Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

32 The tricky question of the captaincy But 1928 proved to be a quite dreadful season, with Glamorgan winningonly twoof their26Championshipmatches.Of evengreater concern was the way, as the summer progressed, the relationship between Trevor and several of the professionals deteriorated. As Glamorgan stumbled from one defeat to another, the captain found it increasingly difficult to handle Frank Ryan, whose maverick attitude and short-temper increasingly riled Arnott. Things were so bad that the spinner was omitted from the line- up during late July and early August in a bid to create a more harmonious atmosphere both on and off the field, but the decision backfired as Glamorgan went into the games without one of their potential match-winners and, as a result, suffered further heavy losses. There was also a growing lack of harmony in the committee room, with an increasing number of officials doubting, as the results failed to improve, if the long-term goal of bringing international cricket to Wales would ever be achieved by Glamorgan alone. A few steps had been taken in this direction by the aptly-named Welsh Cricket Union, created in 1922, with officials and players from the counties in the north joining forces with their counterparts in the south as a Wales team took part in first-class matches against the MCC, Ireland and Scotland. These home internationals had the full support of the Glamorgan officials, and by the late 1920s Wales’s fixture list had expanded to include matches against touring teams including the New Zealanders and the West Indians, with contests held at Llandudno, Colwyn Bay and Rydal School. Norman Riches headed Glamorgan’s representation with the Welsh Cricket Union, besides acting as the captain of the Welsh side. The fact that he was regularly available for these games against the touring sides and for the annual match at Lord’s was not lost on his detractors who questioned why he did not appear so eager to play for Glamorgan in their run- of-the-mill Championship fixtures. Norman certainly had a lot of contacts within the higher echelons of the game, as well as within many other county clubs, and it was no coincidence that he used these to secure games for Wales against Lancashire at Blackpool in 1928 as well as against Sussex at Hove in 1929. It was therefore increasingly apparent that if Glamorgan’s form and financial position prevented them from continuing in the County Championship, there was a Welsh consortium waiting in the wings which could draw on the cream of the talent in North Wales as well as in Monmouthshire, and to