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Happy Old New Year (Hen Galon)!!

Yr Hen Galon is a custom that dates back to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, as opposed to the previously used Julian calendar, which over the years, had lost 13 days, resulting in January 1st in the Julian calendar equating to January 14th in the Gregorian.

In some areas of Wales, the tradition of observing the new year according to the Julian calendar is continued, with the communities of the Gwaun Valley near Fishguard and Llandysul celebrating the   ‘Hen Galan’ hen meaning old in Welsh and calan, meaning the first day of the month.

Born on this day 1804 in Llangeinwen, Anglesey'

Sir Hugh Owen - Founder of the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and pioneer of higher education in Wales.

Owen moved to London when he was 21 and initially worked as a solicitor's clerk, before finding work with the Poor Law Commission and eventually becoming its Chief Clerk in 1853.

Whilst in London, he became associated with the British and Foreign School Society and seeing its potential for Wales, he was taken in 1843, to writing an open letter to the people of Wales, suggesting the establishment of such schools in Wales.  He was subsequently involved the appointment of agents for the society in both North and South Wales.  He was also the secretary of the non-denominational Cambrian Educational Society and wrote another letter, suggesting the introduction of their day schools in Wales in 1846.

His innovative ideas highlighted the need for teacher training in Wales and he therefore became involved in the foundation of the Normal College at Bangor and the raising of funds for a University for Wales.  In 1867 the fundraising committee he had established was able to buy the Castle Hotel in Aberystwyth as the site for a University, which was opened 1872.   

         

Born on this day 1911 at Cockett in Swansea, 

Edward George 'Taffy' Bowen - Physicist whose work on radar enabled the Royal Navy and RAF  to break the Germans navy's stranglehold over the north Atlantic during World War II and whose breakthroughs in the field of electromagnetism  would  change the course of peoples everyday lives.

Taffy was born into a working-class family, but from a very early age, his high intelligence marked him out for great things and at the age of 9 he'd already built his own valve radio transmitter.  He joined Swansea University aged 16, he had his MSc  by 19 and was a professor aged 24.  Then in 1935, Bowen's brilliance brought him to the attention of the inventor of radar, Scottish scientist Robert Watson-Watt.   Bowen managed to miniaturise radar into something that could be fitted into the noses of planes during the Battle of the Atlantic.  

Aberystwyth's great storm of 1938

Between 14th - 19th January 1938, a major storm caused extensive damage in Aberystwyth, with the promenade and pier being largely destroyed by 90 mph winds.

The promenade collapsed and was washed away in minutes.  Wave after wave entered houses flooding the basements to a depth of several feet and smashing all furniture before them.  Front doors were smashed to matchwood as boulders and paving slabs were hurled against them and large stones were driven against windows up to second-floor level, breaking the glass and letting in gallons of water.  

At nearby Tanybwlch beach, three women decided to abandon their cottage and seek refuge with their neighbours when the front door was burst open by an enormous wave.  The next wave brought the roof down, pinning two of the women firmly under the heavy roof beams, with the third being knocked clean out of the cottage, only feet from the swollen River Ystwyth.  Their plight was noted by the driver of a passing train, who raised the alarm, allowing the emergency services to free the women from the wreckage.

Work rapidly commenced on a protective coffer dam and the rebuilt promenade was well protected by an apron of boulders.  It was thought that the expensive lesson of 1938 had been well and truly learnt and that a repetition of the events of seventy years ago were a near impossibility.  However, the recent storms in January 2014 have showed that there is no room for complacency when dealing with such forces of nature.

From the Barkeep's Blog

I managed to wade my way through the first section of my basement on Friday. Only cleared a space of about 3ft by 3ft from floor to ceiling, but that took most of the day and didn't include checking the papers in the file boxes, which contained records of the Inner Wheel and NSPCC for the last 30 years - that was a job I could leave to Susie. But that block of 3ft by 3ft was an important start!!

Two bags of rubbish, one full of paper for recycling of course, another full of electrical bits and pieces, again to make their was to the amenity centre. We don't have dumps any more... Would be a sad day for Arlo Guthrie to write his Massacree today "When we go to the Amenity Centre we found a chain across the drive and a sign that said "Amenity Centre closed on Thanksgiving!!"
Remember Alice?? It's a Blog about Alice..
But not that one!!

