Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

131 Rapid hundreds, remarkable debuts and great run outs arduous of situations a Glamorgan debutant has ever faced, as at number eight in the second innings, he was bowled tenth ball by Holding, yet again without having scored a run. Nine years later the St. Helen’s ground was the scene of a very contrasting debut in first-class cricket for a young Glamorgan batsman as Matthew Maynard burst onto the county scene at Swansea with a century on his first appearance in the County Championship. Born in Lancashire, and raised at Menai Bridge in North Wales, Maynard initially had a short spell on Kent’s staff, before joining Glamorgan in 1985. He made his first appearance for the county’s 1 st XI during the last week of August having been selected in the side for both the Championship and Sunday League match against Yorkshire at the St. Helen’s ground. A washout on the opening day of the three-day fixture meant that Maynard’s first innings came on Sunday 25August with the youngster, batting at number five in the order, scoring a composed 18 as Glamorgan made 138 in a game reduced by rain and a sea fret to 29 overs per side. It proved to be a winning total as Yorkshire were restricted to 93-8 chasing an amended target of 96 after a further nine overs were lost to the unseasonal weather. Two days later, Maynard found himself in the middle again, this time in a first-class contest as Glamorgan were set a target of 272 after further rain prompted an early declaration in the Glamorgan first innings and the forfeiture of Yorkshire’s second. He arrived with Glamorgan in a reasonably healthy position at 120-3 but the canny spin of Phil Carrick filleted the middle order. As Maynard later reflected: A view of the Swansea ground in 1985.