page revision date: 30th July 2008
Bernie’s back to first sporting love
Bernie Armstrong is one of the best-known figures in local football after many years as a goal-grabber with Fishguard Sports, Goodwick United, Merlins Bridge and Lamphey but some of his footballing mates might be surprised to know that Bernie is also a very good table-tennis player.
He is certainly the best player in the Haverfordwest/Fishguard area, with his attacking play, big loop and top-spin shots and the competitive attitude that marked his play on the football pitch.
Currently manager of Goodwick United and still plays regularly up front for the Pembrokeshire Over 45s, and in both he shows the same determination that marked his early years – and he is not averse to a little chat with referees either!
Bernie is fiercely combative in table-tennis where he plays on Mondays in Haverfordwest Leisure Centre and in Fishguard at other times, although he says that as he’s got older he has mellowed a little.
“I started out at Hubberston Youth Club when I was 13 with James Dyson, my brother Phillip and Peter Munn. James was my doubles partner as we improved and we were dead chuffed when we won the Pembrokeshire and West Wales Youth Club Championships, beating everyone in our area and eventually reaching the Welsh Youth Clubs’ Final, where we lost narrowly to a pair from Cardiff.
“Margaret Carter was our inspiration and she drove us everywhere to play, as did Bev Palmer and Margaret Turvey. We also went to Romilly, which is Milford’s twin town, to play against their best young players in a sort of mini-olympics where there were lots of different sports played.”
Included in that team were James Dyson, Linda Leggett, Steve Evans and the Collins’ triplets, with Bernie as a 17 year old who stayed with a French family and tried to hide some very undercooked meat given him at a barbecue by throwing it in a hedge, only for a dog to retrieve it and cause a red-faced Bernie to be lost for words for the only time in his life!
When he got married to Karen, a Goodwick girl, and moved to Fishguard, Bernie stopped playing for a number of years but took it up again when he spotted Clive Kinsella playing at Fishguard Leisure Centre and allowed himself to be coaxed back into action.
Alan Didcott ran the table-tennis club in Fishguard and Bernie was soon back in the thick of things, taking on and beating the players there to establish himself as the No 1, something he has since done in Haverfordwest where George Chisnell and Barry Chambers organise things well.
Bernie has won heaps of medals in football, including Senior Cup winners and league winners trophies, three runners-up medals in the West Wales Cup, arguably his biggest sporting regret, plus second division cup and league silverware when John Donnachie persuaded him to be player-coach at Lamphey.
“I am proud of all those football trophies because I enjoyed playing with great players,” says Bernie, “but I would love to have a Pembrokeshire Table Tennis Tournament, like in the old days when Preston Carter, Bill Carne, Alan Gordon and Peter James ruled the roost, to really test how much I have improved in the game. My son Alastair has just started playing table tennis and perhaps one day I might play in Carmarthen but with so much travel involved in an 80-mile round trip it is a little too much at the moment.”
There’s one thing for sure, if he does go east then the players in Carmarthen and Swansea will soon get to know the name of Bernie Armstrong, a larger than life sporting character, if ever there was one!
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