‘It was a better fit for my lifestyle’
WHEN LALIA DECIDED TO SWITCH BANK ACCOUNTS, SHE WAS SURPRISED AT HOW EASY IT WAS TO MOVE TO THE RIGHT ONE
“IT’S really important to have a bank account that fits your needs,” says Lalia Chappez. “Especially in lockdown, when I do everything online: savings, transferring to suppliers… I needed a bank account that made that really easy.”
Lalia is a finance officer and a mum of one, living and working in Yorkshire. She’s also one of the seven million people who have used the Current Account Switch Service since it was launched.
For her, using the service was about finding a current account that suited her particular lifestyle – both at home and abroad.
“I had heard of a new account with a different bank that was really good when you travel, which I do. It’s mostly online based and there’s no branch, which I quite liked.
“They offered a really quick and easy way of switching, and good fees – especially when I go to see my family in France: I can withdraw money without any fee. It was a better fit for me in general.”
The Current Account Switch Service takes the pressure off moving accounts, as the new bank switches your payments and transfers your balance, while the old bank takes responsibility for closing down the original account.
The service is covered by a guarantee, and your switch should be completed in just seven working days.
smart moves
Lalia says she would definitely advise anyone who wants to move current accounts to trust the switch service: “I would tell them that it’s much easier than people think, and that banks have really put in place a lot since a few years ago. It’s now really easy and secure.
“It would have taken me much longer to contact everybody I had direct debits with – it takes all the pressure off. It’s a really good facility.”
While Lalia is happy with her new account, she would still consider switching again: “I’d use the switch service again, absolutely. I hope it won’t
A RAPIST has been locked up four decades after he repeatedly sexually abused a young girl.
David Stanley, now 58, was a teenager when he subjected his victim to a catalogue of sickening rapes which lasted for years.
When the distressed child said she would tell adults about what he was doing to her, David John Stanley bullied and intimidated her into silence by holding her by her ankles over a drop and threatening to let go.
In an impact statement read to Cardiff Crown Court by the victim she told her attacker sat in the dock that he had damaged her more than he would ever know and left her with “a life filled with pain and self-loathing”.
Stanley, from Barry, had previously been convicted at trial of nine counts of rape of a child under 16 when he appeared for sentencing yesterday.
The court heard that for a period of several years during the late 1970s Stanley had repeatedly raped the young girl.
The attacks, which began when he was aged 14, were not reported at the time with the defendant ensuring his victim’s silence by threatening her.
The victim, who is now in her 40s, read a statement to the court in which she detailed the effects the abuse has had on her.
She said she had been very young when the abuse started and had felt scared and vulnerable.
She told her abuser he had subjected her to things no young child should have to endure. The woman said she had blamed herself for what was happening and later turned to drugs to “dampen the pain” of what she went through, although she said she was now thankfully free from substance misuse.
She added: “The abuse I suffered at your hands never really ended.”
Stanley, of Court Road, Barry, was convicted of nine specimen counts of rape at trial in November last year.
Kevin Seal, for Stanley, said the defendant “accepts the verdict of the jury but does not agree with it”.
He asked the judge to take into account Stanley’s age at the time of the offending and his lack of relevant previous convictions.
Recorder Duncan Bould told the defendant he was guilty of “brutal sexual abuse” which had “destroyed” his victim’s childhood and had a lasting and significant impact on her.
He said no sentence a court could impose could ever recompense the victim for what she had been through. The recorder added: “You have shown no remorse. You have only shown interest in yourself during the course of the trial.” Recorder Bould said in coming to his sentence he had to consider the defendant’s age at the time of the offending, changes in the law around sex offences since the 1970s, sentencing guidelines, the contents of a pre-sentence report, and the principle of totality of sentence.
Stanley was sentenced to nine years in prison and must serve twothirds of that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
He will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. South Wales Police do not hold a custody photograph of the defendant.
WHILE every Welshman and woman is praying for a win over England at Principality Stadium tomorrow, there is already news of one notable success by Wales over their nearest and dearest rivals.
