When I was a young teacher in Milford Haven, I started sports-writing with the old ‘West Wales Guardian’ newspaper after a cricketing team-mate at Pembroke named Colin Kaijaks asked me if I would help him in his new role as sports editor there by writing some articles.
 
I was lucky to get to know fairly quickly two of the outstanding sports writers in Vernon Scott (who covered every Pembroke Borough game of the time) and Dave Morgan, a remarkable sports’ editor with ‘The Western Telegraph’, but also with so many memories of other articles, including  his meetings with the last man ever to be hanged for a murder in our county.
 
Both could have written books about their fantastic journalism and I was lucky they befriended me – and offered similar advice about writing style and with basically the same message on one topic.

They said, ‘There is a lot of mileage in nostalgia’ and in the intervening 40 years I have become convinced that they were totally correct.
 

Lucky to find a treasure trove of photographs

 
The other day, I came across a computer file of photographs, many of them with me alongside some wonderful sporting characters after I had interviewed them for Radio Pembrokeshire or when they came to the Victoria Book Shop in Haverfordwest,  and Marley Davies kindly invited me to interview them before they signed books
 
Bearing in mind what Messrs Scott and Morgan had told me, I thought it would be nice to ‘Take a Walk Down Memory Lane’ with you and share my thoughts.
 
So where better to start but with the legendary Welsh footballer  John Charles, who played as arguably the most famous player in the world of his era with Leeds United and Juventus, where his name is still regarded in awe, and a statue erected in his honour.
 

Great work by David Hughes to bring him here

 
John Charles, the Gentle Giant’  came to Haverfordwest as guest speaker at the Haverfordwest County annual dinner and was joined by Peter Lorimer, another Leeds United legend: a Scot with one of the most powerful shots in the game and someone who was looking after John’s speaking engagements at a time when he wasn’t 100% well but was determined to do something he clearly enjoyed and was good at.
 
He was invited by David Hughes, the club’s chairman, who used his initiative by finding out which pub in Leeds was run by Peter Lorimer, phoned up and hit the jackpot.
David told us, “It was a great thing for the club’s celebration and both ex-footballers were real gentlemen to deal with - and I will never forget John Charles’ visit!”
 
They made the long journey down from Leeds and Lorimer spoke well before Big John stood up to a standing ovation for his question and answer session where I was delighted to act as MC and over 30 minutes later sat down to an even longer and spontaneous appreciation of the efforts of a genuine footballing legend.
 

Pembrokeshire ‘legend’ Frank meets international ‘legend’ John

 
Someone who was delighted to meet John Charles was Pembrokeshire’s very own ‘legend’ in Frank Donovan, who had played for the Great Britain team managed by Sir Matt Busby in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, and also played for Swansea as well as scoring a huge number of goals for Milford United, Haverfordwest County and especially Pembroke Borough.
 
Frank scored a goal in helping Great Britain to fourth place and had a street named after him in Pembroke Dock in conjunction with another Borough star in Bill Reed. He had been invited to the dinner by organiser David Hughes and I was delighted to take a picture of him with John Charles that I know he treasured until he passed away.
 

Local ‘expert’ put firmly in his place

 
My lasting memory is of one well-known character, who shall remain nameless, asking who Mr Charles thought was the better player – George Best or Ryan Giggs. The Welsh legend quite sensibly said that it was difficult to compare platers from different eras but his questioner persisted twice more before John Charles pulled himself up to his full height, smiled and said,
 
“I don’t care if you think I am sitting on the fence or not because that’s all you are getting so sit down and let’s get on with some ******* proper questions!” – and do you know what? The feller sat down as everyone else rose to cheer Big John!
 

Amazing spell in Italy for a Swansea boy

 
Big John, who was dubbed ‘Il Gigante Buono’ by the Italian Press as he played 155 games for the top Italian side, helping them to three Series A titles in the five years he was in Italy, plus two cup victories as he scored 108 goals as a centre forward or centre half with equal skill.
 
He was 6 feet 3 inches tall and was feared for his heading ability but he also had grace, guile and touch as other attributes beside his physical presence.
 
He started out with Swansea Youth and then was with Leeds after that, where he scored 157 goals in 297 matches, and in such a long career he was never once the recipient of the day’s equivalent of yellow and red cards
 

Helped Wales to World Cup quarter-finals

 
There were 38 appearances for Wales (not so many matches in those days, and the highlight was helping Wales to the World Cup quarter finals in Sweden against mighty Brazil but he was injured in the final preliminary round and so was sorely missed by his country as they went down to a narrow defeat against the eventual winners.
 
He was held in such esteem over 25 years that when he retired there was a statue at Elland Road and a street named after him just a short walk from the ground, with a housing complex named after him in Swansea alongside a bust, and when he returned to Turin in 2004 an estimated crowd of 40,000 was there to cheer his brief return.
 
John Charles was a celebrated footballer, still regarded as the best Welsh player ever by a huge number of older people like me, and we were indeed privileged that David Hughes’s superb  efforts managed to let us meet a true legend of the game here in Haverfordwest!