Chapter 4
Confusion and Rivalry (the inter-war years)
During the Great War, rugby was not played in St. Peter’s. The dreadful toll in life of that conflict is illustrated by a roll of honour board in the C. M. S. Most of those named were rugby men and the list is depressingly long.
For some reason an association football side was organised during the war for schoolboys. It was as though the Parish could not bring itself to play its traditional game even at schoolboy level, while the conflict took place. The boys who played were mainly those who helped to reform the rugby club and they included the Turnbull brothers, Kevin, Bernard and Maurice. The later two were destined to play rugby for Wales whilst Maurice became arguably the greatest cricketer Wales has ever produced as well as becoming a hockey international.
In 1919 rugby restarted and the Secretary was Joe Cullen who was to make a major contribution for the next decade and more. Early players included C. M. S. Jones and William Cummins who soon moved on to play for Bridgend and Treorchy respectively. Jones was to win two international caps in 1920 and Cummins four in 1922.
John Lord was the first captain and Jack O’Donovan his vice captain. They trained at the Maindy Barracks field (now the site of Companies House) under a Sergeant Major Jones, a former international. One of their number was Jim (Buller) Sullivan who soon left for Wigan Rugby League Club after a short spell with Cardiff R.F.C. Sullivan was to become a legend in the northern game. In 1921 St. Peter’s won the new Minnie Pride Cup by beating St. David’s 14-3. This cup was intended to be the senior trophy in Cardiff and District circles and, although the competition was soon to disappear, the first final attracted tremendous interest at the time. That year St. Peter’s also won the Lord Ninian Stuart Cup as it was then known without conceding a try. They finished the season with 365 points for and only 69 against and were promptly invited to high tea at the presbytery by the Rector, Fr. Fennell. In 1920/21 a second team was formed with John O’Neill captain and Charles O’Brien (for many years the choirmaster at St. Peter’s Church) as Secretary. Also an ex-schoolboys team played with W. Sexton captain and schoolmaster Oswald Lord as Secretary and, if that was not enough, a junior (Youth) side started playing.
But from this splendid restart divisions became apparent which were to hinder the development of the Club throughout the 1920s. The first team began to be known as St. Peter’s C. Y. M. S. and the second team also adopted the C. Y. M. S. label, although it started to develop as virtually a separate club. By 1921/22 another team known as St. Peter’s United (The Rags) had formed. Under captain Paddy Whelan they won the A. H. Williams or Spokes Cup beating St. Paul’s 2nds in the final. The Rector, to be even-handed, entertained them to high tea to which they did full justice.
These facts and many others have been obtained from the second series of St. Peter’s Parish Magazines which were produced from 1921 to 1930 with Fr. Cronin, a great rugby enthusiast, as editor.
The C.Y.M.S. side was clearly the most powerful St. Peter’s team of the early 1920s with Philip Turnbull JP as Patron and an impressive array of dignitaries as Vice Presidents. They held a Smoker in August, 1921 which was recorded as a very successful social event with C. O’Brien on piano and W. Sullivan on the Bones! In 1921/22 they reached the semi-finals of the Mallett and Minnie Pride Cups and were second in the league. E. Howe was captain and J. Kelly vice captain. The 2nd XV with John O’Neill captain and G. Connell vice captain reached the final of the Lord Ninian Stuart Cup where they lost to St. Paul’s. It was a fine year for the school team who won 20 and drew 1 of their 22 games. Johnny Ring won a schoolboy cap (the grandfather of Mark and Paul Ring).
In 1922/23 J. Donovan was captain of the 1st XV with F. Hume his vice captain, whilst the Lord Mayor, Councillor Turnbull, was Patron, Joe Cullin and J. Tobin were joint Secretaries and R. O’Keefe Chairman. They played at Sophia Gardens where they changed under the trees. A Christmas Tour of Devon was the highlight of the season where they played Sidmouth in front of a crowd reputed to number 5000. At one stage they dropped the C.Y.M.S. tag but quickly took it up again. The 2nd XV continued to be organised as a separate team and even went on a separate tour whilst another ex-schoolboys side started under the auspices of the ‘After Care Committee’.
In the following year Harry Howe was captain, J. O’Neill Secretary and C. W. Smith Chairman. The 2nd XV seems to have been defunct this season and a sign of difficulty was that the C.Y.M.S. had to deny that ‘the Society’s rooms are merely receptacles for the manufacture of billiard experts and cardsharpers!’ At times during the season Howe, Tommy Gorman and Martin Regan all played for Cardiff.
