Glamorgan and Javed Miandad went their separate ways in 1986, but only after a lot of time had been spent by the Club’s officials in trying to persuade the batter to return to South Wales. At the same time, their management sought a top-class strike bowler, but after discussions with various Australians and South Africans, Glamorgan’s eventual acquisition was Ezra Moseley, and then only in midweek as he still had a lucrative contract to play at weekends in the Lancashire Leagues. It meant that young Australian bowler Denis Hickey, who was in the UK on an exchange scholarship, filled the void for the rest of the season.
On the field, the Club – for the first-ever time – lost all of their zonal matches in the Benson and Hedges Cup and by the end of June their only first-class victory had been a facile win against Oxford University. The start of July saw consecutive defeats to Gloucestershire at Cardiff and Worcestershire at Neath where Graeme Hick gorged himself on some innocuous bowling as he made an unbeaten 219 from 149 balls with 25 fours and 8 sixes with his side racing to 300-1 declared.
It proved to be Ezra Moseley’s final game in Glamorgan colours as well as being the straw that metaphorically broke Ontong’s back as, after what proved to be a very one-sided contest, he contacted David Lewis, the Chairman of the cricket committee and told the Club’s former leg-spinner that he did not want to captain the side in 1987 as the stress of dealing with matters both on and off the field was affecting his own game. After further discussion, he agreed that it would be in the best interests of his successor if he stepped down immediately so on July 23rd, it was Hugh Morris who led the team into the field at Grace Road in Leicester as, at 22 years old, the left-hander became the Club’s youngest permanent captain.
Another change behind the scenes saw John Steele appointed as assistant secretary with a special brief as advisor to the young captain. Morris could not have taken over at a more difficult time with Glamorgan entrenched at the foot of the Championship table without any victories and out of contention in all of the one-day competitions. A few critics believed that his elevation was premature as he had only graduated the previous summer and was in his first full summer of professional cricket, but they were made to eat their words as Morris led the side to victory against Leicestershire, before the following weekend hitting his maiden century in the Sunday League as Derbyshire were defeated at Ebbw Vale.
No further one-day games were won with the only other Championship victory coming in the closing game against Essex at Chelmsford as the Welsh county ended the season at the bottom of the table. Nevertheless it had been a fine summer for Glamorgan’s new young captain who broke Javed Miandad’s record of 573 runs as the most for the Welsh county in the Sunday League. His tally of 587 runs also saw his name go down in the England selectors notebook as he graduated from Young England to the fringes of the national team.
1986 had also seen Glamorgan move from their old offices at 6, High Street into a converted portacabin at the Sophia Gardens ground on April 3rd, with the former site office for the Ely Link Road replacing the toilet block which had stood adjacent to what is currently Gate 2 into the ground since 1967. An electronic scoreboard was also installed at Sophia Gardens replacing the one which had been manually operated adjacent to the tennis courts owned by Cardiff Athletic Club.
1986 also saw the significant progress of younger players with Matthew Maynard completing 1,000 first-class runs in his first full season in the 1st XI, whilst Greg Thomas built on his experiences playing international cricket in the Caribbean. Thomas also had a notorious encounter with Viv Richards at Taunton after he had twice beaten the outside edge during an over in the Championship match against Somerset.
It was quite a rarity for the great West Indian to play and miss, and for Glamorgan’s young fast bowler he was not going to waste the opportunity of having a few words with the Master Blaster. “It’s red, it’s round and it’s fast!” Thomas said, but the Antiguan made the perfect response as to the next ball, he unfurled a superb lofted drive that sent the ball high back over the bowler’s head and over the stand for six. As the ball disappeared out of sight, Richards sauntered up the wicket and said to Thomas “Hey man, you know what it looks like, you go and find it!”
Opposite – Greg Thomas. Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.