Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

23 A new dawn? duly gave the northern side a solid start and at 84-3 they appeared to have the measure of the bowling. It was at this point that Johnnie sauntered over to Frank Ryan, and told him that he would be returning to bowl in an attempt to stem the flow of runs from the Lancashire batsmen. Frank had been very innocuous in his first spell, but Johnnie had great faith in the erratic and often wayward spinner. “Right, Frank”, Johnnie said, “it’s now or never,” and much to the captain’s delight, Frank responded with one of the finest spells of his maverick career. It saw Ryan take 7/23 proving to be virtually unplayable, as Lancashire fell 39 runs short of their target. In the words of watching journalist Jack Morgan: “the Lancashire batsmen must have thought they were in the coils of a serpent. Bringing the ball down from his fine height, Ryan spun it like a top on the dusty surface, and batsman after batsman groped and lunged in vain as the ball spun wickedly past their bats. When the last wicket fell, Ryan was carried shoulder high off the field by the fellow professionals, and much merry-making then followed to celebrate the finest-ever Championship victory Glamorgan had ever recorded.” 5 Maurice was truly delighted to have batted so well against the vastly experienced Lancashire attack and to have played a key role in such a handsome victory. In a letter to Father Sigebert, the Headmaster of Downside, he spoke about his pleasure as well as the socialising off the pitch: “The three days were just wonderful: every bit of the cricket was ripping. Press notices, snapshots and autograph signing were not quite so ripping, still there is a certain glamour attached even to these. The result of it all is that I am frightfully proud of myself – nearly as proud as my father is. The pity of it is that it probably won’t last. It seems one has to have luck to make runs unless one is very good. The bowling especially that of Parkin, fully confirmed my worst fears – I usually knew something about three balls per over – sometimes less. Both sides took their cricket light heartedly when not actually engaged upon it. One o’clock was my earliest time for bed. The amateurs did things in a bunch together.” 6 Cyril Walters, an eighteen-year-old from Neath Grammar School, was another young Welsh cricketer tipped to have a bright future with Glamorgan. From a fielding point of view, having such an agile and fleet-of-foot youngster was a most welcome addition,