The Club lost a replay to Cardiff Hibernians in the Mallett Cup after winning the first game only to be instructed to play again by the Cardiff and District Committee on a technicality. Opponents that year included Dinas Powys, Roath Road Brotherhood, Pill Harriers, Machen, Loudouns, Bargoed, Newport Hibernians, Barry, Spillers, Llanishen, St.Mary’s C.Y.M.S., Porth, Longcross, Pontyclun and St. Mary’s Canton.
The St. Peter’s United team were now led by Tommy Gorman, one of those players who played for Cardiff during the season, with Paddy Whelan as vice captain. Daniel Dunn was Secretary and in the Magazine he somewhat pompously announced that ‘his team are equal to any other team as far as clean football is concerned and are held in high esteem by all teams they have played’. The United used to meet in the Shamrock Hotel in City Road and in an early display of commercial acumen were sponsored by the landlord. However in March 1924 the United joined the C.Y.M.S. en bloc. This attempt at reconciliation was doomed to failure as the C.Y.M.S. made clear when they recorded ‘continuance of membership will depend largely n their ability to keep the chief rules at least and not to make the Society’s premises a convenient haunt for just football meetings on Thursdays’. After such a welcome the United were soon back at the less demanding Shamrock Hotel. In 1923/24 the United drew in the Lord Ninian Stuart Cup final against Senghenydd and shared the cup.
In 1925 Bernard Turnbull of Cardiff R.F.C. was capped against Ireland. He became the fifth St. Peter’s cap and was to win six in all. In the same year Johnny Kelleher, who had been at St. Peter’s school but was then at St. Illtyd’s, won a schoolboy international cap.
In 1924/25 Dennis McCarthy was the captain of the C.Y.M.S. with Charles O’Brien and John O’Neill as joint Secretaries. (McCarthy’s three sons, John, Gerald and Tommy were all to play for Cardiff R.F.C. as outside halves.) Players included M.Cummins, Roland Page, Mike Daly, Tim O’Brien (‘Tim the Divil’), G. Howe, John Buttridge and J. Ryan. They travelled to Ireland at Easter on the ‘Moorfowl’ a cattle boat and slept on deck with the cattle in order to make the trip financially possible.
They played Dolphin at the ‘Mardyke’ in Cork before a crowd reputed to be 10,000. Since it was a guarantee game they were delighted, but later found that few had paid to get in, the rest claiming to be unemployed, and the Club lost £17 on the tour in spite of the cheap way of travelling.
After a few quiet years, the school team, led by Garry O’Neill, were again dominant and won 19 and drew 1 of their 24 games. The United team again won the Lord Ninian Stuart Cup.
In the 1925/26 season the divisions in the St. Peter’s rugby fraternity became more apparent. The United team changed its name to St. Peter’s Athletic and were joined by some ex C.Y.M.S. players including John Buttridge. Joe Cullen, formerly a C.Y.M.S. Secretary, became the new Athletic Secretary. Tommy Gorman was captain and Paddy Regan vice captain and players included Steve Doubler, C.O’Brien, T.Radmilovic, H. and W.Sullivan, J.O’Brien, J.Donovan, A.Ellery, T.McDonald, W.Davies, Rowland Page and J.Murray. D.Raincy, an uncle of the current generation of Coughlins, was the trainer.
The C.Y.M.S. led by Secretary V. J. F. Smith and captain John O’Neill did not take kindly to this shift of rugby power in the Parish and announced in the magazine ‘The club is desirous of making known that they have no connection whatever with an extensively advertised club called St. Peter’s Athletic’. The two clubs were involved in a peculiar incident in the Mallett Cup. The strength of the teams was shown by them both reaching the semi-finals of the competition. The Athletic were due to play Grange Baptists and the C.Y.M.S. drew Canton. The Cardiff and District Committee decreed that the semi-finals were to be played on Good Friday 1926. This immediately caused problems for the St. Peter’s sides. The C.Y.M.S. wrote to the South Wales Echo stating their objections to playing on a Good Friday on religious grounds but could not resist a P. S. ‘We would like to add that the team St. Peter’s Athletic has no connection with our club or St. Peter’s Parish’. Joe Cullen was stung into replying in kind. Fr. Cronin, who one suspects was amused by it all, published this reply in the magazine ‘We desire to contradict the statement made by St. Peter’s C.Y.M.S. that we have no connection with St. Peter’s Parish. In the first place we claim that we are the original St. Peter’s R.F.C. (Post war) having still several players who helped win the gold and silver medals a few seasons ago. The majority of our team are old St. Peter’s boys. We certainly have no connection with the C.Y.M.S. We know that they haven’t a third of their players who can say they belong to the Parish. Still we quite agree with them in refusing to play their semi-final in the Mallett Cup on Good Friday. We also protested against playing on such a day and ‘certainly do not intend to do so.’ The refusal of the St. Peter’s teams to play received considerable favourable publicity in the local press but incredibly the Cardiff and District Committee refused to alter the date and hence Canton and the Baptists went through to the final by default. In retrospect a final between the St. Peter’s teams might have been a heated affair judging by the attitude of the officials.
