with the Indians on top after Divecha had taken eight for 74 in the first innings and Ramchand, Sen and HGaekwad lifted the score from 154 for seven to 306 for nine declared, 100 coming in little more than an hour. If 1953 was an Australian year it was overshadowed for a time by Glamorgan’s challenge for the title. They headed the table at the start of July but faded away to tenth with only one victory in the last 15 matches. At least the Swansea crowd enjoyed the Australian match in August, when 25,000 attended on each of the first two days. Bill Johnston got among the wickets for the tourists but with a fine display of left-handed batting Watkins (76) enabled the home side to reach 201. The Australians were 93 for one by the close and Neil Harvey treated Monday’s crowd to a dazzling display, 180 with three sixes and 28 fours. McConnon took seven wickets in 35.2 overs but went for 165 runs. Glamorgan were 185 behind and lost six wickets for 54 before a combination of Wooller and Muncer (125 stand for the seventh wicket) and rain saved the match. Whitsuntide had marked a change for the tourists, who easily defeated the Minor Counties at Stoke-on-Trent. Glamorgan had agreed a financial package with the Steel Company of Wales, who had just financed the construction of a sports complex at Margram, close to their Port Talbot works. A holiday game against the Gentlemen of Ireland took place but it was not a success. Rain washed out the first day and the pitch became a nightmare, reflected by the scores: Glamorgan 81 and 81 for six declared, Gentlemen of Ireland 67 and 81 for nine, the last pair surviving the final two overs. Normality returned in 1954 when Pakistan’s visits to Cardiff and Swansea attracted more good attendances only for rain to have the last laugh. The weather also spoiled the Cardiff fixture during the South African’s 1955 tour but the Springboks avenged their 1951 defeat with an emphatic victory at Swansea, when 20,000 saw August Bank Holiday Monday’s cricket. The pace of Peter Heine wrecked the home side’s batting in the first innings; 64 all out they required an unlikely 392 in the fourth innings and although Jones got 50 they succumbed to Hugh Tayfield, finishing 226 short. There was a similar story when the 1956 Australians arrived at Swansea the following August. Ron Archer struck a hurricane 148, Ken Mackay, in need of practice after his torment by Jim Laker, occupied six and a quarter hours for his unbeaten 163 and the declaration came at 408 for four. Jones, with 47 in the first innings and Wooller (70) and Parkhouse (62), who shared an opening partnership of 108 in the second, battled away but the tourists won with an innings to spare. Fine weather - it was better than London, 55F on Monday and Tunbridge Wells where hailstones fell – attracted 48,000 people over the three days. At Whitsuntide, the Australians defeated Cambridge University by an innings, RM James, in only his second first-class match, becoming the first Freshman to make a hundred against any Australian team. Ray Lindwall responded in kind for the tourists. During the same period, Glamorgan beat the Combined Services at Cardiff, mainly as a result of some fine bowling fromDon Shepherd (seven for 50 in the second innings). Shepherd, with his classical high action, was one of the finest bowlers in the country, although he never appeared in Test cricket. He changed styles in the 1950s from fast-medium to medium-paced off spin; 2,218 wickets his reward in a career which stretched from 1950 to 1972. Sonny Ramadhin had been the mystery bowler during the West Indies’ tour of 1950; seven years later his mix of off spin and occasional leg breaks without any obvious change of action was rumbled by May and Cowdrey during their epic partnership at Edgbaston. Soon afterwards, however, he baffled Glamorgan’s Tourist Trade 174