Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

50 Swansea at war Swansea’s decent run of form came to an abrupt end at the end of the month at Stradey Park, as Ernie Gee, a schoolmaster at Gowerton County School, took 7/51 before Percy Rees and Claude Warner shared a vibrant opening stand as Llanelli took just over an hour to reach the modest total of 112. A few days later, Swansea hosted The Bath and West Show, and despite heavy showers, a large crowd turned out at St. Helen’s to watch the various equestrian displays. With their ground in use, the town’s cricketers duly headed the following Saturday to Cardiff, but the bowling of Ernie Vost, the former Lancashire and Staffordshire cricketer proved to be too much of a handful as he took 5/30 with Swansea being dismissed for 81. After their decent early season form, Creber, Maxwell and Bancroft were duly chosen in Glamorgan’s side for their opening Minor Counties Championship match against Surrey at The Oval on 1 June, followed two days later by a match at Sunderland against Durham. After drawing against Surrey, Glamorgan’s hardy band of amateurs and professionals travelled by train to the North East. The long journey allowed many in the party to catch up on some sleep, though some of the amateurs no doubt opted to read the newspapers, several of which carried photographs of the wedding of Prince Oscar of Prussia, the German Emperor’s fifth son to Countess Ida Marie von Vasewitz, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress. As they headed north on the overnight express, few could have imagined how the Kaiser would play such an important role in their lives over the course of the next few months following the assassination on 28 June of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Whilst matters were escalating in Eastern Europe, Glamorgan had organised a trio of back-to-back county matches at St. Helen’s during July 1914, with fixtures against Northamptonshire, Durham and Essex 2 nd XI. The first game against the East Midlands county, who had been admitted into the County Championship in 1905, gave the Welsh side a chance to assess their own strength ahead of what the county’s committee hoped would be a renewed bid for elevation to first-class status. But after being put in to bat on a damp wicket, Glamorgan’s batsmen struggled in their first innings before Harry Creber prospered on his home wicket and kept the visitors in check. After being set 240 in two and a half hours, the Northants batsmen then opted for a safety-first approach as the game petered out into a draw. The weather interrupted the match with Durham, but the Cardiff pairing of Jock Tait and Norman Riches each posted half-centuries. Neath’s Bill Bestwick also shone with the ball together with Creber, and their combined efforts once again saw the visiting batsmen opt against a helter-skelter pursuit of a target of 213 in two and a half hours. In the game against a strong Essex 2 nd XI, first honours went to the visiting bowlers, before the Swansea pairing of Percy Morris and Maxwell led a counter-attack. Yet again, Creber spun his way through some modest resistance as Glamorgan secured a decent first innings lead of 93. To the delight of a crowd in excess of a thousand the following morning, Billy Bancroft raced to an