Bournemouth had been where Glamorgan first became County Champions in 1948, Canterbury was where in 1993 they won the One-Day League for the first-ever time and in 2021 Nottingham became the venue for their first Cup Final sucess as another small part of English soil became an integral part of the wider narrative of Welsh sporting history.
Glamorgan’s success also came during a summer when the Club celebrated the 100th anniversary of securing first-class statis, besides welcoming the return of Marnus Labuschagne, plus the arrival of fellow Australian Michael Neser, as well as the introduction of The Hundred competition during July and August. Indeed, the 100-ball tournament ran parallel of the 28 days of the Royal London Cup when, under the captaincy of Kiran Carlson, the Welsh county won their first silverware for seventeen long years.
There had already been some very encouraging signs in the red-ball games during the early part of the season, with Carlson himself in a rich vein of form, with centuries in both innings of the match against Sussex at Cardiff, whilst Billy Root and Chris Cooke also posted fluent hundreds in the opening Championship match of the season against Yorkshire at Headingley where, had it not been for snow after lunch on the third day, the Welsh county might have won the game. They duly confirmed their well-being by comprehensively defeating a seemingly dispirited Kent side by ten wickets at Sophia Gardens before a month later at their headquarters beating group leaders Lancashire by six wickets.
The Welsh county had already enjoyed the better of a rain-ravaged contest with the Red Rose side at Old Trafford, with the return game at Cardiff seeing nineteen wickets tumble in bowler-friendly conditions on the opening day. The cloud cover dissipated on the second day and, with the Red Roses on 88-2 in their second innings, they seemed poised for a sizeable lead. But the nous of the home attack, especially the reverse-swing of Neser, prompted a dramatic collapse as the Welsh county were left a modest target of 188. A 72-run opening stand between Joe Cooke and David Lloyd blunted the Lancashire bowlers before a careful half-century by Labuschagne saw Glamorgan to their target after seventy minutes play on the third morning and a win which helped to secure the Welsh county a place in the second tier of the revised Championship as the end of the season saw the eighteen counties split into three divisions.
By this time, the Club had tasted the high’s and low’s of white-ball cricket with another modest campaign in the Vitality Blast seeing Glamorgan win just three of their dozen games and fail to qualify for the last eight of the T20 tournament. Nine matches were lost including the final group game, away to Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl, where needing to score 185 inside 14 overs, the home side reached their target with an over to spare with D’Arcy Short, the Australian batter, hitting an 18-ball fifty to see his adopted county through to the last eight of the competition.
With the much vaunted 100-ball competition starting at the end of July, and five Glamorgan players – Chris Cooke, Colin Ingram, Timm van der Gugten, David Lloyd and Dan Douthwaite being snapped up by the franchises – the 50 over competition began with some new faces in the 1st XI. After the Club’s chastening experiences during the T20 competition, it gave an opportunity for these fresh names to stake a claim for consideration in the future. They included Steve Reingold and Andrew Gorvin, who had each excelled for the Cardiff UCCE team, as well as James Weighell the former Durham and Leicestershire all-rounder who, after injuries to Ruaidhri Smith, had been signed after impressing in pre-season trials. With Labuschagne returning to Australia to prepare for his forthcoming season, the Club had also quite wisely recruited Hamish Rutherford, the well-travelled opening batsman from New Zealand.
The omens though did not look promising as Glamorgan were beaten by Wales National Counties in their warm-up match at Cardiff, but Carlson and his team bounced straight back with victories over Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. A narrow one-run defeat then followed at Taunton as Somerset scraped home despite having been reduced to 49-5 by the parsimony and control of Hogan, who after sitting out the T20 matches, returned to lead the Glamorgan attack. He duly played a key role in the success which followed, including in next match against Surrey at Cardiff where he removed Mark Stoneman with his first ball, before Andrew Salter’s miserly spin and the accurate seam of Joe Cooke dismissed the visitors for a paltry 132. But this was riches indeed five days later at the same venue where the Notts Outlaws were bundled out by the home seamers for just 73 in a match, reduced by overnight rain to 25 overs per side.
The comprehensive victories against Surrey and the Notts Outlaws not only consolidated Glamorgan’s position at the top of the group table but ensured they had a healthy net run rate and despite a four-run defeat to Yorkshire in the final group game, where Nick Selman, after his career-best 140 at Leicester made a cultured 92, the Welsh county secured a home semi-final for the first time in 21 years in List A cricket. Their opponents at Sophia Gardens were the Essex Eagles, and at 111-0 with Josh Rymell the young opener going well with the vastly experienced Alastair Cook, the visitors seemed to be on top. But Cook overbalanced playing forward to Reingold’s off-spin and was smartly stumped by Tom cullen. The rest of their innings also fell over after this promising start with the Eagles lost their last seven wickets for 64 runs.
Chasing a target of 290, Rutherford gave Glamorgan a rousing start as he struck his fourth fifty of the tournament, before the clatter of further wickets made it look as if the home side would also fritter away their decent position. But Cooke had other ideas, as he became the Club’s first player for 51 years to take five wickets and score a fifty in a List A match as he shared in a match-winning sixth wicket stand of 111 in 16.5 overs Cullen which saw Glamorgan to their first one-day final since 2013. To celebrate his achievement, Cook finished the game in the grand manner as he straight drove Simon Harmer for a four, followed by a huge six over the River Stand to see his side home with two overs to spare.
Click here to read about Glamorgan’s victory over Durham in the final of the Royal London One-Day Cup at Trent Bridge in 2021.