Mr. Wooller’s Legacy: A history of cricket at Colwyn Bay and in Denbighshire

£16.00

By David Parry and Andrew Hignell

Mr. Wooller’s Legacy, published in Colwyn Bay CC’s centenary year of 2023, explores the club’s place in the rich history of cricket in Denbighshire. Using never previously published material and photographs, it traces how the club in Rhos-on-Sea beat more established clubs to become the venue for top-class cricket in North Wales, as well as Glamorgan’s northern outpost for first-class cricket – despite Denbighshire’s unsuccessful foray into the Minor Counties Championship in the 1930s!

Wilfred Wooller (senior), father of the man who played rugby for Wales and led Glamorgan to the 1948 Championship title, was one of the club’s early champions: moving to the area to carve out a career as a house builder, he played a key role in the creation of the cricket ground and the popular seaside resort. Colwyn Bay staged a lucrative annual Festival Week during and after the Second World War, with Wilf Wooller (junior) bringing the Glamorgan side to the ground where he first played as a schoolboy.

When Glamorgan left Cardiff Arms Park at the end of 1966, they needed a venue for the last match of the season, against Derbyshire. The go-ahead Colwyn Bay club made an offer, and it became the ground’s inaugural first-class fixture. The book concludes with a review of these annual County Championship and List A matches, which have become a very fitting part of Mr. Wooller’s legacy.

This book is now available only from the Museum of Welsh Cricket, at museum@glamorgancricket.co.uk

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