Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

138 Chapter Seventeen A very special place “A very special place with an almost unique atmosphere of its’s own” – the words of a long-standing Glamorgan cricketer when asked to describe the St. Helen’s ground in Swansea. During the second half of the 20 th century Glamorgan would visit this “special place” up to a dozen times a year for various Championship and limited overs games. Although its share of games in recent times has dropped down to a solitary four-day game plus a one-day match, it is still a popular venue for players, spectators and sponsors. Somethoughmaydisagree, includingMickyNorman, theNorthamptonshire opening batsman who in a remarkable game at Swansea during mid-June 1964, achieved the rather unenviable distinction of being dismissed first ball twice in the day, and on two occasions had to trudge back up the 90- odd steps from the pavilion doorway down to the edge of the outfield, each time without a run to his name. It was the clever pace bowling of Ossie Wheatley that proved to be the undoing of the 31 year-old opener, as the Glamorgan captain struck with The long flight of stairs down to the pitch from the Swansea pavilion, as in 1949 with Wilf Wooller heading out to the middle to bat for Glamorgan.