Lives in Cricket No 22 - Jack Mercer

72 adverse comments in the newspapers in the course of the next few days, with one letter in the Western Mail saying ‘the batting is simply dreadful … unless there is a decided improvement, I fail to see how they can retain their first-class status.’ 76 In 1929, the county had the lowest batting average, 19.12, of any side in the Championship. Defeats continued, but Jack still produced some sterling efforts with the ball. An example came at The Oval where Glamorgan were bundled out for 37 in the pre-lunch session before Surrey’s batsmen made hay in the afternoon sun. Jack typically claimed an early wicket with the new ball, before the two Andrews, Sandham and Ducat, took the score to 190 for one with both men punishing some loose bowling. Jack had been the only bowler to cause the Surrey men any difficulties and after tea he returned to the attack and halted their hitherto serene progress, taking five for 49 in a sixteen-over spell with his cutters. That night in the Surrey Tavern, a few wags suggested to Jack that he might go on the following morning and claim the remaining four wickets to end up with all ten. Jack just smiled, knowing how much pleasure that would give him, especially in front of some influential people in the Surrey committee room. But as it turned out, he never got the opportunity; the following morning Percy Fender declared on Surrey’s overnight total and his side then bowled Glamorgan out for a second time. There were a handful of occasions when beleaguered Glamorgan batsmen launched a spirited fightback. The most notable came a few days after the Surrey debacle when, for the first time in their history, Glamorgan won after following on. Few of those present on the first day of the game against Sussex at Horsham would have forecast such a dramatic turnaround, especially after Sussex made 306 before reducing Glamorgan to 57 for five by the close of play. Sussex remained in control on the second morning, quickly taking the remaining wickets. Shortly before lunch, the Glamorgan openers were back at the crease as the Welsh side followed on with the press-tent scribes thinking about how to report yet another defeat. Five further wickets fell by the time the arrears were cleared off and it seemed only a matter of time before Sussex wrapped up the match, but Guy Morgan, the 22-year-old Welsh rugby international, then turned the game on its head with a remarkable match-winning innings. The Cambridge undergraduate had been in useful form with the bat earlier in the season for the Light Blues, but he had been drafted into the Glamorgan side in an attempt primarily to improve the fielding. Morgan proceeded to play the finest innings of his life, counter-attacking the tiring Sussex bowlers, and together with Trevor Arnott added 78 for the seventh wicket. Arnott fell one short of a deserved fifty, but Morgan then took complete control, hitting boundaries all around the wicket, and belied his inexperience by adeptly marshalling the bowling to protect the tailenders. Frank Ryan also lent useful support, adding 85 for the final wicket, and A change of captain 76 Western Mail , 30 May 1929.