No the Alice that was brought to mind was small shop near to the end of Upper Park Street in Llanelli, on the right hand side as you left Stepney Street. Bars across the window and some form of grill. Thick glass and panes that did not appear to ever have been washed - how could you - you could not get near the inside. Alice's!! Many a time I would stop and gaze into the window at the cornucopia that was Alice's Window. I did go in on occasion, and thank my stars that I was thin in those days as there was very little room to make your way through the small front room of the shop. Often the door was locked, and I am sure that it was shut more often than it was open. But the interior was anAladdin'scave of items, stacked apparently without order, but somehow you always felt that Alice knew where everything was.

I never saw anyone come out of the shop with anything. But I never saw anything taken in their either - but there always seemed to be just a little more space for another piece of furniture, some more trinkets for the glass cabinet, another lampshade, portrait or those green glass balls that hung from fishermen's nets. I remember those Green Balls, I am sure that we have some somewhere. Probably in the next 3ft by 3ft of the basement..

It is my basement that now reminds me of Alice's.
Maybe she did not sell anything. Maybe she also just accumulated "things" that were too valuable to throw away. "Things" that might come in useful one day. "Things" that nowadays you could probably sell on Ebay. I know people who do so - but getting the first item onto the selling list is the worst. "Things" that may have once been alive. Standing at the bottom of my basement steps it is possible to conjecture that there may be "things" with their own alien life form evolving in the morass.

I never knew Alice by any other name - spoke to her seldom, but she was that strange figure, like a curator of some seventies version of Warehouse 13 museum. Reading Harry Davies' recollections in his book "Looking around Llanelli", I find that her full name was Alice Davies, and she had been in the business 40 years when he interviewed her. I read that she nearly went out of business in 1970, some six years before I would get to meet her, when she sold about half her stock including most of her African Items to a dealer in South Carolina. He, while visiting Llanelli, had made a conditional bid for all the contents at the shop. Apparently the deal was a modest down payment and a 50 percent share of profits on the sale in America. Eight days it took to load everything into crates and ship it to the States. Sadly the dealer died suddenly, the stateside business had no-one to run it and the goods disappeared into limbo. Harry tells us that Mrs Davies put it down to bad luck. "It was a heavy blow" she said, " but not so much the result of bad faith but of bad luck". A restrained way to consider your entire business ruined at the age of 57.

So looking at the timing of the article, it seems that Alice and I started our collections of various useful and possibly variable valued items at about the same time. Mine in the natural course of raising a family, and hers in the acquisition of more stock for her shop. For by the time I met her, there was no indication that she had once more started from scratch. I thought that the portal I entered in her shop had been there from time immemorial. No indication was there that it had started not only in my lifetime but in my recent history.

And so it is with my basement, I know that within living history of my children, we used to sit and watch television here. That once I traverse the next corridor, there is a bar and a three piece suite hiding under crates and marquee canvass. But, as you step carefully watching for trip hazards and peer into the rows of costumes hanging like a demented Narnian Wardrobe, it would be possible to see Alice's Tiger skin, a real one not the imitation that is in the living room upstairs. There would be swords and daggers and rifles and bayonets, relics of previous wars unlike the replicas and latex covered axes by the front door. And Assegais. African throwing spears which form the centrepiece of Harry's story - I never had one of those... Maybe they would be valuable if I collected one...

At 72 Alice was still collecting stock for her business, and presumably making a living in her small shop in Upper Park Street. Falcon Music Closed. Circles the bar closed, but Alice's seemed to just continue. Harry reported that she seemed happy as ever and showed no signs of retiring. Alice had her favourites though. She loved to collect elephants. She accumulated over 300 in her herd, china, porcelain, ivory, ebony. But were they a white elephant to her I wonder?

I will try to tackle the next 3ft of flooring in the basement tomorrow. I took a day off today because I found too many old photographs, and in the spirit of 2013, found that I had to scan them for future generations and store them in perpetuity.. by uploading them to Facebook and tagging family members. It is the modern way.
Tomorrow I will take another step towards sorting my accumulated wealth of nick-nacks. No elephants for me !! I don't have these sort of foibles - well unless you count the flying pigs that festoon the house. They don't count really..... but there are a lot ...

