Glamorgan’s match against Yorkshire at Swansea in June 1965 has gone down in the record books because the 31-run victory for the Welsh county, inside two days, saw Don Shepherd and his spin partner Jim Pressdee, each take nine wickets in an innings – the only time in the history of the game that this remarkable feat has been achieved, with Jim claiming nine in the visitors first innings before `Shep` repeated the feat during their second innings.
Aware that the St. Helen’s wicket would assist the spin bowlers later in the game, captain Ossie Wheatley had opted to bat first after winning the toss, but only Alan Rees and Euros Lewis looked comfortable against the spin of Brian Close and Ray Illingworth. It was a great credit to the two Welshmen that Glamorgan made 140, as the Yorkshire batsmen were soon in deep trouble against the left-arm spin of Jim Pressdee. Three batsmen got into the twenties, but nobody, not even the mighty Geoff Boycott, stayed for any lengthy period. The run out of Jack Hampshire halted the procession against Pressdee`s bowling, and stopped him from emulating Jack Mercer`s feat of taking ten wickets in an innings, achieved at Worcester in 1936. Even so, Pressdee quickly mopped up the tail, and ended with career-best figures of 9/43 as Glamorgan gained a valuable first innings lead of 44 runs.
When Glamorgan batted for a second time, Yorkshire opened the attack with their spinners rather than calling upon the services of fiery pace bowler Fred Trueman. It proved to be a shrewd move as Ray Illingworth and Don Wilson made short work of the Welsh county`s second innings. For the second time in the game, Euros Lewis offered doughty resistance, but wickets tumbled at the other end, as Glamorgan slumped to 93-9.
Some `old fashioned` tail end hitting by Don Shepherd and Ossie Wheatley then tipped the balance back in Glamorgan`s favour, as the pair added 28 invaluable runs to set up an intriguing finale, with Yorkshire chasing 166 to win. Yorkshire seemed to have regained the initiative as Boycott and Padgett shared a productive stand of 64 for the second wicket, but when Boycott was superbly caught by Peter Walker off Pressdee`s bowling, it heralded a remarkable collapse against Shepherd`s off-cutters.
Only Jack Hampshire, with two mighty sixes and five fours, offered anything more than token resistance against Shepherd`s clever bowling. The wily spinner took the final eight wickets in fairly quick succession, to finish off with figures of 9/48 as Glamorgan completed another remarkable victory at St. Helen`s.