Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

145 A very special place Whites thought could never happen, Neath RFC and Swansea RFC merged as the Ospreys came into being. The advent of regional rugby being staged at the Liberty Stadium, means that top-class rugby no longer takes place at St. Helen’s, with the massive wooden grandstand having been demolished and replaced by a smaller metallic structure. A mile or so to the east of St. Helen’s, the Vetch Field – the home of Swansea City FC - was demolished during 2011. The diggers and bulldozers moved in just a fewmonths short of the ground’s centenary, with the final Football League fixture having been staged at the Vetch during the last week of April 2005. Much of the area is now used for allotments whilst Swansea Corporation have also earmarked St. Helen’s – the last bastion of Victorian and Edwardian sport in the city – as a potential area for house-building. Despite dark clouds hanging over the long-term future of St. Helen’s both as a county cricket ground and as a sporting venue, John Williams and his loyal band of supporters in the Balconiers continue to organise Glamorgan matches at the Swansea venue and, at what, they still consider “a very special place.” 1. A.Jones with T.Stevens, Hooked on Opening (Gomer Publishing, 1984). 2. Comments by Johnnie Clay in a script for a BBC Wales radio programme on Glamorgan cricket circa 1960. 3. A. Jones op. cit. 4. R.Bentley, St. Helen’s – an atmosphere of its own, (St. Helen’s Balconiers, 2012). 5. The Balconiers Newsletter, Number 1 in St. Helen’s, as quoted in St.Heln’s - an atmosphere of its own” op.cit. John Williams in front of one of the coaches taking the Balconiers and other Glamorgan supporters to away grounds.