Cricket Witness No 3 - The Daffodil Blooms

97 Chapter Ten The summer of 1948 The year 1948 is famous for Donald Bradman’s farewell to Test cricket and Australia’s “Invincibles”. Bradman’s men became the first side to remain unbeaten throughout a summer-long tour of the United Kingdom, crushing England four-nil in the Ashes series with victories by eight wickets, 409 runs, seven wickets and an innings and 149 runs. But while the Invincibles dominated England, Glamorgan quietly unfurled their own great adventure. Not quite invincible, but the best, in what proved to be a defining year in the history of cricket in Wales. Although their stock was rising, when the 1948 season began there was little to suggest what lay ahead. The Club had two new acquisitions from Middlesex in fast bowler Norman Hever plus batsman Jim Eaglestone, whilst Gilbert Parkhouse, a promising young batsman from Swansea, had completed his National Service and was now able to sign professional terms. Parkhouse had appeared in some of the wartime friendlies, with the former pupil of Wycliffe College impressing all who saw his silky smooth drives through the covers. He had been coached from the age of seven at St. Helen’s by Billy Bancroft, Glamorgan’s first-ever home-grown professional back in their days as a Minor County and a man – quite curious in the hurly-burly of sporting life in South Wales – who was a professional cricketer during the summer yet an amateur in the winter when playing rugby for Swansea and Wales. Billy Bancroft.