Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

115 air, as the captains made their way out for the toss. Wilf called correctly again and had no hesitation in opting to bat first but, after ten minutes play, heavy rain started to fall as Arnold Dyson, Emrys Davies, the umpires and the Hampshire team swiftly made their way back to the Bournemouth pavilion where they were to remain for the rest of the day. It was frustrating for the Glamorgan side to again be thwarted by the weather, but their spirits were lifted as news filtered through, via J.B.G. Thomas and his colleagues in the press tent, that bad weather had also prevented any play in Yorkshire’s match against Somerset at Taunton. Wilf and his team returned to their hotel, where a new strategy was drawn up, as the captain later recalled: “I gathered the team together and told them that we should bat and bowl like champions. I told them we needed to score 300 runs as quickly as possible on the Monday in order to do the same as in the Surrey match, and declare an hour or so before the close so that we could have a go at the Hampshire batsmen. I also – with a smile on my face – asked them to also pray for fine weather if they went to church on Sunday.” 6 The pews of every church in the vicinity of Bournemouth must have been full of praying Welsh men and women, never mind the chapels back home in the Valleys, because the south coast was bathed in glorious sunshine on the Monday morning. Everything went according to plan as Glamorgan made 315 by half past five. There was more good news for the Welsh contingent from the press box at Taunton where Yorkshire had put Somerset in, hoping that the West Country batsmen would crumble under the pressure, but their plan back-fired as Somerset’s batsmen enjoyed the better of the day and amassed 253. It looked like Yorkshire’s challenge was also backfiring, so Wilf said to his team before going out for the final eighty minutes: “I want five of them out tonight. We’ve got to get after them and I want to hear the ball hit Haydn’s gloves every time you return it whether they run or not. Remember, let’s bowl and field like Champions!” 7 It was a rallying cry of Churchillian proportions and, fired up by Wilf’s stirring address, his team went out and did ‘The Skipper’ proud. Gilbert Parkhouse took two blinding catches and, as the pressure mounted, the Hampshire batsmen were hurried and harried into making further mistakes. The fielding by Gilbert had set the tone, and in Wilf’s own words: Clinching the title