Another ex-schoolboys side with Charlie Walsh captain started in 1925/26.
In that season the school itself enjoyed a fine year with 21 wins from 22 games and scored 360 points for whilst conceding only 33. Their only defeat was at the hands of St. Illtyd’s but even that was avenged. Their players included Garry O’Neill (captain), the son of the international Billy Neill (for some reason Billy had dropped the ’0′), John Manley, John Regan, W.Francis, Pat Downey, W. Hurley, Bernard Mahoney (a cousin of John Ring), John ‘Slogger’ Hill, Patsie Manley and Andrew Coughlin. These names were to occur again and again over the next few years as they began playing senior rugby for St. Peter’s. The crucial school game which clinched the league title was against St. David’s and the Rocks won 9-3 but not before the St. David’s outside-half, Tom Regan, had opened the scoring with a try which was recorded thus: ‘This boy introduced a move which I think is quite new in rugby. He not only deceived our boys but I think every person on the field!’ Sadly the scribe does not detail this intriguing move but it was surely typical of Tom Regan who led not only St. David’s but also Cardiff Schools and was destined to become the Chairman of St. Peter’s R.F.C. in the Post-war Years.
It is interesting to note that the referees in those days were appointed at the Glove and Shears Hotel at the corner of Kingsway and Duke Street before it was redeveloped. The meeting was on each Monday evening and the Hotel acted as the headquarters of the Cardiff and District Rugby Union. The Secretary was Bob John, well known as a rugby administrator.
The 1926/27 season opened with a strange note in the Parish Magazine from John Lord the sportsmaster of St. Peter’s School. ‘A few words are necessary about the prominence given to the school concerning the team turning over to the Northern Union code. Here again we have the press making a mountain out of a mole heap. The supposed offer of £50 to be granted to the school for equipment, etc. was never made except in jest. It is true that the subject of playing the Northern Union code was discussed with me but even the gentleman speaking knew that unless it could be done by all schools in the Union it would simply be a failure.’ That such a thought could have even crossed the mind of the worthy sportsmaster must have brought a few of the old officials near to heart attacks! The matter was quickly buried and never mentioned again. The school side was to win the league for the second year in succession.
The C.Y.M.S. side of 1926/27 was ‘but a shadow of the highly successful team of last year’. James Cummins was captain when they again reached the semi-final of the Mallett Cup where they lost to Canton.
The St. Peter’s Athletic team seemed to have disappeared in the mid to late 1920s.
However another team was formed in 1926/27 which was to grow into the eventual heirs of the St. Peter’s rugby tradition. This was a new ex-schoolboys side. Their first meeting was at St. Peter’s Guildhall on 8th September 1926, under the chairmanship of Kevin Turnbull. Turnbull was playing with Cardiff R.F.C. by then like his brothers but he bought the team jerseys, knicks and boots – a most generous gesture which typified the continuing involvement and interest of the Turnbull family in St. Peter’s rugby. J.R. (Jack) Donovan was secretary and Fr. Hickey had much to do with the initial organisation before he was posted elsewhere even as the team was being formed. Bernard Mahoney was captain and the players were those who had featured in the successful school sides of previous seasons. They included Garry O’Neill, J.Manley, T.Kenefick, Alee Grist, P.McCormack the full back, and W.Barrett and Walsh in the forwards. They were giving much away in age and weight so the early matches were difficult which prompted a stoic note in the Magazine ‘Our boys are going strong; the team is as enthusiastic as ever. They are taking hard knocks from older and heavier XVs and their experiences are making the boys a manly and sportsmanlike lot.’ However they began to win more games as the season progressed. They even had a good run in the ex-schoolboys cup losing in the final to a team organised by Cardiff Rugby Supporters. They played the C.Y.M.S. junior side no less than three times – ‘Greek meeting Greek’. After losing the first game, they won the second and the C.Y.M.S. clearly determined to put the upstarts in their place arranged a decider which the ex-schoolboys won 14-5 – ‘the smaller, though cleverer side, prevailed against height, weight and brawn’. No team likes to be described in the latter terms and by the following season the younger C.Y.M.S. juniors had joined the ex-schoolboys in the first act of consolidation.
