Farewell to Albie, the wonder who kept on giving

‘A WONDERFUL, wonderful man’ will be laid to rest this week in his 90th year, one who spent his life helping others more, far more than he helped himself.

The funeral of Albert Francis, below, takes place at St. Mary’s Church in Burry Port at high noon on Thursday and if the congregation includes a mere fraction of those rugby players and cricketers whose lives he enriched there will be standing room only.

One of them, Phil Bennett no less, used the double wonderful description. Those of us who knew him nod in agreement because the wonder of Albert extended far beyond his job as groundsman at Cardiff Arms Park and Sophia Gardens.

When Glamorgan County Cricket Club moved there in 1967, the state of the wicket caused such grief that the inspectors from Lord’s seemed to take up permanent residence. Albert fixed it and two years later his team were county champions.

He seemed to spend the whole of his long life fixing a great deal more, encouraging players whatever their sport at the start of their careers, then opening new channels for them at the end. In 2013 he was made an MBE for services to charity, not least as a founding father and trustee of the Golden Golf Tour.

Nothing was too much trouble for Albert, especially when it meant doing something for others less fortunate. As David Last, director of Golden Golf, put it: “Albie’s passing means that a very bright light has gone out of the lives of members of the Golden Golf family as well as those of his family and his very many friends.’’