Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

Chapter Six Back on the County Circuit There was a regal welcome back to Usk. One of young Allen’s earliest memories is of the crowds thronging Twyn Square for the return of his father, a father of whom all his children say they saw so little for months on end. Soon Allan was preparing to start another season with Glamorgan. With an average of 35.85 in the Tests and his reputation as a fielder reinforced on the international stage, he had hopes of cementing a place in the Test side. His bowling may have played a part in securing his place at the start of the winter tour, but with only 96 first-class overs and just four wickets, all of them in the Tests, it was principally as a batsman that he needed to state his case. The resignation of Johnnie Clay as a selector may have cost Allan some support, but he remained high on the list of possibles for a place in the Tests against New Zealand. He might have helped his cause had he opened the new season with a bang, but he failed to prosper on the early season pitches in Wales. Chosen for MCC against the tourists at Lord’s in May, he managed a hard earned 69, but a duck in the first innings of the Test trial opened the door to other batsmen. Bill Edrich, who had been unable to tour South Africa, regained his place and a first cap was given to another young left-hander, Alan Wharton of Lancashire, who had opened the season with a succession of big scores. When Wharton, who had failed in the first Test, pulled out of the second at Lord’s, Allan was summoned to deputise. An undefeated 49 in the second innings went some way to offsetting a first innings failure but, by the time he came out to bat, the match was already dead, a victim of MCC wrongly assuming that the New Zealanders would not be worthy of four-day matches, a decision that was to condemn all four of the summer’s Tests to stalemate. Wholesale changes for the third Test meant that Allan was one of five who had played at Lord’s to be omitted from the team for Old Trafford. New faces were coming into the England side, and Allan 54