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Our Club History
'One Mans Dream'
The story of Billy Johns is one of great courage, of strength and of
passion. Although Billy died in 1962 at the age of 33 his inspiration
lives on.
Billy Johns health in the early years of his life deteriorated rapidly.
The physical struggles diminished his energies to such an extent that by
a very early age he was losing his mobility, and soon afterwards he
found himself permanently confined to a wheelchair. For the remainder of
his life he was to be virtually totally paralysed. Despite his
disability he was an inspiration to others.
Billy had many friends, and Billy had a dream, he decided that rather
than be led he would make, for him, the monumental effort to lead. His
aims were clear - enjoyment for his friends, "his boys" through sporting
and other activities and develop a friendship that knew no barriers.
Billy's dream was of a club where he could gather around him hard
working and committed officials who could nurture and foster its
members, and together they could create something that was very
"special."
Fifty years on there can be little doubt that Billy Johns' dream is very
much alive. Billy's hopes and aspirations for the members of his club
live on in the current players and officials and friends of the Mumbles
Rangers of today. In spite of the fact that the majority of the clubs
present members never had the privilege of knowing Billy Johns, all
recognize the privilege of belonging to his club. The massive influence
that he had upon all who came in contact with him all those years ago
exists still to this day. It is an influence that all who have ever been
associated with Mumbles Rangers will have experienced. If he had lived
to witness the strength of the club today, his pride would have known no
bounds.
In the 1961 New Years Honours list Billy Johns was awarded the British
Empire Medal
The following is the first of a two part history of
Mumbles Rangers Boys Club written by Dave Harris for the February 2001
edition of All Saints Church News
Mumbles Rangers Boys Club
Founded 1949 by Billy Johns B.E.M.
Mumbles Rangers Boys’ Club has a proud part to play in the history of
our local community.
It is over half a century now since a young man named Billy Johns
decided to found his own club. The late Billy Johns, B.E.M. lived with
his devoted parents, George and Lillian Johns, in what was then 65
Higher West Cross Lane (now West Cross Road). From an early age Billy
was confined to a wheelchair but that did not affect his enthusiasm for
life, and in particular his commitment to the boys of West Cross and
Mumbles. It was the tenacity and resolution of a quite remarkable young
man backed by a devoted mother’s love and support which led to him first
becoming treasurer, then secretary, then manager of “his” team. He
wanted “his boys” to enjoy the sports which crippling handicaps made so
cruelly impossible for him. Such was his remarkable talent for
leadership, that when he decided to leave Oystermouth Youth Club in
order to form his own team, almost all the boys left with him. In the
first difficult years, Billy Johns not only held “his boys” together,
but without resources of any kind, without premises of their own, he
laid down the ground rules for all to obey. The response was a total
commitment from as loyal a group of youngsters and as assorted a
cross-section of young people as you could wish to find anywhere.
In those early post-war years Billy Johns became a familiar figure
throughout Mumbles as “his boys” pushed his wheelchair to and from
Underhill Park no matter how extreme the weather. His early wheelchair
pushers were local boys Derek James, Keith Davies, David Palmer, Alan
and Keith Ockwell, Doug Peachey and later Andy Cuthbert, Malcolm Jones,
Bob Smith, Kevin McCkoskey, Alan Dawtry, Peter Aspel and countless
others. If Mrs. Johns allowed you to push Bill for his haircut over at
Silas Macey’s you’d arrived. Former Spurs and Wales footballer Terry
Medwin married Silas’s daughter Joyce envied by all the local
youngsters!
The present day club now boasts a vibrant membership of over 150
players, with over 100 youngsters aged between 6 years and 16 years. But
the club would probably not have survived its first year had it not been
for the inspirational leadership of a truly remarkable young man.
The year before the club’s formation Billy Johns was involved with
Mumbles Youth team based at Oystermouth School, and boasting powerful
local players like Jim Pressdee (later of Swansea A.F.C. and Glamorgan
C.C.C. fame), Ray and John Hammacott, George Davies ( son of local Aunty
Minnie), Shun Bowen From Newton.
Although Billy Johns admired the highly successful Mumbles Albion team
and shared others’ pleasure occasionally watching their players beat the
best in Swansea – locals like John Budge, Ben Hoppe, the Nash brothers,
Peter Elias, Ray “Stormy” Fairweather, etc. he was determined that his
boys would be different. They would be special. Ask any member of
Mumbles Rangers today about their club - 50 plus years later - and they
will answer as one. “It’s a bit special”!
Early members like Terry O’Brien recall how they paid 8/6d each towards
the cost of their jerseys, which were heavy and “seemed to be made from
sail cloth”. In addition they paid 2/6d a week. Expensive? “No, it was
our club. We were privileged, (best seats in the Tivoli Cinema were then
1/6d and a pint of Worthington beer cost 1/3d).
