Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

79 Chapter Eight The Wooller Way Wilf Wooller was very much like Marmite – you either loved him or loathed him. Those in the latter camp may have been narked by his outspoken and bellicose comments, but perhaps they misunderstood his intentions as Wilf strove to do everything in the best interests of Glamorgan CCC. You could certainly not doubt his loyalty to the county for whom he served in a variety of positions until his death during March 1997, and in 1947 he carefully laid the foundations for what the following year became a most dramatic and history-making summer for the Welsh county. By the time Wilf assumed the mantle of Glamorgan captain, he had already silenced any doubters that, like a number of other Oxbridge graduates, he was just a jolly all-rounder, only interested in the social side of the game. Instead, he displayed a steely grit and great fortitude, no doubt drawing on his long years as a P.O.W. in the Far East. His strength of character often came to the fore during some of the hardest passages of play, such as in July 1946 when Glamorgan had a delayed homeward journey by train after a pair of away games at Leicester and Dudley, each played out under glorious sunshine and high temperatures as Glamorgan won each late on the final day. The problems with their evening journey on the Great Western Railway meant that the weary Glamorgan cricketers did not get back home until the early hours of the morning. There was little time to recover as Gloucestershire were the visitors later that day at the Arms Park, and, with the sun shining brightly once again, the Glamorgan side had their fingers crossed that Johnnie Clay would win the toss and bat. But the Gloucestershire captain called correctly and opted to bat, and the Glamorgan players trooped out of the pavilion fearing a long day in the field. But within half-an-hour’s play Gloucestershire had subsided to 14-4 with Wally Hammond, who had pummelled the Welsh county’s attack for triple-hundreds during 1934 and again in 1939, being one of the batsmen to return to the pavilion in the face of a fiery new ball salvo from Wilf. During the space of eight balls, the England batsman survived a confident appeal for leg