It may not be as significant as possibly delivering a Triple Crown trophy to the nation, but it has further cemented the reputation of a Welsh auction house as the global leader in selling rugby memorabilia.
Hidden away in a unit on the Llandough Industrial Estate, a couple of punts away from where Louis ReesZammit was born, Rogers Jones & Co have won the battle to present to the sporting memorabilia market on April 17 a collection of items belonging to the Birkett family.
Who, I hear you ask? The Birketts, one of the greatest sporting families in the history of English sport. Still not convinced? Then try these facts for size:
Reg Birkett played rugby and football for England;
He served on the first RFU committee, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year;
He played in the first international rugby match every staged, between Scotland and England in 1871;
He scored the first try for England in that game in Edinburgh;
He sat on the Football Association sub-committee that was created to lay down the rules for the FA Cup;
He captained Clapham Rovers in one of four first-round games in the inaugural FA Cup competition in 1871, a game in which his side scored the first goal in the history of the tournament;
He acted as a selector for the England
football teams in the early 1870s;
He made his England football debut against Scotland in 1879 as a goalkeeper;
He played in back-to-back FA Cup finals, winning in 1880;
His brother, Louis, played four times for England at rugby, twice in tandem with Reg;
Louis followed his brother onto the RFU committee;
John Birkett, Reg’s son, played a 21 times for England, captaining his country five times;
He scored 10 tries for his country, including two against Wales;
He scored the first try at Twickenham in the inaugural game between Harlequins and Richmond; and,
He served on the RFU for more than a decade. The Birketts were something of an English sporting dynasty, with John’s son Brian also going on to play for Headingley, Harlequins and the Army. More importantly, they never threw anything away!
That’s why much of the family treasure trove will be up for auction in April. The collection is predicted to raise well in excess of £20,000. But how did the sporting artefacts of one of English rugby’s most celebrated families find its way to Cardiff? Step forward Richard Madley, an international auctioneer originally from Cardiff who has the business in his blood.
“My father was an auctioneer, my father-in-law was an auctioneer, my mother-in-law was an antiques dealer
– what choice did I have?” claims Madley, known to a UK wide TV audience as one of the experts on Bargain Hunt.
“A career in the international auction market has taken me around the world, but I’m always on the hunt for local gems. That’s how the Birkett collection first came to my attention 16 years ago. Sport still plays a large part in my life, especially cricket. I’ve always been a collector. I started with stamps, moved to coins but became hooked on bottles – all by the age of 11 when I was at the Cathedral School in Llandaff. My father bought me a box of Britain’s lead soldiers which I added to, then sold to buy my first house.
“My current area of collecting is in Wisden Cricketer’s Almanacks, which I will probably have to sell to finance my nursing home fees!”
One of a team of experts brought in to value the contents of the cricket museum at Lord’s – “yes, we did try to put a price on The Ashes, but how can a three-inch high pottery urn be worth millions?” – he first dabbled in rugby memorabilia in Cardiff in the early Nineties when in the Phillips’ auction rooms in Westgate Street he dropped the hammer on a 1905 Wales v New Zealand programme from the Percy Bush collection at £150.
These days the value of such a programme has risen to around £4,500, a point underlined when in 2013 he sold a hoard of rugby and football programmes dating back to 1884, and including a 1927 FA Cup final issue when Cardiff City won at Wembley, for more than £10,000 at Dreweatts Auction Rooms, Bristol.
But he is coming back to the Welsh capital to sell his latest find, even though the sellers were a bit taken aback at the prospect of selling their family heirlooms outside England.
“The family were a bit shocked when I told them there was only one place to sell the Birkett collection, and that was in Cardiff. They found it difficult to overcome the fact that Reg, Louis and John all played for England,” explained Madley.
Peter Evans is the great-grandson of John Birkett, although it was his mother, John’s granddaughter, Lady Evans, who first revealed the collection to Madley. As with so many discoveries, it was on a whim.
“I’d gone to her home in Shrivenham to value some Chinese ornaments. That was pretty straightforward and then she asked me if I was interested in rugby,” he added. “We went upstairs and she opened the door of her airing cupboard and then proceeded to show me what was there, hidden among her towels.
