Museum of Welsh Cricket Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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In this episode, the longest ever in the history of our podcast, we hear almost 50 contributors share their memories of the St Helen's ground in Swansea.

Now no longer a cricket venue, St Helen's has been at the heart of Glamorgan's journey as a first class county and has hosted many famous games and famous names as well as cricketing exploits that reverberate through the history of the game of cricket itself.

Contributions include those by:

Andrew Hignell, pre-eminent historian of cricket in Wales

Mal Pope, singer, radio dj and composer

Fred Raffle (long time blind supporter of Glamorgan CCC)

Peter Hybart (ex CEO of Cricket Wales)

Dan Cherry (CEO of Glamorgan)

Mark Rhyderch-Roberts (Chair, Glamorgan CCC)

Alan Wilkins (President, Glamorgan CCC)

Ken Lewis (Glamorgan's oldest living player)

Steve Watkin

Dean Cosker

Tony Cottee

Ossie Wheatley

Tony Lewis

Hugh Morris

Alan Butcher

Matt Maynard

David Hemp

Alan Jones

Waqar Younis

Jack Russel

David Gower

Sir Geoffrey Boycott

Max Boyce

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In this episode we talk to the 6 remaining members of the Gowerton Cricket Club Team who made history by being the first welsh club to win the prestigious Haig Village Trophy in 1975.

Those players are:

John Morris

John Richards

Mike Rowlands

Colin Airey

Adrian Daniel and

Edward Bevan

The players talk about the team as a whole, the reasons for their success in the competition and the different games they played along the way to get to the final at Lords as well as the final itself.

We also talk about the 5 players from the side who are sadly no longer alive.  They were:

Graham Young

Teifion Davies

Robert Evans

Wayne Harries and

Bill Thomas

The competition remains to this day.  Those interested in learning a little bit more about it can go here:

https://www.nationalvillagecup.com/

The scorecard for the final can be found here:

https://www.nationalvillagecup.com/1975-village-cup-final-gowerton-v-isleham/

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In this episode we visit Gorseinon Cricket Club for their second women's softball tournament.

We talk to the four participating teams: Gorseinon, Gowerton, Llandarcy and Neath as well as all those at Gorseinon who helped to make it a succesful event.

In hot weather, the teams played through a long day and the Gowerton team ran out the eventual winners.

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We talk to Glamorgan and Criced Cymru / Cricket Wales' Mark Frost.  Recipient of a BEM in the 2022 New Years Honours List, Mark tells us about growing up in the West Midlands where his first taste of club cricket came at Dudley Cricket Club who were, at that time, captained by the recently retired Worcestershire and West Indies opener Ron Headley.

After University and some excellent performances in the Minor County's Championship for Staffordshire he first signed professional terms with Surrery in 1988 and played in a team that included Alec Stewart, Ian Greig and Graham Thorpe.

Mark moved to Wales to play for Glamorgan in 1990 and spent 4 seasons with the county.  He remembers playing alongside Alan Butcher, Hugh Morris, Mathew Maynard and the great Sir Vivian Richards as well as a tumultuous over facing the great Curtley Ambrose.

After leaving cricket he took up an administrative role with Sport Wales and thus began a career in managing community and professional sport that has lasted almost 30 years.  Mark has had three spells working with the body representing recreational cricket in Wales.  He has been in his current role since 2014 which combines development work in the recreational sector with a role for Glamorgan CCC bringing together the professional and recreational games.

He talks enthusiastically about his own professuional career and the development of cricket in Wales emphasising the inclusivity and diversity of cricket at a time when these qualities are being looked at sceptically by some outside the game.  He talks about his optimism for the future of the sport and the joy he gets from regularly volunteering as a coach at his local club, Penarth.

Mark has written and published 5 books for children, details of which you can find here:

https://httpthefour.weebly.com/

You may wish to contact Mark directly if it is not possible to order these books from this site (contact details below)

He has been a longstanding member of Christians in Sport and he explains how important his faith is to him in his work and life generally.

Anyone wishing to contact Mark can do so here :

mark.frost@glamorgancricket.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @MarkFrostsport

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This is taken from the back cover of the recently published book about Paul Crump entitled 'One Armed and Dangerous':

'This is the totally true, though almost incredible, story of a very proud Welshman.  A son of Merthyr Tydfil, once the industrial capital of the world but always a hotbed of Welsh sporting excellence.  They don't do it by halves in this toen you know, and Crumpy is no exception in that.  A quite remarkable man.  That man is Paul Crump.'

