Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

8 Chapter One Fairytale or nightmare? It had long been the dream of cricket officials in South Wales that a county team, representing the Principality, would one day enter the English County Championship. This was one of the principal objectives when JTD Llewelyn, the cricket-loving squire of Penllergaer, sent the following letter during June 1888 to representatives of all the leading clubs in the region: “I have much pleasure in convening a meeting at The Angel Hotel, Cardiff, on Friday 6 July at six o’clock in the evening to consider the advisability of forming a county cricket club. I need scarcely say that it is essential that the meeting should be thoroughly representative of cricket in the county, and shall be glad therefore if you will do your utmost to attend.” 1 On that evening Llewelyn was delayed in arriving owing to his over-running duties at the Midsummer Quarter Sessions court, so it was John Price Jones, the secretary of Cardiff CC and a leading architect in the coal metropolis, who was in the chair as it was unanimously decided “that a county club for Glamorganshire be formed.” 2 With perfect theatrical timing, JTD arrived at this juncture and duly oversaw the election of officers, plus a fourteen- strong committee, before making a closing address which summed up the immediate objectives for the newly-elected officials and himself as the new Club’s Treasurer: “By good trial matches they would unearth talent of very considerable merit and that without going beyond the limits of the county. Out of that, Glamorgan would be represented by a strong team. Afterwards, they could play three or four, or even five of the various English counties not very far away and later on perhaps fly at a higher game.” 3 A trial match duly took place in August 1888 against Llwynypia CC before an inaugural fixture the following June against Warwickshire at Cardiff Arms Park. The visitors were a county who were well and truly on the up, so the largely amateur Glamorgan side were easily brushed aside as Warwickshire recorded a facile eight-wicket victory and continued batting after reaching their