Glamorgan continued to yo-yo up and down the Championship table as they ended the 1927 season back in the lower echelons. Whilst only eight games were lost, compared with nine the season before, only one victory was recorded, and that right at the end of a summer which also saw a considerable amount of time being lost to the weather. August was an especially damp month with two games – against Northamptonshire at Pontypridd and Lancashire at Blackpool – being washed out completely without a single ball being bowled. The loss of the game at Ynysangharad Park was especially frustrating for all concerned with the Pontypridd club, especially as the good attendances at previous games had seen the Glamorgan officials award an “extra” match to them.
Besides the poor weather, there were other factors behind Glamorgan’s slid back down the table with, once again, failings in the batting department. John Bell, after his annus mirabilis in 1926, amassed just 733 runs compared with 1547 the year before.
Glamorgan were frequently without their young batting tyros as Maurice Turnbull – now an undergraduate at Cambridge – was nursing a knee injury whilst Cyril Walters appeared in the opening batch of games, before announcing that he was retiring from county cricket in order to concentrate on his career as an architect and surveyor.
Walters briefly re-appeared the following season before dropping the bombshell that he was joining Worcestershire as their secretary. The loss of the gifted young amateur was not fully appreciated until the 1930`s, during which Walters hit a career best score of 226 for Worcestershire against Kent at Gravesend in 1933. By this time, he had won the first of eleven Test caps, and also became the first Welshman to lead England in a Test Match as he was at the helm in the opening match of the 1934 Ashes series.
On the bowling front, Frank Ryan also had a relatively modest season, claiming only 71 wickets with Johnnie Clay’s business commitments causing the Club captain to miss eleven games. When available, he enjoyed a decent summer and in the match with the New Zealanders at the Arms Park, he gleefully attacked the tourists bowling for two and a half hours in making an unbeaten 115. His off-spin and leadership skills though were badly missed as other amateurs took over the reins, and his absence may have also affected Ryan who had developed a fine relationship with his fellow twirler. There was though one silver lining in the batting of Eddie Bates who amassed 1645 runs at a healthy average of 44. He began the season by hitting 105 and 111 against Essex at Leyton as he became the first Glamorgan player to score centuries in each innings of a Championship game, and later in the summer struck a maiden double-hundred against Worcestershire at Kidderminster.
He also made a vital contribution with the bat in the county’s final match of the season against Nottinghamshire at Swansea. When the two teams assembled on the morning of the game, Glamorgan were still seeking their first Championship win of the summer, whilst their opponents had the county title virtually in their grasp. All that Nottinghamshire needed to clinch the Championship was to secure a draw, and given the Welsh county’s poor form, plans had already been set in motion for the Nottinghamshire players to return home for a civic reception to celebrate their title-winning season, but everything went awry as Glamorgan won the game.
All seemed to be going to plan as Nottinghamshire made 233 on the opening day, before on the second, Eddie Bates and John Bell added 158 as the Glamorgan openers found the St. Helen’s surface to their liking. There were useful contributions as well from Arnold Dyson, Joe Hills and Danny Sullivan, allowing Glamorgan to build up a useful lead of 142 runs. But with only a day to go, and the wicket appearing to be quite benign, the visitor’s knew that all they had to do to become county champions was to occupy the crease for the rest of the match. But Jack Mercer produced a fine new ball spell as Nottinghamshire ended the day on 23-2
Their plight did not improve the following morning as Mercer swiftly made further inroads, deceiving Dodger Whysall with a clever change of pace causing the batsman to spoon a ball to short-leg. Soon afterwards he bowled Wilfred Payton with an off-cutter, before yorking William Flint and bowling Lionel Kirk. At the other end, Ryan tricked and teased the visiting batsmen with his subtle spin, as seemingly every false stroke brought a wicket. The result was a steady procession of batsmen back to the Swansea pavilion, with each walking off in a state of disbelief, realising that their dream was turning into a nightmare. Indeed, there are tales of one of the Nottinghamshire tail-enders sitting on the pavilion steps with tears flooding down his cheeks as his team-mates came back at regular intervals. By 12.15pm their innings was over as Nottinghamshire were dismissed for 61, and by the time they returned crestfallen to the East Midlands, Lancashire had been declared county champions.