Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

Noting that Allan had held many fine catches, a local paper reported that ‘none was better than that which dismissed Wally Hammond at Cardiff in the recent Gloucestershire match.’ Allan remembers it well. “Johnnie Clay had said, ‘Anyone who gets this fellow out for under ten, there’s a tenner for you.’ Well, as it happened, I caught Wally for eight at leg slip. I never saw my tenner though. I thought, ‘You mean bugger!’” Despite this incident, Clay was a man Allan regarded with affection and respect: “A very nice chap. Without him there wouldn’t have been a Glamorgan. He was the person who really kept Glamorgan going when they were desperate for money, him and a fellow called HH Merrett, who became president of the club. And what a terrific bowler! I reckon he was the finest off-spinner I’ve seen. He was so tall that he didn’t have to loop the ball; it looped itself.” Allan had still to make much impact on the first-class game when the time came for him to return to Plymouth for the winter. As he bade farewell to his team-mates, he feared that he might be on the verge of an early exit from county cricket. However, even for a couple of matches, Glamorgan had no ready replacement. “Do you think you could play one more match for us tomorrow?” Johnnie Clay asked. There was a telephone call to Plymouth Argyle. Allan was given permission to extend his cricket season and took his place in the side to meet Surrey at Cardiff. Glamorgan won the toss and decided to bat in glorious weather before a crowd of nearly 10,000. They started badly and were still in trouble when Allan joined Arthur Porter at 82 for five. Dominating a partnership of 132, he was 109 not out at stumps, ‘playing shots of rare promise towards the close of the day’. “I was a bit nervous when I went in,” Allan says. “Because I thought ‘What are Glamorgan going to do with me?’ Then, when I got the hundred, it was wonderful.” He remained undefeated next day with 119, when the innings closed on 305, to share with Emrys Davies the season’s highest score by a Glamorgan batsman. With Surrey twice bowled out cheaply and Glamorgan needing just two runs for victory, Allan made the winning hit. Meanwhile, letters and telegrams arrived to mark his splendid knock, among them one from Bill Hitch, who had always believed the boy from Usk would make it. ‘Keep your chin up and take your success calmly and you should have a good future,’ wrote former captain Trevor Arnott. A shorter pencilled note came from the hand that 28 A Foothold in County Cricket