Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

69 Restarting and regrouping soon returned from the Royal Air Force, whilst wicket-keeper Haydn Davies was able to swiftly secure his demobilisation from the Army. Arnold Dyson secured his release from duties at a munitions factory in the Midlands, and all of these pre-war players were able to join Cyril Smart and Closs Jones, who travelled from their homes in the Neath area for nets at the Arms Park. The Glamorgan officials had also hoped that promising young cricketer Derek Williams, who had impressed during the wartime friendlies, would be available for consideration. But the man who was subsequently amongst the group of athletes who carried the Olympic flame into Wembley at the 1948 Summer Games had commenced his studies at Oxford University and had indicated that he was not interested in becoming a county cricketer. Despite this bad news, there was some cheer in the return to South Wales of George Lavis, who had left to coach in Scotland before the War. There was also a clutch of new faces eager to make their mark, including Maurice Robinson, an Irish-born all-rounder who had played first-class cricket in India and was now stationed at St. Athan’s airbase in the Vale of Glamorgan. At first, Phil Clift, Gilbert Parkhouse and Emrys Davies were all away on military service and, in theory, unavailable for the early part of the season. But the latter ended up being a regular face in the Glamorgan team, thanks to the persuasive efforts of Johnnie, who served as a Colonel in the Territorial Army. He used his military contacts to get Private Davies posted to Cardiff Barracks and, despite not being demobilised until late July, he managed to play in all of the Championship matches by doing guard duty all night, thereby allowing him to play during the day in the home fixtures besides ‘obtaining’ privilege leave which conveniently coincided with the away games! Given the gossamer-thin playing resources, a letter was written to Martin Donnelly, the New Zealand Test batsman who was studying at Oxford University, to see if the Kiwi would be interested in helping out Glamorgan during his summer vacation. Nothing came of the approach and, as a result, a number of amateurs were pressed into action, including Arthur Porter from Newport CC who was a welfare officer in the steel industry, plus policemen Wat Jones and Reg Anderson who during the summer of 1946 mixed their duties for the South Wales Constabulary with county cricket for Glamorgan. With such limited playing resources added to their wafer-thin