The C.Y.M.S. decline continued into 1927/28 a year when the President was F.W.Lewis, Vice President Alderman Turnbull, Chairman John O’Neill, Treasurer J.Cummins and Secretary J.T.Mahoney. The captain was J.Hurley.
The ex-schoolboys elected Alec Grist as captain and new names appeared in the results including Con Manley and Steve Hurley. They announced their intention of eventually dropping the ex-schoolboys title and becoming St. Peter’s R.F.C. (no C.Y.M.S., no United, no Athletic!). Finance was a problem and there was an emotional appeal by Fr. Cronin for help for Jack Donovan. Kevin Turnbull’s jerseys were recorded as being sadly the worst for wear. Nevertheless there was no lack of commitment and the team even attracted a large crowd of ‘joiliers’ including schoolboys. They played at Sophia Gardens where they changed under the trees.
At the end of the season a special side was raised by the C.Y.M.S. to play a traditional match against St. Helens, Barry and, perhaps in recognition of the way things were going, it included several of the ex-schoolboys and was captained by Harry Howe who was to join Cardiff R.F.C. the following year.
The 1928/29 season was the last one when the C.Y.M.S. raised regular teams and gradually the ex-schoolboys took over the rugby role in the Parish. J.O’Neill was captain and players included John ‘Slogger’ Hill, Bernard Mahoney. Steve Hurley, Jack Simmonds, D.’Spike’ Leahy, P.McCormack, Garry O’Neill, T.Kenefick, Alec Grist (who joined Cardiff Romilly later that year), J.Fenton and a formidable forward Walkamer. Jack Donovan remained as Secretary. It was arranged for the side to change in the back of the Packet and Pea Shop in Quay Street. Although this must have been an improvement to the Sophia Gardens trees, it involved a long walk and merely emphasized the lack of facilities in those years.
It is interesting to note that there was a soccer team as well as baseball and cricket sides in the Parish in the 1920s.
In 1929/30 the ‘ex-schoolboys’ had dropped the title and, as St. Peter’s R.F.C., were the only side in the Parish. John Lane was Chairman, Joe Cullen returned as Secretary and Steve Hurley became captain. Garry O’Neill played for Cardiff that year but returned by the end of the season. Sadly, at the age of 18, it was his final season as he fell victim to a tragic illness from which he died four years later. An anonymous gift of a new set of jerseys was received. The team, free of the squabbles which had beset St. Peter’s sides for the past decade, improved rapidly and won the Ninian Stuart Cup after a strange incident.
They were due to play Cardiff Crusaders (the old St. Paul’s) in the final at the Barracks Field and turned up to find a huge crowd present but no opponents. They duly ‘claimed’ the Cup but the Cardiff and District Committee ruled that there had been some misunderstanding and another date was arranged. St. Peter’s won by a solitary try scored by Con Manley but only after they stopped a certain try by the Crusaders. The Crusaders half-back, ‘Tupper’ Carey, played with his shorts held up by a tie. ‘Tupper’ broke through and was about to score when he was ‘tackled’ by Steve Hurley who caught hold of the end of the tie. Fortunately for ‘Tupper’s’ modesty but not for his team’s cup chances, the tie did not break and the half-back fell inches short of the line.
In February 1930 a new ex-schoolboys team was formed consisting of St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s former pupils. Although it started as St. Peter’s 2nds it soon adopted the ex-schoolboys title. Pat Doran was the captain.
The school team of 1929/30 won the Championship again with 18 wins and 2 draws out of 20 games. They were led by J.O’Shea with Tom Holley as vice captain. Tom was later to play for both St. Peter’s and Cardiff and eventually after the war was to become one of the best known trainers in rugby. O’Shea and Holley together with Huntley and O’Keefe played for the Cardiff Schools team. This was not an unusual feature as the Magazine notes that a ‘Cardiff Schools team would hardly be complete without at least one St. Peter’s representative. A sports critic described them as Cardiff’s great rugby school.’ Less glowing comments were received after the key match with Herbert Thompson school, which was a ding-dong battle, which proved to be one of the fastest and most exciting seen on Sophia Gardens. A draw was a fair reflection of play but ‘unfortunately our opponents were not satisfied with the result and a protest was sent to the Schools Union claiming a replay on account of spectators!’
