Born in Neath, and based at Glyn Corrwg House, Bertie Young was a cricket-loving engineer with the Vale of Neath Railway who played for Glamorganshire in 1870 against the West Gloucestershire club at Bristol.
He scored 11 in the first innings of the game at Bristol, but was one of two players to be absent on the second day, perhaps because of his work commitments back home. He never played again for the county, although in 1875 he was chosen in the Gentlemen of West Glamorgan team which met their counterparts from the East at Merthyr Mawr.
His first major match had been as a teenager when he played for the Cadoxton club against the Welsh Wanderers in 1866. Two years later he played for the Neath-based club against the United South of England at The Gnoll, as well as the MCC at Lord’s where he made 10 and 5. Given his links with the Great Western Railway’s headquarters at Swindon, he played for the Company in their match against the United South of England in 1868, scoring 21 and 36. In 1870 he also played for the New Swindon XXII against the All-England Eleven, whilst in 1872 he guested for the Breconshire XI in their game with Herefordshire.
Bertie was also a member of the South Wales Cricket Club and appeared in their trial match in 1876 at Swansea for the Next XVIII, before winning selection on their tour to London and the South-East the following summer. The match against the Gentlemen of Sussex proved to be a highlight of his career with Bertie making 66 in the game at Hove. In 1878 he also played in the XVIII of the South Wales club against the Australians at St. Helen’s in Swansea.
He also played cricket for the Dunraven Club before subsequently moving away from South Wales, together with his wife Emma, and becoming a mining inspector in Derbyshire.
YOUNG, Herbert Harry
Born: Cadoxton, Neath, March 1849.
Died: Normanton, Derbyshire, 17 June 1920.