Review of the season – 1991

With Viv Richards, their talismanic presence, touring with the West Indies, Glamorgan recalled Ravi Shastri as their overseas player for 1991. It proved to be a transitional year as the Welsh county dropped four places to twelfth in the Championship table. But in four other games, they had played themselves into winning positions and success in just a couple of these encounters would have been sufficient for Alan Butcher’s team to finish in the top six.

In the space of a fortnight during May, Glamorgan were thwarted by the Northamptonshire tail-enders at Sophia Gardens, before missed chances saw Sussex frustrate Glamorgan’s hopes of forcing a victory. The Championship contest at Cheltenham College also ended in frustration for the visitors after Mathew Maynard had confirmed his growing maturity by making a pair of glorious hundreds after the visitors had been invited to bat first on a damp surface.

His 83-ball hundred in the second innings allowed Alan Butcher set Gloucestershire the stiff task of scoring 411 to win the game. Mark Frost swiftly removed both openers, and when Jack Russell joined Richard Scott on the final morning, Gloucestershire were on 123-5 and staring a heavy defeat in the face. But Scott hooked and cut his way to a century before Russell survived a huge appeal for caught behind which the umpire turned down. With Jeremy Lloyds also weighing in with some late resistance, the contest ended in a draw.

Without Richards, Glamorgan’s form in the one-day games was erratic. They failed to reach the last eight of the Benson and Hedges Cup and would have struggled to defeat the Minor Counties in Wiltshire had it not been for a calm and imperious hundred from Ravi Shastri. They also slipped to last but one place in the Sunday League where despite the frugal bowling of the likes of the two Steve’s – Messrs Watkin and Barwick – plus some batting cameos from Maynard, they lacked the batting firepower to mount a series of victories in the 40-over competition.

Hopes of a cup run had been raised in the Nat West Trophy after Durham were defeated at Darlington before the Welsh county beat Worcestershire at New Road with Adrian Dale making a fine 86 before Matthew Maynard weighed in with an unbeaten 78. It set-up a quarter-final tie at Northampton where the home side were restricted to 254. But, after Morris and Butcher had shared an opening stand of 85, Glamorgan’s response fell away, aided by the self-inflicted run-outs of both Dale and Maynard in successive overs as each attempted some unnecessary singles to substitute fielder Nigel Felton whose direct throws found the visiting batters short of their ground, as the home side won by 26 runs.

Maynard ended the Championship season with a healthy aggregate of 1,766 runs as well as two double-hundreds. The first came at Cardiff during the defeat against Nottinghamshire, whilst the second occurred at Southampton as Glamorgan ended the season with a seven-wicket victory over Hampshire. His innings of 243 was just 44 runs short of the Club record and contained 32 fours and 6 sixes against an attack who still seemed to be wallowing in their success in lifting the NatWest Trophy at Lord’s. Their hangovers were done no favours by Maynard’s clinical strokeplay nor his stand of 154 in 35 overs with the pugnacious Robert Croft.

1991 was a breakthrough summer for Adrian Dale with the all-rounder establishing himself in the number three berth in Championship matches. Besides his fine innings in the Nat West Trophy game at New Road, Dale made 99 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston only to reach three figures in the next Championship match against Gloucestershire at Abergavenny as Glamorgan laid to rest their frustrations from the previous year at the Avenue Road ground. Besides the unbeaten 140 by Dale, captain Butcher made 147, before a seven-wicket haul by Shastri saw Gloucestershire follow-on before subsiding to defeat and repaid the long hours of practice the Indian had spent in the nets with Don Shepherd, now the county’s astute bowling coach, having lost confidence and finding it almost impossible to pitch a ball on a good length.