Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

74 “Good Old Johnnie” This was the heyday of Joe Hills’ career with Glamorgan as in 1931 he was one of several professionals to be released at the end of the season as an economy measure. He later returned to the county circuit as an umpire and in 1947 stood in the Fourth Test of England’s series against South Africa. Joe remained on the umpire’s list until 1956, during which time he earned a reputation as a cheerful and popular official, and perhaps drawing on his grim experiences in the trenches, he was always ready to pass on a word of encouragement to a young player who was down on his luck. He retired from umpiring in 1956 after standing in 273 first-class matches. He subsequently died in Bournemouth on 21 September, 1969, just a few weeks after his former county had become county champions for the second time in their history. There were other games during the 1930s when Johnnie Clay used the long handle with a variety of well-heeled amateurs at the other end, plucked from club cricket, and in the hope that they could make an impact at county level. One of these was Tony Duncan, better known as a golfer, who was invited to play for Glamorgan after taking part in century opening stands in the Rugby-Marlborough match at Lord’s and making an undefeated century in a Freshman’s match at Oxford University. Duncan duly played against Somerset at Swansea in 1934, and as he later recalled: “I made 15 not out in 75 minutes, holding up an end while Mercer and Clay hit sixes from the other end. We won the match despite a boisterous 92 by Arthur Wellard with a lot of sixes. I fielded in the deep when Wellard mis-hit. They luckily went over me for six. When he really got hold of them, they went clean out of the ground, over the Mumbles Road and onto the railway.” 1 Johnnie Clay also produced a string of outstanding bowling performances at Swansea during the 1930s and in 1937 he returned career-best figures in the Welsh county’s match against Worcestershire as he took 9/66 in the first innings, followed by 8/146 in the second to finish with a Club record analysis of 17/212, and all on a shirt-front wicket which gave little assistance to the other slow bowlers in the game. His masterclass in the art of off-spin came during a purple spell in mid- summer during which he also took nine for 59 against Essex at Westcliff, and prompted an approach from the Test selectors who wanted the genial off-spinner to ply his wares for King and Country against the 1938 Australians. He had already played for England in the Fifth Test of the series with the 1935 Springboks but, three years on, he was none too certain, largely as a result of various leg injuries. Johnnie, as a fervent supporter of National Hunt racing, had bizarrely sustained one of these injuries whilst demonstrating to his family the prowess of the great steeplechaser Golden Miller in winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Unlike his equine hero, Clay tripped up whilst leaping over a series of obstacles placed on the lawn of his home. But the leg injury he sustained put great doubt on his ability to play cricket over three days or more and, as a result, he wrote to the England selectors,