Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

87 Chapter Nine New faces “The foundation is now strong. Our house is no longer built on quicksand. We can forge ahead with the superstructure in the sure knowledge that results will be achieved eventually.” 1 These were the optimistic words of Wilf Wooller, as printed in the 1947 Glamorgan Yearbook, as the county’s new captain and honorary secretary proudly reported on how £11,000 had already been collected for the Nursery and Development Fund. It was encouraging news for the Club, because if they were going to make a fist of things during the post-War era it was essential that they found a means of nurturing and encouraging fresh talent from within the boundaries of Wales, rather than letting burgeoning talent slip through the net. In simple terms, the fund was going to be the mechanism which would allow the Club’s sustainability during the post-War era. It would have been easy for the Club to bemoan the lack of talent by dwelling on the loss of Maurice Turnbull and other young sportsmen killed during the hostilities who, over time, could have cut the mustard as county cricketers. It would have been easy for Wilf and the other administrators to have complained about missing a lost generation, and wallowing in self-pity, but the new captain was not one to sit back and do nothing. During his first few months as captain, he actively sought out the men and organisations who could lend some financial clout. At first, Wilf did not need to look very far, as his former boss was Sir Herbert Merritt, one of the influential grandees at Cardiff Docks and, as befitted a kindly benefactor to sporting organisations in the region, he was now President of the Club. It was not long before £1,000 of Sir Herbert’s money was in the Fund, with his support helping to persuade others to also stump up some cash for Glamorgan CCC, especially those who wanted to see the fulfilment of the long-held dream of an all-Welsh Glamorgan side. But there were many people in the sporting and business world of Wales who were blissfully unaware of what Glamorgan CCC was trying to achieve, and their attempts to improve cricket at grass