Sporting Snippets Section - October Edition

 

 

 

John Donnachie and his smashing wife Jill are well known figures around the cricket fields of Pembrokeshire and as keen followers of Haverfordwest County AFC in the Welsh League.

Although John was captain of Lamphey for a number of years it is Carew that he and Mrs D now follow and so when the club’s youth team was drawn against their counterparts from Crymych they decided it was a good time to visit Glandy Cross for the first time.

All went well as they left Freshwater East in their posh car but when they arrived in the Crymych area they realised they didn’t have a clue where the picturesque ground was. After going up and down the same roads a couple of time they resorted to asking for directions in a pub and were told “It’s up the road!”

And it was too because after a couple more u-turns they arrived at Glandy Cross and marvelled at how lovely the setting is and how good the pitch looked. Jill has threatened to get our John a new Satnav but as we told her, it would do no good because there is no post code at some of the cricketing outposts of Pembrokeshire!

 

Have you ever got lost in the Pembrokeshire Show? Well we know an ageing sports writer who did just that on the very first day of this year’s show.

All went brilliantly as he and his long-suffering wife found easy access into the show, easily the quickest they have encountered in 30 years, parking on the runway tarmac and straight in to the delights of the show. The trouble started, however when their tired feet told them it was time to wend their way home, walking out of the exit and onto the runway tarmac.

But they could find no sign of their little car and after half an hour of searching up and down the runway were coming around to the conclusion that perhaps it had been stolen.

But then the old feller took a deep breath, found his bearings and realised they had come out of the wrong exit, and were on the wrong section of the runway!

A not-so-brisk walk of another ten minutes took the weary couple in the right direction and they heaved a sigh of relief when the indicator lights came on when he waved the ignition key in the right direction.

But now his better half will surely not allow him to forget how badly his direction finder has gone awry whenever they park their car in another big space!

 

A former Haverfordwest Mayor and Councillor telephoned sports editor Gordon Thomas to tell him that he had published the wrong cricket reports in the Western Telegraph and a rather flummoxed Mr Thomas asked the gentleman to ‘hold the line’ while he got a copy of the week’s paper.

Gordon then asked: “What page are the wrong reports published on?” and was told: “Turn to page 102.”

“I’m sorry to inform you,” said Gordon, “but we only published 96 pages this week and the cricket reports are on pages 94 and 95. Are you sure you are not reading last week’s paper? This week’s issue date is Wednesday, July 31.”

There was an uncomfortable silence before the caller twigged his error. “Christ, I’ve got last week’s paper,” he said, and then blamed his wife by shouting: “You’ve got the wrong paper. Where did you buy it? Morrisons?”

It was then that the caller donned a different attitude and chuckled about his error but Gordon was just delighted to hear that the old timer keeps up to date (or just a week behind!) with sports news in the Western Telegraph!

 

Stanley Evans was best known in sport as a gritty hooker with Llangwm RFC but now our Stan enjoys nothing better than sitting at Pill Parks to watch Llangwm play cricket.

So when Dai Davies organised the Llangwm CC Golf Day, Stan was roped in to take part, after a few years without wielding a club in anger.

Golf-wise, Stan was soon into the swing of things (if you’ll pardon the pun) but endured a tricky moment when his ball settled on the edge of a ditch. Stan was all for moving it to a better lie until he was reminded by his three mates that it would cost him a shot.

Now Stan is nowt if not a competitor and so he played his shot on the edge, but missed seeing that he had hit the ball in the general direction of the hole because he took an almighty tumble – straight into the ditch!

Needless to say, Stan had no sympathy from his so-called playing colleagues, who were also in a heap but through laughter!

He was aching for a while but we are pleased to report that he is now back to his cheerful old self – and telling all and sundry about his golfing mishap!

 

When Glamorgan recently played a Pembrokeshire Select XI in two 20/20 matches at Cresselly as part of the benefit year for skipper Mark Wallace, a local batsman certainly had good cause to remember his facing Simon Jones, the former England fast bowler.

Nice guy that he is, Simon doesn’t take too kindly to batsmen facing him without a helmet on and Neyland skipper Gregg Miller opened the innings on the premise that since he had never worn a helmet it wasn’t the right time to try one in this match. Gregg readily admits that he was a little fooled by the fact that Simon loped in off a relatively short run but the next thing Gregg remembers is hearing the ball fizz past his nose!

“I couldn’t believe how fast the ball went past,” admitted Gregg, “and I was just relieved to get bat on ball a few times and get to the other end unscathed.”

It nicely rounded off a memorable season for Mr Miller, who guided Neyland to the treble of League title, Harrison-Allen Bowl and Duggie Morris Cup – and can now say that he was able to face a former England fast bowler without a helmet on!

 

Ben Field also faced Simon Jones in the same match and although he knows the Glamorgan pace man from their playing days together with Dyfed Youth, even going on a tour abroad together, expected no favours, which is exactly what happened.

Ben did wear a helmet because Simon had gently told him before the game started to expect a couple of fast balls.

But Ben was totally taken aback when his first ball whizzed towards him and the only way to get out of trouble was to take evasive action – and the next thing he knew was that he was on his knees, with his nose just an inch short of the stumps.

“Simon didn’t say a word,” said Ben “he just turned around, walked back to his mark and waited until I was ready. It was quite a pace so I would hate to think what he was like when he was at his fastest!”

“We had a laugh about it after the match but I blame Gregg for winding him up in the first place,” said Ben with a typical chuckle!