18 June 2012 ranks amongst the darkest days in the entire history of Glamorgan County Cricket Club following the discovery in the early hours that morning of the body of Tom Maynard on the line near Wimbledon Park tube station. The death of the talented 23 year-old who was seemingly destined for the international stage, devasted both his adopted county, Surrey, as well as the one where his career had started. United in grief, Glamorgan rearranged their home T20 match with Worcestershire, scheduled for 20 June to 3 July before over 1,000 people from throughout the cricket world attended Tom’s funeral at Llandaff Cathedral on 4 July and heard moving orations from Hugh Morris and Club captain Mark Wallace.
The weather in 2012 washed out four T20 matches as well as eleven days of Championship cricket including the entire match in late April against Gloucestershire at Bristol and all bar 34 overs of the game with Yorkshire in early June at Colwyn Bay. Three other one-day games were also washed out, including Glamorgan’s venture to the suburbs of Glasgow to play Scotland at Uddingston CC.
Rain also spoiled the one-day international at Cardiff as England met South Africa, but thankfully, the storms has cleared 24 hours later as a full house at the Stadium enjoyed T20 Finals Day. It had been a major logistical feat for the Club to host these back-to-back contests, with six teams in all, but everything went without a hitch as Hampshire defeated Yorkshire in a thrilling final under the Cardiff floodlights and the Club’s operational staff fully deserved the plaudits which rightfully came their way.
Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.
Once again, Glamorgan were thwarted by injuries, including ones to new signing Marcus North, the well-travelled Australian who had been recruited for the 2012 season. After arriving in mid-May he became the first man to play cricket for six first-class counties and swiftly made an impact in Championship cricket, with one century and five fifties in his thirteen innings. He was less effective though in white-ball games and returned early to Australia, thereby missing the last two Championship matches.
In his absence at the start of the season Moises Henriques acted as his locum with the all-rounder making his Championship debut in an eventful game at Leicester. The contest saw Huw Waters nearly make the perfect start to the season with a hat-trick with the first three deliveries of the year. The mayhem began as, first, Gareth Rees took a superb catch at short-leg to send Greg Smith straight back to the Pavilion, before next delivery the 25 year-old trapped Jacques du Toit l.b.w as he propped half-forward.
Ramnaresh Sarwan, the vastly experienced West Indian survived the hat-trick ball before after fifteen minutes play and a single run on the board, Matthew Boyce was caught by Gareth Rees off the jubilant Waters. But having started the contest like millionaires, Glamorgan ended it like paupers, as Leicestershire recovered from their early travails to win by 52 runs. A fortnight later Waters claimed career-best figures of 7/53 in the match at Cardiff with Hampshire which, like the game at Leicester, also ended in a Glamorgan defeat. Bizarrely, Waters also topped the Glamorgan batting averages in 2012 but only because he had been unbeaten in a dozen of his fourteen innings.
Besides Henriques, there were other new faces in the Club’s line-up for one-day cricket in 2012 – a summer when they attempted to tap into national pride by rebranding themselves as the Welsh Dragons. Martin van Jaarsveld, the vastly experienced South African moved from Kent to join the Welsh side for their white-ball games whilst Shaun Marsh made his debut in the T20 campaign, where despite the bad weather, he played some useful innings.
His side were only able to register a couple of wins in their ten games in the T20 competition and the Club’s dream of playing on their home turf at Finals Day never materialised. Their new monicker as the Welsh Dragons did not catch on and they duly returned to their established name, whilst the traditional daffodil was restored as the Club’s logo having been replaced by a modern variant a few years earlier during a rebranding campaign.
In a season that never really got going, James Harris was amongst the departures at the end of the season, as the youngster invoked a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave if Glamorgan were not playing in the First Division of the Championship. The all-rounder, who had been included in England’s party for T20 cricket in New Zealand subsequently joined Middlesex. Robert Croft also appeared for the final time in a Glamorgan shirt during 2012 and claimed a wicket with his final ball for the county against Kent at Sophia Gardens in September.
