A brief history compiled by Dr. Andrew Hignell
08-Jan-2006A brief history compiled by Dr. Andrew Hignell (Hon. Statistician and Historian to Glamorgan CCC)The St.Helen’s ground at Swansea has several unique features,
starting with the fact that it is laid out on a reclaimed sand
bank and in places the soil is barely eighteen inches thick. The
second feature has been that cricket and rugby have happily
co-existed at Swansea for almost 125 years, with the ground
staging International cricket, rugby union and rugby league. The
western half of the cricket square doubles up as the in-goal of
the rugby pitch during the winter, adding to the charm of the
ground, but many would say that the finest feature of the ground
is its maritime position. From the seats in the members
enclosure, there are splendid views across Swansea Bay and the
Severn Estuary to the Somerset and Devon coast, as well as the
picturesque Mumbles Head. Indeed, this coastal location has made
the Swansea ground a popular venue with visiting supporters, as
well as touring teams. However, the days of cricket at
St.Helen’s appear to be numbered. This has nothing to do with
Glamorgan’s recent decision to develop a headquarters at Cardiff,
but instead a decision by the Swansea rugby club to develop the
ground as a rugby stadium. If their plans go ahead, it seems
that the games which Glamorgan have allocated to Swansea for 1997
could be the final county fixtures at the historic and
picturesque St.Helen’s ground.The ground takes its name from a convent dedicated to Saint Helen
that was built by an order of Augustinian Nuns on the foreshore
of Swansea Bay during the Medieval Period. During the 16th
century, the land and the convent passed to the Herbert family,
who in turn sold it to Colonel Llewellyn Morgan. By the 18th
century, Swansea was a thriving port and the area along the shore
of Swansea Bay, developed into a popular and desireable
residential area. The gentlemen used the foreshore for their
healthy recreation and there are records from the 1780’s of ball
games being staged on Crumlin Burrows to the east of the Tawe as
well as to the west on the sands near the convent. A notice in
the “Hereford Journal” for May 1785 suggests that a formal club
had been formed, with a request for “gentlemen subscribers are
desired to meet at the bathing house early to appoint a steward
for the day and a treasurer for the season.”It seems likely that the members of this early club just
practicised amongst themselves, similar to the modern-day
membership of a golf club. By the early 19th century, fixtures
were secured with teams from Neath, Llanelly and Merthyr, and the
club secured the use of part of a field near the former convent.
Even so, the departure of leading players, and an outbreak of
cholera in the 1840’s presented a few temporary barriers to the
growth of cricket in Swansea. The expansion of the transport
network in South Wales, and a further increase in trade at the
port of Swansea both acted as catalysts for Swansea C.C. from
the 1850’s onwards and by 1852 there were enough good players for
them to field two teamsThe club’s finances steadily became healthier, allowing them to
hire decent professionals, such as Henry Grace and Alfred Pocock,
and by the 1860’s Swansea C.C. had became one of the top sides
in South Wales. Amongst its leading members was J.T.D.Llewelyn,
the influential squire of Penllegaer. The Old Etonian and
Oxford-educated industrialist had a wide range of sporting
contacts in South Wales and London, and as a result Swansea C.C.
secured fixtures against the M.C.C. With quite an extensive and
impressive fixture list, the only worry for the club was the
often poor nature of the wicket. The rough state of the wicket
led to the dropping of the M.C.C. game, but even so, Llewelyn
was able to arrange other exhibition games. In 1866 a XXII of
Swansea challenged the United All England Eleven, and in July
1868 a game was staged against an Aboriginal Eleven from
Australia. The success of these special fixtures led to plans
being set in motion for the club to acquire a larger recreation
ground which act as a decent and proper home for the various
sporting teams representing Swansea.In 1872 an approach was made to Colonel Morgan regarding the
sandbanks lining the foreshore, and by the end of the year, an
agreement was reached for the creation of a new sports field.
