Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

63 A place for all seasons This was the first of 70 appearances in first-class cricket which Maurice made at St. Helen’s, in addition to over two dozen games during the winter months when playing rugby for Cardiff and Glamorgan, as well as appearing for the Probables or Possibles in Final Welsh Trials held at the Swansea ground. As Maurice wrote in an article for The Catholic Times , playing rugby at St. Helen’s was a far more intimidating experience than playing cricket: “There are many other changing rooms where I have been sat before a game, and nearly deafened by the noise made by spectators stamping their feet and cheering in the enclosures above. But when playing against Swansea you also ran the gauntlet, sprinting out from the changing rooms and onto the pitch, as people swore and even sometimes spat at you, whilst some women even waived their umbrellas in your direction. I especially remember one very partisan young lady from Swansea who almost hit me, yet a week or so later when I was playing at St. Helen’s in a Welsh trial, she was standing there loudly cheering and applauding me. How fickle supporters can be!” 6 A number of other Glamorgan cricketers appeared in these rugby matches, as well as the internationals which continued to be held at the ground until the early 1950s. On 10 March 1934, Viv Jenkins, who appeared in 44 matches for Glamorgan, became the first full-back to score a try for Wales as they defeated Ireland 13-10 at St. Helen’s. Four years later, Wilf Wooller was also in the Welsh side which defeated Ireland 11-5. This was one of eighteen caps the sporting all-rounder made for Wales, with the first coming against England in 1932/33 and, whilst still a pupil at Rydal School, he wrote his name into his country’s sporting folklore as he became a member of the first Welsh side to win at Twickenham. It followed an outstanding performance at outside centre for the Possibles in the Final Welsh Trial at Swansea on 7 January, with Wilf becoming the first North Walian to be chosen for forty years. He travelled alone by train down to Swansea and, as Wilf later recalled: “It was quite an adventure to say the least as I had never been down to the south before, and as the steam train sped through the countryside of mid Wales, I sat quietly in a compartment gazing out of the window at the new scenery. As the train headed south, I was joined by two men who engaged in earnest conversation about the state of Welsh rugby and the likely side for the home internationals. To my amazement, they got out a copy of the Western Mail and started discussing the merits of each player named in the newspaper to appear in the trial at Swansea...” “After going through the forwards and half-becks, one turned to the other and said ‘Who’s this Wooller from up North? There was a shrug of the shoulders from his friend.’Dunno’ was the eventual reply… I tried to hide my embarrassment at being talked about by total strangers. It was almost getting too much but they eventually got off the train,