Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

36 The tricky question of the captaincy imperative, yet again, for this match to last the full three days, but the weather on the first day looked like conspiring against Maurice and his colleagues with rain delaying the start until 4.30 p.m. as bands of heavy showers swept across the ground from Mumbles Head. After opting to bat first, the Australians made a serene start, but after an hour’s play, Dai Davies dismissed Bill Ponsford and, to a great cheer and warm applause, down the long flight of steps from the pavilion walked Bradman. At the end of the over, Maurice called over Dai as well as Frank who was getting ready to bowl at the other end, and said to the pair “Put your sweaters on boys, and have a breather.” Frank was flabbergasted and replied “But skipper, let me have a go at him. I’ll get him next over.” But the captain retorted “But that`s just what we don’t want – can’t you see that we’ve got to keep him in for a good gate on Monday.” 4 Bradman duly feasted against some gentle bowling for the rest of the evening, and when he took guard for the second day’s play there were over 25,000 people in St. Helen’s, much to the delight of the Glamorgan captain and of Ernest Tyler, the former chemistry lecturer at Swansea University, who fulfilled the duties of Glamorgan Treasurer. After a short period of play, the gates were closed and a delighted Maurice threw the ball to an equally gleeful Frank and said “Now you can have a go at him.” “Don’t worry, skipper,” replied the bowler, “I’ll get him soon.” True to his word, he bowled the master batsman during his second over of the The Swansea ground, as seen from the Pavilion during the early 1930s.