Brian is a tireless worker in Pembrokeshire Football’s cause

 

Small wonder then that Brian is looking forward to playing cricket for Camrose for the next few months, where he bowls spin for the second team.

“It’s great to be told where we are playing and just turn up,” admits Brian, “and I enjoy playing alongside real characters like Gelly James, Dai Isaac, John Ryan and Jeff Harries.

 

“It is totally different from the football season,” he said with a chuckle, “and I must be improving because my top score is 45 (although it was scored a while ago) and I have best bowling figures of 6 for 14 against St Florence!”

 

 

During Saturdays in the football season he sometimes watches a referee in his role as an assessor with the West Wales FA but every week other than that he aims to be home by before 4pm because for the next hour or so he is very busy taking all the scores and scorers in so that he can put them on the league’s successful web site and get the league tables up to date.

“Then I get them on ‘Face Book’, put any news on the scroll bar, and send out all the details to the press, who are waiting eagerly for the results.”

If he is held up assessing then wife Tracy does a brilliant job – assisted by daughter Hannah, if necessary.

Not content with that little lot, Brian also has all the team sheets sent to him and during the early part of the next week he checks them for player eligibility and discusses with Gareth Williams, his counterpart on the West Wales FA, any disciplinary matters that arise.

 

 

But that is just a minor part of Brian’s work because he also organises all the monthly League Council meetings held in County Hall, draws up the agenda, takes the minutes and deals with correspondence to clubs, referees and West Wales FA regarding disciplinary matters. He represents the Pembrokeshire League on the West Wales FA meetings in Carmarthen and Swansea – and as Referees’ Appointments Officer allocates the referees to their matches. Now this isn’t as easy as it sounds because some local officials also ref on the Welsh League so he has to take that into account as well.

 

 

It is the same with organising the league matches for five divisions, especially during bad weather or when games in the West Wales Cup are not played on schedule and have to take precedence the following Saturday.

He tries to get out the fixtures a month in advance but it is towards the end of a long season that things hot up because he has to arrange the date and times of all the cup finals, match officials, the trophies and their engraving!

 

Ask Brian why he does it and he would tell you straight away:

“I have always loved football from the time that I played as a nipper for Carnetown in the Cynon Valley, near Pontypridd. Than we moved to Milford and I started playing for Milford United and then Haverfordwest County 2nds for a while.

 

 

“In 1991 I joined a Pedr McMullen’s refereeing course alongside Phil Gale, Dai Haworth and Selwyn Jenkins and that was the start of 14 years more or less happy years with the whistle.

“One of the undoubted highlights came in the 1988/89 season where I refereed the Senior Cup Final, where Narberth beat Saundersfoot. I was only 29 then and I think I am still the youngest official in charge of the final, with Dai Barker and Cyril Jones a great help as my assistant refs.”

 

Brian also took charge of the West Wales Cup Final between West End and Manselton on the old Vetch Field, which the former team won 1-0 in a hard, but fair contest.

 

 

But perhaps his biggest achievement was the fact that he remains the only Pembrokeshire whistler who has refereed Welsh Premier League matches over a sustained period. He did the job for three seasons and travelled from Carmarthen to Caernarvon, from TNS to Llanelli, with matches like TNS v Newton and Caernarvon against Connah’s Quay often televised on S4C.

“But after one midweek match between Newtown and Caersws, where I had to set off at noon” said Brian, “I didn’t get home until 2am and had to be in work five hours later. It was then that I decided I had done enough reffing at that level and stood down.”

 

 

So Brian now carries on his work as manager at Nicholas Insurance in Haverfordwest, which shows a real interest in local sport as it is the official sponsor of the Pembroke County Cricket Club and lots of sports clubs, and works tirelessly at his role of hon secretary for the Manderwood Pembrokeshire Football League.

“I intend to carry on for a short while yet but then it is time for someone else to step in,” Brian told us, “as I did when Eddie Oliver stepped down after doing it for so long.”

 

There is no doubt that his will prove to be a big pair of football boots to fill but he will be available to give help or advice when needed although Pembrokeshire Football in general will find him a great loss because Brian Hawkins has always been straight down the line with players, officials and clubs as he has conducted himself with immense credit and hugely to the benefit of the game in our area!