‘Around the Touchline’ feature:
When Charles Davies recently celebrated his 90th birthday he decided to mark it with a special run to mark the milestone, something that most of us would consider remarkable but for this stalwart of 70 years at Haverfordwest RFC it continued his tradition of running over many years as he also maintained his involvement of playing rugby by being actively involved in the game’s administration at club and county level.
In fact, Charles played in six different decades from the 40s to the 90s - and played his last game for the third team in a friendly against Fishguard Seconds at 63.
“To be honest, I was slotted in late on because we were a player short and I had my leg pulled for ages afterwards because I was warned by the referee for a high tackle - but I told him that it only happened because I was too slow to get out of the way!”
Heavily involved in school sport
It would be fair to say that sport has always played a huge part in his life since his days at the old Haverfordwest Grammar School, where he was rugby captain alongside being captain of the athletics team.
He certainly led in athletics by example as he competed regularly in the 100 yards (no metres in those days!) and had a best time of 10.8 seconds - and was a dab hand in the long jump and triple jump, which in his day was known as ‘the hop, step and jump’! He was county and Dyfed champion and represented the county schools’ squad in the hurdles at the Welsh Schools’ Championships at Maindy Stadium in Cardiff.
On one occasion, just after World War Two Charles was selected to represent the Combined Schools and Youth squads in Ireland and came back as a favourite with the local young ladies, not for his athletic prowess but because nylons and chocolates were not on ration there and he came home with a bag full of both!
National Service – a great time for sport!
Then when he joined the army for National Service he spent most of the two years in Edinburgh and he represented his regiment and Scottish Command in sprinting and long jumping - and he played rugby as a winger for the former, and grabbed 18 tries in two months.
“Much of the credit for that went to my centre Eric Ashton, who later captained the British Rugby League team - and with both the sports it felt like my National Service was a lot more enjoyable than most other people’s!”
Back home – Bishop Cup games against The Wasps and practice at County Hall!
When he returned home Charles started playing for Haverfordwest Rugby Club and was in the first team for seven seasons, as well as representing Pembrokeshire twice. There were no league games then and teams played so-called ‘friendlies’, other than the traditional twice-yearly Bishop Cup Games against Llangwm - and in those days The Wasps were so dominant that he never played in a team that picked up the coveted trophy, traditionally played for each Boxing Day and Easter Monday.
One of his sources of pride about that time is the fact that he held the club’s try-scoring record with 22 tries in a season and he would lay much of the credit to his centre colleague Dave Banner - and the pair worked in the same office in County Hall and visitors could be startled by seeing the intrepid pair practising a few moves in the corridor!
Other sports and a start in rugby admin
At that time Charles also enjoyed playing tennis and table tennis, and played the odd game of hockey if Haverfordwest were ever short of players - and had great fun in all three. Despite rugby by then being a principal interest outside his family, where his wife Marion has always been his greatest supporter, closely followed by his son Nicholas and daughter Sarah, plus their grandchildren.
When his playing career was over Charlie was roped in to use his administrative skills for The Blues and became honorary secretary at a time when the club won almost every honour available locally.
Very busy when Pembrokeshire beat Japan
A real highlight during that time came in a season when they were chosen to play host to the Knock Out and Sevens’ Cups - and then to hold a huge match where Pembrokeshire took on the Japanese touring team - and won!
“It was a huge organisational job and I was heavily involved alongside the late Dai Miller, meeting with the Japanese Ambassador on occasions, and especially on the day during the match and post-match dinner at the old Queen’s Function Centre.”
County chairman – and Hon Secretary for more than 20 years
As well as running the club as someone who took the minutes for over 20 years he was always ready to help as a general ‘dogsbody’ and could even be found taking admission money or selling programmes at the gate - and eventually became Chairman of the Pembrokeshire & District League, later to be known as District H under the WRU revamping of rugby whereby teams were expected to play clubs from other areas in newly-formed leagues.
After joining the committee as the club’s representative Charles followed being chairman by taking over from the late Glyn Morgan as Hon Secretary and holding on to the job for more than 20 years.
In similar vein, he has been on the committee of the Pembroke County Club, which has been responsible of running the county teams with their great successes over the years - and loved his involvement in both county areas of the game.
Huge fan of running half marathons and 10K races
Outside of his involvement in rugby it is fair to say that Charlie has always enjoyed keeping fit and running has been an enjoyable vehicle for this area of his life and over the years he has taken part in the Cardiff Half Marathon and the capital city’s 10k races over 20 times, (the last in 2017 when he was 84!) and he has also run 10K in places like Derby, Bristol and other places.
Blues’ president and deserved Life Member
Back at Haverfordwest RFC, Charlie’s efforts were rewarded with Honorary Life Membership a number of years ago and has been The Blues’ president for five years, which he says is an honour as he works alongside Delyth Summons (Hon Treasurer), Graham Dalton (Hon Secretary), and Alun Wills (Chairman) alongside an excellent committee.
“I try to attend every home match and something I have done for a number of years is to meet and greet the match day referees - and former club skipper Richard Thomas also does a great job now with a warm welcome.
“It is always nice to bump into old friends from other clubs who I have known for half a century - and even the local press like Gordon Thomas and Bill Carne, who I have got to know well over many years.”
And both of us can honestly say that the pleasure has been ours because Charles Davies is a gentleman of sport and still a wonderful ambassador for Haverfordwest RFC!”