I didn't see when Alice's shop closed. That area of Llanelli grew shabbier and shabbier over the years. Tesco moved out and Tinopolis the TV studio took over. Stepney Hotel got demolished. Island House Public house fought to live and failed, and a new theatre complex opens with hotel and entertainment establishments. The Subway is replaced and access to Upper Park Street is difficult to find in the new road complex but maybe I shall take my camera and see if I can find where Alice once stood.

But there is hope. All the contents of her shop must have been transported, and though I do not know what happened to them, at this stage of basement clearance, the knowledge that it can be done is more important than details of what happened...

As long as it is not the City Dump.... Remember Alice ? It is a blog about Alice...

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The world on which we depend is coming to an end due to our uncontrolled over-consumption of natural resources and excessive waste which pollutes the environment that permits our very existence. Jack Lightfoot finds he is able to alternate between his life as a suburban child and that of a variety of wild animals with which he is able to communicate, to find out about the harm that humanity is inflicting on the natural world. Gradually the truth is revealed, if the wildlife of the earth is the canary in the mine, the implications for mankind are clear for we all drink from the same well. Everything is connected, everything in balance, everything matters. From the smallest micro-organism to the largest whale, the web of life is adapted to the wider environment which we alter at our peril.

Like the shamen of native cultures, Jack is blessed with insight and seeing. The problem is how to communicate his visions and dreams to the powers that be, for he is on a collision course with his parents, teachers, police, church and government all of whom have their own interests at heart and stop at nothing to prevent the truth from being revealed. It becomes apparent he is not the first human to be granted such insights; he treads the path of the Celtic kings of myth and legend before the time of recorded history. Increasingly bizarre animal behaviour makes people increasingly aware of the need for change, even the politicians start to take notice and wonder how long their tenuous hold on power will last.

Born on this day 1887  in the Trawsfynydd area of Meirionydd.

Hedd Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans) - Welsh language poet 

Hedd Wyn worked on his father's farm and was an active poet from an early age, being a regular competitor in Eisteddfodau.  In 1916, he enlisted in the British army and was killed in the Battle of Pilken Ridge, the following year in 1917, he was awarded the bard's chair at the National Eisteddfod, where in his absence, the Chair was draped with a black cloth.

Dr. Richard Griffiths (1756–1826)  was christened 0n this day 1756 in Llanwynno in the mountains between the Rhondda and Cynon Valleys. 

He is notable for building the first recognised transport links ( the Griffiths Tramroad) into the Rhondda Valley, a significant development that heralded the start of the coal mining boom in the Welsh mining Valleys.  His Tramroad, built in 1809, was to service early coal ‘levels’ in the Rhondda, allowing the coal to be carried to the Glamorganshire canal at Treforest, which linked the ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil to the port of Cardiff. 

Griffiths' youngest sister was married to a farm estate owner in the Lower Rhondda  and in 1808, Griffiths obtained a lease for the mineral rights for the farm.  Griffiths then decided to improve the site's transportation link to the newly opened Glamorganshire Canal, as the existing system of transporting coal to the canal was through the use of pack horses, which was inefficient and time consuming

Griffiths' new transport link proved itself when Walter Coffin, who is recognised as the first person to sink deep mines in the Rhondda obtained the rights to use Griffiths' tramroad.  

Today is the feast day of Saint Elian.

The Legend of St. Elian says he was related to Ismael and labored in the missions of Cornwall, England.

Born c.450. Allegedly a descent of Isfael, who was an AD 6th-century medieval Welsh bishop of Rhos and also a Breton prince of Armorica. Tradition holds that Elian came to Anglesey by sea from Rome, landing at Porth yr Yehen, where he built the church of Llanelian.  One folk tale says that he forbade people from keeping greyhounds, as one had killed a doe in his care.

Armorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and Loire rivers, that includes the Brittany peninsula.  

