Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

pavilion. Then one day, I couldn’t believe it, there were about four of us there and I’d bowled and bowled and one of them said to me ‘Albert, go and put your pads on.’ I nearly fell through the floor.” Like many young lads consumed with sport, Allan had little time for girls. But Molly Shankland, the sister of one of the youngsters playing at Usk, had taken a shine to Allan with his long floppy hair. “I know it sounds funny but we first saw each other in the fish and chip shop. I was sat with my friends and she went and told her father and mother, ‘I’ve found my boyfriend.’ She was only 11 and I didn’t know her from Adam.” Almost 70 years after this first encounter they would receive a letter from the Queen congratulating them on their diamond wedding. Molly had been born in Pontypool and her family had come to live in Usk, and she and Allan went to school together. Molly soon learnt Allan’s priorities in life. “She used to play hell when she got older. She used to come and see my mum, ‘Where’s Albert?’ Mum would say, ‘Now Molly, where the devil do you think he is?’ If I wasn’t down at the cricket ground, I was on the football pitch.” “It was all so innocent in those days,” Allan now reflects. “You never dreamt of doing anything wrong from the point of view of boys and girls. Now there are girls of 16 having babies. Is it because they’re teaching them all this in school? When we were kids we never even thought about it. Well, I didn’t!” Usk Cricket Club has a proud history, its foundation dating back to 1857 with reports of the game played in the locality from 1770. Back in the 1940s the ground hosted games for Glamorgan Second XI and it continues to do so. Today the club boasts one of the strongest teams in the South Wales League. In the 1930s there was a thriving colts side and in 1933 its captain was Phil Clift. Born in September 1918 and three and a half years older than Allan, Clift was destined to open the batting for Glamorgan and go on to serve Early Days at Usk 11 Molly with her brother David Shankland