Museum of Welsh Cricket Podcast

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Matthew Maynard established, with his first class career, a place in the all-time record books of Glamorgan County Cricket Club.  But it is not just the quantity of runs that he scored that made Matt stand out amongst Glamorgan players of the modern age but the way in which he scored them.  

It would have come as no surprise to Glamorgan fans that Matt chose to call the book about his cricketing career 'On the Attack'.  They will have spent many seasons marveling at the glittering stroke-play and...

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Joe begins by introducing himself, talking about his early life in Bangor and Llandudno where his parents ran a little bed and breakfast business.

He describes his early sporting experiences, including his memories of the 1970 football World Cup.  He 'stumbled' upon the Llandudno Oval, the club's cricket ground and was hooked by the idea of playing the game.

He was a mischievous child and got into a little trouble with other members of the club but fell in love with cricket and that love has s...

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By way of a trailer for our episodes interviewing Matt about his cricket and sporting life, this mini episode features him talking about his latest charity fundraising walk from John O Groats to Lands End.

Matt is walking in aid of the Professional Cricketers' Trust and Help for Heroes  and is hoping to raise £10,000 for each charity.

To read about the challenge and to donate you can visit Matt's Just Giving Page here:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/mattwellymanwalk

The episodes fe...

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In this episode we interview three stalwarts of the Pirates cricket team, Port Talbot Town Cricket Club.  They are, in no particular order:

Mark Jones
Ian Rees 
Ray Cox

We talk about their early years, discovering cricket and joining the club as well as a little bit of the history of the club which dates from around 1963.  We hear about some of their exploits as players including Ray playing First Division cricket with both his sons.

The gents then answered a ser...

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In this episode we look back at some of the podcasts from last year.

The episodes covered are:

Three Englishmen of Wales
Special Episode: Walking in the Valleys for Young Cricketers
St. Helen's: A Tribute (Part 1)
Heroes and Headlines: St Helen's: A Tribute (Part 2)
Special Episode: Walking in the Valleys for Young Cricketers
Lucy Norman - Taking the Game Forward in North Wales
Wales National County (North): An Interview with Russell Penrhyn Jones
The Welsh Cup
100th...

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This weeks episode is an interview with two cricketers who have turned their love of the game into a fledgling business.

Rich describes how his pastime of making things with wood turned to repairing bats for friends and other club members and persuaded him to set up a business to deliver bat refurbishment to the wider cricketing community.

The boys describe how the business has grown organically, turning first to providing new bats and then to offer a small selection of cricket gear.

...

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Jean Silvan Evans had a successful career as a journalist and lecturer.  Her husband, also a journalist, was a keen supporter of Glamorgan County Cricket Club.  To keep him company, Jean would sometimes attend a day at the cricket with no intention of watching and little interest in what happened the other side of that boundary rope.

Slowly, with the help of Glamorgan's travelling supporters group the St Helen's Balconiers, Jean began not only to watch more of the play but also fell in love with what sh...

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In this episode we look at two County Championship match second innings' separated by 25 years.

The first took place during the 1998 season between Northants and Glamorgan at Wantage Road.  In their second innings, Mal Loye hit an incredible 322 not out as Northants saved the game with a second innings 712.  For the details of the game, you can go here:

http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1998/ENG_LOCAL/CC/R04/NORTHANTS_GLAM_CC_21-24MAY1998.html

The second took place in May 2023 at Hove wh...

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This week’s episode is a chat with members of the Hook Cricket Club that, this year has celebrated its centenary.  We talk to:

Dave Petrie who outlines the history of the village as well as charting the history of the cricket club.

Jamie Phelps shares with us the state of the club today and how they have gone about their centenary celebrations.

President Evan Martin shares his memories and his love of the game of cricket as well as his belo...

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This week's episode is an interview with the Head of Performance Science and Medicine at the ECB, Rob Ahmun.

Originally from Cardiff Rob was a strength and conditioning coach with Glamorgan before his move to the England Team in 2014.  He talks to us about his sporting journey and career to date.

Here is a page from the ECB website detailing the work of Rob's Department:

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/2104536/scie

Here is an article from the University of Essex d...

