From a Glamorgan perspective, 1985 will always be remembered for two displays of free-hitting by their batsmen – the first came from Javed Miandad during the Welsh county’s match with the Australians as Glamorgan took first-class cricket back to Neath after a twelve-year absence. It was also the first-ever tourist match at The Gnoll and stemmed from a sizeable and lucrative sponsorship deal with Neath Borough Council and the town’s Development Partnership who viewed the prestigious fixture with the Australians, traditionally allocated to Swansea, as a strategic part of their regeneration plan for an area scarred by industrial decline and rising unemployment.
The generosity of the local business community was rewarded with a brilliant display of strokeplay by the mercurial Miandad who, together with the battle-hardened Younis Ahmed, shared a record-breaking unbroken stand of 306 for the fourth wicket – not only the best-ever for the club for that wicket, but also their best-ever against any touring team. During the winter months, Rodney Ontong had requested that an overseas fast bowler be signed, so with plenty of speculation over his future, Javed responded by racing to his double-century from just 225 deliveries during a majestic four and three-quarter hour stay at the crease which reduced the tourists to a state of near impotency on the featherbed surface.
At the other end, Younis Ahmed quietly assembled a century of his own, but he was reduced to a supporting role as Javed unfurled a range of thrilling shots, including a towering six onto the roof of one of the gaily-coloured marquees that lined the boundary at extra-cover, as the Pakistani batting genius became the first Glamorgan batsman to score 200 against Australia. A delighted Rodney Ontong gleefully declared Glamorgan’s innings on 409-3, but the Australian jinx with the Welsh weather duly struck again as only 95 minutes of play took place on the second day, with none whatsoever on the last as the game ended in a soggy draw.
The second innings of awe and wonder came from Matthew Maynard, the young batsman raised in North Wales who posted a remarkable hundred on his Championship debut for the Welsh county Having spent the previous couple of years on the Kent groundstaff, his first-class debut was the stuff of fairy tales during Glamorgan’s run-chase on the final afternoon of their match in August at Swansea against an experienced Yorkshire line-up. Batting at number five, he had seen his team slide from 120-3 to 166-8 and with another defeat staring them in the face, Matthew decided to enjoy himself by playing his natural attacking game. Boundary followed boundary as he raced past 50 and by the time last man Phil North was at the wicket, Matthew had reached 84 and close to an audacious maiden hundred.
As Matthew reflected several years later, “I realised that Phil was unlikely hang around for long, and that it was a case of now or never. The field was set deep to offer me the single and get Phil on strike, so with virtually every fielder on the boundary, I realised that the only option was to go over the top. Phil Carrick, the experienced left-arm spinner was bowling and after blocking his first ball, I went down the wicket to his second ball and sent it over the sightscreen. It was premeditated. The next ball I did the same. I didn`t hit it right and it only just cleared long on. Carrick was a wily bowler, and I, a novice at nineteen, tried to read his mind. I decided that he would not expect me to come down the wicket a third time to him – so I did. The ball went a long way, and I had become the youngest Glamorgan player to hit a Championship century.”
1985 was also a memorable year for Rodney Ontong, the Glamorgan captain, who completed one of the finest all-round displays for the Club with an innings of 130 and thirteen wickets in the County Championship match against Nottinghamshire His outstanding performance at Trent Bridge began in the home team’s first innings as he took four wickets in five dramatic overs, and all without conceding a run, as Nottinghamshire dramatically collapsed. Then after Glamorgan had slipped to 81-4, he made a combative century, scoring 130 in 247 minutes, hitting one six and 14 fours as he counter-attacked the home bowling. With a deficit on first innings of 131, the Nottinghamshire openers took the score to 59-0 before a dramatic collapse took place as Ontong claimed eight wickets whilst just another 61 runs were added. Wickets fell through tentative prods and indiscreet swipes against the turning balls from the off-spinner. Ontong ended the game with match figures of 13/106, and quite fittingly, his name went into the notebooks of the England selectors.
But 1985 was a year to forget for both Alan Lewis Jones and John Steele who each suffered career-ending injuries. The former badly dislocated his shoulder diving in the covers to stop the ball in the opening Sunday League contest whilst the latter badly shattered a bone in his hand whilst trying to parry a fierce drive off his own bowling during the Championship game with Somerset. The game at Cardiff was one of sixteen draws during a summer where Ontong’s side balanced a final position in the lower third of the Championship table with improved form in one-day cricket, especially the NatWest Trophy where they reached the quarter-final stages.
After a comfortable eight-wicket win over Scotland, a hostile five-wicket spell by Greg Thomas saw Glamorgan demolish Sussex and secure a home tie against Worcestershire at Swansea. Just as local journalists were speculating that there might be a repeat of 1977, Javed sustained a back injury on the eve of the game and like Thomas , he also failed a fitness test on the morning of the game. With heavy rain delaying the start, Glamorgan officials contacted Ezra Moseley, now a professional in the Lancashire League, to see if the Bajan would help out the Club in their hour of need.
The rain ceased in the early afternoon, and with rumours circulating St. Helen’s about Moseley’s dramatic return, Phil Neale, the visiting captain did all that he could to get the game started and without the pace bowler. He even got all of his team out of the dressing room to assist with the mopping-up operations and was delighted when the umpires agreed to start at 6pm. Neale had an even larger smile on his face when he won the toss and invited Glamorgan to bat first in the dank conditions. They slumped to 51-4 and despite stubborn resistance from Ontong the following morning, the damage had been done as Worcestershire progressed to the last four of the competition.
Despite the four-wicket defeat there was great optimism in the camp and this was confirmed late in the summer when it was confirmed that Greg Thomas, dubbed in the Press as “the fastest white bowler in the world” had successfully overcome ankle, hip and hamstring ailments to secure a place on England’s winter tour to the Caribbean. The pace of the young Welshman had impressed many fine judges especially in the match with Hampshire at Southampton where earlier in the game, the home captain Mark Nicholas had been visibly spurring on his pace-ace Malcolm Marshall.
When Nicholas arrived at the crease, Thomas decided to give him a dose of his own medicine and after sending a series of balls whistling past Nicolas’ face. Thomas glared down the wicket and mockingly said “Come on Marshy, come on Marshy! You don’t like it when it’s up your nose do you!” Thomas duly went on the Caribbean tour and in his maiden Test at Kingston almost wrote his name into the Glamorgan record books as Desmond Haynes edged his first ball in international cricket between first and second slip, before being dropped by Peter Willey in the gully off the next ball. Final figures of 28.5-6-82-2 mask the fact that Thomas might have claimed wickets with his first two deliveries in Test cricket.