Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

form, but he succumbed to a catch on the fine leg boundary for 97 shortly after Allan had joined him. Mann soon followed and, with the score on 213 for five, the South Africans were well placed. Allan had settled in, but now he had only the lower order for company. Finding a useful partner in Jenkins, he steered England to 290 for seven at the close, his own score 64. Next day, after surviving an early chance on the leg side, Allan found support from Gladwin, and then Griffith, Evans’ replacement as wicket-keeper, but when Griffith was ninth man out, Allan’s score stood on 91. “I remember Jack Young coming in. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be there till the end,’ he said. I was anxious. It was my first century in Test cricket and I was dreading getting out on 96 or something.” Declining two singles to retain the strike, Allan prolonged the wait before he finally turned Tuckett to the leg-side boundary. Shortly after, he trod on his stumps as the innings closed on 379. “I remember Jack ribbing me that I was the one who had got out.” Lusty hooks and pulls had been a feature of Allan’s 111, which contained 15 fours. South African Adventure 51 The wagon wheel of Allan’s century, an early example of Bill Ferguson’s craft, which shows Allan’s strength square of the wicket.