Around the Boundary Feature:
Dai Davies first started out at Pill Parks when he was 13 as a very promising young cricketer with Llangwm and now, 64 years later, he and his wife Susan are still almost daily visitors to the ground and making sure that things are in shipshape order.His name is synonymous with Llangwm Cricket Club and he is rightly held in real respect by the current players - and a trip to Pill Parks is invariably there for us to enjoy a long chat as we sit beyond the boundary rope to watch the game, often taking about games we played as respective captains of Llangwm and Pembroke Seconds after we had both stepped down from first team action.
Early start with his only club
Dai has never played anywhere else and it was in 1957 that he made his debut when the club had only one team in Division Three (North) and after watching the team from the village where he has always lived had a couple of games when they were short - but was soon a regular and after a couple of seasons a regular choice.
Llangwm won Division Three (North) for the first time in 1958, when Dai was playing with his brother John , Billy Hitchings (Captain), Dennis Cole and Tony Philpin as some of his team mates.
In those dim and distant days there was no limit on the number of overs a player could bowl and Dai regularly bowled 20 overs and Bert Jones and Brinley Gittings bowled at the opposite end.
Some unusual fixtures
“As well as league action we also took part in the local April Cup, which was played over 16 eight-ball overs by both teams, and we took on other clubs like Johnston, St Ishmaels, Murex (a factory team from Hakin) on matting placed over concrete - and on bare concrete at Herbrandston, which was interesting because we weren’t used to it and they had some fast bowlers!
“We used to play against ‘The Woodpeckers’, a team which played behind the Bush Inn in Robertson Wathen - and used to take on Ferryside on the beach, with a mat placed over the sand - and some of our players now think I am kidding when I tell them that!’
Smashing success in The Bowl
Dai played in five Harrison-Allen Finals, with Tony Kiff, Bert Jones, Barry Jones, Jack Scale with some of his team mates, and was also honoured with the captaincy in two of them.
“I remember us beating Neyland when I was captain and also when lost off the last ball against Kilgetty. They were all great days and were celebrated really well by us and our supporters - and we also beat Narberth in a Duggie Morris Cup Final which was played at Pembroke Cricket Club.
“Another huge highlight was winning the first division for the only time in the club’s history and again I was really honoured to be captain of such a strong side.”
Memorable family moments
Another great day for me was the time that I played in a Bowl final alongside my son Mark who was then about 16 years old - and Mark’s children Noah and Maisy both represented Wales at junior level on a number of occasions, which brought great joy to Susan and me.
Ask Dai about his playing days and he could list dozens of opponents he respected who became firm friends, but far too many for this article – and it is the same with players from Llangwm, right up to the present time when his grandsons Noah Davies and David Lewis played in the Harrison-Allen Bowl Final last week.
He was club chairman for more than 20 years and worked very hard on the pitch for a long time – and is rightly held in high esteem by the current squad and at clubs around the county when he goes with his dog Raffle – and we at PembrokeshireSport.co.uk can say, with total honesty, that Dai Davies is a gentleman of sport in every sense of the word!
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