Our sports stories are punctuated with special moments, from writing about sport, receiving a valued shirt, to meeting the stars. We all know how sport can feed the soul!
Small World
By Tim Lewis
In 1981 I attended an American summer camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania called Camp Shohola. Some of the staff I worked with that year have become lifelong friends. One of them was Steve Goldstein – known to all as Goldy.
When Goldy learned that I was from Wales he told me that there had been another Welshman on the staff when he had been a 13 year old camper. “The guy was enormous” explained Goldy “his name was Jeff and his photo is still up in the dining hall”.
On inspection of the staff photo, big Jeff from Wales turned out to be Jeff Squire, a famed Welsh rugby international who also played for the British and Irish Lions against New Zealand and South Africa.
Jeff had a Stella rugby career during a golden period for Welsh rugby in the late 1970s. Whilst leading the forwards Jeff was part of the team that won the Grand Slam beating England, France, Ireland, and Scotland in the Five Nations Championship.
Jeff played his last international match against the All Blacks in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1983. His iconic sporting status was affirmed when he was ‘imoralised’ as ‘Grogg’ statue. To be depicted by the late John Hughes as a ‘Grogg’ character is something only bestowed upon the greats of Welsh and World rugby.
On a visit to Baltimore in the early 1990s I took a Grogg statue of Jeff as a gift for Goldy – something that will always remind him of that enormous Welshman who he played sports with one summer in a small world
For those not familiar with Groggs – which are an established part of Welsh sport, here are a couple of photos of their creator Richard Hughes, along with part of his collection.
A small world that gets smaller and smaller
Whilst I was in correspondence with Jeff Squire about the story above, a mother of one of my son’s friends mentioned that her dad had some fond memories of knowing Jeff. She then sent me the following story which her Dad was happy to share.
Becky wrote:
Tony Cass worked with Jeff at a Building Society in Wales for a number of years (late 70s/early 80s). Jeff was one of a number of international rugby players working for banks/building societies at that time.
My dad remembers Jeff opened a branch in Pontypool – the location the rugby club side Jeff played for.
Jeff was one of the Welsh rugby players who visited my dad in hospital after he badly broke his leg in Twickenham at the Wales v England match (March 6th 1982). He scaled a wall that had a sheer drop the other side to get into the ground – he had a ticket for the match he just left the pub late and thought it was a good idea!
He was taken to West Middlesex hospital and within 30 mins Terry Holmes, who my dad also knew, was also admitted after dislocating his shoulder in the match.
The following morning, as he was recovering from an emergency operation, my dad was visited by 8/9 Welsh and English players involved in the match the previous day, who had heard about his accident, including Jeff.
The Shared Language of Sport
By Anna McMorrin MP
Member of Parliament for Cardiff North
“I really started to get involved in sports at the Euros in 2016. I took my two daughters to France with friends to see Wales play in the fan zone. There was such a fantastic atmosphere, surprisingly family friendly and the French fans were so welcoming of the Welsh fans. That’s when it became clear to me that there was far more to football than just a match to be played, but a sense of togetherness and inclusivity, irrespective of where we come from and our different backgrounds.”
A good walk shared
By Huw Jones
Going To The Match
Going To The Match was a famous football painting by the British artist LS Lowry which depicted fans walking to Bolton Wanderers’ now demolished Burnden Park Stadium in 1953.
In late 1999 it was bought for £1,926,500 at Sotheby’s auction house in London by the Professional Footballers’ Association. It was a record price at auction for any modern British painting.
For many fans the anticipation of ‘going to the match’ is fundamental to the match-day experience. The photos below were taken by Wales’ football fan David Roberts as he followed another of his sporting passions, cricket in Australia. David undertook a four day train journey to watch a Test Match in Perth. Without doubt one of the longer ‘Going To The Match’ travel experiences!
"I was there!"
