Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

35 The tricky question of the captaincy fortunately a rescue plan was successfully hatched. With Maurice having capably led Cambridge University, it was suggested that the offer of the captaincy would be a large enough carrot for him to reject the offers of work in London. There were some dissenting voices though, with some worried that it could be a repeat of the Trevor Arnott situation. Leading a team of fellow undergraduates was one thing, but it was a completely different matter to lead a county side, with its diverse collection of professionals, some of whom had a truculent disposition besides being anxious about their pay and conditions. The upshot was that Maurice was given a trial as captain of Glamorgan during the last four matches of 1929. Thankfully it proved to be a success and, after touring Australia and New Zealand with the MCC during the winter of 1929/30, and making his Test debut at Eden Park in Auckland, he returned to lead Glamorgan on a full-time basis in their campaign in the 1930 County Championship. Maurice proved to be an outstanding captain and swiftly gained the confidence of the professionals, with his intelligent leadership and matter-of-fact approach. Frank Ryan was one of the paid players who returned to form under the new captain’s gentle encouragement, although Maurice often had to use very subtle tactics to get the best out of the spinner. These were the days when Frank, like the other professionals, was paid a match fee at the end of each game. On the away trips, he would often have frittered away his fee, well before making the long journey home by train with his thirst quenched and a virtually empty wallet. If his wife was meeting him at Cardiff General Station, Frank would sneak out of the rear entrance and seek out a friend who could lend some cash, allowing him to return home and pretend that he still had his full fee. Maurice knew about these peccadilloes so if the spinner had performed well, he would seek him out on the way home by train and slip a few fivers or tenners into his hands as an unexpected bonus for his fine bowling. It was therefore no coincidence that after the famine of wickets from Frank under Trevor’s leadership, the left-armer made a wonderful return to form under Maurice’s captaincy with a veritable feast of 127 wickets at just 21 runs apiece during 1930. Having solved the problem of the captaincy, there were still a series of financial worries for Glamorgan and their new leader to tackle, although the 1930 season did contain something of a cash-cow in the shape of the match at Swansea against the 1930 Australians and the legendary Don Bradman. All concerned knew that it was