Alan ensures Sports Awards Success!

 
When Sport Pembrokeshire recently held its 12th annual sports awards at Folly Farm there was a record-breaking 180+ nominations by the Pembrokeshire sporting public across a whole range of categories from boys’ and girls' under 16s to unsung heroes and finally the chairman’s and life-time achievement awards.
 
And the man charged with ensuring the smooth running of this prestigious event, and that all the nominations were catalogued and presented to a panel of judges was Alan Jones, best known perhaps as a terrific golfer but also for his work with Sport Pembrokeshire - and then he had to ensure the smooth-running of this hugely popular event in front of over 600+ guests.
 

Second year in charge of awards – and praised by previous incumbent Ben

 
Alan took over the Sports Awards from Sport Pembrokeshire manager Ben Field the previous year and Ben would be the first to praise the yeoman work undertaken by a number of people in the sports' section of Pembrokeshire County Council, especially Alan.
 
"He has been involved from the inaugural meetings prior to the first-ever event and still has that genuine recognition of all that is good about sport in our county. Alan used to organise the finalists on to the stage and his calming influence always had them feeling settled before entering the spotlight.
 
"When he took over the reins I was confident that the event would still work as efficiently as ever and he has helped take it to another level with his excellent organisational skills."
 

Top sporting all-rounder in his own right . . .

 
What both Ben and Alan could have added was the fact that if he wasn't so involved Alan would have been a worthy candidate himself as a top golfer amongst his playing of other sports like rugby, football and cricket when he was younger.
 
He played junior football for Frankie Donovan's team of all stars at Pembroke United and was a member of the Pembroke RFC junior team that was the first to qualify for the Dyfed junior finals played at the old Stradey Park as long ago as 1977 - and was a more than useful young all-rounder in cricket with Pembroke at Treleet Ground.
 

. . . Especially golf!

 
But his golfing skills outweigh the rest as a long-term member of South Pembs Golf Club, where he has been club champion an amazing 26 times and also won the old Pembrokeshire Championships on a number of occasions before the Dyfed Singles title was initiated to encourage wider competition.
 
Alan has previously played off +1 in terms of handicap but is currently playing off scratch - and is still doing well enough to complete a hat-trick of Dyfed singles titles. He won it first when he was 40 and added a second success the following year - and became the oldest winner more recently - when he was 48!
 
Prior to that he also represented Cardiff Met in the Welsh Universities' team in the Home International Championship and is still representing Dyfed, as he has been since its inception 33 years ago, when he was only 19!
 

And finally . . .

 
He still plays as often as he can but other things, like the Sports' Awards, now take precedence and this year began with a meeting to look back on the 2017 event and discuss arrangements for this year that might make things run more smoothly.
 
Once the decisions on the finalists and winners were made then Alan had the job of contacting everyone and putting into action the plan for making the ceremony really effective, including the organisation of the splendid trophies for all the finalists, certificates for those who just missed out, and the setting up of the Folly Farm Theatre.
 
"But is it all worth it?" we asked Mr Jones.
 
"Absolutely," he replied "I regard it as a great honour to just be a part of such a lovely evening and although our supportive staff were tired afterwards we wouldn't have missed it for the world!"
 
We know how involved Alan Jones is so from Pembrokeshire Sport's point of view it is a pleasure to recognise his work with our 'Star of the Month' Award for December 2018, in recognition of all that he does for sport in our county!