Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

So I said, ‘I’m having a bowl. I’m a fast bowler.’ ‘Oh, that’s better. I can understand that.’ From that ball on we were great friends.” Once he saw Allan bat, it was clear to Givlin that he had a player of exceptional talent on his hands, and Givlin’s wife in Swansea was able to write reassuring him that Allan was indeed known to be a county cricketer. There were several other useful players at Devonport, and the pitch at nearby Mount Wise, on which the matches were played, was a beauty. “As good as any first-class wicket in England,” Allan claims. Opportunities to play came thick and fast. “The word got about that we were a good cricket side, so of course everybody challenged us, including the Australian Army, who were down there with their flying boats.” One year Stoker Watkins hit 930 runs and took 125 wickets for the barracks, receiving, silver-mounted, the ball with which he had taken his hundredth wicket. “We had some wonderful games,” he recalls. “I was lent out now and again to the Officers’ Mess side. And I think I was the only stoker to play for the Navy at Lord’s.” It was the same story with football. Before joining the Navy, Allan’s game had been rugby. Though he had always kicked a soccer ball around as a youngster, it was at rugby, with the Usk Club, that he had first played in adult company, as a scrum half. Short and An Easy War For Stoker Watkins 21 Allan, seated centre, with The Granby Barracks cricket team who were runners-up in the Devonport RN & RM League Championship in 1943.