Continuation From 1954 By Graham Clive Cale James

A Memory of Pontllanfraith.

New friends were made at Pontllanfraith Grammar School, names such as Alan Davies, Gino Minoli, Clive Lewis, Glyn Moss, Joyce Davies, Margaret Brooks, Judith Dyer all come to mind. I regret I gave so little effort to my academic work, but I had already decided that I wanted to work in my grandfather's business at Gibbs Bros. Garages Ltd. Sport I loved in any form, athletics and rugby in particular, and was the Middle School Victor Ludorum at athletics and played for the school XV at rugby. I left school in 1954, and as planned worked for my grandfather. My progress in the company was:- Parts Dept. Assistant then to Manager and later to be appointed to the board of Directors. The business closed in 1985 and I was the last person to leave the building on the 24th Dec. 1985.
In 1959 after a long courtship [5 years] I married Avril Diane Williams at St. Sannans Church, Bedwellty. We had three children, Shelley, Jeremy and Richard who in turn gave us seven grandchildren between them.
I continued to play rugby after leaving school and played for the following teams :- Penallta Colliery XV [ one or two players outside the colliery were allowed ]
Blackwood Stars XV, Blackwood RFC XV, Newbridge RFC and Abercarn RFC. Whilst with the later team I was the top try scorer with 27 tries [ still do ] and represented Capt. Crawshays XV against London Welsh and Llandovery College where Caerwyn James [ British Lions Coach ] was the games master.
After the closure of the garage work was hard to find because of my age. I continued to work for a few more companies , All Terrain Vehicles. D.G. Weaver. Griffin Mill Garage and South Wales Electricity Board finishing up at South Wales Switchgear before retiring in the mid 1990s.

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