Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

name,” he had said casually one day. “Why don’t you sign as Allan?” his future skipper Wilfred Wooller suggested. So Allan did just that, curiously, and for no reason of which he is now aware, choosing to spell his adopted name with a double ‘l’. So it was as Allan Watkins that some of the earliest press reports introduced him to the cricket world, though for most of those from around Usk he would remain Albert. Once a bustling market town now tinged with the gentility of boutiques, Usk lays claim to be Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited Roman settlement, tracing its history back to 55 AD. Allan’s birthplace was in Old Market Street, but before long the family moved to 29 Mill Street, a modest terraced cottage on the outer edge of the town. All the cottages in the terrace are long demolished, and with them has gone the wide open street that served, in car-free days, as a cricket and football pitch for the youngsters. Now, on both sides of the road, are semi-detached family homes, all with driveways; but the Watkins have not deserted Mill Street, for one of the new houses is home to Allan’s brother Selwyn and his wife. One of the joys of Allan’s childhood was that Usk Cricket Club was no more than 40 yards from the family home. There is a new pavilion now, but the field with its Early Days at Usk 8 Jack Watkins Mary Watkins