“I could hardly believe my eyes! There was a 1906 England rugby jersey, worn by John, in almost pristine condition. It could even have been one of the ones he wore in his five games against Wales.
“His England cap, with details of each of t h e record breaking 21 internationals in which he played. Harlequins shirts, his school caps and team photos in an album that showcases every England team in which he featured.
“There are scrap books containing menu cards as far back as 1907, when the WRU entertained the English team and committee at the Royal Hotel in Swansea, complete with autographs from some of the greatest Welsh players of the first ‘Golden Era.’ Then there was this little black book. When I looked inside it blew me away – here was a firsthand account of the fortunes of the Clapham Rovers Football Club for the season 1870-71 personally annotated by Reg Birkett.
“It is as fine a piece of sporting history from the Victorian era as I have seen. He hand-wrote out every team the Rovers put out – football one week, rugby the next – and even cut out the newspaper reports to add in.
“That was 16 years ago and I’ve been waiting for any movement on the collection from the family ever since. Now they feel the time is right to sell and for me there was only one place to take it, Rogers Jones & Co.”
“They have picked up the baton from Phillips and become the world leader in rugby auctions. They have established a global audience and there will be interest from many parts of the rugby playing world.”
Their reputation rocketed six years ago when an old lady walked into their reception and pulled out of a carrier bag a black rugby jersey. She explained to one of the partners, Ben Rogers Jones, how her husband had got the jersey and that probate valuation was £15,000. She wanted a second opinion before selling it.
“It was just as well she did,” said Ben, who quickly established it was a 1905 jersey from the fabled New Zealand “Originals” tour. Further research then proved it was actually worn by the legendary All Blacks captain, Dave Gallaher.
“That was a game changer and got the whole rugby memorabilia market place chattering. When we put it up for auction ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup it reached a sale price of £180,000,” he added.
“It remains the highest price paid at auction in the UK for sporting clothing and it is currently the highest price paid for a lot at a fine art auction house in Wales. Since then we have sold many rugby jerseys, caps and an important rugby union rule book from Rugby School (£13,000).
“Rugby antiques can often command prices that run into the thousands of pounds. Some of the vendors are descendants of players but other consignments come from rugby clubs who are fearful of the high values that they may have on club-house walls.
Ben has spent hours researching the Birkett collection, as well as preparing some wonderful memorabilia from the inimitable Cardiff, Wales and British & Irish Lions centre Dr Jack Matthews and his team mate Rex Willis which will be going on sale alongside it.
The race is on to see if Rogers Jones & Co can top their own records of £24,500 for an England jersey and £7,000 for an international cap. All will be revealed on April 17.
INSPIRATIONAL people from across Wales have been recognised in the latest St David Awards shortlist.
Among this year’s South Wales finalists in the bravery awards are John Rees, Lisa Wray and Ayette Bounouri, who acted selflessly and with incredible valour in defending themselves and others during a fatal knife attack at the Coop store in Penygraig in 2020. Tragically, John lost his life while trying to save the lives of others.
Mark Smith, and father and son Geoff Handley and Adam Handley, have also been named as finalists in the same category for saving the life of a woman trapped on the roof of her car after it became submerged in river water in Monmouth during unprecedented flooding.
Elizabeth (Buffy) Williams and Canolfan Pentre are finalists in the “community spirit” award. The centre – a volunteer group led by Buffy operating in the Rhondda Fawr – has helped co-ordinate support for the victims of last year’s floods, and responded to the pandemic with care packages.
And Trudy Fisher – the coordinator for RCT Young Carers project – is a finalist in the “critical worker” category, for her hard work supporting young carers and their families during lockdown.
Elsewhere there are nods for Kate Woolveridge, founder of the charity Forget Me Not Chorus in Cardiff – a choir for people with Dementia and their carers.
And Cardiff-based Nathan Wyburn, right, finalist in the Culture & Sport category for his iconic artist is a portrait of a nurse in full PPE made up of tiny images of healthcare workers, an image which has been seen around the world and which was used as a poster front on the South Wales Echo.
