In his younger days Rowland Adams was best known as a very good footballer who competed in schools’ athletics and rugby whilst at Milford Haven Central School but found another sport, almost by chance, when he was 42 and was taking his son Iestyn to Milford Haven Karate Club for a session at The Meads Leisure Centre in Milford Haven.
 
Rowland sat up on the veranda with his other twin son Gethin to watch but was called down by head coach Kevin John and Steve Davies to give sparring a bash - and he reluctantly went down and enjoyed the physicality of it straight away - so much so that now, nine years later, he is a Brown Belt First Kyu and already training hard with the aim of becoming a Black Belt First Dan at the next possible grading session.
 
This involves intense study of all the karate terms in Japanese so he can follow the assessor’s instructions, practice of all the set moves (known as ‘kata’) he as ever undertaken, lots of practice at ‘Kumite’, outstanding paired work with a selected partner (‘Gumite’) and a very high level of fitness to meet the demands of the assessor in pushing him to the very brink of exhaustion.
 
In the meanwhile, he will continue to help Kevin in coaching their talented young charges, who now include Gethin as he is the proud owner of a Brown Belt, just one grade behind his dad!
 

Eager to do well and move through the sport’s grades

 
It was typical of Rowland’s sporting mentality that once he started in earnest he wanted to rush through the minor grades and nagged Kevin to organise grading sessions so that he could develop - and also travelled with Kevin, who was in the Welsh Squad, to training sessions in Cardiff.
 
“To be honest, I think I might have been a bit of a nuisance,” admitted Rowland, “but eventually I was allowed to go onto the mat with Black Belts, even though at that time I was only a green belt. - but although I had quite a few hammerings I have always been a quick learner and soaked these occasions up.
 
“It clearly worked because when I entered my first Welsh League Cup in the novice section, I was a Blue Belt after only five years - and even after I missed the first two events along the M4 corridor I won three of the four remaining competitions to finish with the silver medal - and it could even have been gold had I not received a good kick from Steve Shrooms in the semi-final of the final competition which meant I narrowly missed out on a Gold Medal!
 
“I was mightily peeved to lose out  when I wanted to carry on but I had to remember the mutual respect shown to opponents and officials afterwards - and I’m glad I did because Steve and I have become good friends since that disappointing day!” 
 
Rowland’s second place against competitors from across Wales was something he was understandably pleased with but then his own competitive spirit was placed on hold because his twins were approaching their teenage years.
 
 

Loved a range of other sports as a youngster

 
But if Rowland was a late starter in karate it wasn’t the same in his other sports because he set out as a pupil at Hakin CP School and enjoyed a range of activities from the time he attended Hakin CP School, where Mr Andy Grey was head teacher and got him interested in rugby, alongside Rowland later taking part in athletics and his other main sporting love of football until he started out in the martial art at Milford Haven Karate Club.
 
“Not only was Mr Grey a very good rugby player in his own right but he gave us every encouragement to join Milford Haven RFC, where my late uncle, Steve Trueman, was heavily involved so he was delighted. I started off on the wing and moved from there to full back and inside centre before finishing up my days as Milford Haven Central School at outside half – but when I was 11 I also started to do well in school athletics at 100 and 200 metres, plus the long jump – which I often and finished in the top three in both sprints.
 
“Clive Woolmer was in school at the same time and his mother Geraldine, a dinner lady at the school, was kind enough to take me training with Cleddau District, the fore-runner of Cleddau Harriers, in Haverfordwest – and I competed with them across the M4 corridor for quite a while.


 

Football - an early first love for Rowland

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

“As a family we moved from Hakin to Milford when I was 11 and it was far more football-orientated and so I followed my new school pals to play at Pill Lane with Milford Athletic, under a nice old boy named Danny Thomas, alongside Lee Nicholas, Andrew Postlethwaite and Mathew Williams, the well-known Neyland rugby player.
 
“At 16 I tried to move up in standard by joining Milford United, who had a good Welsh League side in those days – but it was difficult to break into a squad where most of them were very experienced and probably had an average age of about 30.
 
“I also had a spell with Cardiff City Youth as Mike Hawkridge and Robbie Hewer got me involved and they were brilliant with their support, giving me every encouragement. “We played in the Port Talbot and Swansea Leagues – and once we got to know our new team-mates we slotted nicely into the midfield. We used to be driven up to The Morfa Stadium for midweek training by Mike and Robbie, and there was talk of us signing forms at junior level and then moving on to under 18s – but nothing seemed to be coming from it and in the end I decided I was fed up with all the travelling and stopped playing for a couple of seasons.



 

Spells with Hakin, Tish and Milford United

 
“But I was in Milford one day when I bumped into the late Joe Lennon and he persuaded me to sign forms for Hakin United and had two good seasons there, one as joint top scorer, with the likes of Daisy Picton, Gary Dawes, Steve Youds and Phil Armstrong, who all looked after me as I adjusted to senior football.
 
“Then I had spells with St Ishmaels and back to Milford United, where I played Welsh League under Gerald Hicks and for the second team coached by Ian Sturley. We played in the second division and dominated it for a few seasons because we weren’t allowed promotion into Division One – but then I suffered a serious injury from an accidental clash of heads in a pre-season friendly against Johnston left me with a badly-broken jaw that kept me out for a year.
 
“Eventually I rejoined Tish and had my most enjoyable time in local football because although we weren’t necessarily best individually, we were great as a team and could beat anyone on our day with players of the calibre of Robbie Thomas, Mark Davies, Dai Proctor, Marcelle Thompson, Robert Cockburn, Martin and Andrew Waterman.
 
“It was a great time to be in the Tish line-up but when I reached 30 I suffered a badly broken leg and knew almost straight away that my playing days were over – but I had a great time in football and wouldn’t have missed it for the world!”
 

And finally . . .

 
Going back to his involvement in karate and his decision to stop competing and concentrate on his sons, he took his coaching badge and is now a recognised coach under the auspices of NAKMAS, the sports’ governing body, whilst working hard himself in the twice-weekly sessions towards attaining that coveted Black Belt First Dan, sometime soon.
 
“It means a tremendous amount of hard work, not only physically but mentally because at the grading session I will be out there on my own in front of the grading officials and instructors in attendance, to show my skills, with all the instructions barked out in Japanese – and I have to show all I’ve learned during my earlier gradings through the various colour belts.”
 
But once that particular karate mountain is climbed, Rowland plans to return to competition himself and one of his aims would be to represent Wales at veterans’ level in the European Championships alongside his friend and mentor Kevin John.
 
Steve Davies is also contemplating a return to action in the near future in the veterans’ category so Milford Haven Karate Club would have a strong team to compete across the UK, especially with John Whatling as the youngster in the squad.
 
We at PembrokeshireSport.co.uk have known Rowland Adams since his school days, throughout his football exploits and now we are delighted to feature the contribution he is making alongside karate supremo Kevin John at Milford Haven Karate Club – and we are confident he will soon be a Black Belt First Dan as reward for his considerable efforts in this demanding martial art!