Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

135 Helen’s in 1977 with the Kiwi scoring 83.43% of his team’s runs. At Swansea in 1975 Turner had made an unbeaten 154 in Worcestershire’s total of 300- 2 declared, but his efforts two years later were on a completely different scale as the rest of his colleagues mustered a mere 28 runs between them as the visitors were dismissed for 169. They also came as the visitors were facing the spectre of following-on, with Glamorgan having made 309-4 and then reducing Worcestershire to 93-8 in the unseasonably cold and overcast conditions with spectators huddled up in blankets and duffle coats. But they had plenty of opportunities to clap their hands and stay warm as Turner produced an amazing one-man show, hitting a six and 18 fours during an astonishing innings in which he gave a solitary chance as on 92 he edged Malcolm Nash to second slip where the cold weather may have played a role in Rodney Ontong failing to complete the catch. As John Billot reported the next day in the Western Mail : “There have not been many more spectacular instances of complete monopoly of scoring. St. Helen’s was one man’s kingdom as the 30 year-old New Zealander batted for three hours and forty minutes. As he later explained ‘as each batsman came out to join me I spoke a few words to try and help give him confidence.’ But it was more like the Mummy’s curse because not one of his team-mates reached double figures. Astonishingly the next highest score was skipper Norman Gifford’s seven runs!” 5 Whilst Turner’s efforts were – and remain - a world record for the highest percentage of runs by a single batsman in a first-class match, there is nothing in the games annals about Tom Moody’s innings at Swansea in July 1990. The tall Australian blasted a century for Warwickshire in the space of just 26 minutes on the final morning of their three-day Championship match as the two captains – Alan Butcher and Andy Lloyd – tried to manufacture a positive outcome from the game. Faced by the occasional spin of Tony Cottey and some gentle lobs from Matthew Maynard, Moody raced to his half-century inside 11 minutes before reaching three figures a quarter of an hour later. With Maynard conceding 89 runs in his six overs of flighted filth and Cottey 49 from his six, Moody’s efforts are not recognised by the games statisticians as being against authentic bowling, but the outcome was a Glamorgan victory as a century from Alan Butcher, supported by fifties from Maynard and Viv Richards, saw the Welsh county romp to a five- wicket win, and all after Warwickshire opener Andy Moles had scored an unbeaten 224 on the opening day of the contest. Besides some remarkable batting feats, Swansea has also witnessed some exceptional pieces of fielding with perhaps the greatest pick up and throw in Glamorgan’s entire history coming at the St. Helen’s ground in 1969 with the run-out of the final Essex batsman to secure a last-ball victory which took the Club to the verge of the Championship title. The man responsible was Ossie Wheatley, who had virtually called a halt to his cricket career Rapid hundreds, remarkable debuts and great run outs