St. Helen's: A Tribute (Part 1)

CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket Podcast

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In this episode we interview broadcaster and author Alun Wyn Bevan about the non cricketing history of the ground covering some stories from his 2007 book 'St Helen's Stories'.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book you can follow this link to the Amazon site. It is well worth considering purchasing a 'used' copy as the quality is often pretty good. It is a fantastic read and cram packed full of cricketing, rugby and other history not all of which was captured in the episode:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Helens-Stories-Alun-Wyn-Bevan/dp/1843238276
Find below an extract from Owen Morgan's article for Dai Sport written in 2019. We will publish some more of it when the cricketing episode is published but if you want to read the full article now you can do so by clicking on the link at the end of the notes:
Whether sitting on the sun-drenched boundary watching first class cricket, or standing on the rain lashed terrace enjoying three codes of international football, sports lovers have flocked to St Helen's for over 140 years.

And it's not just its vast array of sporting entertainment and longevity that sets the blue plaque venue apart from the rest.

The truly historic moments it has witnessed over the years make it an integral part of not just Swansea's but Wales' sporting landscape.

The first ever home Welsh rugby international was played at St Helen's back in 1882 when England were the visitors.

The ground regularly hosted Wales 15-a-side internationals, attracting crowds of up to 50,000 up until 1954 when it was decided to abandon St Helen's for Cardiff.

But perhaps the most notable rugby union matches played at St Helen's came at club level with Swansea RFC as the hosts.

When the All Whites beat New Zealand in 1935, it wasn't just the first win by a Welsh club over All Blacks, but the 11-3 success still stands as the biggest winning margin by any Welsh team against the illustrious tourists at club or international level.

The historic win was inspired by a pair of Gowerton Grammar School sixth formers - Haydn Tanner and Willie Davies. Afterwards, the visitors' captain Jack Manchester pleaded with the press: "Tell them we have been beaten, but don't tell them it was by a pair of schoolboys."

The victory was also notable for the fact that Swansea became the first Welsh club to complete the Southern Hemisphere hat-trick having beaten Australia in 1908 and South Africa in 1912.

And, of course, the All Whiles repeated the dose against Australia in 1992, when the Wallabies arrived in Swansea as the reigning World Champions.

But it's not only rugby union the ground has hosted. A number of rugby league internationals have been played there . . . the first of which was a 26-10 win over England in 1945.

Two World Cup matches were also hosted in 1975 when Wales lost to Australia 18-6 and beat New Zealand 25-24.

The latter match saw one of the most notorious incidents in the ground's history when Welsh union and league legend Jim Mills was sent off for stamping on the head of New Zealand prop John Greengrass as the Kiwi prop went over for a try.

And it's not just league and union codes of football that have been played at St Helen's. Association football has also featured at the seaside ground.

Back in 1894, the Welsh football team, which had previously played the majority of its matches in Wrexham, decided to head down south to play Ireland in the British Home International Championships and ran out 4-1 winners.
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