Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

14 Fairytale or nightmare? of the remaining nine games were won. By the end of the summer, the Club’s deficit had risen to £447, despite gate receipts in excess of £700 at the Sussex match. Besides the poor results, the finances had also been hit by the bad weather which prematurely ended the potentially lucrative match against the Australian tourists at Swansea during the last week of July. The visit of Warwick Armstrong and his team to the St. Helen’s ground had been expected to draw a massive crowd, so much so that Harry Creber, the veteran groundsman-cum-professional employed by the Swansea club, had been given explicit instructions by the Glamorgan hierarchy to prepare a wicket which ensured that the match went into a third day. Knowing that his future employment with the Welsh county would be at risk if he failed to follow these instructions, he duly prepared a shirt-front surface, only for the final day of the contest to be completely washed out! In fact, conditions were so damp that the umpires abandoned play shortly before noon, allowing the Australians to catch an afternoon train to Liverpool for their next match against Lancashire, but with an overnight lead of 248 and Glamorgan’s modest form, the tourists might well have been on the afternoon express in any case. Many of the Championship games during 1921 were pushovers for the English counties, chock-a-block with talented professionals and vastly experienced players. In contrast, the Glamorgan side comprised a motley collection of enthusiastic amateurs and well- travelled professionals, some of whom were well past their best. After only a few months at a higher level a few sceptics were already casting doubt on Glamorgan’s future, with the comments of Wisden’s correspondent summing up the general feeling: “one would feel more hopeful of improvement in the immediate future if the leading bowlers of the team were not so advanced in years… It is clear that to hold their own in first-class company, Glamorgan must find young talent and not depend so much on middle-aged men.” 7 With a bank balance well in the red, this was easier said than done, and for the next couple of years Glamorgan continued – more in hope than anything else – with their belief that their enforced policy of relying on amateur talent would pay dividends. Some of the people chosen had relatively modest records in club cricket, whilst others were unknown to the senior players in the team. As one of the regulars later recalled,