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In this episode we talk to those involved in the 51st Final of this competition.  They are, in order that they appear in the episode:

Steve Davies, workforce administrator, South West Wales
 Zack Gidlow , Chair of cricket at Colwyn Bay Cricket Club and first team player
Mike Haydn, Chair of Swansea Cricket Club
Neil Perrett, Chair, Usk Cricket Club
Brad Wadlan, Captain, Swansea Cricket Club
Sion Morris, Colwyn Bay Cricket Club

You can find a written report on the final he...

In this episode we remember long time treasurer with the St Helen's Balconiers Clive Hemp.

We talk to his children, David, Tim and Charlotte as well as his colleagues from the Balconiers Committee Allan Gray and Roger Skyrme, Swansea solicitor and main sponsor of the Swansea and West Wales cricket Festival Peter Lynne.

Our final guest who remembers Clive is Balconiers President Alan Jones.  Ex-Glamorgan cricketer and coach Alan has been President of Glamorgan County Cricket Club as well as the St Helen's Balconiers.

They talk about his time as a cricketer and t...

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In this episode we remember long time treasurer with the St Helen's Balconiers Clive Hemp.

We talk to his children, David, Tim and Charlotte as well as his colleagues from the Balconiers Committee Allan Gray and Roger Skyrme, Swansea solicitor and main sponsor of the Swansea and West Wales cricket Festival Peter Lynne.

Our final guest who remembers Clive is Balconiers President Alan Jones.  Ex-Glamorgan cricketer and coach Alan has been President of Glamorgan County Cricket Club as well as the St Helen's Balconiers.
Duration: 00:50:46

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Paul Rees is a popular club cricketer who has played most of his cricket in and around Swansea as well as a number of representative teams at age group and league level.

He talks to us about his early cricketing experiences and how he developed as a cricketer.  In passing we talk about his rugby career and how that impacted on his cricket.

Paul explains how he developed his strengths as a batsman but also how his bowling was what he was noted for early o...

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Ron Walton has spent a lifetime playing professional and amateur sport.  A footballer with Merthyr Town he went on to play professionally in Australia before starting a coaching career that saw him spend 18 seasons at Swansea City coaching the youth team as well as spells as caretaker manager.

He has played for a number of different cricket clubs in and around Merthyr but has spent the past few years playing for his home town club as well as clocking up over a 100 caps for the Wales Senior C...

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In this episode we talk to Russell Penrhyn Jones, the founder and driving force behind the Wales National County (North) Representative Teams.

Founded in 2022, the Senior and U19 representative teams aim to give cricketers in the North Wales region opportunities to play representative cricket, develop their skills and further their cricket career aims.  You can read a brief article on their development here:

https://cricketwales.org.uk/news/walesnc-north

Russell talks about his involvement as a player and then a coach in both r...

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In this second episode authors David Parry and Andrew Hignell outline some more of the history of cricket in North Wales focussing on the Colwyn Bay Cricket Club which was formed in 1923.

The episode opens with a discussion about Sydney Barnes, one of the most famous English cricketers of the Twentieth Century and his links to this part of Wales.  See here for a brief outline:

https://www.cricketmuseum.wales/sydney-barnes-a-great-welsh-bowler/

There is some talk of the welsh cricket union and Gwilym Evans R...

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Lucy is the first ever female chair of any recreational cricket league in Wales.   She is one of two women who have been appointed as chairs of ECB accredited premier leagues. Helen Ross has taken the helm of the Surrey Championship, while Lucy leads the North Wales Cricket League. 

She talks about her initial contact with the game through her father and her initial involvement with Buckley Cricket Club supporting both her sons in their cricketing development.

As part of the committee at Buckley she wa...

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This book, written and published to coincide with the centenary of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club, looks at the history of cricket in Denbigshire besides tracing how the club based in Rhos-on-Sea has become the venue for top class cricket in North Wales, as well as Glamorgan's northern outpost for first class cricket.

For a brief review of the book you can go here:

https://www.cricketweb.net/books/colwyn-bay/

In this first of two episodes we talk to co authors David Parry and...

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In this the final episode in tribute to the St Helen's ground Richard Bentley talks us through some of the great names who have played at the ground.  We discuss the number of steps from the pavilion to the playing surface which is mentioned regularly by players who played there and Richard recites the poem written about the ground by one of cricket's greatest commentators John Arlott.

He finishes with his thoughts about and hopes for the ground and some stories about previous Glamorgan players Tony Cottee, S...

