Walter Vickery (25 October 1909 - 7 April 2000) was an international

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 ...

back row who represented

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and played club rugby for

Aberavon Aberavon () is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Por ...

. His father, George Vickery, also played for Aberavon and was also an international player, but he was capped for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Personal history

Vickery was born in

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community (Wales), community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which d ...

, Wales in 1909. He had one daughter Rita, who had two children, Richard and Robert.

Rugby career

Vickery joined Aberavon in 1928, and in 1931 was part of the joint Aberavon /

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

team that faced the 1931 touring South African team. The Welsh club team was narrowly beaten when the South African's scored a late controversial try. Vickery would again face an international touring team in 1935, when another joint Aberavon / Neath team was chosen to play against the touring All Blacks. Although the combined Welsh teams only fielded one international, they played well though did not possess the fluency or clean passing of the New Zealand team and lost the game 13–3. It took Vickery over six years to win a Welsh cap, when he was selected for the opening game 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 ...

against England. Under the captaincy of Cliff Jones Wales won the game and Vickery was reselected for the next two matches of the tournament. Wales lost against eventual tournament winners Scotland, but came back in the final game to beat Ireland at

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

. Vickery was selected for the fourth and final international game of his career in the 1939 Championship. England beat Wales 3-0 and Vickery was replaced for the next game by

Les LES or Les may refer to: People * Les (given name) * Les (surname) * L.E.S. (producer), hip hop producer Space flight * Launch Entry Suit, worn by Space Shuttle crews * Launch escape system, for spacecraft emergencies * Lincoln Experimental ...

International matches played

WalesSmith (1980), pg 472. * 1938, 1939 * 1938 * 1938

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vickery, Walter 1909 births 2000 deaths Aberavon RFC players Cwmavon RFC players Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from Port Talbot Taibach RFC players Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players