Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

15 Fairytale or nightmare? “A great big fellow was in the team one day and Johnnie Clay, being a gentleman, didn’t like to ask him whether he was a batsman or a bowler. So Johnnie asked me and I didn’t know either. ‘Well,’ said Johnnie, ‘we’ll put him in the slips. Even if he can’t catch, he’s a big chap – something might hit him’.” 8 The Glamorgan officials had hoped to augment the amateurs with a handful of talented professionals, but rather than gaining the services of men who had previously played with success for English counties, they largely ended up with cast-offs and has- beens. In the Club’s defence there was one stroke of bad luck regarding Bill Bestwick, the fiery fast bowler and former miner who had enjoyed something of a roller-coaster of a career with Derbyshire. His feats on the field for the Peakites were mixed, with stories of heavy drinking and a violent temper, and he had also appeared in court following a brawl which had left a man dead. His plea of having acted in self-defence won the day but, in the years following this unsavoury incident, the Derbyshire committee became increasingly irritated by tales of his intemperance and Bestwick was released from his contract. In the years leading up to the Great War, Bill moved to South Wales, and after playing with success for clubs in Merthyr and Neath, he made his debut for Glamorgan in 1914. He was still in the area in 1920 as plans for the Club’s elevation into first- class cricket gained momentum, and there was great delight when Bill stated that he would be willing to return to Championship cricket with the Welsh county. But news of his possible signing by Glamorgan reached the ears of Derbyshire officials, and with the Peakites offering improved terms – and agreeing to let bygones be bygones – he returned to his native county. To rub salt into Glamorgan’s wounds, Bill duly took all ten wickets in Glamorgan’s second innings when the two teams met at the Arms Park during mid-June: all this after having spent much of the Saturday evening and most of Sunday drinking with his former colleagues from Neath! Losing out on Bill’s services may have been bad luck, but nevertheless there had not been a Plan B in place or anything like a business plan. Apart from forming a Colts team, plus arranging Club and Ground fixtures with local clubs, no other thoughts had been given to how to sustain their presence in first-class cricket. During 1922 no fewer than 46 players appeared for the Club as they desperately sought the winning formula. One included the fifteen-year old schoolboy Royston Gabe-Jones who, after a