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In this week’s episode we return to discuss the history of St Helen’s as a venue for first class cricket.  Our guest is Richard Bentley who is the co-author, with Malcolm Nash, of Malcom’s cricketing biography ‘Not Only But Also’, published by St David’s Press in 2018.  To purchase a copy of the book you can go here:

https://welsh-academic-press.shopfactory.com/contents/en-uk/p73_Not-Only-But-Also.html

First, Richard tells us about his own early encounters with the ground before starting to tell us about...

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Neath Cricket Club was founded in 1848 and is this year celebrating it’s 175th Anniversary.  As part of it’s celebrations it hosted an MCC XI at the Gnoll on Wednesday 14th June.

We went along and recorded a series of interviews with those who were in attendance.  They included life members, committee members, supporters, the match manager and captain of the MCC on the day and the professional caterer that was there.

Those wanting to know a little more about the history of the Gnoll...

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In this episode we interview broadcaster and author Alun Wyn Bevan about the non cricketing history of the ground covering some stories from his 2007 book 'St Helen's Stories'.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book you can follow this link to the Amazon site.  It is well worth considering purchasing a 'used' copy as the quality is often pretty good.  It is a fantastic read and cram packed full of cricketing, rugby and other history not all of which was captured in the ep...

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Last year, 5 cricket clubs in and around Cardiff got together for a fundraising walk for the junior sections of their clubs.  The brainchild of Cardiff Cricket Club President Michael Cann Walking in the Valleys for Young Cricketers was a great success.

This season there are 11 participating clubs plus the umpires / scorers representative organisation.  The clubs / organisations involved are as follows:

Cardiff Cricket Club
Pontypridd Cricket Club
Radyr Cricket Club
Machen Cricket Club
Porth Cricket Club
Hopkinstown Cricket Club
Ebbw Va...

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In this episode we speak to three Englishmen who have made their home in Wales and have played most if not all of their adult cricket here, representing Wales in their Seniors Teams at Over 50s, Over 60s and Over 70s levels.

Mick Staddon was born in Battersea and played most of his early cricket on Clapham Common, playing for Belleville Junior Boys and later attending Battersea Grammar School.  The school can boast two England players amongst their old boys, Mike Selvey and David Smith.  

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This episode marks the opening of a new exhibit at the CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket entitled 'Doug and the Don'.

Doug and The Don is a special exhibition that was launched by the CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket on National Sporting Heritage Day, 30 September 2022 which celebrates the friendship between two men at the opposite ends of the cricketing spectrum – Doug Davies, a genial club cricketer in South Wales and Sir Don Bradman, the world’s finest-ever batter and an Australian sporting icon.

“The Don was Do...

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In this, the final part of our trilogy of podcast episodes Michael Hogan finishes with some reflections on his time playing for the welsh county.

We run through some of his achievements as a Glamorgan player and he responds to all of these successes.  He talks very personably about being inducted into the Glamorgan County Cricket Club Hall of Fame.

He talks about his record of never having been given out lbw in first class cricket and when it broke as a 'news' item.
Duration: 00:22:55

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In this episode, Michael talks about his reason for coming to England.  He talks about Justin Langer as a coach and responds to what Justin thought of him.

He explains the circumstances that allowed him to play in English cricket as a domestic player and how he was able to play in both England and Australia for a period of time.

Michael talks about the first year of his stay in Wales and the difficulties for his family settling in to life in a different c...

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In this episode we hear from Glamorgan bowler Michael Hogan who has been with the welsh county since 2013 but has a first class career going back to 2009 with Western Australia.

In this the first of three episodes chatting to Michael he talks about his hometown of Newcastle in Eastern Australia, his family and his earliest sporting experiences.  Michael was very late coming to the first class game ( he was 28 when he made his debut for Western Australia) and he explains the reasons for this.

One b...

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This year was the 50th Anniversary of the South Wales Junior Cricket League.  As part of their celebrations they held a match between a Wales Over 50 XI and a representative U17 League XI at Pontarddulais Cricket Club.

We spoke to the following officers of the club about their memories of junior cricket and the league past and present:

Russell Davies, President
Ian Murphy, Chairman
Ben Roberts, Vice Chairman
John Davies, Secretary and Treasurer

There was a lot of reminiscing but a...

