Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

wrote the South Wales Argus , later suggesting that for cricket lovers it had brought the market town ‘a distinction it has not known since the Marcher Lords made it an important meeting place back in the fourteenth century!’ Allan was rested from the Middlesex match ahead of the Test, which began on Saturday 14 August, but such concessions were not the normal practice in those days. Even with a Saturday start, the rest of the team were all engaged in county matches that had begun on the Wednesday. Rain spared Norman Yardley and Len Hutton from taking the field on the last day at Scarborough, but for Allan’s new ball partner, Alec Bedser, it had been business as usual leading the attack for Surrey at Weston. The day before the Test match was due to begin, Bedser spent most of his time in the field, delivering no fewer than 59 overs over the three days of the match against Somerset. “He was fantastic, Alec,” says Allan. “You talk about these modern bowlers. You could put Alec on one end and forget he was there.” There was no team hotel at which to assemble, no chance for a get-together on the eve of the match as the players made their way to London from around the country. Allan chose to stay with his oldest sister Millie, who lived at Hither Green in South-East London. On the day of the match he made his way to The Oval, as he would for a Glamorgan game, arriving for his first Test by bus. His bag in hand, he made his way through the gate and up to the dressing room to meet the rest of the team. As the Olympic Games captured the nation’s interest in the north of the capital, a saturated outfield delayed play at The Oval before Norman Yardley, on winning a toss he might have been happy to lose, decided that England should bat. With Cyril Washbrook nursing an injured thumb, Len Hutton set out for a sawdust-covered square partnered by John Dewes, a Cambridge Blue and, like Allan, a left-hander making his debut. Dewes soon looked out of his depth, and when he played across the line to be bowled by Miller, his dismissal set in motion the most ignominious batting collapse in England’s Test history. As Hutton alone stood firm, Edrich, Compton, Crapp and Yardley all fell to the Australian pace attack. Shortly after lunch, at 35 for five, Allan went in to join Hutton. ‘This was the first game of any calibre Watkins had played away from his Glamorgan county, so he must have felt very strange Called Up For England 39