Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

22 A new dawn? express deliveries of MacDonald, the cunning slows of Tyldesley and the subtle and varied deliveries of Parkin were all played by this young lad with skill and confidence.” 3 Having made 40, Maurice was deceived by a top-spinner from Tyldesley and trapped leg before, and soon afterwards, the Glamorgan innings also came to an end on 153. It was a far more respectable total than had looked likely earlier in the morning, but with Lancashire unbeaten all season, and their batsmen in a rich vein of form, it seemed a formality that they would amass a sizeable lead. Helm Spencer, the bespectacled seam bowler, had other ideas, with the Lancashire-born professional producing a season’s best bowling performance, taking 6/44 in 21 hostile overs as Glamorgan gained an unexpected, but most well deserved, lead of two runs. Heavy rain washed out the second day, so when the spectators gathered in the Swansea sunshine on the final morning, their chief hope was that the home batsmen would be able to survive for as long as possible against the Lancashire bowlers. This looked unlikely at first as the visitors extracted considerable lateral movement with the new ball in the damp conditions, and another early collapse unfolded, with the scoreboard reading 28-4 as the intrepid Maurice made his way again out to the middle. As before, he calmly played himself in, and together with Trevor Arnott, steadied the ship for over an hour, but his valiant efforts ended as he got a spiteful ball from Parkin and departed leg before wicket for the second time in the game. Watching from the pavilion was Tom Whittington, who was now teaching in Sussex, but was back in South Wales catching up with old friends during his school holidays. Speaking to the press at the end of the game, Tom was full of compliments about Maurice’s batting: “I admired the youngster’s composure and the way he attacked the batting with great daring, whilst at the same time, always ensuring that he kept the ball on the turf. For a schoolboy playing in his first match and going in to bat when his county were in dire straits, it was a performance which he and those who saw it will long care to remember.” 4 After some lusty blows by Jack Mercer, Lancashire needed 146 to secure victory, and with most of the afternoon in which to chase the target, plus Glamorgan’s modest form, they looked short- priced favourites to win. Harry Makepeace and Ernest Tyldesley