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In this episode we talk to those involved in the 51st Final of this competition.  They are, in order that they appear in the episode:

Steve Davies, workforce administrator, South West Wales
 Zack Gidlow , Chair of cricket at Colwyn Bay Cricket Club and first team player
Mike Haydn, Chair of Swansea Cricket Club
Neil Perrett, Chair, Usk Cricket Club
Brad Wadlan, Captain, Swansea Cricket Club
Sion Morris, Colwyn Bay Cricket Club

You can find a written report on the final here:

https://cricketwales.org.uk/news/senior-open-welsh-cup-final-2023-colwyn-bay-cc-v-swansea-cc

You can find some great stats about the Welsh Cup here:

https://nwsport.co.uk/2023/09/03/all-hail-colwyn-bay-2023-cricket-welsh-cup-winners/

We would like to add our congratulations to the Colwyn Bay Cricket Club

2023 Welsh Cup Winners !

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In this episode we remember long time treasurer with the St Helen's Balconiers Clive Hemp.

We talk to his children, David, Tim and Charlotte as well as his colleagues from the Balconiers Committee Allan Gray and Roger Skyrme, Swansea solicitor and main sponsor of the Swansea and West Wales cricket Festival Peter Lynne.

Our final guest who remembers Clive is Balconiers President Alan Jones.  Ex-Glamorgan cricketer and coach Alan has been President of Glamorgan County Cricket Club as well as the St Helen's Balconiers.

They talk about his time as a cricketer and the support he gave his two cricketing sons.  His personal qualities; a generosity of spirit, an egalitarian outlook and a people centered approach influenced not only his career as a cricketer but also his business life as a successful accountant.

Encouraged by his contact with Balconiers Chairman John Williams, Clive became an integral part of the organisation, using his business contacts to build sponsorship for the annual Swansea and West Wales Cricket Festival which was the jewel in the Balconiers crown.

All our guests paint a picture of a man who loved his sport, loved Glamorgan and made a great many friends through the world of cricket. 

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Paul Rees is a popular club cricketer who has played most of his cricket in and around Swansea as well as a number of representative teams at age group and league level.

He talks to us about his early cricketing experiences and how he developed as a cricketer.  In passing we talk about his rugby career and how that impacted on his cricket.

Paul explains how he developed his strengths as a batsman but also how his bowling was what he was noted for early on in his career.

He is rightly very proud of his involvement with the MCC, first as a player member and latterly as the organisation's representative for Wales.  He has played over 100 times for them and explains his pride at being able to attend Test Matches at Lords and be present in the Long Room getting close to cricket's world superstars.

Here are the details of how to become a member of the MCC:

https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-club/how-to-join

Here are the MCC's results for their fixtures played so far this season:

https://www.lords.org/mcc/mcc-cricket/mcc-fixtures?region=Wales&display=results

If you are part of a club that may be interested in having a fixture against MCC you can contact Paul via his Twitter feed @PaulRees10 OR send us an email here at the podcast and we will ensure it gets to Paul

Our email is [email protected]

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Ron Walton has spent a lifetime playing professional and amateur sport.  A footballer with Merthyr Town he went on to play professionally in Australia before starting a coaching career that saw him spend 18 seasons at Swansea City coaching the youth team as well as spells as caretaker manager.

He has played for a number of different cricket clubs in and around Merthyr but has spent the past few years playing for his home town club as well as clocking up over a 100 caps for the Wales Senior Cricket side.

At 79 years old he is the oldest cricketer ever to play in Division 1 of the South Wales Cricket Association.

This article was written nearly 10 years ago:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pensioner-just-bowled-seven-maiden-7683549

Ron talks to us about his sporting memories mentioning many of the great sportspeople he played alongside.

Ron is mentioned in this Cricket Wales article on seniors cricket in Wales:

https://cricketwales.org.uk/news/cricket-wales-criced-cymru-seniors-60s-and-70s-2009-21

Here is Ron in campaigning mode back in 2004 trying to keep the ground where he played so much of his cricket.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/3878233.stm

Ron has been an incredible servant to sport in Wales and deserves every bit of recognition that he has got for his selfless service as player, coach and administrator.  We hope this episode will allow others who know him better to share their thoughts on this evergreen cricketer.

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In this episode we talk to Russell Penrhyn Jones, the founder and driving force behind the Wales National County (North) Representative Teams.

Founded in 2022, the Senior and U19 representative teams aim to give cricketers in the North Wales region opportunities to play representative cricket, develop their skills and further their cricket career aims.  You can read a brief article on their development here:

https://cricketwales.org.uk/news/walesnc-north

Russell talks about his involvement as a player and then a coach in both rugby and cricket.  He also talks about his son, Dewi and his experiences as a aspiring first class cricketer.  You can read a little bit about Dewi's career here:

https://glamorgancricketarchives.com/dewi-penrhyn-jones/

Russell talks about his experiences at Ruthin Cricket Club and Brymbo Cricket Club and his development as a coach before talking about Dewi's development as a schoolboy and academy cricketer as well as his time with Glamorgan CCC

You can follow Russell and the Wales National County (North) on Twitter @WalesNCNorth

If you want to be put in touch with Russell why not email us at:

[email protected]

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In this second episode authors David Parry and Andrew Hignell outline some more of the history of cricket in North Wales focussing on the Colwyn Bay Cricket Club which was formed in 1923.

