Putting Geraint on track for success
WELL done Geraint Thomas who was educated like Bale, Warburton and Alan Priday at Whitchurch Grammar/High School, Cardiff.
Apparently from an early age he trained at Maindy Stadium. My parents had a house pre-WW2 in Maindy Road about 150 yards away.
The site of the stadium was an old excavated area used by Cardiff City Council as a highways materials stock yard with paving and road making materials and drums of Tarmac.
The site had a night watchman affectionately known to us boys as Peg Leg Pete the result of injury in WW1.
We would break into the site and he would do his best to chase us out.
Not long after I started my career at the City Hall, Maindy Stadium was built and as, a member of the Finance Department, I was engaged with about 10 others to attend the nightime opening ceremony as gate cashiers to collect the entrance fees (1951?).
The stars were international champions Reg Harris and Van
Vliet (Holland). An unexpectedly enormous crowd of 6,000+ people arrived, none of whom had advance tickets,and we were swamped.
Our booths were sentry boxes borrowed from the Welch Regiment, Maindy Barracks (next door) which were totally inadequate with one open shelf beneath the counter. Each box was submerged beneath masses of coins and banknotes many of the latter disappearing in the niches.
After the close of the event we were still trying to find the money to match ticket sales and we were sent out to the boxes with torches and cigarette lighters to try to find the missing money.
Everyone got very concerned; we knew there was no chance of balancing as we were so underresourced and our seniors were afraid that they would be censured for their apparent failure. Eventually the decision was made to close down for the night.
I think that next day a few notes and coins were further rescued from the sentry boxes but some non-balance remained!
We survived as did the stadium albeit rebuilt, otherwise GT might never have had the chance to win his big race. David Mahoney Worthing (previously Cardiff)