In the “Young Person” category, 16-year-old Casey-Jane Bishop from the South Wales Valleys has been nominated for her anti-bullying work, while Molly Fenton, 18, from Cardiff, has been nominated for her campaign to end period poverty and stigma for school pupils in Wales.
The St David Awards are Wales’ national awards, which take place each year to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of the people of Wales.
Announcing the finalists yesterday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “This year’s St David Awards finalists are an inspiring group of people that we are lucky to have living and working in Wales.
“The past year has been incredibly challenging for many of us. The coronavirus pandemic has brought much sadness and heartbreak – but it has also brought out the best in many people. This group of people from across the whole of Wales are a true inspiration to us all.
“This year, we’ve added a new category to celebrate the contribution of our critical workers. Thousands of people have worked tirelessly and selflessly throughout the pandemic to keep our lives going through the hardest of times. I am so grateful for every act of kindness; big or small. We could not have responded the way we did without them.”
This year’s award categories are: Bravery; Business; Community Spirit; Culture and Sport; Humanitarian; Innovation, Science and Technology, Young Person Critical Worker and the First Minister’s Special Award.
The online award ceremony
will take place on March 24.
A NEW collaboration has been set up by award-winning Theatr na nÓg and three venues, including Maesteg’s Town Hall, to deliver Welsh-language theatre.
Maesteg Town Hall, The Welfare in Ystradgynlais and Theatr Soar in Merthyr Tydfil have joined forces with Neath-based Theatr na nÓg to rekindle the vitality and value of their venues to their communities.
They also aim to produce a programme of participation for communities to improve their language skills and also engage in arts and culture on their doorstep.
The new consortium is supported by the Arts Council of Wales’ Connect and Flourish Fund.
During lockdown, the need for these creative hubs in their communities is even greater, not just to help safeguard the future of Welsh language in the valleys, but to support a thriving valley community beyond the pandemic.
Geinor Styles, Theatr na nÓg’s artistic director explained why this initiative, called Y Consortiwm Cymraeg, is so important at this time, adding: “If we want to hit the Welsh Government’s target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050, it is vital that we support all the elements that contribute to the regeneration of our language and culture, and these venues are the key to that success.
“It felt like a natural partnership for Theatr na nÓg to collaborate with three community theatres.
“They have been vital contributors in supporting culture and the Welsh language in their areas.
“Our collaboration also puts us in a strong position to be prepared to revive these areas once lockdown lifts, and we start breathing life back into these towns post-Covid.
“Although there is still uncertainty of when the venues will reopen we are looking forward with optimism as they announce their first collaboration, which will be a translation and adaptation of the classic comedy Shirley Valentine.”
The Awen Cultural Trust charity has been operating the Maesteg Town Hall since 2015 and it is currently closed for an ambitious £8m redevelopment.
Hannah Kester, head of cultural development at Awen Cultural Trust, said of the partnership: “Working with Theatr na nÓg, the Welfare and Theatr Soar is a truly collaborative approach to increasing the use of the Welsh language in our communities as well as an opportunity to bring forward the rich heritage of our area.
“We look forward to audiences and individuals being given the chance to participate and enjoy regionally produced work in their venue as we continue to work on forthcoming shows and participatory activity for all ages.”
Wynne Roberts, director of The Welfare in Ystradgynlais, said: “At the heart of our commitment to Y Consortiwm Cymraeg is the desire to be opening up the theatre making process to Welsh speaking communities.
“We’re excited to see how such a wellrespected theatre production company, Theatr na nÓg, develop ideas for new theatre with participation from local people.
“Very rarely do you hear Cwmtawe Welsh language voices on the professional stage; that’s something that we really are looking forward to.”
Lis Mclean, director of Theatr Soar in Merthyr Tydfil, added: “This is a really inspirational venture, Theatr Soar has been wanting to develop Welshlanguage theatre to raise aspirations and increase the use of Welsh in our community for some time now.
“This has been made possible by working in collaboration with others who share the same values and vision.
“Y Consortiwm Cymraeg encapsulates what Theatr Soar stands for.”