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Johnny’s still playing in Lancashire and London
On a recent visit to Carew for a cricket match it was nice to bump into an all-round sportsman who used to play football and cricket for the village where he was born, plus a stint just up the road at Cresselly at Cresselly Cricket Club, before his work took him away from the county.
Johnny Griffiths is now a young-looking 46 years of age and lives in Cheshire whilst commuting to work in London, where he plays five-a-side football as a means of keeping fit. At home he plays cricket as a left-handed batsman for Ashley in the Maelor Braggins Cheshire County League, which is a feeder league for the main Cheshire League and is perhaps the equivalent of the top echelons of cricket in Pembrokeshire. Unlike our county, however, they play well into September – and this is Johnny’s 20th season with the club, who play close to Tetton Park, and the Manchester Airport.
Club captain for a decade
Johnny was captain at the club for ten seasons before his work took him to London and he decided to relinquish the responsibility, and at one time one of his team mates was Wayne Cannon, who moved with his work to Pembrokeshire and Johnny put him in touch with Carew, where Wayne played well until recently but has now moved out of the county again with work. Someone else from Pembrokeshire who has played there is Charles Dale, the Tenby actor who was in school with Johnny and was at that time a regular in ‘Coronation Street’. Ashley often travel to the Mumbles area to play on tour and Johnny scored his only century for them in a tour game at Ammanford.
Cresselly start . . .
He started out his cricket at junior level with Cresselly, where he attended junior school, and played for them at youth and senior level, playing in a Harrison-Allen Bowl semi-final victory but missing out on the final against a Llangwm side that included Martin Charles and Willie Morris because he had gone travelling. Johnny then moved to Carew, where he played football, and actually played in a Harrison-Allen team which beat Cresselly in the final. Johnny scored 15 in his only innings as Gethin Evans and Peter Hall took them to victory with some excellent batting.
. . . And Carew finish
Johnny had started out playing football at Carew in the same junior team as Mike Lewis, who is now doing so well as manager of Tenby AFC and he played regularly for the first team alongside Gerald Hicks, Martin and Clive Cole, Neil Thomas, Billy Jones, Keith Griffiths and the late ‘Doffo’ Arthur. They played in the Senior Cup Final against Goodwick United on the old Bridge Meadow and won 3-1 as Johnny grabbed two goals and Kevin Hughes knocked in the other, as he did so often. Carew also won the league the following season and Johnny played regularly in that side as well.
College days and Manchester-bound
Then he went to Bristol Polytechnic, or the West of England University as it is now known, where his best pal was Jack Russell, who went on to make a name for himself as a wicket keeper with England before becoming an acclaimed artist. Johnny also played football there and at Cardiff University, where he did his PGCE year in Maths and PE. When his work took him to Newport he played for Cardiff AFC, formerly Lake United, in the Welsh League, with Paul Boden also involved there at the same time.
From there it was off to work in Manchester 21 years ago and although he enjoys it there he still loves coming back to Wales with wife Sarah, who originally hails from Dorset and was a good tennis player, plus daughters Frances (19) and Phillippa (12), with both as useful swimmers, Frances enjoying skiing and Phillippa adept at tennis. The family still meet up with Phil and Janet Mathias, who are heavily involved in horses, at the Quay and Mike Evans (Tenby) is another old friend.
Back on football and other sports
Back on the football front, Johnny played for Old Gregorians in the Lancashire League, which is a good standard, until he was 35, playing up front and scoring his share of goals. His team won the league and cup and he thoroughly enjoyed being involved before deciding it was time to hang up his playing boots. He also loves watching the game at the top level and although he confesses to still being an ardent Swansea City fan he regularly watches Manchester United at Old Trafford and Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium. He also used to watch Everton and Liverpool play and loves to watch top cricket at Old Trafford when he can find the time. Not content with that little lot, Johnny also plays tennis fairly regularly and in golf plays off a handicap of 18 at Didsbury in Manchester.
And finally . . .
Johnny was delighted to be home to visit mum Maureen and to look up old friends and there were plenty of those when he turned up at Carew to watch them play cricket. He was able to renew old acquaintances and reminisce, as well as talk to PembrokeshireSport.co.uk about his sporting involvement when we bumped into him whilst walking around the boundary. We remembered him as a very talented, modest and unassuming player of football and cricket, and it was a pleasure to learn that he still keeps very active, is involved with coaching at his cricket club and carrying the Pembrokeshire sporting flag in Cheshire and London!
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