by Gareth Bowen
Stradey Park – 31st October 1972. Home to Llanelli RFC and they were to play the mighty All Blacks on a dank Tuesday afternoon. I was twelve years old and had just started to play and become interested in Rugby having started at secondary school in the September of that year. Mr Mathias a teacher at the primary school in Cardiff where my mother taught, had a spare ticket and asked if I would like to go to Stradey and watch the game with him? I had only ever been to a couple of matches previously and I agreed, not really understanding the enormity of the occasion. This was the biggest match in Llanelli’s history, and here was I, a twelve year old imposter, albeit with a West Wales heritage gatecrashing their party. We got stuck in traffic along the way and by the time we arrived in Llanelli, there was a funereal silence in the town with not a soul about. We parked up and entered Stradey Park with our stand tickets 5 minutes before kick-off. Not a chance, it’s choc-a-block said the steward. Not to worry, we found a space on the terrace where I could just about see most of the pitch. The memory of the next 90 minutes is seared into my mind. Those red jerseys swarming around the pitch whilst those marauders dressed all in black from the other side of the World seemed super-human to me. Never mind, there was Phil Bennett leaning back as he sent the ball spiraling 40 metres in a perfect arc, time after time to relieve the pressure. And just then, Roy Bergiers charged down that kick close to the New Zealand posts and fall on the ball to score the only try of the match. The crowd went completely wild and the state of euphoria as Llanelli won 9-3 stayed with me for quite some time. This was just one of those ‘I was there moments’ and Llanelli were my side from that moment onwards with Ray Gravell who has been my lifelong hero all these years. I wish had my iPhone with me to capture those moments – but never mind those images are securely locked away in my soul and despite being a Cardiff boy, Stradey Park will always have a special place in my heart.
A Welshman who went up a Mountain
By Gareth Evans
My cycle challenge took me up Mont Ventoux which is a guest stage in the Tour de France, meaning it isn’t in the route every year.
My Grandma was suffering badly with Alzheimer’s at the time and likely only had a short while to live (turned out to be around 5 months from doing the ride) so I decided that by doing it for an Alzheimer’s charity I was doing my bit for the cause.
I was very nervous after training in relatively flat London for 2 months when we did a car ride to the top and turned the first corner of the hill and started going up, I didn’t even know if I could do it but as over £1,000 had been raised I had no choice!
Whilst in the days leading up to it and picking up the rental bike with Dad and Bill Gray we managed to persuade Bill, an avid cyclist, to join the cause and come along for the ride.
The challenge took us about 3 hours to get to the top in the end, which involved about 30 mins of cycling in a cloud at the top.
For reference in the Tour de France they can do it in 50 mins…. nutters.
St. Helen’s Stadium Swansea, Wales
A Summer's Visit by Tim Lewis
In August 2021, I was staying in Swansea for a family holiday and took the opportunity to take some snapshots of the old St. Helen’s sports stadium located on Swansea Bay.
St. Helen’s has been the home to Swansea Rugby Club and Swansea Cricket Club since its opening in 1873.
The Swansea rugby side proudly proclaim that they were the first side to have beaten the Southern hemisphere’s “big three”. Defeating Australia in 1908, South Africa in 1912 and New Zealand in 1935.
In 1882 the Wales national men’s rugby team played their first ever Rugby Union match at the St. Helen’s ground. Also in 1892, Wales played Ireland in the only men’s international football match to have been held at St. Helen’s.
From the early 1920s, Glamorgan County Cricket Club have regularly played their home games at St. Helen’s.
For many cricket followers the ground is most famous for Sir Garfield Sobers scoring 36 in a one (six ball) over. Sir Garfield’s score was the maximum (6 runs off every ball with consecutive boundaries) that could be achieved, and at the time (1968) it was the first occasion that it had happened in a first-class cricket match.
Land of My Father
Looking at the stadium today with its official capacity being 4,500, it’s an effort – or at least it was for me – to envisage that the ground once had a capacity of around 50,000.
In December 1945, my Dad took a near 40 mile train journey from Cardiff to Swansea to see a Wales XV play rugby side take on a France XV in a post war Victory International match.
Wales ran out 8 -0 winners. The game saw two of the players that my dad admired, Bleddyn Williams and Dr. Jack Mathews, play a starring role.
Reporting the game two days later, the Western Mail newspaper’s headline proclaimed: “Cardiff Backs Saved Wales Against France”. Whilst the South Wales Echo’s headline – of the same day – read “Bleddyn Williams’ Genius”
The crowd was estimated to have been around 10,000 and my dad said that he needed to stand on a wall to get a view of the action.
Squeezed between the beach and the backstreets
From the above, you can just about pick out the cricket field as a small patch of green in this photo which I took from a restaurant situated on the 28th floor of a Swansea skyscraper.
St. Helen’s has a unique place in Welsh sporting history and a unique location for a sports stadium – squeezed between the city’s backstreets and Swansea Bay’s beach.
According to the local government, Swansea Bay – which covers some 8kms – has 10.4m tidal range which is the second highest in the world. At each low tide, a large expanse of seashore is left uncovered as the sea takes a break from its daily assault on Swansea’s sea defences.
Good and bad weather never seem to be far away from the seafront and therefore the stadium.
The stadium floodlights are said to be the highest in Europe!
A photo I took on a visit to St. Helen’s 10 August 2021 shows the Swansea Bay beach at low tide.