Their first season was a struggle but Billy Johns was a very determined
man, and as his small band of youngsters increased, they learnt to
admire, respect and finally revere their leader – and friend.
An early member recalls how in 1952 at a club meeting in Oystermouth
Square at the British Legion Snooker Buildings and Dance Hall where
Boots and C.J.’s are now ,the club celebrated that season’s success by
approving Billy’s proposal to make 13 players life-members. Terry
(Texas) Llewellyn (now Dr. R.T. Llewellyn, Cambridge Don), Alan Okwell,
Clive Gammon, Terry O’Brien, Hylton Jolliffe, Roy Lloyd, Danny Sheehan,
Bob Aspell, Johnny Davies, Vic Collier (later to become Squadron
Leader), and the only 3 non-local Mumbles players – John (Nubs) Norman,
Dai (“Mr. Rangers”) Davies and Brian Owen from Brynmill. Over the club’s
long history many have resided outside Mumbles, but almost all who have
joined have found the club impossible to leave.
Those early years brought undreamed of success on the football field.
But real success for Billy Johns was never to be confined to the
football field. His dream was to build a clubhouse of their own. Looking
back at those early days it seems incredible now that the very early
club meetings had to be held in the open air on the side of a football
pitch in Underhill Park, often on dark, damp windswept evenings. Soaked
through, Bill would often be pushed home by his faithful band of
youngsters promising them that “something will turn up”. He told them
once – “If we have to we’ll build our own clubhouse”. In 1954 (until
1956) they did just that – on the site of a disused air-raid shelter in
“the horses’ field” where Castleacre now stands. After 2 years the club
was forced to look elsewhere and relocated to the old Badminton Hall at
the top of Norton Road just below the Beaufort Inn.
The search for a clubhouse location has continued unabated for over half
a century – including stays in premises in William Street, Oystermouth
Square, Oddfellows Hall in the Dunns and currently in a hut built by
club members in Underhill Park. Mumbles Rangers has earned the right to
be allowed a Clubhouse commemorate with its contribution to the
community of Mumbles. Possibly one day Billy Johns’s dream will firstly
be fulfilled and the club’s great service to the community fully
recognised.
Over the years, Billy Johns club has attracted a loyalty unrivalled by
similar organisations. Ex-Cardiff and Wales footballer Steve Gammon was
recommended by Billy to the then Cardiff Manager Bill Jones and Steve
evens now returns for the club’s Annual Dinner every February, (this
year to be held at the Pier Hotel, Mumbles on the 25th February). The
club has produced some outstanding footballers, unlucky not to do well
at the highest level – Murray Crook, Phil Davies, Alan Lloyd, Geoff
Riley, Derek Rees, Gary Hockley, John Lodge, Phil Vaughan and many more.
But it is the special camaraderie that will always be the hallmark of
Mumbles Rangers, Fred Clement, Eric Nicholas, Jeff Fackrell, Keith
Billington, Clive Henson, Des Criddle, Chris Parkin, Mike Isaac, Eddie
Wade, Jack Thorne, Mike Harvey, Dave Harris, Clive Aston, Les Hockley,
Neil Gray, Haydn Lewis can combine a total of over 300 years in service
to Mumbles Rangers.
There must be a very special reason for that.
In 1959 the Daily Mirror proclaimed their nausea with the Queens’s New
Years Honours list and invited their readers to vote for what they
described as “exceptional people”. In January 1959 a panel comprising
Lady Joan Braithwaite, Beryl Grey, the Duke of Bedford, Alec S. Dick and
Mr. (later Sir) Matt Busby, decided that Billy Johns was their ‘Daily
Mirror Man of the Year’. For the youth of Mumbles Billy Johns has been
their man of the ‘Century’ and some form of posthumous recognition for
this outstanding incredibly brave local man is felt by many to be long
overdue. Perhaps a purpose-built clubhouse would be a fitting tribute
and memorial to Billy Johns. The club still lives in the hope that
someone one day will step forward to recognise and fund such a project?
Here is the final installment of the two part history of Mumbles
Rangers Boys Club written by Clive Henson for the April 2001 edition of
All Saints Church News
To continue the story of Mumbles Rangers, Billy Johns overriding
ambitions were always for his young members, and throughout his short
life he strove to build a clubhouse for his boys. Sadly, on Valentine’s
day, February 14th 1962 Billy lost his fight for life at the age of 33
years, but he left behind wonderful memories and a legacy that is still
carried on to this very day. Billy’s dream of a clubhouse of our own
will, we hope one day be realised.
In the meantime, Mumbles Rangers carries on in the true traditions of
Billy, almost as if he were still at the helm.
