Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

25 A new dawn? Midlands county. 7 But there was not a master plan, with Glamorgan relying instead on a series of fortuitous events. In fact these lay behind the acquisition of Jack Mercer and Frank Ryan. Jack had been frustrated by the lack of opportunities with Sussex, his native county, especially with the emergence of Maurice Tate as an opening bowler, but after spending a two-year period qualifying for Glamorgan, Jack proved to be the bowling gem that the Welsh county had been desperately searching for, and the lionhearted seamer became the cornerstone of the county’s attack until the outbreak of the Second World War. For season after season from 1923, Jack took the new ball and delivered brisk swing, before switching to off-cutters as the shine went off the ball. His wholehearted efforts were rewarded each summer with a stack of wickets and on six occasions, Mercer passed the hundred mark. In fact, he might have achieved this landmark more often had it not been for the butter-fingers of the Glamorgan fielders. On occasions too numerous to mention, a greying and portly amateur would spill a catch close to the wicket, but unlike bowlers of the modern era, Jack rarely lost his rag and never went into histrionics if things did not go his way. Instead, the phlegmatic and jovial soul would say “Bad luck and well stopped, Sir” to the red-faced fielder, before calmly returning to his bowling mark and carrying on the bowling. In fact, it was almost a case of Glamorgan’s signings being like London buses, as having been frustrated for so long in their search for new bowling talent, a second one turned up shortly afterwards with the arrival in South Wales of Frank Ryan, the former left- arm spinner with Hampshire. This time the Glamorgan officials enjoyed a rare slice of good fortune in securing the services of a man renowned as having, to put it mildly, quite a volatile character and something of a chequered past. In particular, there had been several run-ins between Ryan and the Hon. Lionel Tennyson, the Hampshire captain, and after one acrimonious dispute, following a heavy night’s drinking by Frank, the spinner literally walked away from the South Coast club. Frank was keen to stay in professional cricket and had several acquaintances in other clubs. However, he barely had two pennies to rub together and, after leaving Southampton, had to hitch-hike his way to Bristol to see his friend Charlie Tayler in the hope of having an introduction to the Gloucestershire secretary. Tayler