Cyril Smart

Smart began his playing career for Warwickshire in 1920. He made his debut facing Surrey at the Kennington Oval on 8 May, scoring nine and a duck and bowling thirteen wicketless overs.[5][6] He featured in thirteen games in total that season, managing a single half-century with the bat and taking only four wickets at a bowling average of above 60 runs per wicket.[7][8] He was nevertheless retained for the next two seasons, managing 400 runs in the 1921 season with another half-century, and a further 247 in 1922, however he would only take five more wickets across those two years.[7][8]

In 1927 Smart, who had played only one first-class match since leaving Warwickshire – an invitational game in 1926 – returned to the County Championship for Glamorgan and would feature for them intermittently over the next few years, making little impression with ball or bat. However, in 1934 – having played at the most only four or five matches per season since his debut for them – Glamorgan played Smart for the full 27 games of the summer. He scored 1,335 runs, including a maiden century and nine fifties, and took 38 wickets. He went on to score over 1000 runs for three further seasons, 1935, 1936 and 1937, taking regular wickets with his part-time spin bowling.[7][8]

In the 1935 season, Smart, rapidly gaining his reputation as an explosive hitter, hit six, six, four, six, six, four off of an over from Hampshire's Gerry Hill at the Cardiff Arms Park.[2]

He scored three centuries in 1935 – including one against a touring South African side – and two more in 1936.[2][8] His century against that touring South African side formed part of a record partnership for the final wicket: he made 131 while batting with the tail. During his innings he lofted a six that smashed a window in a nearby hotel.[2] He narrowly missed out on 1,000 runs in 1938, ending the season with 933 runs, but he scored 1,241 in 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, cricket in England was put on hold, and though Smart returned to cricket in nine matches in the 1946 season he failed to pass fifty and did not play again after July.[7][8]