Born without a forearm after the difficulties of a twin pregnancy Paul grew up with little or no sense that he was any less of a person than anyone else.  A keen sportsman he wanted, first, to play professional football.  On trial at Wolverhampton Wanderers he turned out for the Pennydarren XI Cricket Club.  Paul tells us how his performances got him referred to Glamorgan for trials and into the press for his exploits.

In a hectic few years Paul was contracted to play for the Grounds staff at the Home of Cricket, Lords.  As well as talking about his experiences here and the people he met including England players Ian Botham and Goeffrey Boycott, Paul tell sus about his boyhood friends who have turned into lifeling ones.

Paul's story is not without regret as he failed to get the professional career in cricket he wanted and by his own admission done some things that were not great.  In telling his story, you become aware of his prodigious talent and his strong will to succeed.

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In this episode we talk to two stalwarts of Abergavenny Cricket Club, Paul Sussex and Ryland Wallace, both of whom were significant players in the 1995 season.  This was the season they secured the services of a young Indian cricketer by the name of Aashish Kapoor.who between committing himself to come to the town that is the gateway to Wales and arriving in Abergavenny made his test debut for India.

Paul and Ryland talk about the 1995 season,  Aashish's impact on the club and his record breaking innings of 300 against Swansea during that Summer.

Here below are some extracts from the club's official history of the 1995 season:

Abergavenny for the 1995 Season secured the signing of Aashish Kapoor of India as Club professional.
Born: 25 March 1971, Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu
Major Teams: Punjab, Tamil Nadu, India, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh.

Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style: Right Arm Off Break

Test Debut:India v West Indies at Mohali, 3rd Test, 1994/95
Latest Test:India v South Africa at Kanpur, 3rd Test, 1996/97
ODI Debut:India v Australia at Dunedin, NZ Centenary Tournament,
1994/95Latest ODI:India v Zimbabwe at Rajkot, 5th ODI, 2000/01

Abergavenny 375-6 A.Kapoor (300) M.Coles (31) Swansea 189-8 M.James 2-23,R.Beaumont 3-2

Abergavenny were the victorious Macey Shield Winners after defeating Newport at Llanarth in the Final. Abergavenny batted first and put on 68 for the first wicket in just 9 overs. M.Morris (24) was the first to go but Kapoor went on to a great fifty well supported by Mike Powell who finished on (43*) as Abergavenny scored 158-5. The strong Newport side made a very useful bid for victory, but excellent bowling and good catching and fielding made it difficult for them to sustain the run rate and they finished on 140-6 Kapoor taking 3 wickets and a catch to go with his fifty to easily win the Man of the
Match award.

Paul and Ryland give colour to these basic statistics mentioning Aashish's stylish batting and accomplished spin bowling as well as his all round professionalism and approach to playing the game.  Although Aashish was clearly a crucial element of their success that season Paul and Ryland talk about the rest of the team that contributed to the succesful year as well as mentioning two young Abergavenny cricketers who were to go on and have first class careers with Glamorgan, Mike Powell and Ryland's son and the current director of cricket at Glamorgan CCC, Mark Wallace.

As well as Aashish's record breaking efforts with the bat, the county game supplied another world record performance.  Andrew Symonds, playing for Gloucestershire, hit a mammoth 16 sixes in his innings of 254 in the first innings against Glamorgan.  He followed that up with 4 more sixes in his second innings making a grand total of 20 in the match, another record.  David Hemp scored a career best 157 and Mathew Maynard 164 in a match that saw over 1500 runs being scored.

Paul and Ryland reflect on their time with the club and the enjoyment it has given them.  they also talk about the importance a club's history is to its present and its future.

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Alun Rhys Chivers interviews Nick Webb, @BBCSportWales rugby/cricket broadcaster/writer and Edward Bevan,  distinguished journalist and broadcaster who has been the voice of Welsh Cricket on the BBC for four decades.

They talk about their early experiences of seeing cricket and the commentators that they have admired over the years.

They also talk about the mishaps that inevitably occur during commentary and share some of their tips on delivering good commentary.

Nick and Ed have been the eyes of the Glamorgan faithful during their time, bringing commentary on games to supporters all over Wales.  As proud Welshmen they also celebrated as much as supporters at Trent Bridge when the Glamorgan Team won the Royal London Cup during the Summer of 2021.

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The podcast review of the Year was an opportunity for us to invite back some previous guests to talk about their contributions to the pod and to listen and comment on some of the other highlights.

Our guests were Mike Knight of Newport Cricket Club who, with brother Dave, was awarded a BEM at the 2021 New Years Honours List.  He came onto the pod in February and gave an enthralling interview about the history of the Rodney Parade ground.