The sandbanks were levelled, turfed and rolled, and during the
summer of 1873 Swansea C.C. played their first games at their
new and permanent home. During the winter months rugby football
was also staged at St.Helen’s, and Col. Morgan’s land quickly
became established as the town’s sporting centre. Llewelyn
continued to give his support to the club, and helped to finance
the building of a pavilion and dressing room to serve both the
summer and winter games. Through his efforts, St.Helen’s became
one of the best equipped grounds in South Wales, and an
indication of this was the staging of a three day game between a
XXII of Swansea and District against a United South of England XI
in May 1876, followed in 1878 by a two day game between the South
Wales C.C. and the Australian tourists.However, the western expansion of the industrial town, and the
popularity of the seafront with residents and visitors alike,
meant that the Colonel’s land was viewed as prime land for
building. With the area near the docks and town centre becoming
increasingly congested, Swansea Town Council passed a resolution
in 1879 to acquire the sports field for building purposes. The
leading members of the Cricket and Football voiced their vehoment
opposition, whilst Llewelyn offered to donate 500 pounds to
preserve the field for recreational pursuits. The strong
pressure and Llewelyn’s gentle persuasion forced the Council to
agree that St.Helen’s should remain as a sports ground.J.T.D.Llewelyn was also the catalyst behind the formation of
Glamorgan C.C.C. in 1888, and through his influence the
St.Helen’s ground staged some of the county’s home games.
Glamorgan paid their first visit to Swansea in June 1890 for a
match with the M.C.C., and the ground’s first inter-county
fixture took place in August 1891 against Devon, although the
weather badly interfered with the contest. Since the early
1880’s there had been a small groundsman’s cottage in the
south-west corner of the ground, and by the turn of the century
it was the home of Billy Bancroft, the Swansea and Glamorgan
cricket professional and international rugby player who acted at
St.Helen’s first caretaker-cum-groundsman.Llewelyn also oversaw a number of other improvements to the
St.Helen’s complex in the early 20th century, including a 1,200
pounds donation towards the laying of grass banking around the
ground, the construction of decent seating and a perimeter wall.
After the Great War, a new cricket pavilion was built on Bryn
Road, whilst a rugby grandstand was erected along the Mumbles
Road in the 1920’s. By this time Glamorgan had become a
first-class side, and on May 28th 1921, St.Helen’s staged its
first County Championship match as Glamorgan played
Leicestershire. The visitors won by 20 runs, and it wasn’t until
the end of July that Glamorgan were able to celebrate their first
victory at Swansea, defeating Worcestershire by an innings and 53
runs.But victories were few and far between at Swansea in these early
years, as visting players often cruelly exposed the fraility of
Glamorgan’s batting and bowling attack. By the late 1920’s the
county secured the services of several professional bowlers who
could utilise the slow, sandy wicket, and in 1927 Jack Mercer and
Frank Ryan bowled Nottinghamshire out for 61 to stop the visitors
from winning the Championship. Indeed, there are stories of the
visting players sitting in front of the dressing rooms and on the
top of the 67 steps leading up the grass bank from the pitch,
with tears streaming down their cheeks as they saw the title slip
from their grasp.The two-storey pavilion had been extended during the previous
winter. On the lower floors were the changing rooms, umpires
room and groundsman store, whilst on the upper floor was a bar,
colonade and veranda. In 1939 this impressive building became
the property of the Swansea Town Corporation as the Cricket and
Football Club sold the ground to the town authorities, who have
been the owners ever since. The ground had been staging Welsh
rugby Internationals since December 1882, but by the end of the
Second World War, there were doubts over the future of Welsh
games at St.Helen’s. In a bid to keep the Internationals, the
Corporation made further ground improvements with the grass
banking being replaced by tiered concrete terraces. Further
extensions were made to the pavilion, and in 1964 four 140 foot
