Two Poor Teams

 posted by John Winn

'Season 1925 proved to be one of the worst in the club's history as the team slumped back to the bottom of the table.' The History of Glamorgan County Cricket Club by Andrew Hignell

'1925 was a sorry season containing three victories and fifteen defeats as Somerset sank to fifteenth place in the Championship'. From Sammy to Jimmy The Official History of Somerset County Cricket Club by Peter Roebuck.

On days as miserable as today, cold and wet, taking a volume of Wisden from the shelf and opening a page at random one can often alight on something that provides an idea for a posting and today is such a day. Page 382 of the 1926 almanack affords a description of a match played at Cardiff in the first week of June 1926 when Somerset crossed the River Severn. As the two quotations above show this was hardly a clash of the giants. Glamorgan had begun the season with a draw against Yorkshire in a match restricted to little more than two hours play during which Yorkshire made 134 for 1 with Herbert Sutcliffe being bowled by Mercer for nought. This was followed by three heavy defeats at Leicester, The Oval and Hove, in the last of which Glamorgan were bowled out for 41 and 79. Somerset travelled to Wales on the back of four defeats including one by an innings and two by nine wickets. Their fifth match, at Derby was in an interesting position, Derbyshire needed 92 to win with six wickets in hand, when a heavy storm ended proceedings. 

Neither side can have approached the Cardiff game with great confidence especially Glamorgan for some of their best players were in action for Wales at Lord's against MCC. Somerset as usual relied heavily on amateurs, nine in total in this match to which Glamorgan added a further five. The west country men used 30 players that season all but three of whom were amateurs. Not surprisingly Wisden says 'Little good batting was seen on the first day' when Somerset were bowled out for 149 and by stumps Glamorgan had reached 73 for 8. From this position the match limped into its third day with Somerset doing much better in their second knock reaching 265 all out. Mr AS Bligh 73 not out. Glamorgan were set 307 to win but 'failed badly' and were all out for 76 which represented something of a recovery from 36 for 6. Six of their batsmen were bowled and three got ducks. A victory for Somerset by 230 runs and with the season only a month old the fifth time Glamorgan had been bowled out for under one hundred. 

The return match at Bath in August was another low scoring affair but was rain affected and was left drawn with Somerset chasing 198 on 67 for 3. As mentioned earlier Glamorgan were wooden spoonists and Somerset 15th with Worcestershire keeping them apart. Yorkshire were outstanding champions with 21 wins from 32 matches.