Willie Miles is best known in sporting circles as a very tough and uncompromising prop with Fishguard and Goodwick RFC for 30 years but come May/June his mind is attuned to another sporting activity since the Pembrokeshire Hunt Point to Point takes place at his Trecoed Farm, near Scleddau.

Indeed, when the point took place at Trecoed last weekend he again showed his commitment to the cause with the excellent condition of the course and fences.

Where previous years saw wet weather cause problems for Willie and the hunt workers led by Mike and Ann Davies, this year’s dry spell meant that the going was too firm and so Willie and his hardy band of helpers, who included a new Hon Secretary in Lucy Thomas, had to take action.

Willie used water from his pond to make sure that the areas around the fences were excellent – and his final watering took place on the morning of the big day at 5.30am!

Good judge of horse flesh

What is less well known is the fact that Willie is a good judge of horse flesh who has ridden with the local hounds from time to time, and previously enjoyed a 12-year stint as District Commissioner of the St Davids Pony Club. He and his wife Julia, who was a good hockey player in her younger days, have two daughters in Charlotte and Angharad, both of whom had horses and ponies at the farm since they were children.

Both were heavily involved in National Championships, held around the Nottingham area whilst Angharad had a year in Millfield School, where she was involved in British Eventing, and has taken part in competitions against world-famous names like Mark Todd and Zara Phillips

Pony Club involvement – and singing too!

Willie’s previous work with the St Davids Pony Club started through his children and the club has members from St Davids, Fishguard, Dinas, Treffgarne, Simpson’s Cross and the surrounding areas. 

His work involved organising fund-raising and chairing committee meetings but he stepped down from the role so that he could focus a little more on his involvement with Haverfordwest Male Voice Choir and Bois y Wlad as a bass/baritone singer of some repute!

“Singing is less physical than rugby but I have to say that there is the same camaraderie and in some ways there are even more genuine characters than there are in rugby!

Late start to rugby – and later finish!

Willie didn’t start playing rugby until he was 19 and finally retired when he was 49, having enjoyed the rough and tumble of the front row and able to play at either loose-head or tight-head prop.
He hadn’t played in school or youth.

“When I was seven years old I stuck a knife in my eye in an accident on the farm,“ he said, “and my father decided that I shouldn’t risk playing such a contact sport in case of damaging my other eye. But when I was 18 I was told by dad that I should make my own mind up from then on and I was soon involved in the Fishguard front row, with Billy Fowler as my mentor.

“I enjoyed it from the very start and had every support from the players and officials at The Moors.”

Not the best handler – but some memorable moments

Willie laughingly says that handling a rugby ball was never his greatest forte, especially since his surviving eye was his weaker one for someone who wears glasses!

“But I loved the physical involvement and I guess I could identify with the spectator at a match where the players were waiting for a ball to be picked out of a hedge and he shouted, ‘Never mind the ball, ref, just get on with the game!’”

Ask him about his time in the front row and he would nominate two KO Cup Finals as real highlights when he played for the Seagulls against Tenby at Pembroke Dock Quins and at Whitland at a time when the Seasiders were the top side in the county. 

“We lost both,” said Willie, “but we really enjoyed being involved, especially when we got amongst them at Bierspool and were still in front with 20 minutes to go before running out of steam.”

Another memorable time came on a tour with Fishguard to Vancouver, in Canada, when he played six games in ten days. He even competed twice in one day as he played for the Seagulls against Campalanos in the morning and joined team-mates Gareth Griffiths and Kevin Walsh in an inter-state match for Vancouver State during the afternoon! It was a hard day but Willie was rightly chuffed when his opposing prop said that Willie had taught him a real lesson in the latter match!

Willie becomes a Blue

His only spell away from Fishguard came when he joined Haverfordwest and enjoyed it there but missed the company of players like Billy Fowler, Meirion Williams, Peter ‘Rocket’ Evans and Russell Jones. 

It was a good team at Haverfordwest, however, and a match that summed up their ability came when they faced Tenby, had two forwards sent off, and still won the match as Andrew Morgan scored two tries. 

His front-row colleagues that day were the late John Lavis and Graham Williams – and if pushed Willie would say that he thought that trio was the best front row he played in.

Great fun – but time to finish

Willie rarely missed a match until he was 49 and decided it was time to finish. He didn’t want to coach, though, and so decided to focus on the other aspects of his life that gave him a break from farming, like his family and his singing. He admits that he misses the camaraderie of the oval ball game but is delighted to see the current Fishguard side doing so well under Huw Evans and Nathan Jenkins

“I just hope that they have as much fun out of playing as we did,” said Willie, because I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I made great friends and have wonderful memories of those 30 years.”

Talk to those who were his contemporaries and there is great respect for him, and PembrokeshireSport.co.uk can add its own immense respect to a wonderful advert for rugby and the world of horses in Willie Miles!