Around the Boundary Feature:

 
 
A walk around the boundary at the Neyland Athletic Ground to watch a bit of cricket is always enriched by being able to chat to some real characters and one indomitable pair who sit there and yarn with anyone going by, whilst supporting cricket, are Morgan Hughes and Graham ‘Charlo’ Charles.
 
Morgan is now 84 years young but still has that spark of enjoyment in life that makes it a pleasure to chat to him and ‘Charlo’ rarely misses a match, home or away as he joins his son-in-law Mark Pritchard in supporting his grandson Tom, who doubles up as Mark’s son. His laugh can hit you like a boxing glove and between them there is a chance to take a lively ‘walk down memory lane’ whilst appraising the relative merits of the players in front of us.
 

Neither played much cricket in their younger days

 
Morgan is the son of the late Mike Hughes, a character as lovely as any I have met at a sports ground, who used to watch Neyland Rugby, home and away, and provided me with a range of hilarious stories about his exploits with his old pal, the late Harry Howells.
 
Hughes junior is another who can regale you with tales about his rugby and bowls days - and readily admits that he didn’t play cricket because “the ball was too b****y hard and came at you too b****y fast!”
 
Coincidentally, Charlo didn’t play a lot of cricket either in his younger days because of work commitments – as he says, it was a far different time and Saturday summer work was expected of a lot of people but in the winter he did manage to play rugby for Neyland until he was 20, captaining the youth team and enjoying regular seconds’ rugby, and then had 20 very happy years as a flanker at Pill Parks with Llangwm RFC.
 
“It was brilliant there,” beamed Charlo,” and I played a couple of games for the county with Peter Roberts and Martin Charles as my back row mates.”
 
“But in cricket I am a great fan of Sean Hannon and the rest of the lovely characters who play for the first team, especially the ones, like me, who are Neyland born and bred – and I am very proud that my grandson, Tom Pritchard, is a useful all-rounder with them.”
 
“I still love going to watch Neyland play cricket and rugby now,” he admitted – and it is a sentiment that is quickly shared by Morgan.
 
Morgan played as a hooker for Neyland RFC alongside characters like Peter Rees, who was captain, and Govan John and Rowland Price, and was a member of the All Blacks’ 2nds who beat St Davids at Milford Haven in the only time that they won the Junior Union Cup Final.
 

Morgan loved his participation at Neyland Bowls Club

 
Morgan was more recently a regular player with Neyland Bowls Club until he had an operation about six years ago and found it hard-going to play a full 21 ends in his role as a second player in typical foursomes league matches.
 
“I played regularly and represented the county in both indoor and outdoor matches at one stage, as well as playing for the Pembrokeshire Civil Service outdoors and ‘The Stadium’ team that played in the indoor bowls as we travelled to play at places like Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli, Ammanford and other places along the M4 corridor.
 
“I was also on the committee of the Neyland Bowls Club until Covid came along but I stood down then because I felt a bit long in the tooth and the club is in the very capable hands of Andrew Smith and Geoff Sizer, who is known to all as ‘captain’ after his sea-going working life.
 
“I still pop down for a while for every home match but then I settle down to watch the Neyland boys, often alongside my old pal ‘Charlo’ to watch them play their cricket because they are a terrific  bunch and we get a great deal of pleasure appreciating their high skill levels.”