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Kelly’s good on the field – or taking action pics off it!
Matthew Kelly was a very talented scrum half with Haverfordwest RFC for most of his playing career but he also gained his Welsh vest in athletics and is now building a reputation as a very good sports photographer.
His web site is called www.rawphotography.me.uk and is catching the eye amongst sportsmen and women as he uses his camera skills to relax after a week’s work teaching at Sageston Primary School, where his class recently reached the British Finals of the National Schools Film Award with their super-hero video called ‘Flame’. Matthew was delighted by this success and there is no doubt that advice and experience was a great help.
‘Raw’ start
Matthew started his photography after his father Laurence had dabbled in it and he was looking for something useful to keep himself occupied on a Saturday afternoon after he had decided it was time to step down from the game he had played since he was a nipper. Matthew acquired a good camera and was soon snapping away at Haverfordwest before widening his scope to take in other teams (and sports) in the county, calling his site ‘Raw Photography’ because ‘Raw’ is a file format (like Jpeg) and he wanted something that was catch and illustrated his determination to take ‘candid’ rather than ‘posed’ photographs.
He really enjoys this new form of involvement with rugby but readily admits that it demands such concentration that it is hard to follow the game as he would have in the past because he can only see what he views through his lens. He usually takes between 350 and 450 pictures at a match and usually whittles this down to about 50 shots he is pleased with – and makes these available for players to enjoy.
STP start to rugby
Matthew started out his rugby at Sir Thomas Picton School where he started out as a scrum half and stayed there, other than for spells when he played in the centre. He represented Pembrokeshire Schools under 15s at the same time as Rob Appleyard and then went on to captain the County Schools at under 17 and under 19 levels in a side that included Jonathan Jones and Emyr Christopher.
He was part of the Haverfordwest Youth team which won the Youth Cup in 1990/91 and was delighted to be part of the Pembrokeshire under 23 team which reached the Welsh Final at St Helens, Swansea, when Matthew Roderick and Dan Field played alongside him. Matthew also played for West Wales in a Welsh trial where Gwyn Jones was captain and enjoyed a season of rugby at Narberth when he was undertaking his PGCE year at Trinity College, Carmarthen. In that season he played for the Otters in the KO Cup but they lost to a Tenby United team which included his old Haverfordwest pal Andrew Thicker!
English teaching and rugby
From there it was two years of teaching in North Norfolk, where he played for Walsham in the English National League Division Three (South) and took on a number of London teams, Plymouth and Cheltenham. He was delighted to return to teach in Pembrokeshire in 1997 and rejoined Haverfordwest, where he was honoured to be captain in 2002. It proved to be a big year because Matthew also got married to his wife Lisa but he also won the man of the match award in the Bishop Cup against Llangwm, which meant a great deal to him since the Roy James Memorial Award is in remembrance of his late grandfather.
That he should play rugby was natural because his father Laurence and uncles Gelly and Martin played before him, and Matthew played regularly until last season when his only match was to help out in a league match a day after the Boxing Day clash with Llangwm – and now he is happy to be able to spend more time with sons George and Toby, whom he hopes will one day follow him into rugby – and photography!
Welsh representative honours in athletics
Matthew was also heavily involved in athletics as a youngster, gaining his Welsh vest in 1989, when he was just 16 and had won the school, Pembrokeshire and West Wales’ 400 metres hurdles. He came second in the Welsh Schools Finals at the Morfa Stadium, Swansea, and went on to compete against England, Scotland and Ireland in Dublin, with Jamie Baulch running in the 200 metres for Wales. It was a wonderful experience and Matthew is rightly proud of the fact that it completed a remarkable family trio because sister Nicola and brother Nathan were also Welsh representatives in the high hurdles over 80 and 100 metres.
Calendar pics and other sports
Back on the photography front, Matthew was delighted to be asked to provide the action pics for a calendar of Haverfordwest players as a fund-raising venture to help Andrew ‘Kanga’ John, with old friends like Andrew Thicker and Richard Brazell featuring amongst the players he captured in action.
Matthew also photographed the county tennis finals and had some great action shots, plus recent visits to the Bridge Meadow Stadium to hone his skills at photographing football and he has gained accreditation from the Welsh FA to take photos at any ground in Wales. Ask Matthew about ambitions and he might say that the national press would be the next step!
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