Signs of history
Hell's Bell
The bell that tells players and spectators that play is about to begin
A footnote: Sweden in Swansea
In 2013 Wales hosted the UEFA Women’s Under 19 Football Championships, during which I was the Team Liaison Officer for Sweden. Part of my work was to arrange a leisure time activity for the team who were based at the Marriott hotel in Swansea.
I contacted Glamorgan County Cricket who had a match a St. Helen’s against Leicester and Sweden were subsequently invited to the game as guests of the club.
When the team was in the stadium Dr. Andrew Hignell the Glamorgan historian and match announcer, acknowledged Sweden’s attendance in Swedish, the only time – we believe – that the Swedish language has been used over a PA system during a first class county cricket match!
Baseball Stories for the Soul
50 STORIES, POEMS & OTHER SOULFUL INSPIRATIONS ABOUT AMERICA’S FAVORITE PASTIME
FIRST PRACTICE
The smell of new leather
The smack of the ball in the pocket
The sting of a hit off an aluminum bat
The wet, spongy ground leaving its imprint on jeans and knees
A disorganized, but knowing, group of kids trying to be a team
An organized, but unsure, group of men trying to be coaches
The thud, thud, thud of a basketball replaced by the slower rhythm of catch
Squirming and fussing getting used to intimate protective wear
Dormant muscles straining to make the play
Learning to be more interested in what the coach is saying
than the butterfly fluttering by
Pushing and shoving in an ancient male ritual of acceptance
Andrea Blaha (pictured above) who lives in South Carolina, USA, provided us with her poem “First Practice”
Huw Jones' special shirt
“This Tanzanian Football Shirt was presented to me by a group of local mountain porters after I successfully climbed Kilimanjaro in 2011…. much to their surprise!! Apparently at 22.5 stone I was the heaviest to ever complete the climb. For the first few days of the trek they all shouted “Hariba Tembo” to me. Thinking it was a Swahili greeting I would say it back to them and they would all laugh. I later discovered that the term meant “Hello Elephant”!!… When I successfully reached the Summit they danced and changed my name from Tembo to Simba… the latter being Swahili for Lion!! I did it for the Big Lads in life!!”
Gareth Evans, Eddie Howe (AFC Bournemouth manager) and Gareth’s Grandma Jan Evans at the end of the 2015/16 season party.
Cardiff Ladies Volleyball get their hands on some trophies!
Jayne with the Olympic torch, Yvette with the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Karen celebrating Exeter Chiefs winning the Premiership and Sara at the Champions League final in Cardiff
Stanley Cup in New Hope, Pennsylvania
Bradley Patton writes: “In the summer of 2019, my dad and I went to visit the Stanley Cup in New Hope, Pennsylvania, which is the summer residence of St. Louis Blues’ head coach Craig Berube. My dad got to live out his fantasy of kissing the trophy after waiting 52 years to see the Blues win the NHL championship for the first time in their history.”
Gary Spain knows his sports.
2nd June 2001 – Tim Evans bids for, and wins, the sign from the players entrance to the pitch at the Last Night at the Dell dinner
Webb Ellis Trophy
Sept 2011 Tim, Gareth and Lucy Evans with the actual Webb Ellis Trophy in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup.
Bradley Patton writes: “One of our horses that we bred (Daylight Ahead is her name) that won a $75,000 stakes race at Laurel Park in Maryland in June 2017. The mass of people are the owners of the horse and their family and friends. You might notice me in the back row getting ready for the official track photo to be taken.”
“The second picture is me and a close friend Matt Smoot in that same winner’s circle at Laurel Park in MD after he and I won a small claiming race in December 2013 with the horse he and I owned (called Gunfighter).”
Dave has a photograph taken with the Snooker Masters trophy and referee Jan Verhass, 20th January 2013, London, Alexander Palace
Just for fun, how many stars do you recognise from the gallery below?
(Hover over the pictures to get the answers.)
Welsh Sports journalist Mark Bloom (Bloomy) meets...
Jean and Jackie in Detroit watching the men’s volleyball pre Olympic qualifier match between USA and Mexico in 2016
And more Volleyball...
Sara with family at Olympic Volleyball London 2012 – Argentina vs Australia
Come on Wales!
Huw and Chrissie in Rome for Italy v Wales 6 Nations in 2017
Pictures of sport in Switzerland by David O’Reilly
In a long country...
Thanks to Mats who has added these amazing sporting images as he completed a ski tour in the mountains near the Norwegian border. Darkness falls early this far north and Mats polar pictures were taken at 3 o’clock in the afternoon!
Enjoyed reading about the Llanelli game, what an experience that must have been!
Are there any pictures that capture the historic Owego-Shohola Derby match of the early 1980s?
They were destroyed so no one could ever see just how incredibly bad that own goal was! Thanks for be sorely responsible for us losing!