Elfed Lewis "Elvet" Jones MBE (29 April 1912 – 5 October 1989) was a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

whose international career was curtailed due to the outbreak of the Second World War. He played club rugby for

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

, and in 1938 he was selected to tour South Africa with the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

team.

Rugby career

Jones began playing rugby as a schoolboy for his local county school, joining Llanelli Harlequins as a senior. By the 1932/33 season he was playing for first-class team Llanelli, ending that season as top try scorer for the club with 15. Jones was again highest try scorer for Llanelli in the following season, this time ending with 23 tries. In the 1934/35 season Jones continued to score regularly, but his 16 try tally was surpassed by fellow wing

Bill Clement William H. Clement (born December 20, 1950) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who became an author, speaker, actor, entrepreneur, and hockey broadcaster. Clement played 11 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and was n ...

. The next season Jones regained his leading try scorer title with 20, and he also experienced his first international opposition as the touring New Zealand team came to Llanelli on 22 October 1935. Jones was selected to face the tourists, though failed to score in a game won 16-8 by New Zealand. During the 1936–37 season Jones was selected as senior team captain, and led the team to one of their most successful seasons scoring a record 699 points. Jones showed his commitment to Llanelli and the amateur game by refusing three approaches to join the professional Northern League, all offers rumoured to have involved a signing-on fee of £400. In 1938, despite not being selected for his national team, he was chosen to tour

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

as a part of

Bernard Charles Hartley Major Bernard Charles "Jock" Hartley OBE (16 March 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a rugby union international player who represented England from 1901 to 1902. At club level he represented Cambridge University and Blackheath. In 1938 he was given ...

's British Isles team along with team-mate Clement. Clement had been a first choice selection, but Jones was a later choice following the withdrawal of Harlequins wing F.J.V. Ford. Despite playing in only 12 of the 24 matches of the tour, Jones finished as the tour's highest try scorer with ten, including the first British try against the South Africa team, in the third and final Test of the series. Twice in the tour he scored a hat-trick of tries, against the South Western Districts and then

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

. During the 1938/39 season, Jones was selected for his one and only international cap. Chosen for the second match of the

1938 Home Nations Championship The 1938 Home Nations Championship was the thirty-fourth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, Home Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Five Nations, and prior to that, the Home Nations, this was the fi ...

, Jones was one of three different wings chosen opposite Syd Williams. The first match of the tournament saw F.J.V. Ford win his one and only cap, but Jones replaced him for the encounter against Scotland. Despite an 11–3 win, Jones was himself replaced for the final match to Ireland by

Chris Matthews Christopher John Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American political commentator, retired talk show host, and author. Matthews hosted his weeknight hour-long talk show, ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', on America's Talking and later on M ...

. The 1939/40 season would be Jones' last before the outbreak of the Second World War. Only one match was played, before the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

declared the cessation of competitive rugby, against

Felinfoel Felinfoel (pronounced ) is a small village and electoral ward on the River Lliedi on the northern border of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, West Wales, with a population of about 2,000. The Felinfoel Brewery, home of Double Dragon Ale, is the old ...

. Jones was Llanelli captain for the match. Jones ended his career with Llanelli as one of their highest try scorers, with a career total of 129, one of the few players to have scored over a hundred tries for the club. After the war, Jones continued his connection with rugby and Llanelli by becoming club Chairman from 1960 through to 1967 and then serving as club President from 1978 to 1981. It was in his role as Chairman, that in 1964 at the Annual General Meeting of the Welsh Rugby Union, that Jones made a key speech where he attacked both the WRU and Welsh clubs for neglecting coaching; instead 'concentrating too much on physical fitness and neglected... basic skills and tactics. He went on to claim that Welsh rugby 'at international and club level had deteriorated and even international players lack the ability to handle the ball accurately...' Jones pleaded for the Welsh Coaching Committee to be reconstituted and that the WRU should consider appointing an official Rugby Coach with several assistants, lest the AGM of the WRU 'degenerate into a meeting of social, instead of rugby, clubs.' In 1967, the WRU hired their first international coach, David Nash. A constant believer in the progress of rugby, in the 1964/65 Llanelli RFC annual meeting, he announced the need to create a 'seconds team' to bridge the gap between Youth and Senior teams. An Elvet Jones represented Wales in the Victory Internationals after the war, but he represented Cardiff and Neath.

International games played

Wales * 1939 British Isles * 1938, 1938

Personal history

Jones was born in

in 1912, and was educated at Llanelli County School. He was a magistrate's clerk by profession, and after the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. He rose to the rank of squadron leader and received the Belgian Military Cross. He was later awarded an MBE.

Biography

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Elvet 1912 births 1989 deaths Rugby union players from Llanelli Welsh rugby union players Wales international rugby union players Llanelli RFC players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales Members of the Order of the British Empire Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Rugby union wings