Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

6 Introduction by Bob Harragan It’s the only first-class ground in the United Kingdom where you can see the sea – the St. Helen’s ground in Swansea where some of the most memorable days in Glamorgan’s history have thrilled the crowds shoe- horned into the tiered enclosures that lined the boundaries at one of county cricket’s most idiosyncratic venues. The ebb and flow of the tide in Swansea Bay have even influenced the decisions by the Glamorgan captains on winning the toss to either bat or bowl, with an incoming tide frequently assisting the bowlers set to perform on the wicket which was created during the Victorian era on a series of reclaimed sandbanks adjacent to the shoreline road leading to the Mumbles. Indeed, it was at the St. Helens ground where Glamorgan secured a dramatic two-day victory over the 1951 Springboks, where the guile and spin of Johnnie Clay confounded Australian batting legend Don Bradman, where Glamorgan defeated the Australians on successive tours in 1964 and 1968, and where during the latter season Garry Sobers became the first man in cricket history to hit six sixes in an over. It was the ground where in the late 1940s, John Arlott sat in the BBC Radio commentary box, alongside Swansea’s favourite son, Dylan Thomas, and where in 1976 West Indian legend Clive Lloyd struck the world’s fastest double-hundred. It’s a ground which also witnessed the astonishing debut hundred by Matthew Maynard in 1985, as well as some remarkable bowling by Jim Pressdee and Don Shepherd during the Championship match against Yorkshire in 1965 with each spinner taking nine wickets in an innings. The unique maritime microclimate at St. Helen’s has also favoured the swing bowlers with Lincolnshire defeating Glamorgan in their Gillette Cup encounter in 1974 after winning the toss and putting the first-class county in to bat. This book recalls a selection of these great and remarkable days in the history of the St. Helen’s ground, as well as outlining the events in the Victorian era which led to the creation of the ground in the first place.