Two of the best-known figures walking the boundaries of cricket matches in our county during the summer, plus the touch-lines of rugby and football matches, are the husband and wife team of Brian and Susan McKeon, with the latter quite properly recognised for her superb sporting action pictures.
Brian also helps out when he can with team pictures or presentations, and has settled really well into the local bowls scene as a player with Saundersfoot Bowling Club.
Susan’s pictures can be seen in all of the newspapers published in Pembrokeshire, and sometimes further afield – and they have won her awards in competitions.
Two-way sharing means so much to the McKehons
But what is lovely to report is the fact that she delights in sharing her expertise with the sporting fraternity, giving the pictures to players and their families of special sporting moments: a big hit in cricket, wickets tumbling, tries or goals scored – and all without charge for the digital images!
It is a two-way thing, however, because both McKehons would say that whilst they might have given pleasure to others they have taken far more out of sport. As Susan explains,
“We never dreamt when we came here that we would make so many friends, or get to know so ma
ny people; we have been invited to club dinners and even a wedding as a result of our photography.”
And Brian nods sagely in agreement!
Long route to county
They lived in a variety of places in England after originating from Laleham (in Middlesex) in Sus
an’s case, and Surbiton, in Surrey for Brian. Susan then had a secretarial and office based career, including time spent working for a high-flying lawyer in London in the 1980ss, but gave up work in 2005 to care for Brian.
Brian had a long career in local government, mainly in the housing sector, but latterly in computing before he retired on ill-health grounds in 2007 after major heart surgery and an ongoing battle with depression.
So why Pembrokeshire? The old cliché – they fell in love with the place on holiday- and decided to live here!
Both love a range of sports
Susan has never ‘excelled’ at any particular sport although loves taking part and stood in for a Saundersfoot Lady cricketer who was injured in one of their matches last season. Sadly, she didn’t get to bat or maybe that was a good thing! Her only sporting achievement was a 30 mile sponsored charity walk when she was 14 which she completed in shoes (long before the days of trainers!)
When Brian was younger he enjoyed football and played in goal for Laleham AFC, with matches played purely for fun on Sundays. In one match Brian & Co lost 16-1 and he had the dubious distinction of conceding an own goal in ten seconds. But he also made some useful saves and, as tradition demanded that both managers nominated an opposing man of the match, it was a small consolation when he was named as Laleham's man of the match!
A treat for Brian – and Susan gets her autographs!
One summer saw all Susan and Brian's spare time spent acting as stewards at top sporting events, including test matches in cricket against the West Indies at Lords and The Oval, plus one-day
cricket finals and a variety of early football matches.
Brian certainly drew the long straw when it came to the division of work load because he had five days 'working' at the Oval standing at the gate which allowed players to enter or leave the field of play."It was amazing," admitted Brian, "all I had to do was sit on my little seat, and open and shut the gate at the appropriate time - It was a grandstand view."
Susan had more of a chase-around role but she put it to good use and after buying a miniature bat got celebrities to sign their autographs on it for her.
"Brian Johnston was my first 'victim'," said Susan, “and I was really thrilled when Brian Lara and Courtney Walsh from the West Indies signed my little bat, followed by John Major and Frank Bruno. I also got Robin Smith from the England team but I couldn't get Alan Lamb to sign - he just refused point blank!
"I've still got my autographed bat as a memento of that lovely summer!"
Brian looks backwards – and forwards
Brian’s football interest continued as he was involved in coaching youth football from U9 – U13 with Wokingham Town FC, where he ran the club shop for six years and was on the club’s management committee for a number of years.
“I also enjoyed tenpin bowling as a teenager,” Brian told us, “and after moving to Pentlepoir in March 2009 our neighbour sent me to Saundersfoot Bowling Club with her husband one Tuesday afternoon – and I fell in love with the game and joined the club as the late Roy Pring took an interest and encouraged me.
