Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

124 play in the Test Trial whilst, in 1950, Gilbert followed in Allan’s footsteps by graduating from county to Test cricket, as well as spending winters abroad with the MCC. 1950 saw Don Shepherd embark on his long journey to becoming the Club’s leading wicket-taker, whilst as the decade unfolded there was the emergence of a new generation of Glamorgan stars, including Bernard Hedges, Jim McConnon, Alan Jones, Tony Lewis and Peter Walker. They all thrived on the tutelage of Wilf, George Lavis and Phil Clift who, after being forced through illness to prematurely retire from the first-class game, became the county’s coach. To their delight, these new faces featured in some of Glamorgan’s other great days under the summer sunshine including the victory at Swansea over the 1951 Springboks as well as the astonishing wins over the Australians at St. Helen’s on back-to-back tours in 1964 and 1968. The seeds had therefore been sown for the next Championship win, in 1969 under the captaincy of Tony Lewis who even as a young amateur on his debut in 1955, fresh from Neath Grammar School, had been earmarked by Wilf as a future Glamorgan captain. By the time, Tony and his team lifted the county title fourteen years later, Wilf had moved from the changing rooms to the secretary’s office having played his final full summer of first- class cricket for his beloved county in 1960 before one last hurrah during July 1962 when injuries left the team short for the match against Middlesex at Newport. Wilf was very much the eminence grise of Glamorgan Cricket during the 1960s and 1970s, overseeing the Club’s administration, besides being the voice on radio and TV as BBC Wales covered the fortunes of the county. Indeed, on the afternoon of September 5 th , 1969 he was behind the microphone in the commentary box, atop a set of scaffolding at the Cathedral Road End of the Sophia Gardens ground in Cardiff as Don Shepherd claimed the final Worcestershire wicket to bring the Championship title back to Wales. After Lewis and Shepherd had hugged each other in sheer elation, and walked off the field with the rest of the team, there were tears of joy streaming down Wooller’s face. Shortly afterwards, he took off his headphones, made his way over to the small, two- storey pavilion and, as in 1948, shared in the outpouring of joy as Glamorgan’s cricketers and their supporters celebrated winning the Championship. It had, once again, been a success which Epilogue – The legacy of 1948