Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

62 A place for all seasons When the last wicket fell, Ryan was carried shoulder high off the field by the fellow professionals, and much merry-making then followed to celebrate the finest-ever Championship victory Glamorgan had ever recorded on Swansea soil. A flood of tributes were duly paid in the newspapers about the remarkable batting of the 18 year-old who was still at Downside School, and having kept his place in the side for the next match, against Somerset at Cardiff, he took the opportunity to sit in the Arms Park pavilion and write to Father Sigebert, the Headmaster of Downside about his experiences in the victory against Lancashire match: “The three days were just wonderful: every bit of the cricket was ripping. Press notices, snapshots and autograph signing were not quite so ripping, still there is a certain glamour attached even to these. The result of it all is that I am frightfully proud of myself – nearly as proud as my father is. The pity of it is that it probably won’t last. It seems one has to have luck to make runs unless one is very good. The bowling especially that of Parkin, fully confirmed my worst fears – I usually knew something about three balls per over – sometimes less. Both sides took their cricket light heartedly when not actually engaged upon it. One o’clock was my earliest time for bed. The amateurs did things in a bunch together.” 5 Maurice Turnbull seen at Swansea in 1937.