Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

129 Chapter Sixteen Rapid hundreds, remarkable debuts and great run outs There’s not been an innings quite like it at St. Helen’s, and probably there will never be one to equal the feats of Clive Lloyd at Swansea during the long hot summer of 1976 as the West Indian tourists met Glamorgan over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Tales of Garry Sobers’ six sixes in 1968 and other big-hitting feats paled into insignificance as, in the course of two hours on a balmy Monday, the tourist’s captain equalled Gilbert Jessop’s world-record for the fastest-ever double hundred in first-class cricket. During the space of just two hours of cricketing mayhem, the West Indian batsman struck an unbeaten 201 after Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards had also recorded scintillating hundreds during the morning session. After reaching a relatively sober hundred from 79 balls, Lloyd accelerated in brutal fashion during the early afternoon, reaching his double-hundred just 45 balls later as he put to the sword the left-arm spin of England aspirant Tony Allin as well as Barry Lloyd’s off-breaks plus the seam of Rodney Ontong, Tony Cordle and Malcolm Nash. Clive Lloyd, the tormentor of Glamorgan in 1976, seen six years before leaving the outfield at Sophia Gardens after a Sunday League game with Glamorgan.