When Hundleton under 15s football team reached the final of the cup for their age group in Pembrokeshire, no-one was more delighted than Gareth Davies, their enthusiastic coach.
Read his Face Book page for the week before they took on red-hot favourites Prendergast Villa and it was like he had ants in his pants, finding it hard to wait for the big day for his young charges, who had never played in a final before.
Rugby mad Gareth
It is an interesting story because if you were to ask Gareth about his own football playing days he would readily admit that his experience with the round ball was limited to his time in Grove Junior School and to kickabouts with his mates – but he was an outstanding flanker in a 15-year period with Pembroke RFC which included four years as captain and appearances at county level!
Sadly for Gareth and his young charges, at Hundleton there was to be no fairytale finish as they lost 5-0 to Michael ‘Glenys’ Davies’s Villa team but Gareth was happy that his youngsters had played their hearts out and enjoyed the occasion.
“I told them before the start how proud I was of them,” said Gareth, “and I don’t believe in shouting anything but encouragement once they start playing. I was just as proud when they came off because we all tried our best and although we lost we still celebrated afterwards!”
All four sons play for Hundleton
His youngest son Dylan is in the Hundleton under 15s team and completes a quartet of brothers who have played for the club because Gethin (25), Rhodri (22) and Huw (21) have all been involved s
o Gareth and wife Sandra (who is Hundleton’s junior and mini fixture secretary) hope that one day all four sons might turn out for the club at the same time.
Gareth began his involvement at Hundleton when Gethin started playing for their under 9s and when Mike Dearden had to go away to work they needed a coach at under 10 level. So Gareth was roped in after taking his Leaders’ Course, one of three he has completed now with Debbie Wise, and the nucleus of that team has been with Gareth ever since. He has always placed the emphasis on playing well whilst enjoying it to the full and until this season the best they had done was losing to the Villa by 2-1 in a semi-final.
Loads of jobs but great support
As well as coaching, his jobs include picking the team, putting the flags out on Saturday mornings and sometimes re-marking the lines, filling in the team sheets and making sure that everyone knows the arrangements for the afternoon.
“I have had wonderful support from the parents,” said Gareth, “especially with regard to picking the cup final team because it was inevitable that four players would be disappointed at missing out.
“But those lads shared our special day and I’ll make sure that they get exactly the same trophies as the others at our presentation evening at the Highgate Inn.”
Long way from his rugby days
It all seems a long way from his rugby playing days, where he started out as an open-side flanker at the old Coronation School in Pembroke Dock before joining Pembroke Youth and playing for two seasons alongside characters like Richard Baker, Anthony Morgan, Dai and John Hughes, Barry Clark, Andrew Gorton and Anthony Smith.
After just a handful of games with the seconds he started playing for the first team and played from 18 to 31, only stopping then because his work took him to London and further afield.
“I really enjoyed myself at Crickmarren,” Gareth told us, “and it was an honour to captain a team that included talented players like Rodney and Barry Cadogan, Martin Alderman, Simon and Matthew Edwards, Jeff Teague, Jeff Cole, Ray Bundock, Butch Gilbert, Nigel Thomas, Adrian Rowlands, Ninian Davies and Nigel Thomas.
Near miss in KO Cup Semi-final
“We got to the semi-final of the KO Cup but just missed out against Milford – and I’m still reminded by some of those players of the fact that it was my attempted pass to Brynley Skeels that got intercepted for Milford’s winning score!”
“Another highlight was beating Haverfordwest when they were the top team in the county and hadn’t lost for almost two years. It was the last match of the season and only Rod Cadogan and I played every match that year.”
Now he enjoys watching the southern hemisphere rugby on TV but rarely goes to Crickmarren to watch Pembroke play. He did play football a couple of seasons ago against Tesco in a charity football match but laughingly says,
“The first half was fine because I played in goal but in the second half I played at the back and made one run through to the other team’s goalmouth – and I couldn’t breathe for a while!”
One more season at the helm
So now the season is over Gareth has the chance to take stock on events, but it is a certainty that he will be involved for another season.
“I have to take this bunch of mine through to under 16 level and I hope we can build on this season just finished, but whether we do better or not we will still enjoy every match.
“Then I am going to take a bit of a rest and watch my other lads play senior football for Hundleton for a while.
“I hope all four will one day play together but come what may I want them to have as much enjoyment out of sport as I have. I have made so many lasting friendships and wouldn’t change my own involvement because I had so much out of sport.”
What Gareth forgets to mention is the great amount of commitment that he has always put in and PembrokeshireSport.co.uk has no doubt that Gareth Davies is a great advertisement for all that is good in local sport!