In the mid fifties Billy was introduced by Murray Crook to a young
Italian, Carlo Prete, who had been sent to Wales by his father to learn
English. Carlo idolised Billy and the Italian Connection began. After
Carlo’s return to his homeland a visit to Italy was organised, Carlo and
his family were to play hosts to Billy and his youngsters. For Billy it
was a journey made against all the odds. 36 boys led by Billy traveled
from Swansea to Paddington, and to cut costs, stayed overnight in a
Salvation Army Hostel, before continuing next day to Dover where they
crossed to Calais. They travelled by train through France and
Switzerland to Genoa, Italy, a massive journey for Billy. “His boys”
watched over his every moment and youngsters, Eddie Wade in particular,
and others still in their teens, demonstrated astonishing care and
concern for Billy throughout that fortnights stay. Such was the
impression they made that in 1975, some 13 years after Billy’s death,
Carlo Prete brought over an Italian team to Mumbles as a tribute to “the
most incredible man I’ve ever met”.
Carlo had sent Billy a colossal bronzed statuette on a marble base, and,
after Billy’s death another breathtakingly beautiful trophy similar in
stature. These trophies are today presented to the First and Second Team
Players of the Year, and held with pride within the club. They are on
display in the Rangers’ trophy cabinet in the White Rose, Mumbles, who
offered our trophies a temporary home until the long quest for our own
clubhouse becomes reality.
The late 50’s was a bleak time for funds and new kit was badly needed.
But Spurs and Wales footballer, Terry Medwin came to the rescue with
eleven Welsh International jerseys. They were only numbered 7 and 9,
Terry’s positions for Wales. So we fielded a side with six wearing
number 7’s and four wearing number 9 on their shirts!
Through the 60’s there was plenty of success on the football field,
Hylton Jolliffe’s ‘B’ side having enormous success, and many more
achievements by the other sides. Billy’s quest for a clubhouse
continued, with many failed applications, but his determination remained
as strong as ever.
Billy Johns’s death in 1962 left the club shell-shocked, but still in
good hands of club stalwarts like Mende Morgan, John Budge, Club Leader
Bob Smith, Secretary Kevin McCloskey and Fred Clement, our home then
being The Old Catholic Hall in William Street. But Bob Smith left for
South Africa and then came the move to premises in the basement of
Oddfellows Hall in the Dunns. The rooms often flooded with the incoming
tide and it was an unhealthy existence and this move signalled an era of
decline for the club.
But a new era was emerging, Jeff Fackrell (later to be club leader),
Clive Henson Secretary and Fixture secretary (now Chairman), Ian
Williamson later to become Secretary, and Clive Hemp, the new treasurer,
were determined to keep the club going. These were difficult times and
it was hand to mouth existence. With the further loss of the premises at
Oddfellows Hall, the club sank to its lowest ebb. Meetings were now held
at No.11 Glen Road, the home of Fred and Helen Clement and thanks to
their hospitality the club was able to survive. Fred Clement has played
a big part in our club’s history and is now Club President. His wife
Helen must also be mentioned for without the patience and understanding
of such wives the Rangers officials would find it difficult to carry out
their duties.
It was at this time that the club was offered a strip of concrete in
Underhill Park, which had housed the American Nissan Huts during the war
and was adjacent to the Rugby Club changing rooms. This was to be the
Rangers’ new home and work began immediately. Ken Jones played a major
part, ably assisted by Eddie Wade and other club stalwarts, Fred
Clement, Jeff Fackrell, Ian Williamson, John Budge, Alan Martin, John
Lodge, Clive Henson and Keith Billington to name a few. The main
structure was supplied by Marley, the internal walls fittings and
fixtures being built by club members. It was not a palace but it was our
club and a home. The arrival of Frankie Vaughan to open our own ‘Billy
Johns Clubhouse’ was as nice a gesture to the memory of Billy, as one
could get. (Frankie first met Billy in November 1958 when he opened our
then clubhouse at Norton). Mrs. Johns was present and also Clive Thomas,
World Cup referee and Chairman of the Welsh Boys Clubs.
The late 60’s saw the arrival of Reg Nix, an ex-referee, to assist with
first team coaching, and Danny Sheehan and Dai Davies who had both seen
the first team play in badly faded shirts and despaired at the state of
the club. Fortunes blossomed with the purchase of a new set of kit in
the old club colours of Yellow, Red and Black and the installation of
Danny as club leader. With the arrival of Gerry Griffiths the club took
on a new dimension, and on the playing field the phoenix was about to
rise from the ashes. Although our football ambitions in returning to the
first division were achieved, the search for a clubhouse went on. Our
application to build in Oystermouth Quarry, now a car park was quashed;
our plans to build behind the car park at Underhill Park were
unsuccessful. Our recent joint venture with the Rugby Club fell again on
stony ground. But the work carried out by Eric Nicholas, Des Criddle and
Chris Parkin in pursuit of Billy’s dream goes on. Other members who have
served the club well, must not be forgotten, Malcolm Miller, Ray
Thompson, Russell Davies, Kim Thomas and Richard Pothecary have acted as
Treasurers, Chris Jones as Secretary, Colin Henson and Keith Billington
as Fixture Secretaries, Malcolm Maggs and Jeff Fackrell as club Leaders.
