Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

64 A place for all seasons leaving me to carry on the journey and reflect on the way the game aroused deep passion and serious discussion.” 7 Wilf also played a starring role in Wales’ victory over the 1935 All Blacks at Cardiff Arms Park. It was not a successful time in South Wales that year for the New Zealanders as earlier in the tour they were beaten 11-3 by the All Whites at St. Helen’s. This was not the first time Swansea had defeated an international touring team as on Boxing Day 1908 they had defeated Australia 6-0, whilst four years later to the day they beat South Africa 3–0. Swansea’s victory in 1935 made them the first Welsh club to beat the big three nations from the Southern Hemisphere, and what made that day even more special was the fact that Swansea’s half-backs were two fresh-faced youngsters, Willie Davies and Haydn Tanner from Gowerton County School. Their match-winning partnership prompted the immortal comment to visiting journalists by Jack Manchester, the captain of The All Blacks – “Tell them that we have been beaten, but please don’t tell them that it was by a pair of schoolboys!” 8 1. A.K.Hignell, Maurice Turnbull: A Welsh Sporting Hero (Tempus Publishing, 2001) 2. Ibid. 3 . Western Mail , 14 August 1924. 4. J.H.Morgan, Glamorgan County Cricket (Convoy Publications, 1952). 5. A.K.Hignell op.cit 6. Ibid 7. A.K.Hignell, The Skipper: A biography of Wilf Wooller (Limlow Book, 1995) 8. South Wales Evening Post , 29 September 1935 A line-out from a rugby match at Swansea in 1903. Note the dress, and position of the referee, plus the old pavilion in the background at the Bryn Road end. The skyline is therefore very different compared with the backdrop in the photo opposite.