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The latest episode is a voyage of discovery.  Eleri Phillips and Martyn Griffiths are members of St Cadwg’s Church in Cadoxton near Neath.  Eleri, a recent volunteer with the graveyard restoration scheme, discovered a gravestone with simply a name on it.  That name was Joseph Lovering.  After some research of her own, the details were placed on the Church’s social media.  

Martyn, who is a local historian, was intrigued by this man who appeared to be a professional cricketer.  He discovered more details of Joe’s story, his...

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This episode  features the college and the Old Llandoverians Cricket Society and there are interviews with current Chair of the Society, David Stevens, as well as college archivist Harrison Roberts and Old Llandoverian cricketers Russell Hughes - Pickering, Carwyn Williams and Robert Coles.  There is also input from Museum of Welsh Cricket curator and historian of welsh cricket Dr Andrew HIgnell.

Harrison gives us a very brief history of the college dating back to 1848 and its connections with welsh culture.  Dr Hignell details some of the Old Lla...

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This week has seen the return of first class cricket to Neath.  Glamorgan County Cricket Club have hosted two of their Royal London One Day Cup games against Lancashire CCC and Hampshire CCC at the ground.

In this episode we hear from Museum of Welsh Cricket volunteer David Battersby who gives us a brief outline of List A and other games played at the ground.  We also hear from Life Member of the club Kevin Grant with his memories of his involvement as player and administrator with Ne...

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Sohail has been one of the most important figures  developing cricket in the Cardiff community he was born and brought up in for the last twenty years.

As a player then as an administrator he has championed the cause of south asian cricket in Wales and been at the heart of discussions about how to develop it both in the community and in the first class game.

In this interview he chats about his childhood, growing up, his first experiences of cricket and his quickly d...

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 In this episode we talk to Gwilym Balinger and Keith Davies, longstanding members of the club and Val Whiteley,  proud recipient of the Clubperson of the Year Award.

Gwilym talks about the early days of his cricketing career that included a brief contact with Wilf Wooller.

Keith sets out the history of the club as a gift from the Rhys-Williams family.  What was originally a peppercorn rent is now a more commercial arrangement.

The ground was named after the son of Sir Brandon Rhy...

In this episode we talk to Gwylliam Balinger and Keith Davies, longstanding members of the club and Val Whiteley, first woman to hold a position on the committee at the club and proud recipient of the Clubperson of the Year Award.

Gwylliam talks about the early days of his cricketing career that included a brief contact with Wilf Wooller.

Keith sets out the history of the club as a gift from the Rhys-Williams family.  What was originally a peppercorn rent is now a more commercial arrangement.

The ground was named after the son o...

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Kevin has had almost 60 years involvement in the game of cricket in Wales that has ranged across playing in the first class game, coaching and umpiring.

Born in Cardiff, his first taste of cricket was at school and then later at St. Fagans Cricket Club.  He describes how he followed Glamorgan and talks about some of the players he remembers watching including, Gilbert Parkhouse, Bernard Hedges, Don Shepherd, Alan Watkins, Peter Walker and Ossie Wheatley.

Phil Clift was the coach of Glamorgan at the time a...

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The  Cricket West Indies Masters Association (CWIMA)  recently visited Wales for a couple of pre tournament warm-up games against a Wales Over 50s side.  They played at Pontarddullais Cricket Club and Ynystawe Cricket Club.

We caught up with them at the Pontarddulais match where we spoke to two of the tourists, Roy Singh and Azad Mohammed about playing for the Masters Team, the importance of representing the West Indies and how they have enjoyed engaging with Masters cricket.

The Association has a website:

www...

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Ashley has been involved in publishing for most of his adult life and is the owner of both Welsh Academic Press and St. David's Press.  The former specialises in a range of titles, some with a Welsh connection but that cover subjects as far apart as education and welsh medieval literature.  This was Ashley's first foray into the publishing business which was foloowed by St. David's Press in the late 1990s.

As a boy, publishing books was always part of the household as his father worked for bo...

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Sean is a TV Rugby Analyst for BBC Wales Scrum V.  He provides commentary and match analysis.  He also works for BT Sport, Sky Sports, S4C and hosts the Sony Award winning ‘Rugby Nation’ weekly show on Nation Radio.  Sean was Head Coach for Ospreys Rugby where he spent nine Seasons.

He played cricket in his home town of Cwmafan near Port Talbot and developed into a good junior player who played representative cricket in his teenage years.

He talks about his early cricketing experie...