Professor Richard Thomas of Swansea University had his book ‘Cricketing Lives:  A Characterful History from Pitch to Page’ published by Reaktion Books in May.  He talked to us about why he wrote the book and gave us a whistle-stop tour through the history of the game citing the greatest of names along the way including WG Grace,  Len Hutton, Wally Hammond, Ian Botham and Ben Stokes as well as sketching out the importance of the women’s game and a brief history of the Ashes.

Chris Peregrine is a journalist who works for the Swansea Evening Post.  As a member of Clwb Criced Bronwydd he contributed to a lovely episode all about the club as well as putting us in touch with people who could talk with some authority about the Swansea Mid-Week Leagues.

Along with Stephen Hedges and Jan Gray from the podcast the panel discussed the following clips:

Lord Peter Hain, anti-apartheid campaigner and local MP talked about the game held in 1995 between local club Ynysygerwn and the first ever all black club side to tour the UK from Soweto South Africa.  His reflections were captured along with those of Ynys player Huw Jenkins and Soweto cricketer Gordon Templeton.

Mike Knight talking about the 1939 County Championship match between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire in which Wally Hammond scored an incredible triple century.

Richard Thomas talks about that long standing sporting rivalry, the Ashes.  If you are interested in buying Richard’s book, go here:

http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143713

Mike Llewellyn, interviewed for our series of episodes entitled ‘Where Are They Know’, told a string of amusing stories.  This one was one that didn’t make the original programme all about county player Albert Wright.

We interviewed members of the Conwy Ladies Cricket Team.  Here, Emma Leighton – Jones and Llinos Hill talk about the importance of role models and the impact of ECB initiatives the All Stars and Dynamo Programmes.

On our visit to Clwb Criced Bronwydd we met long standing member Arwen Thomas who tells us about the time that cricket gives for a little bit of repartee.

We finish the review with a clip from our interview with Ken Lewis, 92 years old and the oldest surviving Glamorgan professional.  His words are accompanied by the Soweto Gospel Choir who allowed us to use their music for the episode all about Ynysygerwn and Soweto.  To find out a little more about them and their music go here:

https://www.sowetogospelchoir.com/

Thank you to all our guests in 2021.  Here’s to an enjoyable cricketing year in 2022 when, hopefully, we will have a full programme of cricket and some more great stories to bring you.

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In this episode we talk to Glamorgan and England cricket supporter Fred Raffle.  He decided to follow Glamorgan at boarding school as another boy suggested he do so.  Not only did he go on to follow his favourite county to all the major county grounds as well as some of the out grounds, he has also followed the England cricket team on over 30 foreign tours.

Such devotion and commitment would be surprising enough but when you learn that Fred has been blind since birth, his exploits demonstrate a strong willed and confident man whose love of the game of cricket has found him many friends and given him some wonderful experiences.

Fred talks openly about his early childhood when the extent of his sight problems were finally diagnosed.  His quiet determination and intelligence won him a scholarship to a school for blind and partially sighted boys in Worcester.  There, his love of cricket flourished and, along with all the other boys, he adopted a first class county to follow.  He chose Glamorgan by accident, the suggestion coming from another boy at the school.  He talks about his boyhood hero Don Shepherd and his developing love of the game.

After succesful careers in teaching he bumped into the Glamorgan team again, almost by accident and met Don who was accompanying the team as part of the BBC commentary team.  From here, Fred's zeal for following the Daffodil County grew.  He was also introduced to foreign travel watching the England cricket team.  He explains how this came about as well as the time he spent in the commentary box with both the TMS Team and the Sky Broadcasting team.

Now in his 80s,  Fred looks back at the amazing experiences he has had and gives thanks to those that have welcomed him along the way.  He has nothing but praise for the game of cricket and all the experiences it has given him.

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Rick was a previous guest of the podcast back in April.  Since speaking to us last he has managed to self publish a book about his thoughts on cricket, sport and life.  This time, as well as recording the launch event for his book we were able to record an interview with him about the book and its contents.

The podcast begins with a brief telephone conversation the day after Rick visited Lords to receive a community coaching award from the national cricketing charity Chance to shine.  You can watch a video which formed part of the awards evening featuring Rick here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVhY1j7fCDk

To learn more about Chance to Shine why not check out their website here:

https://www.chancetoshine.org/

Rick outlines why he titled the book in the way he did and talks about his philosophy of coaching.  He reads a couple of excerpts from the book and we also hear a couple of contributions from people who were present at the launch event.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book you can contact Rick via Twitter (@cricketmanwales) or go  to this link :

https://www.amazon.com/Dots-Will-Not-Joined-Football/dp/1839757922

Rick is a prolific 'blogist' (his preferred description).  You can read more from him on the two platforms he uses:

cricketmanwales.com and bowling@vincent.com