Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

befriended the players, finding his way into county dressing rooms in a way that no reporter had previously attempted. He found a welcome at Glamorgan, where a strangely enduring friendship built up between the liberal broadcaster and the notoriously right wing Wilfred Wooller, who offered Arlott regular hospitality whenever he came to Wales. “Although he always gave the illusion that he was up to his ears in first-class cricket, he wasn’t really,” Wooller told Arlott’s biographer, David Rayvern Allen. Winning the trust of Wooller and others in the Glamorgan team meant that Arlott always retained a soft spot for the cricketers from the Principality, whose cause he was quick to espouse. As Haydn Davies once confided with a rascally smile, “We used to tell him what to put in his reports.” Winning the toss at Ebbw Vale, Wooller decided to bat on a dampish pitch. The captain made 42 in half an hour, but the match was tilting Worcestershire’s way when Allan went in at 62 for three. By close of play he was unbeaten on 88, and Arlott wrote of what he had seen: ‘Watkins of Usk is probably the most interesting young left-hand bat now in English first-class cricket. Short, grey-faced and quiet, he has immense possibilities. His play is built upon an almost impregnable defence: primarily and basically his wicket is safe. His run-scoring strokes are built on to, not tacked upon, his defence. He balances those strokes, playing on either side of the wicket. Hence he has no ‘characteristic’ shot in the sense of a stroke which he might be tempted to employ against the ball not absolutely suitable for it. Two more seasons of county cricket should see him so versed in the tricks of the trade – for he is a shrewd and perceptive man, with his heart and brain in cricket – that his selection for England is automatic. He will make many runs against the best bowling because he has a calm cricketing temperament, a cricketing brain, and a technique of batsmanship which is sound to the last detail. He is also a brilliant short leg, frequently catching the uncatchable.’ Monday’s play saw Allan complete his century and reach 111 before ‘speeding up, he was beaten by Jenkins’ leg break and Yarnold stumped him with immense gusto.’ Allan had now made number five his regular place in the order, as it would be for many years to come. After the game at Ebbw Vale, a A Foothold in County Cricket 31