Just as in the early years people like Alan Price, Roy Browning and
Haydn Griffiths contributed so much.
In 1973 the club began a junior section with the arrival of Alec Sorley,
Eric Nicholas, (later Club President), Malcolm Maggs, (later Club
Leader), Des Criddle, (later Chairman), Eddie Wade, Mike Harvey, Len
Rowden, Bernard Evans, Ivor Owen and Lawrie Buckland. Our Junior section
now boasts sides from under 7 through to under 16, and is now one of the
largest in Wales thanks to all our junior managers. Some of the more
recent junior managers are Chris Parkin ( ex-Junior co-ordinator and
secretary, now fixture secretary). Mike Isaac, Haydn Lewis (junior
co-ordinator), Mike Podbielski (Secretary) George Kyrillou, Leroy
Anderson, Neil Grey (V.P. Club Administrator) Ian Jones, Clive Henson
(Chairman), Gwyn Lloyd-Jones, Simon Howells, Lawrence Jones, Renalto
Restighini, Paul Skinner, John Cox, Keith Norris, Tom Cox, and all have
been with the club for many years.
In 1976 the club celebrated its 25th Anniversary at the Top Rank Suite,
Swansea and the main guest was Max Boyce. Eric Nicholas, Rangers’
lifetime friend Grafton Maggs, and the Rangers’ committee masterminded
this anniversary dinner.
In 1982 Mike Harvey suggested we hold an Annual Dinner and invite all of
the old boys, ‘the original Rangers’ to gain their support and
reintroduce them to their club. The first one with 60 members was held
at the Langland Court, but soon outgrew this venue to go onto the
Caswell Bay. Now 19 years’ later this event is still being held on the
last Sunday in February, at the Pier Hotel, Mumbles with over 200
members attending each year and with tickets at a premium. Together with
our loyal Sponsors the Vice Presidents are now the club’s main source of
income. Since Eric’s retirement as President the V.P. Club is organised
by Neil Gray. It costs £10 per annum to join and gives the club
invaluable funds to carry on its important work for the community of
Mumbles and Swansea.
In 1989 the idea of setting down the history of the club, before the
records became lost or forgotten was instigated by David Harris and Mike
Harvey and the book ‘One Man’s Dream’ was written, the history of the
club being saved forever in pictures and print.
In November 2000 the club held its 50th Anniversary celebrations at the
Swansea University and present were nine of Billy’s ‘original’ Rangers,
Clive Gammon, Terry O’Brien, Hylton Jolliffe, Danny Sheehan, Johnny
Davies, Vic Collier, John Norman, Brian Owen and Bob Aspell (son of
Wally the club’s legendary first trainer). We were also fortunate that
day to have overseas visitors in Dimitris (Jimmy the Greek) Zaraphonitis
with friends from Greece, and Bob Smith travelling from South Africa.
Bob’s journey was rewarded with deserved Life Membership. Eric Nicholas
our outgoing President was there again to mastermind this event with 350
past / present players and wives and friends attending.
For the past four seasons the Rangers Junior section, in September of
each year, has held a 5-a-side junior tournament, with teams entering
from all over Swansea and Neath. The purpose of this tournament is to
remember one of our loyal members, Alan Martin, who was instrumental in
helping set up the Junior Sunday Morning sessions. George and Maria
Kyrillou are the main forces behind the, organization, with committee
members and junior managers assisting on the day, especially Mike
Podbielski , his wife June, Chris Parkin, Haydn Lewis and Mike Harvey,
one of Alan’s closest friends. June is the canteen lady who supplies hot
drinks and refreshments on Saturdays to both Rugby and Soccer supporters
in the Park. Last September Alan Martin’s sister Eileen and her husband
Brian came over from America to sponsor and watch the tournament.
Today, past members are joined by current members, in their 50 year
search for a Clubhouse. Such is the hold that Billy Johns still has on
his club that Doug Peachey, one of the ‘originals’ is still writing
letters on behalf of the club.
Pursuit of a permanent home for Mumbles Rangers Boys’ Club still goes
on, some 39 years after Billy Johns death. The club feels it has a very
strong case. Those familiar with this club’s inspiring history, would
not disagree
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