Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

99 The summer of 1948 Willie Jones who enjoyed a purple patch of form. He began with a career-best 207 against Kent at Gravesend where, in a typically self-effacing way, he returned to the changing rooms to acknowledge the congratulations of his colleagues, and sat down saying “I’ll never do that again!” Yet a fortnight later, he and Emrys Davies added a record 313 for the third wicket against Essex at Brentwood with both men calling to each other in Welsh to confuse the hapless fielders. Each struck double-hundreds, with Willie surpassing his efforts at Gravesend by making an unbeaten 212. Once again, he returned to loud applause and plenty of back-slapping from his delighted colleagues and, this time, as he unbuckled his pads he came out with the immortal line “Dieu, everybody’s going to expect me to score 200 every time!” 2 These efforts were evidence of the esprit de corps amongst the players, as well as the growing confidence under the inspiring captaincy of Wilf, who led by example at short-leg and marshalled a voracious leg-trap which rarely let any chance slip through their hands. Whilst there were better batting sides and more eye- catching bowling units in the Championship that summer, none were more purposeful and tenacious in the field than Glamorgan. Fielding had been at the heart of Wilf’s battle plan, with ‘The Skipper’ believing that success could be achieved through a consistent on-side attack, supported by a ring of appropriately placed close catchers. As he later outlined: “Our strategy stemmed from conversations during 1947 with Arnold Dyson and Johnnie Clay, often over a pint of beer or a gin and tonic after a long day in the field. It soon became clear to me that there were few batsmen technically equipped as on- side players, because with rare exceptions, the attacks had been hitherto more on the off-side. The on-side of the bat thrust in front of the pad could, I discovered, just as easily produce a catch on the on-side as the outside edge could result in a catch to the off-side slips. We therefore experimented with Allan Watkins at fine leg-slip, Phil Clift and Arnold Dyson at short square and myself in the forward short position for the push or drive.” 3 Before the season, intensive practice had been undertaken, and this paid off, as by mid-summer, every member of the Glamorgan leg-trap had played their part by snaffling a series of fine catches as opposing teams slipped to defeat after defeat. But having a set of fine fieldsmen was one thing – having them correctly positioned