Graham 'Charlo' Charles - a lovely man with a wealth of sporting stories

Over the last couple of decades, whenever I have gone to watch Neyland Cricket, I have discovered a new sporting friend as I have sat on the benches near the road at The Athletic Ground and chatted to Graham Charles, a real character if ever there was one, who is known to all as ‘Charlo’ and is there with his son-in-law Mark Pritchard watching their son/grandson Tom Pritchard, develop as a useful cricketer.

‘Charlo’ has a wealth of stories about his days as a supervisor with Pembrokeshire County Council and his own sporting days from the time he was a boy living in Waterston, where he played a bit of football and then rugby at Milford Haven Central School, followed by rugby at Neyland, playing in their senior teams after he had left school at 15.

First Neyland youth captain – and played at Llangwm until he was 40

 ‘Charlo’ captained their first-ever youth team and eventually played for Llangwm for over 20 years, winning a couple of county senior ‘caps’ before he retired at 40 because he was often required to work weekends,

In our enjoyable ‘Walk Down Memory Lane’ we return to the days when there no replacements and teams had to play a man short if there were any injuries, and even to get to grounds could be a problem for a youngster living out from a major Pembrokeshire town.

Looked in trouble – until ‘Dickie’ came to the rescue!

One such example had me chuckling early on because on one occasion he was selected to play hooker in a county trial at The Observatory Field in Milford Haven and caught the only bus on a Saturday morning.

The driver dropped him off at the Imperial Garage, at the top of Coombs Drive – only for him to discover that The Obs was over in Hakin, about three miles away. Luckily, for a bemused 17 year old ‘Charlo’, along came another outstanding local sportsman in Richard ‘Dickie’ Setterfield (later a top golfer in his day) on his new scooter that had become the stylish way for youngsters to travel, and he stopped for a chat.

Made it into the county youth team

When ‘Charlo’ told him of his problem he was invited on to the pillion seat, with his kit bag over his shoulder, and off they went. Luckily, there was no legal requirement for crash helmets and he arrived only just in time.

There was also a happy ending to this incident because after playing as hooker against Gary Johnston (Pembroke) he was unhappy to hear of his opponent being selected - but delighted when he discovered he had been selected at tight-head prop alongside Gary - and with Tony Brace (Tenby) rounding off a strong county front row!

Played schools’ football but had no skills

We will return to those days a little later but go back to his sporting beginnings, where he played football at Milford Haven Central School, under a real character in Mr Derek Price, and he readily admits he played at full back in his posh new brown leather boots that were bought for him at Reggie Griffiths’ shop in Neyland.

“To be honest, I had no skills or idea how to play so I just kicked what was in front of me and often the ball had gone so it was an unfortunate opponent - but then the school switched to rugby and so I felt a lot more at home with the physical side of that!

In the All Blacks’ seconds when he was almost 16

“At 15 I left school and went to work on a farm and enjoyed it, but by chance one day I was talking to Keith and Trevor James, whose family lived next door to us and they were involved in rugby at Neyland and I asked them about playing there.

“They told me that training was on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and so I went to give it a try - and was picked to play for the seconds, despite being close to my 16th birthday and playing against lots of old timers after travelling in by bus from our village.

“My props were brothers John and George Joseph so I learned the hard way - and eventually did make my first team debut on a rare occasion when Jim Lewis wasn’t available, and it was a pleasure to play there with the likes of Peter Roberts, who was captain, John Greggain and Peter Rees.

“When I was 17, Neyland finally set up a youth team and I was the first captain - and that’s when I had a ride on Dickie’s posh scooter - and I made my county debut at Felinfoel against Carmarthenshire - and we grabbed ten strikes against the head in scrums because I hooked alongside Gary Johnston to dumbfounded the opposing front row!

Started two decades at Llangwm with some great characters

“But when I was about 20, I decided it was time for a change and so I joined Llangwm, after popping down there and attending the first training session of the season, where Juno John had been elected captain and I discovered he was a very good hooker.

“So, I quickly settled for a start in the seconds where John ‘Termie’ Skyrme and I used to share the hooker’s and prop’s duties week on week - and then I was asked to fill in as flanker with Tony

 Tuckwell and Marley Hughes (a great No 8) and my job was marking another fantastic player in Dave Banner (Haverfordwest).

“I was told my job was to push him back towards some of the tough guys in our pack - and it must have worked because the following week I was picked for the first team- and was picked for the Pembrokeshire Under 23s to play against Whitland, who had won the county championship.

County selection – but frustrated by being first reserve

“After that I was delighted to be picked for the county senior team to play against Ceredigion at Aberystwyth, a team which included Paul and Tim Ringer, which meant I had to take a day off work for an evening fixture.

Included in our team was Selwyn Williams, Lyndon Thomas, Martin Charles, Peter Roberts, Mike James, Brian Harries and John Greggain, plus Brian Diment at full back but when I got there, I found I was the 16th player on the team sheet so was listed as a travelling reserve, which was a real disappointment.

But then our skipper, Barry Llewellyn, told me that Mike Truman had been injured and couldn’t play so I played in the back row alongside Martin Charles and a young Peter Roberts, two other Neyland boys!

“I was picked to play at Whitland against the South Wales Police and even I was shocked at how ‘physical’ they were because they literally kicked us to bits - and then was selected for the county at Bynea but again I found myself disappointed as I watched it from the touchline because again, I was told I was travelling reserve.

“It meant I had missed two full days of work and decided enough was enough because I was really happy playing at Pill Parks with such a cracking bunch of characters - but at 40 I decided I had enough of the aches and pains so threw my boots in the bin!”

Watches football now – and seeing grandson Tom playing cricket

Since then, ‘Charlo’ watches odd games of rugby but in the winter he often goes with son-in-law Mark to watch Haverfordwest County in the Welsh Premier League at the Ogi Bridge Meadow Stadium, where grandson Tom does such a great job as communications officer - and in the summer regularly supports Neyland because Tom is an opening bowler for the first team.

I thoroughly enjoy sharing stories with Charlo because a number of the characters he highlights are contemporaries of mine and he reflects some aspects of sport which have now sadly disappeared. –

Graham ‘Charlo Charles and has some strong views of how games should be played, some of which I agree with but we can’t air them here - and I am already looking forward to our regular chats next spring and summer as we take more sideways looks at what is going on in our county’s sport!