Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

102 The summer of 1948 vulnerability as they slipped to 31-6 against Frank Smailes and Johnny Wardle before Neil Harvey and Don Tallon saw them home. Cricket-lovers in Wales and the county’s administrators were hoping for an equally thrilling contest against the buoyant Glamorgan team. Nothing was left to chance, so that as many people as possible could be squeezed into the St. Helen’s ground. Around a thousand tons of red sandstone was laid in a mound at the Town End to create an area where spectators could look down on proceedings. Thousands of benches were also brought down from the Arms Park, whilst much of the ground was freshly painted for the occasion. Everything was perfect – except the weather. Rain was to fall for most of the next ten days, but it would neither dampenGlamorgan’s spirit nor derail their push for the Championship title. Dawn on Saturday July 31 st brought steady rain to Swansea but that did not deter spectators from forming a long queue (headed by Messrs H and D Jones, brothers from Gower Road) at the St Helen’s gates from 6am, ready to hand over their three shillings (1/6 schoolboys and pensioners). Inside the ground, on the wooden benches in the visitors’ dressing-room a surprise awaited each player as under each hook was a miner’s lamp and a letter of welcome. In his note to Bradman, Glamorgan President Herbert Merrett wrote: “We hope you will accept this token from us in Wales to remind you, when you have laid down that willow, that you have left this A view of the crowd at Swansea for the match against the Australians in 1948.