Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

21 A new dawn? In the nets the day before the match, it looked as if the decision to blood the raw recruit in place of the seasoned professional would backfire, as Johnnie Clay remembered: “Maurice was not really looking the part. He was so nervous and did so badly that he suggested that it might be best after all if he didn’t play against Lancashire. Luckily for him and for Glamorgan, I took him to one side and was able to talk him out of standing down, telling him some nonsense about the actors who had told me that a bad dress rehearsal guaranteed a successful first night!” 2 The Lancashire team arrived at St. Helen’s in a quite weary state having travelled by overnight train from Blackpool and, after seeing their many yawns as they practised on the outfield before the toss, Johnnie was delighted to bat first, believing that the long journey would hamper their bowlers. It did not: the visitors were soon amongst the wickets with Glamorgan slumping to 24-4 as young Maurice walked out to bat after barely an hour’s play. But the schoolboy was not overawed and, after calmly playing himself in, he unfurled some fluent strokes. As Nomad wrote in his match report in the Western Mail , “from the moment he came in, he batted with the assurance, coolness and judgement of a veteran and before lunch obtained nine runs in good style. After the resumption, he settled back in quickly and played in textbook manner. For ninety minutes, the Maurice Turnbull, in the nets at Fenner’s whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge.