Alec James is an amazing worker for The Quins – at 86 years young!

 
I can safely say that Alec James is one of the more remarkable sporting people it has been my pleasure to meet on the rugby touchlines around Pembrokeshire because this Pembroke Dock Harlequins’ stalwart played rugby at Bierspool and with neighbours Pembroke, where he also coached a youth team packed with players who eventually formed the backbone of The Scarlets for a decade.
 
He also enjoyed a season with Tenby United as well as rugby for Leamington Spa when he did his national service in the RAF; played in a superb sevens team at St Athan where Welsh internationals Onllwyn Brace and Malcolm Price were colleagues alongside George Cole, who played for Coventry and England, as they competed against the very best of teams from around the RAF stations in Great Britain.
 

Alec is a jack of all trades!

 
With The Quins he was also chairman, treasurer and committee man, trainer, ball carrier and coach – and, most remarkably – he now looks after the maintenance of the clubhouse, changing rooms and other areas at Bierspool - as a remarkably sprightly 86-year-old!
 
Indeed, the last time we had a chat with Mr James it was after he had been spotted up a full extension of a ladder looking at a slight problem with a weatherboard near the clubhouse roof. When I remonstrated with him he showed my how sprightly he still is, despite being ten years my senior!
 

High standard of rugby in the RAF

 
Ironically, Alec’s start in rugby came ‘just up the hill’ at Pembroke as a 16-year-old playing the odd game for the seconds alongside the likes of Tommy Howells, Snowy Phillips and Dai Williams (no junior teams in those days) – and his playing career blossomed when he joined the RAF at 18 and before long was playing for his station and winning two runners-up medals in their sevens’ team, losing both GB Finals to Staffordshire.
 
When  he was moved to the West Midlands, he played scrum half or on the wing for Leamington Spa, a real step up in standard, until he returned to our county and had a season with Tenby United, where Roy Powling and John Thomas were key players, but travel wasn’t easy because people didn’t have cars in those days and since he was living in Pembroke had a season at Crickmarren and played in a Knockout Cup Final where they lost to Llangwm in Tenby..
 

Loved his time as a Quins’ player

 
“But then I moved to Pembroke Dock, with my wife Devine, who has always given me superb support, and I joined The Quins, where I was made very welcome from the outset and started my involvement there, including another KO Cup Final, but with defeat against Llangwm in Neyland – who had a hell of a team in those days!
 
“There were some great characters in the Quins’ team like Dennis Lloyd, Bernie Howells, Billy Hughes, Micky Edwards, Malcolm Evans, Rowland Waite, Alan Davies, Bernie Lewis and Derek Blake and we came runners-up in the league but never quite won the main silverware. I played until I was 36 before retiring but I was still pulled back when they were short – so I was a lot older when I played my last game.”
 

Great respect for him shown by Pembroke youngsters

 
Then he started out in coaching by moving back to Pembroke to help out when the youth team were without a coach and he was persuaded to take up the role.

“They were a very talented set of players where I felt outside half Rod Cadogan and No 8 Martin Alderman should have gone onto a higher level and they were joined by Simon and Matthew Edwards, David and Steve Alderman, Richard Jelley, Butch Gilbert, Richard Baker and especially Gareth Davies.”
 
He was quick to praise the ability of an ‘interesting’ bunch but the compliment is returned by Simon Edwards, who went on to skipper the first team a record  number of times and told us,
“We thought the world of Alec as he took training sessions on the seconds pitch down First Lane and if it was raining, he would turn up in a yellow sou’wester, yellow rainproof coat and trousers, plus black wellies and as he had us running laps around the pitch would shelter under the overhanging garage roof and we could see smoke coming out as he had a sly fag. We used to say he was a cross between a canary and the man off the ‘Fishermen’s Friend’ lozenges but we had great respect because he was willing to help us out!”
 
Also coached The Quins and played other sports too
 
Alec then returned to Bierspool and when The Quins were short of a coach, he also helped out there and worked with the likes of Ossie and Dai Boswell, Lenny and Roy Scourfield for a couple of seasons and also took up refereeing and spent six seasons travelling up and down the M4 corridor until he decided it was too much travel every Saturday and returned to Bierspool in a range of roles.
 
Outside of his love of rugby, Alec also dabbled in athletics and represented school in the county sports in the one mile and three mile races (akin to the 5,000 metres now) and he played cricket almost by accident as he sat chatting to football legend Frankie Donovan (who won a bronze medal with Great Britain in the 1948 Olympics) on a wall watching Pembroke – and he was roped in to play, but readily admits the game was a bit too slow for him!
 
Football also came into his interests as he played as a gritty little left back for Pembroke Borough in the Wiltshire Cup when he was only 14, alongside Sean Powell and Alan Hope, and turned out for Pembroke Town in men’s football at the old White City Ground in the town – but only when it didn’t cut across his playing the oval ball game.
 

And finally . . .

 
Back on the rugby front, Alec still watches all the Quins’ home games and can occasionally be found watching Pembroke as well, although it is the latter side where he remains a very popular figure held in regard by all at Bierspool.

“In my time there I have been chairman, treasurer, committeeman, sponge man at matches and plenty of other jobs – and it has been a pleasure to work alongside some of the club’s legends of the club like Dennis Lloyd and Timmy Hay.”
 
What Alec typically fails to mention is his own massive contribution to Pembroke Dock Harlequins but it shows what a down to earth, modest feller he is. Alec James also has one of the sharpest awareness of characters of anyone I know and I can honestly say it is a real pleasure to chat to him on the touchline because he not only makes me laugh but leaves me feeling that little bit better for speaking to him!