Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

136 the previous season when he finished on top of the county’s averages with 82 victims at just 12 runs apiece, and being honoured as one of the five Wisden ‘Cricketers of the Year’. As far as 1969 was concerned, Ossie was in semi-retirement yet on the final day of Championship cricket that summer at Swansea he made a key contribution with the vital run out to put his adopted county one victory away from the Championship title. Whilst not being renowned as a fielder par excellence , he struck with deadly precision as the visitors needed three off the final delivery to snatch victory and to stifle Glamorgan’s title ambitions. When John Lever played the ball down to third man, he and his tenth- wicket partner Ray East scampered off in pursuit of a last-gasp victory. But it ended in only one run as Wheatley galloped around the boundary in front of the famous Fred’s Bar at the Mumbles Road End and returned the ball arrow-like over the stumps and into the gloves of Eifion Jones with the wicketkeeper swiftly doing the rest. Lever was well short of his ground on his way back for a second run. Glamorgan had won by one run and the points acquired put them in a virtually unassailable position at the top of the Championship table. Eifion had starred in the previous game at Swansea as Glamorgan strengthened their Championship credentials with a thrilling win over Middlesex with Eifion clinching it by hitting the penultimate ball of the match from Ron Hooker for six over long on. As he later reflected “It all came down to the last over, with Malcolm Nash and I batting. With two balls to go, I went for the big hit and it came off. I felt it could The great run out as Eifion Jones whips off the bails as Glamorgan defeat Essex by one run in a thrilling Championship match at Swansea in 1969. Rapid hundreds, remarkable debuts and great run outs