YESTERDAYS 1953

JIMMY Seed, Charlton manager, is today writing to the Football Association and the Football League about the use of the white ball in football matches.

“I believe it is being used too often,” he said. “At Cardiff on Saturday neither the state of the turf nor the light warranted the introduction of the white ball and when it was brought into play it skidded treacherously on the greasy surface. I feel that a definite ruling should be made instead of leaving the decision to the referee.” POST Office “detectives” are on the trail of TV pirates in Wales. They began their search for unlicensed viewers in the Rhondda today, and for the next few weeks will be combing other selected areas.

In a green van equipped with apparatus for locating sound radios and television sets, the Post Office engineers will travel about 3,000 miles in their hunt for licence defaulters.

A similar campaign was conducted last year but then television was something of a novelty in South Wales, with only 5,640 viewers in the Cardiff postal district which takes in Penarth, Cowbridge, Caerphilly and Bargoed. A DECISION over the weekend settled arguments as far as Londoners were concerned, with a point in Charing Cross being laid down officially as the centre of London.

The news got Cardiffians wondering where, in turn, was the centre of Cardiff? The City Hall? The Welsh National War Memorial? The site of the old City Hall in High Street?

Officials of the Royal Automobile Club in Cardiff were asked and their archives produced information fixing the city’s distance from other points to the milestone near Cardiff Bridge.

But for route cards and tourist information the centre is shown as Cardiff Castle, which stands nearby and, of course, is a prominent landmark on the main London trunk road.

The South Wales group office of the Ordnance Survey also has the castle as the official city centre on the new grid plans of Britain’s built-up areas. A 23-YEAR-OLD Newport man told a police officer that he had put his head in a gas oven because he was upset at not having had an invitation to his sister’s wedding.

At Newport Magistrates Court the man was found guilty of attempting suicide and was placed on probation for 12 months. The man thanked Police Constable R Norval for bringing him round. ISAAC Harries, brother of 55-year-old Mr John Harries, who, with his wife, Mrs Phoebe Mary Harries, aged 53, are missing from their 11-acre smallholding, Derlwyn, Llanginning, Carms, is due in the district today.

On his arrival it is expected there will be a family conference. They are worried over the non-return of the couple, last seen in Llanginning on Friday evening, October 16, at a harvest thanksgiving service.

Mr Ron Harries, the couple’s nephew, said he took the couple to Carmarthen to catch the train to London. They told him they were going to have a holiday for two or three weeks.

Today, the 18th day of the mystery, no word has been received by any relatives or neighbours from Mr and Mrs Harries, who acquaintances do not remember ever having taken a holiday previously.

Mrs Violet Harries, mother of Ronald, said there was no letter or card in the post. “Since this business started it has been Ronnie’s custom to go and meet the postman every morning,” she said. Tension is mounting and specula-