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

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

back row who represented

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

and played club rugby for

Aberavon Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) 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 distri ...

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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Personal history

Vickery was born in

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and 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 dominates the sout ...

, 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 (; cy, Castell-nedd) is a market town and community situated in the 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 19,258 in 2011. Historica ...

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 Home Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Five Nations, and prior to that, the Home Nations, this was the fifty-first series of the no ...

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. 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

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