Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

steady stream of useful scores followed, culminating in a match against Somerset made memorable for Allan by the antics of Wilf Wooller. “The whole thing about Wilf was that he liked to skipper both sides. I remember we played at Weston-super-Mare and their second innings went on and on and he wanted them to declare. ‘This is ridiculous,’ he was saying and he got more and more irate because they didn’t declare to give us a chance. Eventually they did declare. So we got into the dressing room and he said, ‘Right, you know what to do. Put the bloody door up if that’s the way they want to play cricket.’ We got a good start. I was number four and I joined George Lavis – he was a good batsman but he had no temperament – but he was doing well this time. He said, ‘Come on, we can win this match.’ So George and I went for it. We got the score up and eventually won the match. When we got in, the skipper never said a word. You could see he had a grin on his face. Some of the committee came in – because it was the Weston match and they always used to come over on the boat – and they said, ‘Well done, Wilf!’ And Wilf said, ‘Yes, when I tell them to do one thing and they do another!’” Allan made 105 that day. He was out shortly before victory came with two minutes to spare. Two matches later there was another century, 110 in the defeat of Surrey at the Arms Park. 32 A Foothold in County Cricket Allan receiving a clock at the Usk CC dinner to mark his fine season in 1947