Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

109 Monday dawned bright and sunny as it seemed that the Welsh prayers had been answered, but despite the urgings of the visiting supporters, and divine support from above, the Glamorgan bowlers could not make early inroads. George Woodhouse offered dogged resistance with a stubborn 53 and took Somerset to 166 and a decent lead of 96. With the wicket expected to turn, Somerset appeared to be in pole position as Glamorgan batted for a second time, eager to change things around. Runs duly came, but wickets fell as well, and by the time Wilf arrived at the crease, Glamorgan were six wickets down and just 42 runs ahead. As ‘The Skipper’ later recalled: “The Somerset spinners were extracting turn, especially left- armer Horace Hazell, but I felt that leg-spinner Johnnie Lawrence could be hit so I swung several lusty boundaries as we ended the day on 157-8 and just 61 runs ahead. After just one more run, another wicket fell, but my luck continued to hold the following morning with some further hefty blows and we ended up with a lead of 104.” 1 Phil Clift (right) and Gilbert Parkhouse walk out to bat in Glamorgan’s Championship match against Somerset at Weston-super-Mare. Clinching the title