Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

98 The Prince of Port Eynon by Walker off Pressdee’s bowling. His departure heralded a remarkable collapse against Shepherd’s off-cutters, but Pressdee had a funny feeling that it would be Shep’s day: “After Don had taken the first wicket, I had a feeling it was going to be his turn. I hoped he would do as well as I had in the first innings.” 2 Only Jack Hampshire, with two mighty sixes and five fours, offered anything more than token resistance against Shepherd’s clever bowling. The wily bowler took the final eight wickets in fairly quick succession, to finish off with figures of 9/48 as Glamorgan completed another remarkable victory at St. Helen’s. His feat was witnessed by Johnnie Clay, who was the Club’s President and the man, who had achieved the feat on three occasions during his illustrious career, was very pleased to witness the efforts of a fellow member of the spinners’ union. But as JBG Thomas wrote in the Western Mail , Johnnie witnessed Shep’s feat: “whilst perched uncomfortably on a stone wall on the roof of the pavilion all through the innings, and told others that he was sitting there when the first innings fell and that he would not be moving until the last one goes down. Whilst Johnnie remained on his perch, Shep steadily worked his way through the Yorkshire batting, shouting appeals for lbw and having some fine catches taken close to the wicket as the ball spat. Don Wilson then showed every intention of cracking the ball out of the ground and with almost the entire Glamorgan team in deep catching positions, Shep lured him down the pitch. David Evans made no mistake in whipping off the bails to give the off-cutter his ninth and final wicket. Shepherd’s arms were soon in the air and Johnnie slid off his perch, smiling the secret smile of the cricketer who knows that superstition really counts in this game.” 3 It was a bitter-sweet time however for Shep, because few at the ground, or even colleagues in the Glamorgan changing room, were aware that he had achieved this remarkable feat having had virtually no sleep the night before. Instead, he had sat up at his ailing father-in-law’s bedside and later that day heard the sad news that his wife’s father had passed away. Four years before the Swansea ground saw Shep play one of his most remarkable innings; in fact, to many of the Glamorgan faithful present at St. Helen’s that day, it was one of the most remarkable they had seen anyone play. It came during Glamorgan’s match against the 1961 Australians, and is considered now by the game’s historians as helping to set the tone for a decade when Glamorgan defeated the men in baggy green caps on successive tours and clinched another Championship title. To the delight of a packed St. Helen’s, Shep equalled the world record for the fastest fifty in first-class cricket, racing to his half-century in just fifteen minutes, with eleven scoring strokes, and all whilst sporting a black eye having top-edged a ball trying to sweep Gloucestershire’s David Allen