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Elis Wyn Williams

Peter Jackson reveals how an unassuming Welsh sports master helped produce an England fast bowling opening partnership, an England hat-trick soccer hero and an FA Cup saviour.

Scrum half Elis Wyn Williams never won a cap and his old friends would say that was partly because he was too busy making sure others won theirs. Elis did get a Secondary Schools’ cap and played 70 matches in seven seasons at London Welsh when they were loaded with British Lions. In this programme, Peter Jackson reports that no other Welsh scrum-half can claim to have turned four of his pupils at a state school in north-west London into international sportsmen - England footballers Luther Blissett and Dave Beasant, cricketers Chris Lewis and Phillip DeFreitas. Indeed Lewis and DeFreitas together opened the bowling for England in one match - how many schools can claim to have that on their honours board? And Lewis joins Jackson on Jacko’s Sporting Almanac to talk about Elis Wyn Williams’s inspirational qualities – and about how Mr Williams got in touch with him after he was released from jail after a drugs conviction. With contributions from historian and old friend Alun Wyn Bevan and Mr Williams’s brother John, a fascinating story of the dedication and motivating qualities of the Brynaman boy emerges.

28 minutes

Music Played

  • Tim Hughes

    Happy Day

    • Holding Nothing Back.
    • Survivor Records.
    • 1.

Broadcasts

  • Thu 8 Aug 2019 18:30
  • Fri 9 Aug 2019 05:30
  • Sun 11 Aug 2019 18:00
  • Thu 19 Jan 2023 18:30
  • Fri 20 Jan 2023 05:30
  • Sun 22 Jan 2023 19:00