1979 saw Robin Hobbs, the 37 year-old former Essex and England leg-spinner who had retired from playing county cricket in 1975, appointed as Glamorgan’s new captain. He had been playing Minor County cricket with Suffolk whilst starting a new career with Barclaycard, and was signed on a three-year contract.
At the pre-season photocall and Media Day, Robin Hobbs had told journalists that he’d be disappointed if Glamorgan did not win six Championship matches. As it turned out they didn’t. In fact, they didn’t win any at all as they slipped to the bottom of the table and for the first-ever time in the Club’s history went without a victory in Championship cricket.
Opposite – Robin Hobbs. Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.
They came close against Gloucestershire in early July at Cardiff having set the visitors a target of 324 on the final day. After dismissing Sadiq Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas and Mike Procter, Glamorgan appeared to be in the driving seat. When the ninth wicket fell on 206, last man John Childs, widely acknowledged as something of a rabbit, joined David Graveney with the Welsh county seemingly on the verge of their first victory. But the pair held out for thirteen overs and when the umpires called time, with the game ending in a draw, Glamorgan’s cup of woe was already full.
Glamorgan did reach the quarter-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup, but only by default after they replaced Somerset in the final eight after the West Country team’s illegal declaration in their match with Worcestershire. The Welsh county however were beaten by Derbyshire as following a feisty half-century by Peter Swart, a commanding century by John Wright, the Kiwi Test batsman saw his adopted county to a comfortable six-wicket win.
Glamorgan were also beaten in the first round of the Gillette Cup by Kent at Swansea, whilst in the Sunday League they won only six of the sixteen games and ended up in twelfth spot. As defeat followed defeat in all formats, team morale sank with things reaching rock bottom at the end of August during the Sunday match with Derbyshire at Swansea. After the visitors made 202-6, Mike Hendrick and John Walters scythed through some flimsy resistance to leave Glamorgan on 42-9. It was too much for some of the Glamorgan supporters and, as last man Andy Mack walked down the steps of the Swansea pavilion, two fans armed with children’s bats solemnly walked out to the middle from Fred’s Bar at the Mumbles End of the ground, before taking guard, much to the amusement of the Derbyshire fielders. The pair then walked back to Fred’s Bar to much clapping and cheering from their friends, but there were few cheers a few minutes later when the last wicket fell without further addition.
As Glamorgan stumbled through their worst season on record in first-class cricket, the committee and other officials came under plenty of criticism. many questioned, in the modern era of fast bowlers and one-day cricket, whether appointing a leg-spinner and tail-end batsman was really what Glamorgan needed. In the Club’s defence, there was a need to bolster the spin department with Neil Perry, the left-arm spinner recruited from Surrey, failing to make an impact. Andy Mack, another bowler recruited from The Oval, was affected by injuries and like Nash, who suffered various ailments, spent time on the sidelines. In their absence, 39 year-old Tony Cordle bore the brunt of the seam bowling and ended the season as leading wicket-taker with 58 victims.
On the batting front, Gwyn Richards and Mike Llewellyn each lost form and confidence whilst Alan Lewis Jones opted to finish his college studies rather than enter full-time professional cricket. During the season, Glamorgan only posted first innings scores of 300 or more on five occasions and if they had been more productive, the captain’s leg-spin would undoubted have been used.
The only crumb of comfort for the diehard fans was that Geoff Holmes, in just his third Championship match, made a maiden hundred against Gloucestershire at Bristol. The 20 year-old Geordie, who had joined Glamorgan from the MCC groundstaff on the recommendation of Head Coach Len Muncer, arrived at the crease with the scoreboard reading 59-5. For the next five hours he calmly defied the Gloucestershire attack, with the only difficulty coming from sunshine reflecting from windows of houses adjoining the Nevil Road End, plus a swarm of bees which descended and resulted in a stoppage for a quarter of an hour!
By the end of the summer, it was plenty of grumbles plus rumours of discontent between some players and manager Tom Cartwright, that were buzzing around the Cardiff ground. It was therefore emblematic of the difficulties both on, and off, the field that the last home game of the summer should see Glamorgan collapse to 46 all out against Kent, with only John Hopkins getting into double figures as Derek Underwood fully exploited a drying wicket with the England spinner seeing his side to an innings victory. Soon afterwards, Peter Swart announced he was not seeking a renewal of his contract for 1980 and with Gwyn Richards and Alan Wilkins also leaving the Club, it looked like another winter of discontent was about to haemorrhage.