1955 was a rhum old summer for both Glamorgan County Cricket Club as well as Jim McConnon. The Club, after the heady heights towards the top of the table in 1954, plummeted from fourth spot to last but one with their squad yet again racked by injury. McConnon was one of these to spend time on the sidelines after recovering from being injured on tour with England only to break a bone in his left-hand whilst falling heavily in the field during the match against Essex at Pontypridd. Given his medical record, the Glamorgan hierarchy insisted that he underwent a medical before agreeing to a new contract for 1956. But the off-spinner, who had wafer-thin confidence after six months of misfortune, misconstrued their intentions and wondered if county cricket could guarantee a secure existence. As a result, he accepted a business deal in Lancashire and agreed to play as a professional for Burnley the following summer.
July 1955 also saw Glamorgan lose narrowly by one wicket in their match with Middlesex at the Arms Park, with the proceedings ahead of the third day confirming Wilf Wooller’s stubborn and never-say-die attitude. At the end of an eventful second day, the scores were level with Middlesex’s last pair, Jack Young and Alan Moss, at the crease. When the players arrived the following morning there was a despondent air in the dressing room with the Club on the verge of their fifth successive defeat. Keen to end the losing streak and lift morale, Wilf viewed the situation differently, believing that his bowlers were just one ball away from a tie. For almost an hour before play, he had his seamers bowling flat out in the nets, aiming at just one stump. His intentions were good, but perhaps he had tried too hard as, when play began in front of 500 spectators who had been admitted free of charge – an exhausted Allan Watkins bowled three innocuous deliveries followed by a gentle full toss which was despatched to the boundary for the winning runs. With play lasting for just 52 seconds, it remains the shortest day’s play on record for the Club!
1955 was a landmark one for Jim Pleass as during a quite remarkable match at Harrogate the Cardiff-born batsman guided Glamorgan to their first ever victory on Yorkshire soil. What made their win even more creditable was that Glamorgan were without Wilf Wooller, and had arrived in Yorkshire on the back of consecutive defeats to Hampshire and Leicestershire.
Click here to read more about this remarkable match.
Opposite – Jim Pleass. Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.
The penultimate game of the season, against Leicestershire at the Arms Park, witnessed the debut of Tony Lewis – a man destined to feature prominently in the affairs of the Club during the 1960s and early 1970s. Back in 1955 he was a multi-talented schoolboy who turned down opportunities with National Youth Orchestra in order to make his first appearance for Glamorgan. It proved to be an inauspicious debut as Tony was dismissed first ball by Jack Walsh, the wily Australian spinner. But Wilf had spotted the latent talent in the youngster and after made his way back to the pavilion, Wilf said “Mark down every Leicestershire name out there Tony. Catch up with the bastards one day and make them pay!”
Tony kept his place for the next, and final game of the summer against Warwickshire on his home patch at The Gnoll. At lunch on the opening day, Wilf guided the schoolboy to the lunch table reserved for the captains, the amateurs and the committeemen, saying to him “Come on Tony, you’d better get used to the committee table. You’ll be dealing a lot with the when you are captain!” The words half-washed over Tony, who could not quite believe that here he was, in only his second game, amongst his sporting idols and he was already being lined up for the captaincy. As Tony later wrote, “knowing Wilf, as I did in the end, I realised that he was making no prophesy, no show of comfort as a young lad tripped along to the amateurs’ table. He knew I would be captain one day because he had decided. As simple as that!”