The episode opens with a discussion about Sydney Barnes, one of the most famous English cricketers of the Twentieth Century and his links to this part of Wales.  See here for a brief outline:

https://www.cricketmuseum.wales/sydney-barnes-a-great-welsh-bowler/

There is some talk of the welsh cricket union and Gwilym Evans Rowland and his involvement with a team known as the Welsh Cygnets.  See here for more details:

https://www.cricketmuseum.wales/the-welsh-cygnets-part-one/

David Parry outlines the emergence of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club as a source of great fundraising income in the years immediately after the Second World War.  He also talks us through some of the first class cricket records which have been set at the Colwyn Bay ground during the time Glamorgan have played there.  You can find more details here:

https://www.cricketmuseum.wales/colwyn-bay-cc-by-david-parry/

Copies of the book are available from Andrew at the Museum of Welsh Cricket.  To make a request, please send an email to:

[email protected]

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Lucy is the first ever female chair of any recreational cricket league in Wales.   She is one of two women who have been appointed as chairs of ECB accredited premier leagues. Helen Ross has taken the helm of the Surrey Championship, while Lucy leads the North Wales Cricket League. 

She talks about her initial contact with the game through her father and her initial involvement with Buckley Cricket Club supporting both her sons in their cricketing development.

As part of the committee at Buckley she was responsible for improving the club adding new facilities and creating new interest around the game in the town.  Following on from this, Lucy got involved in the local Junior cricket league before becoming vice chair of the North Wales Cricket League and progressing to become the chair of the organisation in late 2022.

Lucy tells us a little about the league and outlines some of the issues that the league and the game of cricket face in North Wales.  She also outlines the issues for cricketers, in particular those making their way in the game, who live in the North Wales area.

We talk about the success of girls and women coming into the game and she reinforces the need to have diverse opinions at all levels of the game.

She finished by outlining her hopes for the game of cricket, the North Wales League and herself.

Details of the league can be found here:

https://nwcl.play-cricket.com/home

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This book, written and published to coincide with the centenary of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club, looks at the history of cricket in Denbigshire besides tracing how the club based in Rhos-on-Sea has become the venue for top class cricket in North Wales, as well as Glamorgan's northern outpost for first class cricket.

For a brief review of the book you can go here:

https://www.cricketweb.net/books/colwyn-bay/

In this first of two episodes we talk to co authors David Parry and Andrew Hignell covering the first third of the book which deals with cricket in the area in the 19th century, the arrival of the Wooller family in North Wales and the formation of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club in 1923.

Along the way we talk about Victorian Prime Minister William Gladstone.  More about his links with cricket in the area can be found here:

https://glamorgancricketarchives.com/2021/04/20/the-prime-minister-who-played-club-cricket-in-flintshire/

Copies of the book are available form the Museum of Welsh Cricket which can be contacted by email:

[email protected]

It's website with much more about the history of the game in Wales is available here:

https://www.cricketmuseum.wales

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In this the final episode in tribute to the St Helen's ground Richard Bentley talks us through some of the great names who have played at the ground.  We discuss the number of steps from the pavilion to the playing surface which is mentioned regularly by players who played there and Richard recites the poem written about the ground by one of cricket's greatest commentators John Arlott.

He finishes with his thoughts about and hopes for the ground and some stories about previous Glamorgan players Tony Cottee, Steve Watkin and Lawrence Williams.

We hope you have enjoyed these three episodes we have dedicated to this wonderful ground.  If you want further information about the ground's history you can check out the following two links, the first of which is the St Helen's Balconiers website and the second being the Glamorgan cricket archive web pages:

http://www.thebalconiers.co.uk/

https://glamorgancricketarchives.com/swansea-1948/

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In this week’s episode we return to discuss the history of St Helen’s as a venue for first class cricket.  Our guest is Richard Bentley who is the co-author, with Malcolm Nash, of Malcom’s cricketing biography ‘Not Only But Also’, published by St David’s Press in 2018.  To purchase a copy of the book you can go here:

https://welsh-academic-press.shopfactory.com/contents/en-uk/p73_Not-Only-But-Also.html

First, Richard tells us about his own early encounters with the ground before starting to tell us about the scores of cricketing records and feats that have been performed at St Helen’s.

He outlines the five world cricketing records that were set there.  These were:

The six sixes hit by Gary Sobers.  For more on this follow the link below:

https://glamorgancricketarchives.com/nash-and-sobers/

The fastest fifty hit by Don Shepherd

The only time in County Championship history that different bowlers (Don Shepherd and Jim Pressdee) have taken nine wickets in each innings of the game.  For more go here:

https://glamorgancricketarchives.com/2021/05/11/the-game-when-two-glamorgan-bowlers-each-took-nine-wickets-in-an-innings/

Clive Lloyd  -  the fastest double hundred in 1976.  For more go here:

https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/the-clive-lloyd-carnage-at-swansea-that-saw-him-equal-the-then-fastest-double-hundred-in-first-class-cricket-29774

1977 – Glenn Turner carries his bat and scores the highest proportion of his team’s runs in a first class innings.  For more go here:

https://wccc.co.uk/glenn-turners-never-to-be-forgotten-one-man-show/

Richard then outlines some of the Championship records held at the ground starting with a game in Glamorgan’s inaugural year in the competition and carrying on with Matthew Maynard’s maiden first class century on debut.

Other players mentioned are Gilbert Parkhouse, Eifion Jones, Peter Walker, Robert Croft and Usman Khawaja.

Richard then talks about a number of interesting games and feats including Glamorgan denying Nottinghamshire their County Championship victory, the Championship winning years of 1948, 1969 and 1997, victories over the South Africans and Australians as well as renowned ex Glamorgan greats Maurice Turnbull, Dai Davies and Johnnie Clay.