The following year the school experienced the sort of play which was to make a Welsh club famous in recent years when they won ‘a somewhat gruelling encounter with Pontypool, St. Alban’s by a rather doubtful try’.
The A.G.M. of 1930 indicated how strong the Club was becoming and a fine array of dignatories were elected. The President was the captain of Cardiff, B.R.Turnbull, the Patron was the Archbishop, and the Vice Presidents were Fr. Fennell, Fr. Cronin, Alderman F.H.Turnbull, Councillor O.C.Purnell, M.J.Turnbull, T.Traccy, John Keane, J.Crowley, W.H.Hill, J.Kingston, F.Hurdidge, Captain J.J.Williams, Dr. McSweeney, Dr. Buist, J.O’Neill and J.A.Lashford. Val Smith was Chairman, J. Fenton Treasurer, and once again Joe Cullen Secretary. Con Manley, a centre, became captain for the following three seasons.
The ex-schoolboys side was very successful for a season or two and, when old enough, several of its members formed the first St. Joseph’s R.F.C. team.
The Club won the Mallett Cup in 1930/31 to reach the top of Cardiff and District rugby. There was a feeling that the 1930s could become a golden era for St. Peter’s perhaps the best since the 1890s and it was reinforced when the Mallett Cup was won again in 1931/32. The hat-trick was almost achieved by Manley’s team the next year but the Club was beaten by a single point after a late penalty goal had snatched victory for an improving Spillers team.
The 1933/34 season was memorable in that Maurice Turnbull was capped twice by Wales against England and Ireland. It is often forgotten that this brilliant sportsman who achieved so much for Welsh cricket was also a rugby international. He became the sixth St. Peter’s cap. Readers will have noted that the Turnbulls had never forgotten their roots and had supported St. Peter’s R.F.C. through thick and thin and there was considerable satisfaction in the Parish at Maurice’s achievement.
In 1933 Joe Cullen junior, the son of the long serving St. Peter’s Secretary, became the third boy to win a schoolboy cap direct from St. Peter’s.
Con Manley retired in 1933 and was replaced as captain by wing Jack ‘Anzac’ Simmonds. The 1933/34 season became infamous for a dramatic event which was to change the course of the history of St. Peter’s R.F.C.
In the latter stages of the Mallett Cup St. Peter’s met Grange Baptists. Having won the Cup in two of the previous three seasons, St. Peter’s were firm favourites. However the Baptists played heroically and won narrowly. Disgruntled, St. Peter’s protested to the Cardiff and District Committee that the Baptists had played a well known local character at outside half, Jack Cookley, who had been a rugby league professional a year or two before and who had contributed decisively to the Baptist’s victory. The Cardiff and District Committee’s decisions in the inter-war years were often ‘interesting’ as the 1926 Good Friday incident related earlier illustrates. However St. Peter’s must have been astonished when the District not only banned the Baptists sine die for playing a professional but also banned St. Peter’s for knowingly playing against him! Apparently there had been some debate in the St. Peter’s ranks about whether to protest at all on sporting grounds and one can imagine the reaction of those who had been in favour of silence when the District decision was announced.
The author remembers his father who was playing with the Baptists at the time relating this tale. Apparently the District were quite fond of banning clubs and it was not the first time they had resorted to this ultimate deterrent. The Baptists simply reformed under another name in the following season and whilst admiring their nimble footedness it is sad to note the Grange Baptists R.F.C., a famous name in the inter-war years, never appeared again.
For St. Peter’s no such change could be contemplated and after protest the Club was advised to wait a few years before appealing again. It is difficult to imagine such a decision being made today let alone not rescinded. The players dispersed to other clubs including St. Joseph’s and Spillers. What might have been a glorious period of the 1930s came to a premature end.
The Baseball Club was left to carry the Parish sporting honours in the late 1930s. In 1935 they reached the semi-final of the South Wales Echo Cup and in 1936 they were undefeated in the League and runners-up in the Echo Cup. The following year they won the Cup (against Cardiff Villa) with Bill Mannings as captain. In 1939 Des Walsh won a schoolboy cap in the only ever Baseball Schools international. After the war Des was to play for St. Peter’s before moving on to Grange Albion from where he was capped for Wales.
It is not known whether the Rugby Club ever officially appealed against the ban in the late 1930s. Soon matters of a more serious kind over the English Channel began to occupy everyone’s attention and rugby football was set aside as the country went to war again.
Technically the ban may never have been lifted except by implication when the Club was accepted for membership of the District Union after the war. I am sure that the members of the 1986 District Committee will see the funny side of this when this tale is revealed to them.
