Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

selection more to hunch and hope than to any weight of runs in the English summer. MCC’s minutes reveal that the more experienced Jack Robertson and Arthur Fagg were standing by as batting reserves. Both could boast an average over 50 to set beside modest returns for each of the tyros: Simpson 29.18, Watkins 26.90 and Palmer 24.77. Where Allan had felt an outsider in his first Test match, he now found he was mixing easily with the more experienced players and forging long-term friendships. “I was the youngster of the party, of course. But I was very lucky because Jack Crapp took me under his wing, and Jack Young helped me a lot. He was a great chap, and he nearly became a Glamorgan player. It was on the cards, but he decided to stay with Middlesex. We would have loved to have had him because we were short of a left-arm bowler.” Allan remembers Godfrey Evans as the clown of the party, and Denis Compton was another who became an especially good friend. “He was good to anybody, and never big-headed.” South African Adventure 46 The MCC party in South Africa 1948/49. Back row (l to r): Jack Young, Roly Jenkins, Jack Crapp, Allan Watkins, Bill Ferguson (scorer), Middle row: Godfrey Evans, Doug Wright, Cliff Gladwin, Alec Bedser, Maurice Tremlett, Reg Simpson, Charles Palmer Front row: Brigadier M.A.Green (manager), Cyril Washbrook, Billy Griffith, George Mann (captain), Len Hutton, Denis Compton, J.Menjeits.