February 1921 saw various MCC committee’s rubber-stamp Glamorgan’s application for first-class status after Tom Whittington had successfully secured home and away fixtures with nine of the other English team. 18 May 1921 duly became the moment so many cricket-lovers and sports fans across Wales had waited for as Norman Riches – the Cardiff dentist and stalwart from the Minor County days proudly led out the side from the pavilion at Cardiff Arms Park for their inaugural County Championship match, against Sussex. To Norman’s delight, and all of those connected with the Club, the Welsh county marked their debut with a victory, with celebrations going on long into the night with plenty of toasts to those who had made it possible.
But there was little to cheer about over the course of the next ten years. Professionals came and went with little effect, a host of amateurs were given a go, but defeat followed defeat with Glamorgan more often than not, languishing in the lower echelons of the Championship table. As the Club’s debts and ridicule over their efforts both mounted, Glamorgan’s administrators could have been forgiven for withdrawing from the Championship and returning to the Minor County ranks.
But the enthusiastic officials remained optimistic that things would improve, and change they duly did during the 1930s, thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of Maurice Turnbull and Johnnie Clay. Fittingly, it was Johnnie who claimed the final wicket as Glamorgan beat Hampshire at Bournemouth to win the County Championship title for the first-ever time in 1948. Click on the links below to read more about these so-called Glory Years when the Welsh county have won silverware:
2024