Clive Lloyd played a record-breaking innings for the West Indians at Swansea over the August Bank Holiday weekend in 1976 as, in the course of two hours on a balmy Monday, the tourist’s captain equalled Gilbert Jessop’s world-record for the fastest-ever double hundred in first-class cricket. During 120 minutes of cricketing mayhem, he struck 201 and all after Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards had also recorded scintillating hundreds during the morning session.
After reaching a relatively sober hundred from 79 balls, Lloyd accelerated in brutal fashion reaching his double-hundred just 45 balls later as he put to the sword the left-spin of Tony Allin, recently recruited from Devon, as well as Barry Lloyd’s off-breaks plus the seam of Rodney Ontong, Tony Cordle and Malcolm Nash. He also left viewers on BBC Wales TV unsure whether they were watching the highlights or viewing live footage, such was the frequency of balls being struck to, or over, the boundary ropes by the powerful left-hander. “Never before has there been such a display of brutal, yet graceful stroke-play,” was the verdict of Ron Griffiths, the long-serving correspondent of the Swansea Evening Post sat in the small but homely press-box situated at the top of the enclosures at the Pavilion End as the tourists rattled up 554-4 in just 83.3 overs before declaring.
It also became a memorable game, for Caerphilly-born batsman Tyrone Powell, though not in the way he would have wished on his first-class debut for the Welsh county. After being dismissed by the fearsome pace of Wayne Daniel from the third ball he faced in the first innings, he was laid low by a stomach upset and dropped down to number eight in the second innings. But he was bowled tenth ball by Holding, yet again without having scored a run on what proved to be his one and only 1st XI appearance.
The match against the West Indians was also Majid’s last first-class appearance for Glamorgan as he departed the Club a few days later after a series of contretemps behind the scenes, with dark mutterings about dressing room strife plus a rift between the players and the committee. The summer had not begun well with the Club’s deficit rising above £10,000 with falling gate receipts as well as heavy Championship defeats against Somerset, Lancashire and Northants. An economy sub-committee was duly formed and recommended reductions in expenditure by cuts in administration and playing staff. With team morale at an all-time low, the latter ignited a series of blazing rows after the Club, following advice on labour relations from the TCCB, had sent letters at the end of June to six players whose “quality and standard of play” the club’s officials were concerned about.
Few eyebrows were raised when it was revealed that three of the six were fringe players – seam bowler Rupert Hill from Newport, reserve wicket-keeper Kim Davies, and batsman Tyrone Powell – but it came as a huge surprise to players and supporters alike when the other three were named as Roger Davis, Lawrence Williams and Len Hill. With few senior players around to give wise council, the letters to these three intensified the feelings of a remoteness between the players and committee. It was the first bad patch Davis had encountered and a few days after receiving the letter he resigned in protest. Hill followed suit shortly afterwards having been axed at short notice for the away match with Bournemouth.
Soon afterwards John Thomson, a member from Cardiff, began a protest campaign which attempted, via an EGM, to oust the committee and Secretary Wilf Wooller. Nothing came of his plans but as the losing sequence continued, there was speculation about other departures, as well as growing criticism of Majid’s style of captaincy. The young Muslim was a highly likeable fellow, but had become increasingly isolated from the team. As Tony Lewis later wrote “as criticism heaped up and the disloyality both of the players and of the Glamorgan administration could be heard paraded on all home grounds, Majid returned to his introverted self. On the field, he thrust his hands deeply into his pockets, used his upturned shirt collar as blinkers and carried on as best he could.”
Anger reached a crescendo in the committee room after Glamorgan’s four-wicket defeat at Edgbaston after they had posted what seemed to be an unassailable total of 283-3. The tensions which had been simmering over the past few months came to boiling point as heated exchanges also took place between captain and secretary over tactics in one-day cricket and team selection. Majid also attended a feisty meeting of the cricket committee where the Pakistani’s style of captaincy was openly questioned. Sadly, what should have remained behind closed doors became splashed over the local newspapers, with the journalists revelling in the fact that those who had crowned Majid in 1969 were now ready to crucify.
Majid was a very proud man and, having initially agreed to continue playing to the end of the summer, he asked in mid-August to be omitted from the side which travelled to play Somerset at Weston-super-Mare before quitting the Club amidst deep private sadness and plenty of newspaper coverage. His departure though could not prevent Glamorgan to sliding further down the table, and despite a thrilling victory over Sussex at Sophia Gardens set up by haul of 8/63 by Tony Allin, Glamorgan ended up for the first time since 1929 at the bottom of the county table.
It was a sorry season as well in one-day cricket with Glamorgan ending in 16th place in the Sunday League table, and when Somerset travelled to Cardiff for the final match of the Sunday League season and on the verge of their first piece of silverware, it looked a formality that they would secure the win to give them the title. It also looked as if another embarrassing episode was about to happen on the morning of the game as the Glamorgan stewards and gatemen arrived at Sophia Gardens to find the ground already almost full of Somerset supporters, with the gates having been opened several hours earlier by officials from Cardiff Athletic Club who were holding a rugby trial, only for coach after coach to arrive from the West Country.
Events on the field however, soon gave Glamorgan more to smile about as during the early overs Brian Close, the stalwart Somerset skipper, dropped Alan Jones at square-leg. It proved a costly miss as the acting Glamorgan captain top scored with 70, and after some hefty blows from Malcolm Nash, Glamorgan set Somerset a target of 192 in 39 overs. The visitors got off to a quite shaky start, losing Peter Denning, Ian Botham and Close himself during a final new ball salvo by Nash.
Graham Burgess and Merv Kitchen steadied the Somerset innings, but as Somerset moved closer to their target, Alan Jones brought Nash back into the attack for his final three overs. With the score on 171, he bowled Dennis Breakwell and eight runs later Derek Taylor was run out as the nerve ends started to jangle. A further eight runs had been added as Nash bowled the final over of the game, and in the mounting tension, the pressure got to the Somerset batsmen as another mix-up occurred and Keith Jennings was run out.
But Graham Burgess was still there and faced the final ball from Nash with Somerset needing three runs to tie the game and secure the Sunday League title. Burgess boldly hit the ball back over Nash`s head down to the sightscreen at the Cathedral Road end of the ground. The Somerset supporters started to cheer, believing that Burgess had hit the winning runs, but Alan Jones calmly ran in from the boundary, threw the ball back to Nash as Burgess and Colin Dredge completed their second run. They had to get a third run to win the trophy, so they set off in desperation as Nash lobbed the ball gently back to Eifion Jones, who then removed the bails with Dredge well short of his ground, and Somerset one run short of their target as Glamorgan ended a dismal summer with one of their most famous victories in one-day cricket.