Review of the Season – 1977

After the sorry summer of 1976 even a Hollywood scriptwriter could not have anticipated what took place the following summer as Glamorgan turned the form guide completely upside down by making their first-ever appearance in a one-day final at Lord’s. It was even more remarkable considering that the Club had made, little if any, impact in limited-overs cricket, having only twice reached the quarter-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup, had progressed little further in the Gillette Cup, and had a best finishing position of tenth in the Sunday League. Yet, September 1977 saw the Welsh county to part for the in county cricket’s showpiece event as St. John’s Wood resembled Twickenham on the day of an England-Wales rugby international.

The omens did not look good before the season started as Tony Allin, after the summer of discontent, opted to remain on his family’s dairy farm in North Devon, whilst Geoff Ellis turned down the offer of a one-year contract. John Solanky and Lawrence Williams also left the Club, together with the enigmatic Greg Armstrong as the Glamorgan committee sought a replacement. The names of South Africans Peter Kirsten and Allan Lamb were put forward, but with John Hopkins, Gwyn Richards, Arthur Francis and Alan Lewis Jones all making headway as batters, the preference was for a bowling all-rounder.

Once again, Bill Edwards’ West Indian contacts were used to hire Collis King from Barbados, whilst South African-born all-rounder Rodney Ontong had completed his registration period and was classed as English-qualified. There was also a need for another experienced bowler, especially in the one-day format so Tom Cartwright, the vastly experienced former England all-rounder joined from Somerset.

With a stronger and more experienced squad Glamorgan made a decent start to the new season, drawing their first two Championship games and having the batter of a third draw against the Australians. However, the tourists had other things on their minds when they visited Swansea in mid-May. Although the Test series was still over a month away, events on the international stage and the plans by Kerry Packer, an Australian business mogul, to form a breakaway professional cricket competition were at the forefront of the player’s minds. During the winter, a covert operation by Packer, in consultation with recently-retired Test captain Ian Chappell had seen him acquire the services of the leading Australian and English cricketers, plus other international stars for a series of matches, including floodlit matches, run in direct opposition to the established and officially sanctioned international games.

Australian journalists broke the story the week before the match with Glamorgan and, with bad weather washing out the first day’s play, Majid Khan’s name was on the front page of the local newspapers again with speculation about other well-known Test players joining the Pakistani on what was being dubbed the “Packer circus”. Fortunately, the rest of the game saw better weather, allowing the writers to focus on events out in the middle and a spirted attempt by the two captains Alan Jones and Doug Walters, to breathe life into the contest. Each made sporting declarations and Alan’s endeavours on the final afternoon was nearly rewarded as he set the tourists the target of scoring 184 in 100 minutes. Malcolm Nash took 5/24 in a fine opening salvo, and it was left to the seventh wicket pairing of Kerry O’Keefe and Ray Bright to save the game and spare the tourists blushes.

There was a decent start as well on the one-day front with three wins in four Sunday games with Nash again playing a leading role. A frugal bowling spell by the left-armer, plus an assertive half-century by Mike Llewellyn saw Glamorgan to a three-wicket victory at Bristol, whilst at Swansea there was a repeat of the finish to the closing match of the previous summer, as Nash made a brilliant stop on the boundary’s edge to run out Rohan Kanhai just as the Warwickshire batsman looked like completing a second run to tie the game. A more comfortable win against the same opponents at Edgbaston also helped Glamorgan top their group in the Benson and Hedges Cup and secure a quarter-final contest against Hampshire.

Although they lost the game with the South Coast team, Glamorgan had gelled into a more competitive one-day unit, and despite the long odds offered by the bookmakers in the Gillette Cup, there were many in the Welsh camp who believed the Club would have a decent run in the 60-overs competition. And so it proved, after Glamorgan progressed to the second round, courtesy of a first-round bye and a game at New Road where the previous week they had won the Championship contest by eight wickets after a monumental 230 with John Hopkins, the Maesteg-born opening batter winning his county cap mid-way through his six and three-quarter hour innings.

It was Arthur Francis, another of the emerging homegrown batsmen, who took centre-stage in the one-day game as he made an unbeaten 62 as Glamorgan successfully chased a target of 214 to win by five wickets and complete their first win the competition since 1972. Their reward was a home quarter-final against Surrey at Sophia Gardens and when the visitors reached fifty without loss, it looked like the Glamorgan bubble had burst. But John Edrich damaged a calf muscle and needed the assistance of a runner, before left-after Alan Wilkins – who was in his first year on the full-time staff – kept the visitors in check during a probing spell. With Glamorgan chasing a target of 200, Surrey regained the initiative by swiftly removing Hopkins and Francis, but a century stand between Alan Jones and Collis King, plus some lusty blows by Llewellyn saw Glamorgan home and a semi-final against Leicestershire at St. Helen’s in mid-August.

Click here to read more about the match against Leicestershire

Alan Jones and his squad had to wait for several days for confirmation of their opponents, in the Final at Lord’s as the other semi-final – between Middlesex and Somerset at Lord`s- was completely washed out and, in this era before bowl-outs, had to be re-arranged. After further delays and bad weather, Middlesex duly won as sports fans from throughout the Principality started to plan their pilgrimage to Lord’s hoping to witness the start of a new chapter in the history of Welsh cricket.

With a buoyant mood in the camp, the team showed that the victory over Leicestershire had not been a fluke and after a gallant batting display in the Sunday match against Essex, staged at Aberystwyth as part of the town’s 900th anniversary celebrations, the Welsh county went through August without a defeat in either the 40-over competition or the Championship. Nottinghamshire and Lancashire were comfortably defeated in the Sunday League with Middlesex also subsiding to a 35-run defeat in the limited-overs game at Sophia Gardens with the home attack once again taking the honours.

Everything seemed to be going in Glamorgan’s favour, but the afternoon before the journey up to London for the great day, Glamorgan were beaten by Gloucestershire in the County Championship match at Cardiff. Heavy rain also fell over the London conurbation the night before the final, and there was still a little bit of dampness in the air as the players practised in the nets at the Nursery End.

Click here to read more about the Gillette Cup Final of 1977.