Top Cat happy to recall the glory days

THE only man to captain Wales, coach Wales, select Wales, manage Wales, and the Lions, is sitting in a chair next to his hospital bed. Clive Rowlands, the old Top Cat-cum-national treasure, is recovering, painfully slowly it has to be said, in the Ystradgynlais Community Hospital from breaking a leg in a fall at his home a mile or two away in the same Upper Swansea valley.

That he happens to be in a ward named in memory of an Italian soprano considered by the composer Guiseppe Verdi to have been ‘probably the finest singer who ever lived’ is of double significance. From his bedside, the patient could give chapter and verse on Dame Adelina Patti and her place in Welsh history.

As if he hadn’t done enough in the national interest, Rowlands, below, has also sung for Wales, not on a bellyful of beer but as a member of the Cor Y Gyrlais male choir in full voice at the Arms Park. More seriously, Adelina Patti can also be found in his case history.

The Second World War hadn’t long finished when the eight-yearold Rowlands was admitted to Craig Y Nos, Patti’s castle home converted into a hospital following her death in 1919. He had been diagnosed with TB (tuberculosis) along with his older sister, Megan, who died from the disease.

It took her little brother two years to recover. Now, more than seven decades later, a steady stream of old friends are urging him to beat this latest setback just as he defied heavier odds in beating cancer almost 30 years ago.

Those who have beaten the same track to his bedside include the former captain whom Rowlands readily acknowledges as having already saved his life once, Bleddyn Bowen. The family shall never forget how Bowen’s exuberant rallying calls gave his old mentor the will to live.

“Before Bleddyn came to see him, my dad felt he was going,’’ says Rowlands’ daughter, Megan. “He was critically ill. Bleddyn spent a lot of time pleading with my dad, convincing him that he had enough fight left to beat the odds.

“Something happened during that particular moment and that something, whatever it was, saved my father’s life. Before that, the specialists had told us they’d found a massive tumour and we were warned that he had five years at the very most. That was 28 years ago.”

Some of Clive’s closest disciples from yesteryear have gone out of their way to give the one they revered as Top Cat a liberal dose of their own brands of holistic medicine. Those dispensing the old-fashioned remedies include Sir Gareth Edwards, Richard Moriarty, John Devereux, Mark Davies, Alun Donovan and former referee-cum-radio commentator, Alun-Wyn Bevan.

Rowlands, 85 last month, has been immobilsed since falling at home in Lower Cwmtwrch several weeks ago. We joke about the imminent arrival of a super new zimmer frame complete with turbo-charger and reminisce about matches long gone. I remind him of the first one I saw at the Arms Park, a double Triple Crown decider: Wales v Ireland, March 13, 1965 when a teenaged full-back from Hendy dropped surely the longest goal the old ground had ever witnessed.

Terry Price was so good that he played on the wing for Llanelli against Wilson Whineray’s great All Blacks of 1963-64 as an 18-year-old schoolboy and at full back throughout the Five Nations championship the following season except for a spell as an emergency centre in the Irish game.

As captain, Rowlands made those calls on the hoof when subs were what you paid the honorary treasurer, not track-suited professionals warming the bench. When an injured John Dawes found it impossible to continue, Rowlands moved Alun Pask from No.8 to full back and Price to midfield.

Mere mention of his name has the old maestro’s face wreathed in smiles. “A magical ball player,’’ he says. “So gifted, such a commanding presence. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.’’

Rowlands leaves little doubt that he rated Price the best of all Welsh full backs, some accolade considering that his early exit across the rugby Rubicon to Bradford Northern, as they were at the time, cleared the way for another teenaged colossus, JPR Williams.

That was then. Right now, amid concerns over his health and general well-being, the supreme motivator could do with as much motivation as he can get, enough certainly to get back on his feet and back home to be reunited with his wife Margaret in good time for their 61st wedding anniversary in August.