Glamorgan’s slide down the table continued in 1950 with the Welsh county ending up in 11th place. In their defence, they were hampered by bad weather with many games being rain-affected and nine out of the 28 Championship matches failing even to produce a decision on first innings.
Six Championship matches were won with the finest coming at the Arms Park in early July where the rains stayed away for long enough to allow Glamorgan to complete their first-ever Championship victory against Middlesex. With Wilf Wooller sidelined with broken bones in his right-hand, Emrys Davies took the reins and skilfully guided the team to an 86-run victory, thanks to a fine all-round performance from Allan Watkins who made an unbeaten 98 besides taking four wickets in Middlesex’s first innings. Don Shepherd, the young fast bowler from the Gower, also took 5/74 before Glamorgan extended their lead and then set Middlesex a target of 252 in three hours. Their chase faltered against the acting captain’s nagging bowling with the final wicket falling just four minutes before the close.
1950 also saw Gilbert Parkhouse win the first of seven Test caps for England having moved up the batting order from number three to become Emrys Davies’ new opening partner. Their pairing soon became a prolific one with the pair of West Walians sharing two double-century stands at St. Helen’s, adding 241 against Somerset as well as 233 against Surrey. In all, Gilbert struck seven hundreds during 1950, including hundreds in each innings against Somerset at the Arms Park. The 24 year-old followed this with another hundred against the Combined Services at Cardiff to become only the second batsman in the Club’s history to score three successive hundreds, and by 17 June he had reached 1,000 runs in the shortest-ever time in the Club’s annals.
His record-breaking feats came during the match against Surrey on a typically slow and sandy wicket at St. Helen’s where he mastered the wiles of the visiting spin twins, Tony Lock and Jim Laker as he made a majestic 161 out of Glamorgan’s impressive total of 448. His effortless strokes won rich praise from those watching in the Press Box high up on the Swansea pavilion with the Western Mail’s correspondent writing “tall, upstanding, willowy, with keen eyes and steely wrists, he has much in common with the great Indian cricketer, directing the ball with gentle timing and with strokes which are always correct.”
The following week, Gilbert was chosen in England’s squad for the second Test Match against the West Indies at Lord’s It proved to be an inauspicious debut as he was bowled for nought in his first innings at international level, before making 48 in the second innings of a game which saw the men from the Caribbean gain their first Test victory at Lord’s. His abilities against spin bowling saw Gilbert retain his place for the Third Test at Trent Bridge where he made 13 and 69 as Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine bowled the West Indies to another comfortable victory, much to the delight of former Glamorgan legend Jack Mercer – now attached to Northamptonshire – who had coached the young Valentine in Jamaica and had played a major hand in his rise into the West Indian team.
In between these appearances for England, Gilbert continued his rich vein of form with Glamorgan, adding 204 for the first wicket against Gloucestershire at Llanelli as the Welsh county piled up 405. Like so many of their games during 1950, rain interrupted the visitors reply and although being forced to follow-on, Glamorgan did not have enough time to press home their advantage as the game ended in a draw. A leg strain plus a heavy cold saw Gilbert withdraw from the last of the four-match Test series at The Oval, but his seasonal tally of 1,742 runs saw the phlegmatic batter win a place on the MCC winter tour to Australia and New Zealand. It was though a difficult tour as he struggled with injury and illness, amidst rumours of a difference of opinion with senior figures in the England camp.