Cyril Smart

Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.

Cyril Smart played for Glamorgan between 1927 and 1946, during which time he was famed as one of the biggest hitting batters in county cricket.

One of his explosive innings was against Hampshire at the Arms Park during 1935 when he created a world record by hitting Gerry Hill for 32 in an over. Cyril went 6, 6, 4, 6, 6 and 4, each from authentic strokes, cleanly hit in an arc from straight to deep square leg, with his second four just inches short of crossing the boundary for a fifth six.

Earlier in the season, Cyril had also made an unbeaten 114 against the touring South Africans, and shared a partnership of 131 with debutant Wilf Hughes which not only created a club record for the tenth wicket, but also helped to save Glamorgan from defeat. Near the end of the game, Smart celebrated his hundred by lofting a ball out of the Arms Park, and straight through a plate glass window in the foyer of a hotel in the adjoining Westgate Street.

What is less well-known is that in 1934 – a year before his record-breaking feats against Hampshire and the 1935 South Africans – Cyril had already achieved another unique feat by hitting six sixes in an over during one of the county’s Club and Ground matches. The match in question was at Margam Park on 19 July 1934 when a strong Glamorgan Club and Ground side played Andrew Mansel Talbot Fletcher’s XI in the grounds of the latter’s home. It saw Glamorgan, batting first, racing to 332-6 before declaring and then dismissing Captain Talbot Fletcher’s team for 146.

There was a match report, plus a brief set of scores published in the South Wales Daily Post on 20 July with their correspondent ‘Extra Cover’ describing in plenty of detail how Emrys Davies made 121 and Dick Duckfield 125. But the account by ’Extra Cover’ of Smart’s innings, which lasted only ten minutes, focusses on the fact that he hit three balls out of the ground during his innings of 48, and there is no mention whatsoever about hitting six sixes in an over.A precis of the account by ‘Extra Cover’ also appeared the same morning in the “The Western Mail” but merely said “the biggest hits were made by Smart who rattled up 48 in about ten minutes and hit three sixes.”

Written evidence of Smart’s six-hitting feat only emerged 41 years later, and then in his obituary notice in the Neath Guardian for 30 May 1975. It refers correctly to the feat taking place in a minor county match – as opposed to a Minor County game – and included an interview with Stan Trick, who, as a seventeen year-old in 1934, had been chosen in Captain Talbot Fletcher’s team and who was the bowler on the receiving end of Smart’s aggression.

The spinner duly recalled “before I began to bowl, Cyril asked me to pitch them well up outside the off stick which was good advice for a left-arm bowler and, of course, I did it. What happened then was that he immediately proceeded to hit me for six sixes over my head, all in the same over. So I learned my lesson early on. In any case, I still say that it was good advice!”

Cyril had initially played for Warwickshire from 1920 until 1922, before joining Briton Ferry Town CC as their professional and qualifying for Glamorgan. He had made his debut for the Welsh county during 1927, and played his final game in 1946, before retiring after taking a well-deserved Benefit. Cyril then ran the Railway Inn in Abertillery until 1951 before becoming the groundsman and coach to the town’s cricket club.