Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

34 The tricky question of the captaincy already written to the Western Mail saying: “the batting is simply dreadful… unless there is a decided improvement, I fail to see how they can retain their first-class status.’ 3 To make matters even worse, they were also unable to call upon the services of Cyril Walters, who the previous summer had called time on his Glamorgan career. During 1927 he had started to consider a future outside the game, and embarked on a career as an architect and surveyor. Some suggested that that he should be offered a decent contract by Glamorgan and persuaded to turn professional, and after many hours of informal discussion, he made himself available for selection as an amateur in 1928. But just as it looked as though the matter was resolved, Cyril announced that he was joining Worcestershire as assistant secretary. His loss became even more apparent in the course of the next few years as he became a heavy run-scorer for Worcestershire before in 1933 winning the first of his eleven Test caps. The following summer he became the first Welshman to captain England in a Test match, as he led out the side at Trent Bridge for the opening Test of the 1934 Ashes series. If Glamorgan were going to survive as a first-class county they could ill afford for anyone else to jump ship, but that is the scenario that the increasingly fraught committee faced midway through the 1929 season as news emerged that Maurice Turnbull, having completed his undergraduate studies, was mulling over an offer to work in the City of London. News of his possible departure looked like being the death knell for the cash-strapped Club, but Eddie Bates who, as a professional, was pressed into service as Glamorgan captain at Nottingham in 1929.