Remembering DK, the speedster who made a name for himself

KEN Jones died last Wednesday, barely a fortnight after his 82nd birthday and some 60 years after becoming the first of a rare breed, an international sportsman known by his initials. Unlike at least two who followed him, LBJ (Le Bron James) and OJ (Simpson), Jones’ shrinking of his name into DK came about for a prosaic reason far removed from superstardom or extreme notoriety.

The old Ken Jones, the Olympic sprinter from the immediate post-war years, finished shortly before the new Ken Jones started. The new boy’s rapid rise from his native Cross Hands to Llanelli via Tumble RFC demanded a new identity to end confusion among the uninitiated.

So, almost from the outset, he became DK as in David Kenneth. Jones The Sprint followed his namesake’s career with admiration, all the more so given the young fellow’s ability to go from 0-60 in a rugby sense at a rate of knots.

DK made his debut for Wales at 20, in a pointless draw at Twickenham, and for the Lions at 21 on their 1962 tour of South Africa. His late equalising try at Ellis Park at the start of the four-match series would probably have ensured the Lions a flying start had the captain, Scotland’s Arthur Smith, not missed the conversion.

DK made a big impression, nowhere more so than at Leeds Rugby League club. In a daring bid to acquire his services, they offered £12,000, then a world record and more than twice as much as the Headingley club shelled out some ten years before on another Welsh player from Llanelli, Lewis Jones.

DK’s refusal to be moved may have been the catalyst for Leeds to sign another Lions’ threequarter instead, Ronnie Cowan. They would have been aware the Lions tour had cost the Scotland wing his job. A mill worker in his native Selkirk, Cowan found himself out of a job after his employers decided they couldn’t afford to give him almost four months paid leave to make the tour. That left the Scot, first capped as a teenager, to rely on the Lions’ generosity – a daily allowance of ten shillings or 50p but worth a lot more then than now.

As Cowan moved south to Leeds, Jones went east to Cardiff and made the cut for the next Lions tour, to New Zealand in 1966. His retirement two years later aged 27 marked the start of a distinguished career with the Confederation of British Industry.