Welsh Journals

RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES? ALL UNDERDOGS together then, the London Irish shake off the banana skins of Euston and start on the golden and liquid journey to Lansdowne Road. As on Flecker's road to Samarkand women are hardly encouraged to accompany them (though many more women do go to Lansdowne Road than to Cardiff Arms Park, perhaps because the Welsh, while much more sexy, are also by nature more restrictive). Anyhow both the playing and the watching of Rugby are largely a matter of male ritual; it stands to some other sports as Mithraism stood to Christianity, and its emblem too might be the Bull. In the four home countries the game varies in status. In England, at least in the south, it still remains largely a snob game smelling of the public schools (remember The Loom of Youth?). It is very different in Wales, where the goal- posts are rooted in the coalface. In Ireland it is something in between; there are grounds in Munster where visiting sides have faced stoning. Louis MacNeice in New Statesman SIX WIN WELSH ‘CAPS’­AT MARBLES WHO SAYS MARBLES is a 'child's game'? It is a game which many men are playing-and Welshmen are pretty good at it. So good, in fact, that there is a Welsh international marbles team, who will be playing their annual game against England at Tinsley Green, in Sussex, tomorrow morning. The British championships are held every Good Friday on the rink outside the Greyhound Inn at Tinsley Green. The present holders of the title are the 'Telcon Terribles', of Crawley, Sussex. Their captain is Len Roberts, of Swansea, and their secretary is Jim Mason, of Ammanford. Both are now living at Crawley. Challenge cup The international matches held after the championships have been played, began in 1947 when an American marbles team played a representative Great Britain team. This went on until 1953, when America failed to send over a team. Wales then challenged England and played for the 'Fen Cup'. The Welsh team lost narrowly in the first game but had a good win in 1954- and have won ever since. Captain of the Welsh team is the diminutive Billy Wright, a native of Pontypridd, who now lives at Horsham. Billy was individual marbles cham- pion of Britain for a number of years until narrowly beaten last year by Len Smith, captain of the English team. This year's Welsh team will be: Billy Wright (Pontypridd), Len Roberts (Swansea), Jim Mason (Ammanford), Dick Light (Tonypandy), Ray Williams (Pontypridd), and David Evans (Neath) with Ted Mitchell (Pontypridd) as reserve. Every member of the team, with the exception of David Evans, now lives in Sussex. Wales Day by Day-price 2td.