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| I know this may come as a shock and it still feels as odd now as it did all those years ago, but bear with me, don't judge me quite yet! |
A lifetime ago, on the advice of a friend whose extended family included
the author (but who said he wouldn’t be attending – read into that what you
wish), I took my father to Taff’s Well Rugby Club to drink a pint or two in the
company of Steve Fenwick and other local gentleman (women were few and far
between and mostly stationed behind the bar) at one of what I must assume were
many soft launches of his autobiography. I’ve counted at least five such events
from local press. At each I also assume similar gatherings of men, predisposed
to enjoying a few beery rugby anecdotes, lapped up some worked-over tales of
banter and braggadocio, fistfights and tomfoolery, and basked in the now faded but
still reflected glory of a former Wales international and British Lion.
I know we did. Perhaps four pints of Guinness helped, but it was a warm
and engaging, if often profane, evening.
The book itself was much of the same – oft-told stories wrapped around
some personal reminiscence of life growing up in Nantgarw, working as a
teacher, joining Bridgend (my father’s hometown club where he watched Fenwick
play in the seventies when the opportunity arose, and where I watched the odd
home game with my grandfather in the days of Glenn Webbe), his Wales and Lions
career and an injury-curtailed switch of codes. It is wryly amusing, it is an
interesting chronicle of a golden age of rugby, but I get the impression
Fenwick is a little fond of himself, and enjoys this warm comfort blanket of
adulation. I think he may have mentioned his flick pass to Benny for the
greatest try in test history a few times. I imagine he never has to pay
for a drink in most pubs along the Taff. I don’t blame him – if I’d had half
the fame and renown he has I can’t help but think I’d be a tosser too.
One for the fans, and maybe the curious, I can’t really say a bad word about it, especially when considering all the gash football biographies I’ve read over the years.
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