Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

42 A Welsh identity Johnnie, who had played for Monmouthshire shortly after the Great War, led the negotiations on behalf of Glamorgan, but a sticking point emerged as Monmouthshire’s officials stated that they wanted to continue in their own name in the Minor County competition with Glamorgan covering their finances besides paying off their overdraft of £175. At the time, Glamorgan were not in a position to bail out their neighbours and also incur the additional expense of running another team which was not even in their name. Discussions therefore ended shortly before Christmas 1928, but Monmouthshire’s financial position further deteriorated during the early 1930s. Their parlous position allowed Johnnie to broker a deal that was very much to the benefit of Glamorgan, allowing them to enter a 2 nd XI in their name in the Minor County competition from 1935 besides tapping into their pool of young talent and staging first-class matches at grounds in Monmouthshire. The merger also took place at a time when Glamorgan’s finances were on the up after yet another lucrative match with the 1934 Australians at Swansea. Over £1,000 was accrued through gate receipts, although once again Maurice had to craftily manipulate his bowlers so that Don Bradman, who was batting on the second evening, remained unbeaten allowing, like in 1930, yet another bumper crowd came to St. Helen’s the following morning! A small section of the Glamorgan committee did wonder whether the profits from the tourist match should have been invested rather than spent on fielding a 2 nd XI. But a crop of injuries during 1934 highlighted the need for a larger pool of decent players, and in the absence of a nursery of young talent, 51 year-old Norman Riches played against Worcestershire at the Arms Park in mid- June. In stark contrast, the Monmouthshire squad contained some promising young players, many of whom were ready for a new challenge. This was a point Maurice eloquently made during an after-dinner speech at Newport during the autumn of 1934: “We want Glamorgan to represent South Wales cricket as a whole. Carmarthenshire has supplied good talent in the past and now we turn to Monmouthshire. At present, your players are at a dead end, as they can never go beyond second-class cricket. The merger will help them to lift their sights.” 1 Once the paperwork for the merger with Monmouthshire had been signed-off, Maurice continued the work in raising the Welsh identity of the Club by writing to leading clubs and other officials