After the highs and lows of their first decade in the County Championship, there was much rejoicing in Glamorgan ranks with the selection of Maurice Turnbull, their newly-appointed captain, for the MCC winter tour of Australia and New Zealand during the winter of 1929/30. On 10th January he duly became the Club’s first homegrown Test cricketer as he played in the First Test at Christchurch . Four months later, he led out the Glamorgan side at The Oval and began his illustrious career as the county’s leader, whilst on May 10th at Worcester, he and Cyril Walters went head-to-head as for the first time a pair of Welshmen were in charge in a County Championship match.
Although the first Championship win did not come until the first week of June, it was apparent to all that there was now a firm hand on the tiller. Right from the outset there was a buoyant and optimistic mood in the Glamorgan camp, as shown by the way Eddie Bates and Joe Hills posted forthright centuries against Surrey as Glamorgan posted 474 and all having only had one practice match before the start of the season and limited outdoor nets at the Arms Park.
The new collective spirit was evident soon afterwards at Worcester where Dai Davies, Trevor Every and Jack Mercer all defended stubbornly on the final day to save a game which previous Glamorgan team’s would have lost. No longer was the correspondent of the Western Mail writing “Glamorgan have seldom played as a team in the real sense. They have merely been a collection of individuals bereft of the essential team spirit.” Instead the newspapers in subsequent years paid handsome tributes to Turnbull for his deft management style, the cultivation of a togetherness plus the creation of a clear and tangible Welsh identity.
One of the secrets behind his success was his cheerfulness, allowing less confident and more complex personalities, such as Frank Ryan, to flourish. Indeed, Turnbull’s kindness even extended to rewarding Ryan with a few tenner’s especially if he was on hard times after delivering a match-winning spell of bowling. No surprise therefore that Ryan made a wonderful return to form in 1930 with 127 wickets at 21 apiece, having only claimed 68 victims during 1929.
Unlike other amateur captains, Turnbull went out his way to mix with the professionals off the field, sometimes even entertaining them at his own expense, or arranging visits to the theatre or music hall. On the field, one of Turnbull’s great strengths was his positive outlook, always reassuring and cajoling the bowlers, regardless of what the scoreboard said. He also set a fine example with bat in hand, scoring 1,520 runs, and during June, the young Glamorgan skipper hit a purple patch with six scores of fifty or more in nine innings. His sterling efforts spurred on others and, against Warwickshire, Glamorgan amassed 500, with Bell and Dai Davies each scoring hundreds, before Mercer and Ryan humbled Warwickshire for 73 to set up a comprehensive victory by 224 runs. By now, morale was high in the Glamorgan camp, and the Glamorgan captain gave them further cause for celebration in the following match against Northamptonshire, with an innings of 160 decorated with powerful cuts and elegant drives as his team eased to an in innings victory.
During August against Derbyshire, he scored 135 in even time, hitting 18 crisply struck boundaries in a display of free hitting which guided Glamorgan to a 165-run victory, before showing some more subtle captaincy skills during Glamorgan’s game against the Australians at Swansea, and in front of a large crowd, eager to see Don Bradman who was enjoying a run-laden tour.
Even though rain delayed the start until 4.30pm, they were not disappointed as after an hour’s play, the great batsman strode out to the middle after Dai Davies had dismissed Bill Ponsford. The Don played and missed at Davies’ first ball before next over nearly being bowled. But, at the end of the over Turnbull went across to Davies and Ryan and said “put your sweaters on boys, we’ve got to keep him in for a good gate on Monday.” Bradman duly feasted against some gentle bowling for the rest of the evening, and to the delight of the Glamorgan captain, there were over 25,000 people in St. Helen’s on Monday morning. Turnbull duly threw the ball to Ryan and said “Now you can have a go at him!” “Don’t worry, skipper,” replied Ryan, “I`ll get him soon.” True to his word, Ryan bowled the master batsman in his second over of the morning, and added a further five wickets to earn a huge ovation.