floodlight pylons were erected so that evening rugby matches
could be staged.These improvements further increased the capacity of St.Helen’s,
and in 1948 50,000 people teemed into the Swansea ground for the
one and a half days play with the Australians. Indeed, these
tourist games, often staged over the Bank Holiday periods, have
often seen the ground packed to the rafters, and for the visiting
cricketers, the games with Glamorgan have felt like unofficial
Test matches against Wales, and in front of what seemed like half
of the Welsh population.Three notable victories have been recorded at St.Helen’s. In
August 1951 the South Africans were beaten by 64 runs, with Jim
McConnon taking 6-27as the Springboks collapsed from 54-0 to 83
all out. In August 1964, the Australians were defeated by 36
runs, with Jim Pressdee and Don Shepherd fully utilising a slow,
turning wicket and thwarting the tourists attempts to score 268
on the final day. Four years later ‘Shep’ was at the helm as the
Australians were beaten again, this time by 79 runs as the Welsh
spinners helped Glamorgan become the first county side to defeat
Australia on consecutive tours.Swansea also entered the record books in 1968 as Garry Sobers
became the first batsman in world cricket to hit six sixes in an
over. His record breaking feats came as Nottinghamshire were
moving towards a declaration, and Malcolm Nash, Glamorgan’s left
arm seamer was experimenting with left arm spin. Sobers’ feats
were captured by the T.V. cameras of B.B.C. Wales, but they
were not present 9 years later when Frank Hayes of Lancashire
almost repeated the feat, hitting Nash, who was bowling in his
normal style for 34 in an over. Many other batsmen have taken
advantage of the quite short straight boundaries. In 1976 Clive
Lloyd hit an unbeaten 201 in just two hours for the West Indies,
whilst in 1985 Glamorgan’s Matthew Maynard hit a century on his
first-class debut, reaching his hundred with three successive
straight sixes off Yorkshire’s Phil Carrick.The popularity of Glamorgan’s tourists games at St.Helen’s have
led to its staging two one-day Internationals. In 1973 England
beat New Zealand by 7 wickets in a Prudential Trophy game, with
John Snow taking 4-32 and Dennis Amiss making 100. In 1983 the
high-scoring World Cup fixture between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was
held at Swansea. Pakistan won by 50 after rattling up 338-5 with
Mohsin Khan, Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad all scoring half
centuries. During the 1980’s Glamorgan have also staged several
floodlit games against a Rest of the World XI, and there have
been calls for day-night internationals to be held at the ground.The last Welsh rugby union International was staged at St.Helen’s
in 1954, but it is still the home of a top-class side, as Swansea
R.F.C.have become established as one of the top sides in Welsh
club rugby. During the last 15 years, they have developed the
facilities for playing and hosting club rugby, with considerable
extensions being made to the pavilion, with sponsors boxes and a
large V.I.P. lounge being added. New seating areas have been
added, whilst the steep concrete terraces together with the
scoreboard on the eastern side of the ground were demolished
during the winter of 1995/96, and there is talk of further change
and realignments to the rugby pitch.But the one thing that all of these recent and lavish
developments in the brave new world of commercialism cannot
change is St.Helen’s maritime location and thin sandy soil. The
ground may look very different to the days when Billy Bancroft,
Harry Creber, Tom Gange and George Clements lovingly looked after
the square. But old adage that wickets fall as the tide comes in
still rings true, and it is not just the Glamorgan captains of
the past such as Wilf Wooller or Maurice Turnbull who consult the
tide tables in Swansea Bay before going out to toss!For further information about the history of this, and other
grounds used by Glamorgan, you may be interested in purchasing
“The Cricket Grounds of Glamorgan”, written by Andrew Hignell and
published in 1985 by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and
Historians. For further details, please consult the A.C.S.
homepage on CricInfo, send e-mail to [email protected] or
write to Peter Wynne-Thomas at 3, Radcliffe Road, Nottingham.
