January 2011
2011 – Bring It On
As we anticipate what lies ahead in 2011 we will be looking back to our formation as a rugby club in 1886. This means that 2011 is our 125th year as I have mentioned in previous articles. I am sure the founding forefathers of the club drawn from St.Peter’s In the Fields (as St.Peter’s church in Roath was originally known) could not possibly have dreamt that their club would be thriving so far into the future. I must say that it is hard to imagine the club being around for the next 125 years into 2136 but I would not bet against it just yet.
The history of the Club has been well documented but our greater interest now lies in what the future brings. We are realists and know that the next chapter will be fraught with difficulties which will probably be centered on the financial necessity of raising sufficient revenue to stay afloat. We are in the process of signing a 99 year lease with Cardiff City Council for the ground and so that will stretch away into the future. We would like to improve the playing facilities to include a spectator stand and an all-weather training facility but this will not happen in the forseeable future unless the Lottery Gods are smiling on us. In the current economic climate survival is the key motivator and the banks are famously reluctant to invest money in sporting organisations which they see as having a high-risk profile. We will continue to look to the Welsh Rugby Union, key sponsors and our members to maintain their generous support in the times ahead.
Much is made of the word community and indeed this publication is aimed at a local community in Cardiff. It is our firm view that our role is to continue to be a major contributor to community activities. I am delighted that, as a direct result of the previous article I wrote in this magazine, we have commenced a dialogue with our near neighbours at Parkminster Church who are keen to find ways of working together to achieve common aims within the community. We welcome the opportunity of doing so. Once again this underlines the real (and ecumenical) aims of our club – rugby being only one aspect of our activities.
A fine example of the spirit that has been engendered within our players followed the recent horrendous injury to one of our 1st Team players Luke Gibson. He suffered a badly broken leg just before Christmas which required an operation to insert a number of pins and a plate to hold his leg together. Within 3 weeks he took a youth training session from the comfort of a deckchair and crutches. An unusual style of coaching I grant you and probably not one that Warren Gatland will want to follow. However, what a positive attitude from a player who could be forgiven for wanting to be as far away from a rugby pitch as possible.
As you might imagine there have been many incidents on Club Tours over the years that have now passed into folklore. Some true, some never to be repeated and some unprintable. However, I was reminded recently by my father who at 90 years of age is probably the oldest Club member, of the exploits of his great friend Ted Reavy who alas is no longer with us. Ted was a proud Irishman who came over during the war to join the RAF and never went home again having the great good sense to marry a Welsh girl. Bizarrely this feat was repeated many years later by his son Eamon who having gone on the Club Tour to Newcastle, met a girl, got married and never came back to Cardiff. Ted was a rear gunner in Wellington bombers during the war and completed many missions over Germany. This fearless approach was carried onto the rugby pitch and the same bravado could occasionally be seen off the pitch. Picture the scene, the Club is on tour in Cork in Ireland in the early 1950’s with wives and girlfriends (tours must have been very different in those days) and Ted decided to hire a car to show some team mates where he grew up. All went well apart from the fact that he did not have a driving licence which seemed a minor detail to the hire company. After 3 days of driving around country lanes at breakneck speeds which would put Toad from The Wind in the Willows to shame, Ted handed the car back. The hugely relieved owner of the car hire company sheepishly asked him if he could hazard a guess as to the wherabouts of the car bonnet. Apparently, it had fallen off at some point which went unnoticed, was never recovered and to this day is probably somewhere in a field in County Cork rusting away quietly.
Finally, since it is a New Year I thought a joke for January would be appropriate. Our Club used to be so poor that we once ran a dating agency for poultry. It was the only way we could make hens meet! Sorry.
Have a Happy and Prosperous 2011
Vince Nolan
