Wilf Wooller and his team had ruffled quite a few feathers by winning the 1948 County Championship, and with more than a little bit of envy and bruised pride, several English captains went out of their way during the summer of 1949 to ensure that there was no repetition of events from the previous twelve months. As County Champions, Glamorgan were given few favours and were now expected to bowl teams out twice rather than being party to sporting declarations. A few captains had also been involved in a few verbal spats with Wooller who was never afraid to pass on advice or make a few unerring comments from his position in the leg-trap. In modern parlance, 1949 was payback time as Glamorgan ended up in 8th place.
But there were other reasons behind the Welsh county’s slide down the table. From a batting point of view, Emrys Davies had a relatively moderate summer, whilst Willie Jones sustained an injury whilst fielding at Gravesend in June and missed much of the season. In the bowling department, Stan Trick was unavailable for games at Swansea whilst Len Muncer, despite topping the hundred mark again, was less venomous on turning wickets.
Consequently, there were several new faces in the Glamorgan side, with the game against Nottinghamshire at Cardiff seeing the debut of Jim Pressdee, a right-hand batsman and slow left-arm bowler from the Mumbles where his family ran a thriving bakery business. At 16 years and 59 days he became the Club’s youngest player in post-war cricket – and the second youngest overall in first-class cricket.
Another new face was Stan Montgomery, the 29 year-old footballer with Cardiff City who had previously been on Essex’s staff. He enjoyed a sparkling debut for the Welsh county against Derbyshire at the Arms Park where he initially helped Haydn Davies to mount a recovery in Glamorgan’s first innings after they had slumped to 38-8 before being promoted up the order in the second innings and helping Glamorgan win by six wickets as they successfully chased a target of 245 on the final day. His good run of form continued in the following match at Bournemouth as he posted a maiden Championship hundred and shared a record stand of 264 for the fifth wicket with Maurice Robinson.
1949 was also a memorable year for Phil Clift with the Usk-born batter passing a thousand runs for the first time in his career. He made a superb 125 as Glamorgan defeated Derbyshire by six wickets at the Arms Park, but Phil’s finest innings that summer came at Ebbw Vale after Essex’s captain Tom Pearce set Glamorgan a stiff target of 177 in just 105 minutes. As he headed back to the pavilion, the visiting leader said to Wilf “Now let’s see what your fast-scoring batsmen can do!”
Phil responded by swatting Trevor Bailey, the England all-rounder for a massive six in the opening over, before striking a further fourteen boundaries with a sparkling innings of 101 as Glamorgan galloped to their target for the loss of just one wicket, and all in the space of just 79 minutes. With the ball having been dispatched to all parts of the Welfare Ground, the Essex team were rather shell-shocked as they trooped up the steps to the small pavilion and shook hands with the delighted Glamorgan side. As Tom shook hands with a jubilant Wilf, the home captain loudly said “Well Tom, my batsmen are pretty bloody quick when they try, aren’t they!”