Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

to take ten wickets in the match for 66. The top of the table now read: Played Points Glamorgan 24 160 Derbyshire 25 148 Surrey 23 144 Yorkshire 23 140 Middlesex 24 136 Lancashire 24 136 This meant that the team travelled to Bournemouth knowing that one more win would put them out of reach of all other challengers, except Surrey and Yorkshire. Surrey would retain hopes for a share of the title with a draw, but Yorkshire’s chance would wither should they fail to win all their remaining games. With Glamorgan’s final match to be played at Leicester, where their batsmen always expected problems unravelling the left-arm mysteries of Jack Walsh, there was added pressure to complete the business in the Hampshire match. Allan, meanwhile, could not join his team-mates on the south coast as he was required to spend a week under the care of Bill Tucker in London. “I was going to see him for treatment every morning. That’s how much damage had been done to my shoulder.” He stayed on with his sister Millie, anxiously wondering what was happening at Bournemouth. “I remember the chap at Hither Green station. I never stopped buying papers from him.” With Middlesex piling up the runs between the showers against Surrey at Lord’s, and a blank first day for Yorkshire at Taunton, the other matches were heading in Glamorgan’s direction. But the Saturday crowd at Bournemouth shared Glamorgan’s frustration: they saw just ten minutes play and seven runs for their entrance money. His trips to Hither Green station brought better news for Allan on the Monday. Middlesex were heading for an innings victory over Surrey, and Somerset were frustrating Yorkshire. Meanwhile, with half-centuries from Emrys Davies, Dyson and Jones, Glamorgan’s batsmen were on their way to a solid score of 315. And the runs came fast enough to give their bowlers 75 minutes to get to work that evening. By close of play the spinners were starting to wreak havoc and six Hampshire wickets had fallen for only 50. When play resumed the next day, conditions remained helpful to spinners, and in Clay and Muncer Glamorgan had the men to make Called Up For England 42