Around the Boundary Feature:

  
Tony Bowen is now 80 years old but he still retains the enthusiasm for Whitland RFC that he had when he started out in the club’s ‘Mighty Midgets’ section when he was 11 and when he played his first game for the second XV at 16, and was their captain at 17 as they won the seconds’ cup.
 
He played there because The Borderers didn’t have a youth team at the time but he quickly settled in and was good enough to still earn selection for the county youth team alongside Whitland team-mate Brian Harries.
 

Flat out on debut – and an epic appearance against Fiji

 
Tony was still in his teens when he made his debut for the first team at outside half against Llangwm and was laid flat out – but then was regularly looked after by Jackie Harries at No 9.
 
He soon established a regular place in the first team in the centre after Brian Harries came out of youth to play at No 10 - but it is typical of his modesty that he rarely mentions the fact that at 22 he is one of the very few players from the county who were selected to represent West Wales against the touring Fijian side at Stradey Park in Llanelli, playing alongside Welsh internationals Terry Price, Norman Gales and Delme Thomas.
 

A Scarlet for a short time

 
West Wales lost 9-3 but Tony must have impressed because afterwards he was invited to join Llanelli – and played alongside legends like Barry John, Ken Jones and Terry Price – and scored his first try against a Loughborough College team that included Gerald Davies.
 
“It was a great time but things were different in those amateur days and I found it very hard to get time off to train because I worked on the railways, despite Brian Cook’s great kindness in taking me up for sessions at Sospan, so after Christmas I decided to return to Whitland to play, and I took part until I was 33.”



 

Top try scoring and county honours

 
For over a decade Tony was top try scorer in the county at centre, and then on the wing when Gilbert Williams and Dai Hughes came into the team, with a high of 32 tries in one productive season – a the club record of scoring a hat-trick of tries in three consecutive matches.
 
Such scoring feats earned him regular selection for the Pembroke County team on 53 occasions, and rightly proud of the fact that he is one of only six players to reach that status alongside team mate Brian Morgan. He was included when Pembrokeshire won the Welsh Counties Cup in 1971 and was honoured with the county captaincy on his 50^th appearance, against the South Wales Police at St Davids.
 

Family matters – and a sad ending to a long career

 
 
Tony’s family have certainly been involved at Whitland because his brother Terry was also a three-quarter and his sons Philip and Richard were Borderers too – with Pat having washed the club kit for a number of years after taking over from his mum Hetty.
 
But he sustained a badly broken leg, with a compound fracture, in a match against Tenby United.
“It was quite accidental but I heard a sharp crack and I was kept in hospital, where an infection set in and the proposed plate was never inserted – and after I recovered a return to action was out of the question.”
 

Great work with Whitland Youth

 
When he finished his playing days after his injury Tony turned his hand to coaching of the youth team with his old playing pal Clifton Bowen.
“We had some really good players who went through our hands,” Tony told us, “and in 1983 we caused a real stir by winning the Welsh Youth Cup, beating much bigger clubs from ‘up the line’ in the process.
 
“We beat Cardiff in the final at Ammanford with players of the calibre of Dominic and Frank Setaro, Chris Smith, Richard Fussell, Kevin Morris and John ‘Hogg’ Davies and it was a real feather in the players’ caps to achieve such an honour.
 

Great work off the pitch too

 
Tony was also the first team touch judge for a long time but as his arthritis grew worse and he sometimes limped badly so he inevitably took ‘stick’ from opposition supporters who told him to keep up with play.
“But I either took no notice or just smiled at them, and either seemed to work after a while!”
 
He still watches almost every  match and is rightly proud of being a life member – and can be found a couple of days a week at Parc Llwyn Ty Gwyn, cutting the grass or doing other bits and pieces. Until recently he would also be found on match days behind the line at the bottom end of the pitch, putting the scores up on the old-fashioned scoreboard until the club acquired a new electronic scoreboard and at least saved him one of his jobs!
 
With regard to work on the ground, Tony has spent many years in making sure it has been in pristine condition and that entailed not only getting on his tractor and keeping the grass at the right level but weed-killing and anything else that cropped up.

“The grass needs cutting every seven to ten days,” Tony told us, “and in the 30 years I have been involved I have been lucky that my wife Pat has been very understanding.  Although I don’t do quite as much now it was a great help getting me through the Covid pandemic because it helped keep me sane when I was working up at the ground with not another soul in sight!
 

And finally . . .

 
Tony has been chairman of Whitland RFC in his time and a life member for over two decades, also representing the club on the Pembroke County Committee and being a selector for many years now.
 
Tony Bowen’s record of service to Whitland and Pembrokeshire is a remarkable one but it is typical of the man that he maintains he has had far more out of his involvement than he put in but that sums him up.
 
He still loves watching his rugby and we at PembrokeshireSport.co.uk can safely say that bumping into him around the touchline is always a pleasure because he is a gentleman of the game – and sport in the county too!