Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

27 A new dawn? and subsequently won a regular place in their side. He found the Glamorgan camp to be a far happier one than Hampshire, and this probably explained why he met with greater success on the field than before. On his day, and given the right wicket, he could bowl any side out, but Frank continued to live life to the full off the pitch and, as Johnnie Clay once aptly put it: “there were times when he did not spin, nor did he toil, complaining of a sudden attack of lumbago if batsmen started to master him.” 8 Frank’s batting was enigmatic, and despite executing some elegant and graceful strokes when standing in front of the mirror in the dressing room, out in the middle he rarely batted with any confidence or seriousness. One of his most nonchalant and remarkable innings came at Trent Bridge when Harold Larwood was bowling at his fastest. The first two balls whizzed past the edge of Frank’s bat, and also the stumps, as he attempted some airy and expansive drives. Then when Larwood delivered his third ball, Frank hit his own stumps with a resounding smack as he played a rather ungainly slog. The Nottinghamshire fielders could barely believe what they had seen and, as Frank returned to the pavilion, one of the members shouted out “Bad luck, old boy” to which Frank retorted “Bad luck indeed – it was jolly good luck. Fancy standing up to Larwood for half an hour!” 9 Within a short period of time, Frank Ryan and Jack Mercer had joined Clay as the linchpins of the Glamorgan attack and, in late August 1927, the pair joined forces in a truly remarkable game against Nottinghamshire at Swansea. The match was typical of Glamorgan’s perverse form during their first decade in Championship cricket, with their players arriving at the St. Helen’s ground for the end-of-season contest still seeking their first Championship win of the 1927 season. To make matters worse, their opponents travelled to South Wales with the county title virtually in their grasp. In fact, all that Nottinghamshire needed in order to clinch the title was to secure a draw, and with Glamorgan having endured a wretched summer, plans had already been set in motion for a civic reception in Nottingham to celebrate the county’s title-winning season. But Glamorganbecame the partypoopers, winning the game against everyone’s expectations, with the shame-faced Nottinghamshire officials having to cancel the celebrations as Lancashire were crowned the champions. Things had started to go awry on the