Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

102 Chapter Thirteen The Extra Test Match The early twentieth century saw St. Helen’s acquire the feel of a sporting amphitheatre. In 1923, the imposing wooden grandstand was erected adjacent to the Mumbles Road, whilst the raised banking – initially made of turf – was added in the late 1920s, followed by the creation of the elevated bank at the eastern end of the ground. As a result, it was an intimidating venue, especially when the chants or cheers echoed around the ground during the Welsh rugby internationals, staged at the Swansea ground on a regular basis until 10 April 1954 when Wales defeated Scotland 15-3. 1 It was here, during the following decade, in the summer theatre of Welsh sporting dreams that Glamorgan achieved stunning victories on back- to-back tours by the Australians. This was a period when Glamorgan’s grounds at Swansea and Cardiff hosted matches against the tourists over the Whitsun and August Bank Holidays. Watched by enormous crowds, all wanting the Welsh county to beat the touring teams, these matches at St. Helen’s soon earned the nickname of being the ‘Extra Test Match.’ Don Shepherd recalled the excitement and the massive crowds at these matches: “I can remember 32,000 in there on an August Bank Holiday Monday against one of the Australian touring sides. I always felt that there was something special about the tourist matches. People had come to enjoy them, and there was applause for a good stop in the field or a good throw, not just clapping for a hundred or five wickets. It’s nice to know that your efforts are appreciated all the way along the line, and in the matches against the tourists, everything seemed a bit extra special to the crowd.” 2 Those present in 1964 were able to share in a very special piece of Glamorgan’s history as they beat for the first-ever time the men in baggy green caps. When Bobby Simpson and his fellow Australians arrived in the UK, only one county – Surrey – could claim to have beaten an Australian touring team since 1912. In this time, some of the greatest names in English cricket had pitted their skills against the Australians, and only the mighty Surrey side of the 1950s had come out on top. By the time Simpson and his men got to Swansea, they had maintained their unbeaten record in the county games, whilst they were already one-up in the Test series. With Glamorgan enjoying a modest season – having just three wins to their name from twenty Championship matches – it looked odds-on that the Australians would maintain this unbeaten sequence. But, as they say, records are there to be broken and during the course