Search is on for junior sporting bursary winner
THE search is on for a talented junior sportsman or sportswoman to be the recipient of one of the town’s most prestigious sporting bursaries.
Former Leeds United and Swansea City goalkeeper Glan Letheren has been running annual sporting dinners in Llanelli for nearly 30 years.
“They are always hugely successful dinners, always a sell-out for tickets and they always generate a pot of cash which we can put back into sport at a local community level,” said Glan.
Last year’s dinner, with former England and Arsenal player Tony Adams MBE, fell victim to the coronavirus pandemic.
But Tony Adams has made himself available for a rearranged dinner to be held at Llanelli’s Diplomat Hotel on Friday, September 17.
“It promises to be another great night and everyone is looking forward to the occasion,” said Glan.
“Obviously, it all still depends on the coronavirus rules in place at the time, but we are reasonably confident that the dinner will happen as planned.”
Glan, who now runs his own talent scouting agency TopCatch
Goalkeeping, has a great track record for attracting first-class speakers to his dinners.
Previous guests of honour have included Jack Charlton, Denis Law, Kevin Keegan, Ron Atkinson, Harry Redknapp, Billy Bremner, Jimmy Greaves, Brian Robson, Ian Rush, John Barnes,Ray Parlour, Craig Brown and Chris Coleman.
Over the course of two-and-ahalf decades, Glan’s dinners have raised more than £50,000.
Glan said the aim is to help youngsters across a range of sporting fields, usually from the age of 11 upward.
He said: “Very often these youngsters are on the brink of throwing in the towel due to costs of kit or things they need for the sport.
“I would say football and rugby are the least called-upon sports when we are approached by youngsters.
“That is mainly because they are already sports that are funded.”
Glan explained: “It’s one youngster we pick every year to benefit from what the dinner raises.
“I ask them to write to me and I go through each entry and choose one; it’s tough sometimes.”
Recent years have seen squash champion Eleri Rowlands and cyclist Joe Holt all helped with donations towards their careers.
Glan added: “Tony Adams is going to be a great guest speaker as he has such an interesting life story to tell.
“It promises to be a great occasion and hopefully we can do our bit to help a sporting star of the future.
“Anyone who knows of a youngster worthy of our sporting bursary can contact me by email at glanletheren@live.co.uk”
The comedian for the dinner will be John Stiles, son of England’s 1966 World Cup hero Nobby Stiles.