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Derek sets a new fashion
Derek Roberts had featured several times in this column, like when he dropped a tin of paint in his goldfish pond and turned the fish pink, and again when he faked the catching of a giant shark whilst on holiday – and it seems as if Derek is at it again at the Bridge Meadow!
He is rightly recognised as something of a style icon at Haverfordwest County, with his neatly coiffured hair, excellent dress sense that marks him as a fashion guru and general demeanour that makes him stand out from the rest.
But he fell spectacularly from grace when his team took on Solva recently in the Senior Cup, and had his fellow officials from the Bluebirds gasping in disbelief. Derek was, as usual, well-dressed in his designer black track suit but Academy boss Mark Falzon and co-manager Jonathan George noticed that Derek’s track-suit bottoms were on back to front!
When they pointed his faux pas out to him he had an answer, as usual, though – because he said that it was carefully planned so that he could run backwards faster! Now that had them scratching their heads even further but Derek just carried on serenely as if nothing had happened and provided further proof that Derek Roberts is THE class act at Haverfordwest County!
Bernie takes a tumble
Another regular participant in this column over the years has been Bernie Armstrong and it seems the larger-than-life manager of Goodwick United has been involved in yet another scrape, but this time in his other sporting love of fishing, rather than football.
Only the other week Bernie was proudly showing me some superb sea-bass he had caught (but without offering me a taster!) but when he took a short trip down from his Goodwick home to the nearby slipway, just to use up some bait he had left in the freezer, he didn’t manage to go home with the same success.
He did manage a small flounder which wasn’t big enough to eat but was soon floundering himself when he tried to jump from one rock to another, missed his footing on the wet stone and found himself in a heap!
I am reliably informed by an unseen onlooker that Bernie, normally the most genial of characters, flung the rod and line away in a frustrated mixture of anger, pain and embarrassment. Fortunately, he is a tough lad so he was left with just a scratch to his knee and some small bruising to his chest – but he was still playing table tennis that night and beating all and sundry despite a few moans about his fishing mishap every time he mishit a shot!
Gregg quarrels – with the woodwork!
Gregg Miller is a very good all-rounder from Neyland who bats and bowls well for the local club and is one of the best fielders in the county, as well as being a pacy full back for the Pembrokeshire All Blacks during the winter months.
Gregg was playing for Neyland recently in a Swalec Cup match at Pontyates and did really well as the last line of defence to catch the ball cleanly – only to be driven back over his own line by about five Pontyates forwards who got to him before support arrived from his team-mates.
But at least Gregg’s courage was rewarded since he prevented a score but he had something of an usual ‘present’ as he scraped himself off the floor, scraped some of the heavy mud from his face and body, and turned around with team-mate Adam Collins in readiness for the restart. He clearly hadn’t scraped all the mud out of his eyes because he walked straight into the upright and went down like a sack of spuds – and some of his team-mates almost collapsed with laughter alongside him!
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