“I played for St Issells and in 2010 won my first club competition (rabbits; a competition for those who have never won anything before), and then played for the Saundersfoot first team in 2012 and in the same year won the County Senior Pairs trophy with the late Stewart Howe, and went on to represent Pembrokeshire at the Welsh National Finals at Llandrindod Wells.
“We lost in first round but what an experience! I’ve since played for the County Senior Team and was awarded my Senior County badge in 2014 (for 5 appearances).
Great happenings after a disastrous start!
Like a lot of folk, Susan’s previous interest in photography was confined to holidays but then developed an interest in the unusual and often entered them into newspaper competitions.
In 2008 she took a variety of local shots and compiled a calendar to raise £400 for the Sue Ryder Charity.
“Brian bought me a new camera for my birthday in 2010 and I promptly went off to Martins Haven in the hope of crossing to Skomer to photograph the wildlife there - and fell and broke my leg without even getting to see a single puffin!
While in a wheelchair she discovered the lens wasn’t up to taking wildlife images so Brian bought her a 100-400 lens and she had a great time at the various kite feeding stations.
Sporting start at Heywood Lane
But Brian told us that then came the moment that brought her very much into the sporting fraternity.
“At the beginning of the 2010-2011 season I happened to say I fancied going to Tenby Rugby Club to watch some rugby and Susan said she would come along with the camera – and that was the beginning of her passion for sport photography.
“She followed Tenby’s games all that year, with pictures to the local paper and on a website.
Until recently, a member of Tenby Camera Club and took part in their and other international photographic salons. Through STARS, a Pembrokeshire Care to Work charity, Susan was sponsored by the Mid and West Wales Chamber of Commerce, with the support of the EU and the Welsh Assembly, and gained access to Scarlets to take some images.
Access gained to a higher level
“At one game she was asked to take crowd shots which were used in the next programme and then got access to Wales v Ireland in the Women’s Six Nations at Cross Keys - and on the strength of that obtained a trial with Rugby World Magazine.
“She also covered a women’s football international, Wales v Scotland at Haverfordwest but after two successful trials with Rugby World Magazine decided that travelling was not a practical option and if she went down that route she would have to sacrifice supplying the local sporting fraternity with images.
“Susan has always been in awe of the passion people have for their various sporting activities in Pembrokeshire and her enthusiasm for photography in this field is a marriage of two passions. She covers cricket, football, rugby, hockey, Ironman – in fact, anything that moves!
Photography skills acknowledged
She then received certificates of commendation from Southampton Camera Club for two images, both featuring local cricketers, one of Ben Field and Sean Hannon watching the ball as it spun up in the air off Ben’s bat, and the other of Adam Chandler hitting a boundary with Sean Hannon in the background.
Susan recently achieved enough acceptances at international photographic salons to apply to FIAP (the international photography governing body for one of their distinctions (AFIAP) and she received notification this week that she had been successful – so she can now use the letters AFIAP after her name when entering competitions!!!.
She has won the Bisley Munt Cup (best black and white print) at the Pembroke County Show for the last two years.
And finally . . .
Outside of her sport, in January of this year Susan had another brainwave: to start collections of food items from the Catholic Churches in Saundersfoot and Tenby for the Trussell Trust, which runs the Pembrokeshire Foodbank from their base in Narberth.
This has now been running for seven months with donations topping 3,200 items. She and Brian both took part in the bi-annual Foodbank Collection at Tesco in Haverfordwest where Susan was able to persuade some sporting locals to donate to the worthy cause!
Susan never stops and is always looking for and thinking of new projects to get involved with and her photography is driven by the passion that she is providing an image of a special moment to be kept for all time as a lasting memory for each particular person.
Sporting images are now uploaded to her Facebook page to allow the subjects of the images to gain access to them, all free of charge.
The McKehons have certainly provided a great deal of pleasure for a huge number of local sportsmen and women and we hope that Susan and Brian continue to be so involved with local sports photography because they do such a brilliant job.