Sam Kurtz – busy at The Senedd and Fishguard and Goodwick Cricket Club!

This week PembrokeshireSport.co.uk takes a metaphorical trip to The Senedd, in Cardiff, but regular sporting readers can relax because we are chatting to Sam Kurtz, who is the assembly Senedd Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire - but about his involvement in sport in our county and about his involvement with Fishguard and Goodwick Cricket Club.

Sam has loved sport since he attended school in Fishguard and played rugby there for The Seagulls and still plays football for Letterston FC whenever time allows.

Loves being involved at Fishguard and Goodwick CC

We could also throw in occasional games of recreational games of golf at Priskilly and sometimes even further afield - but his main summer sporting interest now is Fishguard and Goodwick Cricket Club.

Sam enjoys playing as a forceful batsman but he also tends their pitch at Tregroes, the home of Fishguard Sports FC - and is rightly proud of the strides the club has made since it was re-formed after Covid and the way it has progressed through the lower divisions until the season just gone, where they consolidated promotion the previous campaign with a healthy mid-table slot. In the third division

Early starter – by accident, rather than design

Ask Sam about his start in the summer sport, it came about by accident when older brother Steffan, who is seven years older and very much his hero, was playing for Letterston CC. 

“I remember going to watch him but on one occasion Letterston were a man short and so I was roped in to field at fine leg both ends, didn’t have to bat - and enjoyed a very nice tea in the open air!

“With no junior section in Letterston, it was off down to the Moor in Goodwick where I played junior cricket throughout the age groups for Fishguard and Goodwick and was well coached by Russell Parry-Jones, Nigel Morgan and Gary Strawbridge, alongside talented players like Steve Meaney, Kevin Bowen, Matthew Morgan, Gary Delaney, Jonathan Strawbridge, James Wade, Vaughan Davies and Charles George.

Great parental help – and a first taste of silverware

“I was very lucky that although my dad Mike and mum Cathy were both very busy running the family farm, whilst also working elsewhere, they always made time for taking me and Steff to and from matches, which is something I will be eternally grateful for.

“As we got older, we made it to the Ormond Youth Cup Final but lost to a very strong Whitland team that included Jonathan Thomas, Iestyn Scourfield and James ‘Cubby’ Davies.

“I was captain a year later and we reached the Plate Final against Hook at Lawrenny – and I can remember now how thrilled I was when we beat them!”

Rugby also played a major role . . .

In his teenage years, Sam also played rugby and football and enjoyed those too - and in rugby he played for Fishguard and Goodwick throughout the junior age groups as a scrum half, with talented Goodwick footballer Rhys Dalling as his half back partner in teams coached by Steve Morgans, Jonathan ‘JJ’ Jones, Adi Lewis and Lyn Harries.

“We had other useful players in Aled Harries, James Griffiths, Rhodri and Owain Morgans but we didn’t win the age-group silverware because Crymych and Haverfordwest were so dominant in that area – but we enjoyed playing together and have so many good memories.

. . . And football has been important too . . .

“In junior football I played in the unusual combination of positions of either goalkeeper or midfield but I have never been much of a footballer in terms of skill – although when I’m available at weekends I still help out Letterston.

“It might be a small club but it is huge in terms of character with the likes of James and Charles George, Joey, Brian and Gary Mathias, plus Gareth Thomas, who does such a great job as manager and is rightly called ‘The Gaffer’!

. . . But rugby his favourite winter sport

“But to be honest, rugby was always my first choice and when I went to university in Bristol I played three years for a brilliant local club called Old Colstonians; who I found only by accident as some of my flat mates played there and it made transport much easier.

“They were a great club socially and I found my niche as a goal-kicking winger who was amazed when he won the ‘Players’ Player of the Year’ award – and I must admit that I liked it there so much that playing and training sometimes came before my study for my degree in politics!

“After graduating it was back home and back to Fishguard & Goodwick RFC, with characters such as Randal Williams, Huw Evans, Romeo Colella and many more, and I really enjoyed my last full season just before the pandemic before my current work meant I didn’t have time to commit to playing and training.”

 

Cricket for Crymych when he ‘came home’

Back on the sporting front, Sam returned to Pembrokeshire and since Fishguard were without a team he joined Crymych – and in his second season was roped in as captain.

“I really loved playing at Glandy Cross, where Euros Lewis did so much work on the square and outfield, as well as doing so much else for the club, in umpiring us on Saturday afternoons.

“Again, it was a club packed with characters like Tudor Harries and Elgan Vittle, were very good players alongside Vernon Beynon, who Bill Carne tells me was a much better breeder of racehorses than he was a medium-pace bowler!

“I had ten years at Crymych alongside one in the first division for Llanrhian, and I had a top score of 135 not out against Neyland 2nds, one of five I’ve managed so far; my first coming at Narberth, the others being against Haverfordwest (at Glandy Cross), at Burton, and the one against Neyland – and one more since I rejoined Fishguard as I reached three figures against Stackpole at Tregroes.


 

Return to Fishguard after their rebirth

Then Fishguard reformed in 2020, but not playing a single game due to Covid – and when we restarted, I took on the role of groundsman in 2021 and have been doing it ever since. We have been lucky to have people of the calibre of Matthew ‘Minty’ Lamb and Russell Parry-Jones who have done great jobs in support (with Russell also taking on the role of being our scorer), and we have climbed through the divisions to our current place half way down the third division.

“We have been lucky to recruit Huw Evans as a real asset in the batting stakes, whilst the Delaney family also play a key part with Nigel and both sons Scott and Mattie as good players.

“We are starting to feel like a close-knit club again but now we need some junior coaches to continue our development so if there are any out there willing to help we guarantee a warm welcome up at Tregroes.

And finally . . .

We earlier mentioned that Sam is now a Senedd Member at the Senedd, or Welsh Parliament for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire and it is worth remembering that as well as the political areas of his role he is also engaged in trying to engage in sport and is rightly delighted that later this year the local Mixed Ability team known as the Pembrokeshire Vikings will be playing against the Senedd’s own rugby side, comprising of Senedd members and staff at Llandaff RFC, raising money for charity.

Sam intends playing in that match, as he has done when the Welsh Parliament has taken on their counterparts from the combined Houses of Commons and Lords, with the likes of former Welsh MPs Stephen Crabb and Alun Cairns.

“Locals might be surprised to learn that we haven’t lost this fixture for over a decade and our last win was in a match played at Richmond RFC on the same day as the England versus Wales in a Six Nations game.”

Sam is determined to be involved when they next meet, even though he says a description of him now might change from at one time being a speedy three quarter to a ‘very burly inside centre’!