. William Henry Brain lived at Cwrt yr ala House in the early 1900s and had a lot to do with Ely. Nora Coulson nee Woolven, who lived in Ely, recorded that Mr Brain of Cwrt yr ala sent for a boat during one bad Ely flood and went round passing out a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread, to the people who had been forced upstairs in their homes. Photo of Cwrt yr ala House, this house was later demolished by Sir Herbert Merrett chairman Cardiff City AFC amongst other things and he built a new one in the late 1930s.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:29:58 +0000