Des receives his due recognition
One of the loudest cheers of the evening at the Sport Pembrokeshire awards for 2008 was received by Des Shanklin as the veteran football administrator deservedly received the ‘Lifetime Achievement in Sport Award’ from his old friend Ken Tucker, who had made the long journey from Merthyr Tydfil and told the audience that Des was the only one whom he would travel so far and outlined what Des meant to him and Welsh football.
Co-MC Bill Carne outlined a career spanning almost 60 years and provided photographs for the large screen which showed Des meeting famous people like Sepp Blatter and Ryan Giggs, but rightly said that Des was equally at home with any youngsters from the county whom he met.
Pembrokeshire through and through
Des Shanklin has lived all his life in Pembroke and for almost half a century was associated as a committee man and then general manager at Pembroke Borough in the Welsh League and for much of that time with the Welsh Football Association and Welsh League councils, serving them so well that eventually he was elected as Treasurer, Vice-Chairman, Chairman and latterly as president of the Welsh FA.
There is no doubt that he is the most respected football administrator in Wales who enjoyed travelling all over the world with Welsh managers like Terry Yorath and John Toshack, and becoming good friends with Ryan Giggs, Mark Delaney and Simon Davies, as well as all the other Welsh players during that time.
Early start for Des
He first joined the Pembroke Borough Supporters’ Committee as long ago 1949-50 and soon afterwards was voted on to the selection committee with a great manager called Affie Llewellyn. Eventually he took over the managing of the Wiltshire Cup team and had players of the calibre of Ray Asparassa, Rickie Hill, Keith Leonard, Barry Stubbs, Gerald Hicks and Martin Cole passing through his hands – and all of them turning into good Welsh League players alongside the players brought into the club from ‘up the line’.
Boss at London Road
He took over as general manager at London Road in 1960 and was proud to be involved with local legends like Frankie Donovan and Billy Reed, Johnny Lunt and Mal Morris, who were not only great players but great characters as well. The crowds flocked to see them and Des would say it was great to be part of local derby days against Milford United or Haverfordwest County. He also had some brilliant mangers like Wyndham Evans, Dixie Hale, Mel Nurse and Brian Thomas, and former Welsh stars like Mel Charles, Ivor and Len Allchurch. They were all great players but if pushed he would have to say that Frankie Donovan was the most remarkable of them all because he played so long and at such a high standard.
Lots of Brains at the Borough
The Borough had their ups and downs, like all clubs, but they were the first winners of the Brains Cup, beating Caerau 1-0 with an early goal from Eric James – and in the same season they were runners up in the Welsh League and won the West Wales Senior Cup. They played sides like Ton Pentre, Lovells Athletic, Llanelli, Merthyr Tydfil and Maesteg – and there was always the chance of drawing a top club in the Welsh Cup.
It was in this competition that he recalls the most memorable match, when Cardiff City brought down a full English League team to play the Borough in the fifth round of the Welsh Cup, with players like Trevor Ford, Danny Malloy and Ron Stitfall turning out. They were leading 2-1 late on but then ace centre forward Ford equalised to take the Borough back to Ninian Park – where they lost the replay by 9-1 but felt they had played in their cup final in the first match!
Worst moment in a long career
The worst moment was the day that the Borough finally had to drop out of the Welsh League because the club ran out of cash. But he is delighted that at least there is football going on at London Road because of the wonderful work of Helen and Willie Matthews. He is still a trustee of the club and he was deeply honoured when they named their new clubhouse after him.
Welsh FA involvement
He started his involvement with the Welsh FA when a vacancy cropped up on the council and seven nominations were made, including Des, who tied with Chris Smart of Bridgend before winning the second vote comfortably. That was in 1978 and he is still involved as a life vice-president, another great honour. Being elected onto the International Committee meant an even greater involvement because it involved travel aplenty with the national side. Since then he had three-year spells as Chairman of the International Committee, Hon Treasurer, Junior Vice President and Senior Vice President. Then he was honoured with the Presidency for three years, the greatest accolade in Welsh Football. He was also on the Welsh League Council for 14 years, travelling to Cardiff for weekly meetings, and he was chairman there for a year too.
Much travelled statesmen
Since that time Des has been to every European footballing nation, except Malta. He’s also been to Japan, Jamaica, Brazil, South Korea and other places too numerous to mention. Japan was amazing – he remembers going with then-president Tommy Force on a fishing trip where geisha girls had cormorants to fish with and they ate the fish cooked on board almost straight away. They were welcomed into the West Indies by a steel band and Brazil had awful poverty and real riches, and what a football team!
In the Welsh set-up Des still regards John Toshack as a personal friend since ‘Tosh’ looked after Pat McQuillan and Mark Powell at Swansea years ago, and he also got on well with Terry Yorath, Bobby Gould, Mark Hughes and Mike Smith. Des has been in the dressing room with them before and after matches and it was a great pleasure to see Pembrokeshire’s Mark Delaney and Simon Davies serving Wales so well. They are a great example for young local boys to follow.
Best moment of all
His best moment for Wales had to be when Wales beat Germany for the first time with a great goal from Ian Rush. This would be closely followed by the game against Italy when John Charles was presented to a capacity crowd at the Millennium Stadium and Des had to escort the greatest-ever Welsh footballer onto the hallowed turf as President so that he could acknowledge the cheers from both sets of supporters.
As Des said,
“It was a sea of colour and John Charles was as ordinary a fellow as you or me, talking to me afterwards as if he wasn’t famous at all. Bryn Terfel sang the national anthem and Big John was clearly moved by it. What a modest gentleman he was!”
Other highlights
Ask Des about other highlights and he would be bound to include the time when he
had to speak at the dinner to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Welsh Football in Cardiff and he was very nervous, not least because Sepp Blatter spoke before him as president of FIFA and Mr Johansson, the European president spoke after him. They were clearly used to doing the rounds but he said what he felt was right and was proud when he had a standing ovation afterwards.
Des was also invited by the Spanish president to go as his guest to a Spain versus Brazil international and he was dumb-struck as a Pembroke boy when he found himself introduced to King Carlos of Spain and his wife at the after-match reception.
Haverfordwest County president
Des still keeps busy, despite sitting back a little with Wales. As he told us, “I’m still involved as president of Haverfordwest County and I try to attend all the home matches. I was honoured with the presidency when Roger Cotterall invited me and I’ve been there ever since. Rob Summons, David Hughes, Winston Griffiths, Barry Vaughan and the rest are doing a cracking job there now and Derek Brazil and the players show me real respect. It is a lovely place to watch football and I would urge people to get behind them because it would be awful to ever see them go the same way as Pembroke Borough and Milford United.
“I’ve been a very lucky man, been to so many places that I would never dreamt of visiting, and all because I got involved in football.”
