Off Topic On this day

4 years ago!!
Time really is flying by

 

Even stranger was Bobley’s claim that he was as good as / on the same level as Carlo Ancelotti, Guardiola and Klopp ......

 

39 years ago today:

 

Gentlemen Guido. Shafted by big nose at the presser too. Lovely man.

 

As an 11 year old at the time I can still remember this awful day.

 

RIP

 

RIP

 

Mom was 1 and frequently talks about the tragedy and its affect on the local community (generation gap) RIP to all the souls lost, and the grief still being felt by survivors and families x

 

1 year ago today:

 

On this day 40 years ago, Johnny Owen (The Merthyr Matchstick) succumbed to the injuries received in his fight on 19 September 1980 with Lupe Pintor.

RIP

 

On this day in 2020 there was a farce of a US election.

 

RIP Johnny

 

When working in the area I often saw him running up the hill from Merthyr to Dowlais Top ,a bean pole of of a man and a heart twice as big. RIP Mr Owen.

 

Two ex Swansea managers up against each other on BT Sport tonight.. Leicester (Brendan) v Sporting Braga ( Carlos Carvalhal)

 

Number 5 Blast Furnace in Port Talbot exploded on 8 November 2001

I remember coming along the M4 from Cardiff and coming up to the Porthcawl junction and seeing the sky lit up ....

 

Happy Birthday to the legend that is Dai Morris 'the Shadow'

 

"He was one of the toughest men to put on a Welsh rugby jersey, a “working class hero” who worked down the pit before running on the pitch.
Ex-Wales and Neath back row forward Dai Morris nicknamed “The Shadow” once threatened to “deck” some of Wales’ hardest forwards whose drunken antics were swaying a propeller plane on a 1970s New Zealand tour.

As a boy growing up in Rhigos in the Cynon Valley the young Dai Morris befriended an injured magpie which consequently hopped on his shoulder on the way to school each morning and waited outside for the journey home.

Later, he brought a starving, scrawny Welsh mountain ewe back to life by feeding it milk from bottles and “Mary” then followed him wherever he went around the village.
In later life he rescued an injured duck being threatened by a fox from a dangerous frozen pond and taught the bird to come to his whistle commands.
In years to come, there would even be a pet cemetery behind his Rhigos home for his countless adopted, abandoned animals.
Rugby-playing miner Dai Morris won 34 caps for Wales in the years between 1967 and 1974, scoring six tries.
During his time in the Wales team, Morris won three Five Nations Championships (one shared with France), including two Triple Crowns and one Grand Slam.
He said: “I’m sure my kind of mental ‘down the pit and onto the field’ preparation would be frowned on now but I had little choice.
“I’d have a quick pithead shower, put on a tracksuit and jump in the car.”
“I don’t envy them being confined in the spacious Vale of Glamorgan headquarters but I do feel some of them need a life beyond rugby and training.

“How are they going to cope with reality?

“I suspect a few of the current players who have got into trouble in late-night incidents have been letting of steam because they are bored with the cloistered routine.”

Morris also has words of warning for the WRU.

He said: “We have four regional teams whereas there were 16 first class clubs when I was playing.

“That meant more were exposed to the demands of competitive rugby.

“There are some exceptional players in the current Welsh set-up and the success they have achieved is well deserved.

“But below the elite regional level I genuinely believe we could be in trouble before long.

“We have too many struggling clubs, too many 15 and 16-year-olds drifting off and far too many ‘old-hand mercenaries’ at senior level drifting in and some of our best players drifting out.”

He added: “What I do know is hardness is not born in a gym.”
Speaking of the tackle by fellow Welsh international Tommy David in 1974 that ended his career, Morris said: “I was spun around and heard my leg crack.
“I had broken my cruciate ligaments. I knew it was serious. The pain was unbelievable. But I refused to go to hospital. I can’t stand hospitals.”
His friend, “the Bard of Glynneath” Max Boyce said: “In rugby terms he’s the definitive working class hero, one of the greatest players to wear the Welsh jersey.”
Gareth Edwards added: “What we had from Dai, every game, was a full shift. He’d be everywhere.”
Ex Wales and British Lions star Barry John said: “If I went on one of my running jaunts and felt the world closing in all I had to do was pop the ball over my head because I knew the ever present W D Morris would be there.”

Morris’ daughter Helen said: “I’m as soft as my father. I’ve still got a stray dog 15 years after it was abandoned.
“And yes, I confess I went to a supermarket for biscuits to feed some ragged sheep.”

His wife Marlene said: “He’s played some of the toughest of opponents but there’s not a mean bone in his body.
“Dai Morris to us is a real softie but only we’re allowed to say that.

 

Arguably, the best British player never to be selected for a Lions Tour

 

Great player, and person. ....... never had any trouble when I refed Dai .. Wilson Lauder. From Scotland
on the other flank, ...... what a pair.