page revision date : Sunday 28th june 2009
Jack’s a sporting all-rounder who loves football
Jack Button is a very good young all-round sportsman from Neyland who is involved in rugby, cricket and athletics but would readily admit that football is his first love and which occupies a great deal of his spare time.
He has played since he was nine, when he started out as a striker at Hakin United under the watchful eye of Colin Fawcett, who Jack said was a very good manager. He scored a few goals there but at 11 joined Clarbeston Road since his mates in school like Ian Vaughan were involved – and although they were near the bottom of the league table he enjoyed himself at Clarbie.
From there he was asked to play for the juniors at Haverfordwest County and eventually switched to right back so that he could use his strong tackling and pace going forward to such good effect that in his first season there he was part of a team which came third in the league and runners-up in the cup for their age category – and Jack was chosen by manager Denny Barrett as the manager’s player of the year
Learned a lot from Denny
He also played for the Academy team as they took on sides like Aberystwyth, Carmarthen and Llanelli, and although there was plenty of travel he learned a great deal from Mr Barrett and also represented the county team which also included Jordan Raymond (Camrose) in goal.
Jack returned to Neyland when his dad Jeff took charge of the Neyland under 15s with Tony Organ’s help, and played there for a while, despite being a year or two younger than the rest of the lads. But then he returned to Haverfordwest with players of his own age and the best result he has enjoyed so far was undoubtedly last season, when his team took on high-flying Pembroke Borough Juniors at London Road and came away with an unexpected 5-2 victory where he slotted in at midfield and not only scored a goal but set up three others for his colleagues.
Other sports
Jack plays rugby on the wing for the STP School team coached by Jonathan Dodd and at Haverfordwest RFC, where Dai Llewellin is the coach – and he scored a few tries, including a hat-trick for the school team.
In cricket he plays for Neyland Juniors and sometimes for the second team, when needed, and really enjoys batting, as well as giving 100% in the field, a fact recognised by coach Martin Jones when he awarded Jack the under 13s player of the year award.
In athletics he was part of the STP relay team which won the 4 x 100 metres relay in the County Championships and went on to do well in the Dyfed Sports. Jack has always enjoyed sprinting but on the day of the county sports was asked if he would also run in the 800 metres because the school had a gap there which needed to be filled. Jack was uncertain so asked dad Jeff, who advised him to give it a bash – and he surprised everyone, including himself, by winning the middle-distance event by over 30 metres!
Then it was on to the Dyfed Championships and although Jack came last but one he had at least had the satisfaction of taking part and can reflect on the fact in later years that he was deservedly a county champion!
Football first
But it is football that will always be Jack’s first sporting love and he is a great fan of Leeds United, with plans to attend a match at Elland Road so that he can watch Jermaine Beckford and the rest of the top Leeds players. His ambition would eventually be to play for Haverfordwest County in the Welsh Premier League and hopefully as a full-time professional after that.
But Jack has a level head on young shoulders and he admits that if it doesn’t work out that way he will continue to enjoy playing the game, perhaps in his home town of Neyland. He has the full support of dad Jeff, mum Christine and younger brother Jamie (11), who is a keen swimmer. Jeff played football for many years and is there to give sound advice, as is Christine – so Jack has made a good start and is ready for fresh challenges. He is a talented young player and pembrokeshiresport.co.uk wishes him every success in the future!
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