Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

As Allan contemplated retirement he did not have long to wait before a job presented itself, with an invitation to join the Borstal Service. An enterprising governor of the local open prison for boys wanted to broaden the horizons of his young charges, so Allan was appointed as a prison officer with special responsibility for sport. He tackled his new job with relish. He found that the boys were already playing darts, table tennis and billiards. Darts was one of the few games which Allan never mastered, but he was a proficient table tennis player and he had been introduced to billiards on Mr Rickards’ table at Usk Priory. It was not long before Allan had got the boys playing badminton too, while he also directed his attention to outdoor sports. With the aid of a party of boys, he set about draining land for rugby and soccer. Then he moved on to cricket, once again getting the boys involved in laying a pitch. “Eventually we got it so good that the deputy governor said, ‘I’m playing in the next match on there.’” Allan encouraged the boys in competition, and he had particular fun with table tennis. “The boys loved me because they’d have a smart guy come into the prison and he might have been a good table tennis player, and he’d come in and have a knock with the others first. They’d say, ‘We’ve got a smart guy on the table, sir, come and show him something will you?’ So I would go up the alleyway and watch this boy play. I was left-handed and I was quite useful at table tennis, so I would watch him. Then I’d say, ‘Come on. I’ll give you a game.’ Touch wood I never lost, but I only ever played the one game. I would never give him another chance. I’d watch him, but he never knew my game.” Allan’s role in the prison meant that he enjoyed a special rapport with the governor. He was allowed to take the boys out in the evenings for badminton matches and, when the top brass came down from London, the former Test cricketer would find himself the centre of interest. “All the others were stood to attention and when they came to me they were shaking my hand.” Allan felt awkward about this special treatment. “It didn’t go down too well,” he reflects. For one superior officer it was too much. Determined to bring Allan down to earth, he made a point of constantly picking on him for the slightest irregularity. One night Allan was a few minutes late locking up and returning the keys. “This fellow started blasting me. I said, ‘You’re always after me, so I’m finished.’ And he laughed in my face. He said, ‘I’ve heard all this before.’” Next morning Allan went to see the The Strain Becomes Too Much 94