| I was born in 1944 in Blaenavon which was a mining village in South Wales. In addition to coal there was also a mine of rugby talent producing, amongst others Ken Jones in the mid 1940 's and Terry Cobner the current WRU president. Ken Jones had all his Welsh caps and rugby shirts on display in a shop window in the Blaenavon main street and this piqued my interest in the game. Soon after that I was enjoying throwing the ball around on the village green with other youngsters imagining scoring the winning try for Wales in the corner in the last second of the match. I passed the 11plus exam and was given a place in West Mon Grammar School Pontypool West Mon was an all boys school with a emphasis on rugby. The rugby coaches were Max Horton who played number ten for Pontypool and Billy Watkins who played number nine for Newport and Wales. The school also produced some outstanding Welsh internationals in Bryn Meridith, Graham Price, Terry Cobner, Ken Jones and others. I played for the school in all the age grades. and was captain several times. We used to practice on Tuesday and Thursday with the first team playing the second team in preparation for a Saturday game against other schools. I played blind side wing forward with Terry Cobner as open side. Alas I did not follow Terry who had a distinguished career captaining Pontypool for ten consecutive years, played for Wales and the British Lions, became a WRU director and now WRU president. Instead I played for the West Mon Old Boys enjoying the social life as well as the rugby. Bryn Meredith the Welsh and Lions hooker sometimes turned out for us playing in the back row. For many years I was a Pontypool and Wales supporter throughout the good and bad times. My wife who is a a Canadian wanted me to emigrate to Canada in the early 1970's but Wales were going through their Golden Era and I managed to put it off until 1978 when we emigrated to Penticton in the beautiful Province of British Columbia, Penticton is away from the big cities and situated in the Okanagan Valley in the vast interior of the province. It is a town situated between two large lakes one which is 80 miles long and 2 miles wide and the scenery is spectacular. I had been there for two years and after settling down and getting work I found time to focus on rugby or the lack of it! At that time rugby was a minor sport in Canada and there was little publicity in the press or other media. I used to rely on my father taping Welsh the games on a cassette player and sending them and press cuttings to me. I missed rugby which been a big part of my life as described and wondered what could be done about it. A call was put out on the local radio station for anyone interested in the game to meet at a pub in Penticton. A few people turned up and we decided to form a committee to see how feasible it was. It was a formidable undertaking. First we needed players, then rugby kit and ground to play on, changing facilities and opponents etc. Some more advertising on the radio and word of mouth encouraged other like minded people to turn up and we formed an eight man executive and there was myself Welsh, four South Africans, a Englishman, and two New Zealanders. Quite a mix of nationalities and backgrounds from a surgeon, teachers orchardist ,real estate salesman to a retiree. All emigrants having in common the love of rugby. The Penticton High school had a rugby team and a number of the lads that were graduating were able to join us just making up enough numbers to form a team. It took a few months to get a pitch to play on and find changing facilities as well as opponents but we persevered and had our first game which we lost but more important than the score we were losing players through injury and could barely make a team for the next game. Our pitch was near the hospital and it was not uncommon to have the ambulances called to attend to the players and take them to emergency. Later on improved fitness and tackling technique lessened the call for medical help. There are vast distances between towns in the interior of the province and to get to some games is a 4 to 5 hour trip each way. We would start out early , play the game. have a barbecue and some beer and drive back home .It was a long hard day! I moved from Penticton in 1988 and live in Victoria on Vancouver Island I am proud that the team still exists 44 years later having now expanded into two men's teams, a ladies team and a youth team and is well supported. The team has a good web site and in the history section I get mentioned in the first few lines as founder….. OTHER RUGBY EVENTS In 1979 West Mon School my former grammar school brought a team to Victoria, They played Claremont High School which coincidentally is the school my wife attended and shows what a small world it is and how rugby still bonds us, past and present pupils of West Mon. I knew the coach when he was a pupil there and who returned to the school as a teacher after getting his degree. We were able to go over old times and had a enjoyable afternoon. In 1980 Wales B team were playing Canada in Vancouver, a six hour drive from where we lived in Penticton. One of the rugby group had a pilots license and six of us decided to fly in a small six seater plane to the game to save a lot of time. Not a good choice as it turned out. I wrote a article about the trials and tribulations of trying to watch rugby in Canada which was published in the July Welsh Rugby Magazine..................
|
