By the time Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on 2 June, 1953 Wilf Wooller and his team looked as if they were set to crown the year by making another sustained bid for the Championship title. The fact that the Welsh county were already riding high in the table came as no surprise to Wooller who had claimed in a pre-season interview that his unchanged squad of players for 1953 were as good, if not stronger than in 1948 – a bold claim and largely based around the return to full fitness of Jim McConnon.
The Glamorgan team had spent Coronation Day returning from Bramall Lane having drawn with the powerful Yorkshire side to preserve their unbeaten record following a thrilling one-run victory in the opening encounter with Worcestershire at Swansea. It remains one of the narrowest-ever recorded by the Welsh county with the only other victory by the slenderest margin of runs coming against Essex at the same ground during the Championship-winning summer of 1969.
The nail-biting outcome followed a sporting declaration by Wooller who left the visitors 194 in 145 minutes and after just an hour’s play, his plan seemed to have misfired as Worcestershire galloped to 83-2 with Don Kenyon leading the way with a quickfire fifty.
But Don Shepherd re-arranged Kenyon’s stumps, and with wickets continuing to tumble at regular intervals, the Worcestershire run-chase lost momentum and stalled. Half-an-hour was remaining when their eighth batsman departed and, with 55 runs still needed, it now appeared to be a case of whether or not their batters could hold out for a draw. After putting up the shutters against the seamers, Wooller brought on his spinners in a bid to buy a vital wicket.
But the Worcestershire tailenders responded by launching a furious assault on McConnon, striking 31 in three overs. Some in the enraptured crowd wondered if Wooller had made the wrong call, but just as the visiting batsman tried to finish the game in the grand manner he was well caught by Gilbert Parkhouse on the boundary’s edge. Wooller duly brought Shepherd back into the attack and the seamer justified his captain’s faith by bowling Hugo Yarnold with the fourth ball of the final hour, with an audible sigh of relief around the amphitheatre-like Swansea ground being followed by a huge cheer as Wooller proudly led his team off the field to a standing ovation from their supporters.
Wooller followed this with an eleven-wicket match haul in the innings victory over Kent on a green-tinged wicket at the Arms Park whilst the start of June saw McConnon emulate his feat in the victory over Essex at Llanelli where Allan Watkins also completed a flawless hundred. The month ended with an eight-wicket victory, and their first-ever, against Yorkshire at the Arms Park, with Wooller starring with both bat and ball. First, he oversaw a collapse by the Tykes as they lost their last six wickets for 28 runs after Glamorgan had taken the new ball. He then showed the obdurate side of his character, taking 90 in four hours to grind out a 59-run lead for his team. By the time the visitors batted for a second time, the ball was starting to turn and McConnon claimed 7/40 as Yorkshire were bundled out for 99 before Willie Jones saw the Welsh county to their modest target.
The scribes in Fleet Street who had regarded Wooller’s words as another brash outburst from a man who seemed to revel in a war of words with the Establishment were forced to change their tack and by July some of the national correspondents were turning up to watch the Welsh county and assess their credentials in the title race. But after 3 July and a 37-run victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, Wilf’s team only recorded one further victory, against Warwickshire at Ebbw Vale and fell away in the title race to end up in tenth spot.
Their slide down the table came at a time when a series of injuries took their toll. Wooller missed several injuries as a result of straining leg tendons, whilst Watkins and Muncer suffered knee and groin strains respectively. However, Wooller and Watkins were fit for the visit of the 1953 Australians to Swansea a week before their deciding Test with England at The Oval. After Watkins had completed a high-class innings of 76, the second day saw another masterclass from left-hander, Neil Harvey, who struck a superb 180 before being caught by Parkhouse off the spin bowling of Willie Jones. McConnon also weighed in with seven wickets to press further his claims for an England cap before Glamorgan batted throughout the day to save the game, with the indomitable Wooller saving the game with an unbeaten 71.
The summer of 1953 also saw Glamorgan take first-class cricket to the newly-completed sports complex at Margam which was owned by the Steel Company of Wales. The motives behind taking the match with the Gentlemen of Ireland were linked to a potentially lucrative sponsorship agreement with the Company which would help to offset rising costs. With the Club’s total expenditure now exceeding £25,000 and the long-standing link between the Byass family, who owned the Margam Abbey works, and Glamorgan CCC. The Welsh county’s officials were delighted when a deal was struck, but their mood soon changed as the wicket, enlivened by rain throughout the scheduled first day, proved treacherous with the highest individual score on either side being a mere 22. With the wind also blowing steam and smoke at intervals across the ground, it was one of the most surreal locations where county cricket has been staged.