1919: The SS Orcas, owned by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company sailed from Cardiff bound for the West Indies carrying 225 coloured men, mostly sailors, returning home under the terms of a voluntary repatriation scheme which had been introduced following the race riots in Cardiff in June. Men were offered just £1 on departure and £5 on arrival at their destination. Those married to ‘non-white’ women could go if they had a guarantee of accommodation but men with white wives were not eligible. The ship’s captain complained to the shipping company that the men came on board with the apparent intention of defying his authority and had knives and revolvers in their possession. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)
1946: Glamorgan beat Hampshire at Bournemouth to win the County Championship for the first time. Rain washed out play on the first day and it seemed that Glamorgan would be denied the victory they needed. ‘The following day,’ writes Andrew Hignell in From Sophia to Swalec, ‘prayers were uttered in the churches and chapels of South Wales’. They seem to have been effective. The weather improved and Glamorgan won by an innings!