Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

54 Team spirit unaware of what was causing the crowd to smile and laugh. At the close of play, Ted and Viv recovered the notice from Harry’s jacket, with the cricket writer thankfully seeing the funny side of the prank. 4 The sign was subsequently placed in the windows of railway carriages and dining saloons across the country, including the occasions when the happy band of Glamorgan cricketers made their way to Essex for the match during the festival week at the Clacton ground. Many of the celebrities and entertainers at the seaside theatres took the opportunity of dropping in to watch some cricket during the afternoon sessions. One of the star attractions at the resort was Billy Merson and his troupe of dancing girls, and after a visit on the Saturday afternoon by one of Merson’s colleagues, the Glamorgan team was given free tickets to the evening performance, plus a special invitation to an after- show party. Prior to attending the theatre, Maurice, Ted and Viv had dinner with the Essex captain and various dignitaries from the Clacton club before heading off, quite well-oiled, to meet up with the rest of the team at the theatre where Merson and the troupe were appearing. They arrived with their naughty notice just in time before the dancers made their appearance on stage, with Glover making a most dramatic entrance. He ran down the central aisle, and as he placed their sign on the apron of the stage, a loud cheer rang out from the rest of the Glamorgan side from their free seats. Various stagehands, thinking that Ted was going to accost the dancing girls, then ushered him back to his seat, and the performance went on, much to everyone’s pleasure. The highlight though was meeting the troupe and the other performers in the backstage party afterwards, and the singing and revelry went on long into the night. Despite all of the merriment, Ted remembered to recover his sign from the stage before they left the theatre and the sign appeared again in railway carriages as the team headed north for their next match against Yorkshire at Scarborough. However, Maurice had to step in to end the jokes as things went a little bit too far after Ted and Viv attached the sign to the back of umpire John King as the elderly official was walking out from the pavilion. He was one of the oldest umpires on the county circuit, and there were many smiles on the faces of the players and the crowd as John spent the entire session with the sign on his back. But Maurice did not have a smile on his face, as he felt embarrassed