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,Dean has over 30 years of experience working in elite sport working as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist.

He was Head Physiotherapist at England Cricket for over ten years during the period when the national team saw some fantastic success including the iconic Ashes victory of 2005.  He was also Head of Medical Services at Surrey County Cricket Club for over four years. 

He began his career with Glamorgan County Cricket Club and his career with them stretches from 1989 to 2019.  He has seen hundreds of professional cricketers, including world ren...

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This week we chat to ex club cricketer and longstanding umpire in the South Wales leagues Bob Szpadt.

We talk about his early cricketing experiences as well as his club cricket with Ebbw Vale.  There were six sixes and a 9 for along the way but Bob's abiding memories of his playing days are the friendships he made and the experiences he had.

We talk about his transition to being an umpire and his work not only as an umpire but as appountments officer for the A...

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This week’s episode features Tony Cordle.  Featured below is Tony’s profile on the CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket website (https://www.cricketmuseum.wales/)

We would like to place on record our thanks to Michael Cann of Cardiff Cricket Club for enabling us to contact Tony for this interview

CORDLE, Anthony Elton. 

(birth registered as Elton Anthony Cordle)  Born - Bridgetown, Barbados, 21 September 1940. 

Professional.   1st XI: 1963-1982.   2nd XI: 1962-1980.   Club and Ground:1972-1976. 

Cap: 1967. 

Clubs: Cardiff, Pont...

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In this episode we chat to John Prickett about his life in cricket.  He talks about his early experiences going to watch Glamorgan play with his father and grandfather and his early development as a cricketer.

John studied to be a teacher and took up his first teaching post at the Royal Grammar School in Worcester.  As well as playing with the staff team (which at one point included a very young Imran Khan!) he played local club cricket and became a lynch pin in local schools cr...

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This week we talk to Newport born Adam Millichip.  A welsh schoolboy cricketer, Adam was man of the match in the Welsh Cup Final in 2008 when Newport defeated Northop Hall CC.

He talks about growing up, being part of a succesful age group cricket team and playing for Newport.

He also tells us about his career as a special needs teacher, his work in Shrewsbury and more recently Wolverhampton and his recent work on the TWS Sports Podcast.  The podcast was born out of the lo...

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In this week’s episode we talk to Linton Lewis and his clubmates from Ammanford Cricket Club.  Linton, born in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean, came to Ammanford in 1981 as an unknown young cricketer from the West Indies.  When he left the club in 1989 he had transformed the club’s fortunes and left behind a series of exploits that were legendary throughout South Wales and beyond.

Those interested in learning more about Linton’s experiences at Ammanford can do no better than read this...

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This week’s episode is all about Ynystawe Cricket Club.  We met with the following members of the club to chat about its past as well as its present:

Phil Rowe

Lewis Rowe

Ian Evans

Ceri Evans

Steve Beasley

Jason Kiley

Paul Crane

The club has its origins back in the 1950s when the then club officials bought the freehold of the ground.  Its initial clubhouse was a couple of changing rooms and a le...

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Aimee Rees is the current Head of the Women and Girls Elite Pathway at Glamorgan Cricket.

In this episode she talks about her father and watching him play for Swansea Civil Service and then one day being asked to make up the numbers on the field.  Her father also took her to watch her first professional cricket games and it was at Neath in 1993 when Glamorgan were hosting the touring Australians that Aimee fell in love with the game.  The interview took place shortly after the news of...

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In this week’s episode we talk to Tony Dell,  veteran of the Vietnam War,  Australian Test cricketer and one time resident of Cardiff and pupil at the Hawardian School for Boys.

Tony was born in Hampshire but moved to Wales in 1956 when his father was seconded to the Hoover Company based in Cardiff.  He attended the Hawardian school where he had his first sporting experiences.

The Hoover Company again called on the Dell family to move to Australia.  On arrival here, Tony’s sporting career r...

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This week’s episode is a tribute to the late great Australian cricketer Shane Warne

There are contributions from the following:

Alan Wilkins, sports broadcaster

Andrew Hignell, Curator of the CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket

Darren Thomas, ex Glamorgan cricketer and Wales National County Head Coach

Adam Rosser, ex player with St Fagans Cricket Club

Aimee Rees, Head of Glamorgan’s Women and Girls Elite Pathway

Phil Steele, ex professional rugby player, broadcaster and a...