IT’S a long story, but today I should have been working at the Palace of Versailles, a very long hop, skip and a jump from the Olympics city of Paris.
The team of volunteers preparing for next week’s modern pentathlon events at the palace will have to get by without me.
Regular readers will recall that I have a long love affair with the Olympics, having worked a volunteer at London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Tokyo (2020/2021) was lost in the haze of coronavirus, but I was offered a place to join the team at Versailles for the Paris Games.
Sadly, the logistics and accommodation hoops were too difficult to jump through this time. I dare say, the modern pentathlon will go off without a hitch – even without my help!
But any Olympics is a good excuse for a trip down memory lane – and I was nudged this week by the excellent Swansea Past and Present site on Facebook.
They mentioned Jack and Pat Whitford (remember Whitfords, the shoe shop in Mumbles?), who represented Great Britain at the Olympics in the 1940s and ’50s.
Husband and wife Olympians are as rare as hen’s teeth, so it’s worth recalling their story.
Sadly, Jack and Pat are no longer with us. Jack died in 2023 at the age of 99. Pat died in 2020, aged 93. The couple were married for more than 70 years.
Jack was part of the British gymnastics squad at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.
Jack had been selected to compete at the 1948 London Games (as team captain), but he couldn’t compete after breaking his arm.
Pat did represent Great Britain at the 1948 London games – and remarkably (as the Evening Post recorded at the time), she was one of seven Swansea gymnasts in a team coached by Jack’s brother, Arthur.
Speaking in 2018, Jack and Pat’s daughter, Ros, said: “They did a lot of their training in a gym which had been built in dad’s back garden.
“It was called The Sketty Gym, which was where they met. Swansea was a small place back then, and everybody knew everybody.”
In 2012, the couple were invited to attend the London 2012 Olympics.
Pat proudly wore her team jacket from 1948, which sparked a lot of interest among gymnasts and sports fans.
What a remarkable couple! Jack and Pat’s story should help inspire the next generation of Olympic gymnasts and athletes.
Any takers for trying to beat that 1948 record of seven Swansea gymnasts in an Olympics team?
Time for the youngsters to start training for Los Angeles 2028!
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IN the ‘club’ of people who regularly contribute to this fine newspaper, they are two of my favourite people.
Evening Post readers have long been admirers of the work of award-winning freelance photographer Joann Randles. And they also enjoy reading the work of Jim Young, better known to many of us by a small hatful of ‘aliases’ – Jim The Poet, Jim The Swim, The Pebble Banksy and The Pebble Poet.
Now, the photographer and writer have teamed up to produce a short YouTube documentary called The Pebble Poet.
Grab yourself a coffee or a tea (after you’ve finished reading your Post, of course) and settle down to watch it. It’s a delightful combination of words and well-crafted video.
Jim, now 75 years young, is a regular fixture at Rotherslade Bay beach, Gower, where he swims most days – whatever the weather.
Visitors to Rotherslade will often find some of Jim’s short poems, etched on pebbles and left on benches.
Many of Jim’s poems are in the form of a ‘haiku’, a short, un-rhymed, verse form of poetry which originated in Japan.
As Jim says in Joann’s film, “I write almost a poem every day; they flow out of me. I am dead scared of stopping. It’s like tapping a furnace for molten metal. I’m afraid to stop in case I can’t start up again.”
Jim is also a keen user of the social media platform we now have to call ‘X’. You can find him by searching for @BaitTheLines
To view the video on YouTube, search for The Pebble Poet | Full Documentary on the Cover Images channel.
There is a short link to the documentary here – https://shorturl.at/55Ocw
Enjoy!
- Finally, I’m looking for some assistance from readers who know a thing or two about fish and chip shop cuisine. Looking down the menu board at The Roma in Penclawdd this week, I was puzzled by the offer of Irish Curry or Chinese Curry. The staff were too busy to be disturbed with such trivia, but I did wonder: what’s the difference between Irish Curry and Chinese Curry? Answers to my email please!
Twitter: @rlloydpr
Email: robertlloydpr@rlloydpr.co.uk
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