GLAMORGAN may have had a decent week and I may have personally managed a few runs but there is only one Welsh cricketing story this week. The wonderful test debut of Simon Jones (pictured).

It seemed certain that it would happen some time this summer after the England management had made it clear he was part of their plans, calling him up for two tests, getting him used to the atmosphere and integrating him within the squad.

This was good man management on Duncan Fletcher's part and something, which has rarely happened in the past. It was good forward planning and avoided the possibility of the young Llanelli tearaway being thrown in at the deep end with little knowledge of what to expect.

It always takes a while to feel part of any team environment and by involving Simon at an earlier stage, especially when he spent the entire five days of the Old Trafford test with the team, he was more than ready for the challenge.

Having said that it is always difficult to predict how a new player will react to the rarefied atmosphere of test cricket. People were asking me beforehand how I thought Simon would respond and I had to honestly say that I was not sure. No one knows. I knew he had tremendous potential and was improving throughout the season but as we all know the test stage is that much greater. Some can thrive on this extra pressure and expectation but others can freeze and shrivel under the spotlight.

But we all know now how our lad responded - magnificently. He took to it like the proverbial duck to water, instantly becoming a hit with the Lord's crowd, firstly winning their hearts with his audacious batting, then with some inspired bowling.

His batting obviously was something of a surprise but he has played some breathtaking cameos for us this year and I have detected a growing confidence in that side of his game throughout the season. At Cheltenham we were toying with the idea of sending Simon in earlier as two spinners were bowling and hitting them out of the ground is something in which he specialises.

Eventually we decided to send Mike Kasprowicz in before him despite our Aussie having to bat with a runner and Simon just said to me " Send me in and we'll win the game half an hour earlier!" Sure enough we did send him in before Dean Cosker and he hit 11 in three balls to end proceedings. Job done. No complications.

And there were certainly no complications at Lord's. His innings was full of raw, uninhibited hitting with a mind uncluttered with thoughts of failure.

We were fielding at Chelmsford at the time and twelfth man Ian Thomas was busy giving us updates from the balcony. In fact that was the case throughout the match as excited talk reverberated throughout the side of another 'Horse' wicket or run. 'Horse' is his nickname as in Racehorse because he is some thoroughbred with his exceptional physique and pace.

His life may never be the same again now because all sorts of contracts and deals are bound to be thrown his way, cricketing, modelling etc. Good luck to him because he deserves it. I just hope that we do get to see something of him back at Glamorgan, in our bid to gain promotion.

That bid was thwarted somewhat by Essex's rearguard action in their second innings after we had seemed poised for a win after some good first day bowling and at last a decent first innings batting effort.

Personally it was nice to record such a big score but when you get so far you are never satisfied and I would obviously have liked to have gone on and got a few more. Maybe that is being greedy but that is the only way to think in those situations. As it was, the pitch flattened out considerably and we did not get the early wickets we craved, consigning us to watching a master class of how to play spin by Andy Flower.

On to Sunday and another magnificent victory. Unfortunately the stresses of spending virtually the whole four days on the field at Chelmsford was too much for my knee which swelled up badly meaning I was unable to play but in my absence the lads played quite superbly. Ian Thomas led the way with a typically pugnacious innings, making things easy for those who followed with no pressure to up the tempo.

This weekend now takes on added significance with two vitally important clashes against Somerset and Worcestershire. How valid our title aspirations are will become much clearer after that.