Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

They’re not using their bodies; they can’t be. And it’s breaking their backs.” The ultra-competitive ethos of the commercial era disturbs him. “What do you want a third umpire for?” he asks. “It’s supposed to be a wonderful game of friendship. But I wouldn’t want to play it now. Because they cheat. All the shouting and they don’t seem to take any notice of the umpire. Their heads go up, their arms go up and they know damn well the batsman hasn’t hit the ball.” “I despair of cricket, the way it’s going,” he says. Yet the game that brought him so much joy can still reignite Allan’s heart when he sees youngsters at practice. He is thrilled to see the nets at Oundle School opened to a wider range of less privileged children. “Something that did make the old heart beat! I went up there one Friday evening and there were hundreds of these youngsters. There were about four or five coaches and there were ladies taking coaching. Wonderful!” Allan lives on in his Oundle home. It is as neat and tidy as when Molly was there to care for it. Neighbours keep a watchful eye on his welfare and he, in his turn, is ever ready with a helping hand, offering friends a lift into the centre of the town. The garden is one of the neatest on the estate, maintaining the tradition his father set behind the Mill Street cottage in Usk. Allan gives credit for this to his family, whose regular visits supplement the help he receives from a couple of pupils of the school sent round for an afternoon’s gardening once a week. “They usually just have a cup of tea and a chat,” he says of his Oundle helpers. Small wonder, for this is a man with a gift for talking and a fund of stories worth listening to. Allan retired from first-class cricket more than 45 years ago, but he is still remembered as one the heroes of Welsh sport. At a gala dinner at the Cardiff City Hall in May 2005, with his old friend Don Shepherd and Ryder Cup golfer Brian Huggett, he was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame. A keen follower of cricket, Huggett was thrilled to have his name linked with the two Glamorgan players. “Don has been a good friend of mine for many, many years,” he said. “And Allan Watkins was one of my Glamorgan heroes when I was a little boy growing up in Neath. My mum and dad bought me an Allan Watkins bat and I handed it down to my nephew. I kept it that long.” Allan looks back on a life in which cricket has opened doors to a world far beyond the aspirations of a labourer’s son from Usk. “It ‘Go Back to What You Love’ 105