Born on this day 1866 in Llandaff  

Frank Hill - former Wales rugby international and captain who was part of 1893 side that won Wales' first Triple Crown.  He was a solicitor by trade and had a practice on Cardiff High Street.

On the 13th January 1879, just before midnight, dense clouds of smoke and multi coloured fumes billowed from the main shaft of Dinas Colliery, the first deep coal mine of the Rhondda Valleys, which had been sunk in 1832.  This had followed a terrific explosion, that shook not only the colliery buildings but also the nearby houses.  It ripped through the mine leaving 63 men and boys dead.  Thirty five of them were buried in a mass grave at Llethr-Ddu (Trealaw) Cemetery, fourteen of them were so unrecognisable their names are entered in the burial register as 'UNKNOWN'.

On 13th January 1919 - The Red Flag was hoisted during a naval mutiny on HMS Kilbride at Milford Haven.

*  Between 1852 and 1917 there had only been one pay increase.

*  Contrary to what the people were being told, the Foreign Office and Admiralty were making arrangements to intervene in post-revolution Russia and the feeling among servicemen was that those who did not volunteer were left with no option but to mutiny.

As an author currently concentrating on the horror genre I have researched a lot into this particular subject. Over the year's the horror genre has lay dormant mainly due to the lack of new and fresh ideas. I have seen the same thing done time and time again regarding vampires, zombies and werewolves, Not to say they are not good enough but simply the same thing is being generated time and time again, to which I have created my own twist on horror. A new and fresh idea which has never been done before and probably never will. My aim is to once again bring horror back to the top with constant new ideas. Any comments?

Born on this day 1945 in Cefneithin, near Ammanford 

Barry John - former Wales and Lions rugby international, who became known as "The King" and is considered by many  to be the greatest fly-half in the sport's history.

In 1967, John joined Cardiff RFC from Llanelli and formed a half back partnership with Gareth Edwards that was to became the most famous in world rugby. From 1967, John and Edwards played together for Cardiff, Wales, the Barbarians and ultimately the Lions on their winning tour to New Zealand in 1971.  On that tour, John played in all four Tests and played some of his finest rugby, finishing as the Lions' top Test scorer.

His excellent balance and precise kicking made him a pivotal part of the Welsh team that won the 1971 Grand Slam, the first time Wales had achieved a Grand Slam since 1952.  However, he retired from rugby in 1972, at the age of 27, citing the pressure of fame and expectation behind his decision.  

Abbey Cwmhir located in the secluded valley of the Clywedog brook, just north of Llandrindod Wells, was a Cistercian abbey established by a charter of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) on 6th January 1199.

With its fourteen-bay nave, it was the largest Abbey in Wales and would have housed up to 60 monks.  Its nave is longer than those at Canterbury and Salisbury Cathedrals and twice the size of that at St. Davids.

The Norman invasion of Wales was followed by the establishment of Benedictine monasteries in the shadow of the Norman castles, however because they were identified with the conquest, they failed to make any real impression on the local population.  The Cistercians, in contrast, sought out solitude in the rural areas, with thirteen of their monasteries being founded in Wales between 1131 and 1226.

A timeline history of Abbey Cwmhir

Abbey Cwmhir was a daughter house of Whitland Abbey and established with the patronage of three sons of Madog, the then Prince of Maelienydd (southern Powys).

1143 - An attempt to found an abbey was made about a mile to the east of the current site but was unsuccessful due to.the intervention of Hugh de Mortimer, Earl of Hereford. 

1176 -  The abbey was re-established by Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth. 

1199 - The abbey was given a charter by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) on 6th January 1199

1200 - The community was involved for many years in the conflict between Llywelyn (the abbey's patron) and Roger Mortimer (then lord of Maelienydd) and was twice burnt by English soldiers.

1231 - The abbot was fined for aiding the Welsh cause in helping Llywelyn ab Iorwerth defeat the English near Hay on Wye.

1282 - The abbey is said to be the last resting place of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, following his defeat and death at nearby Cilmeri on 11th December. 

1401 - The abbey was burned by the forces of Owain Glyndwr.

1537 - Only three monks are recorded as living in the abbey at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in March 1537.

1644 - The Abbey was slighted during the English Civil War.

Twelfth Night Customs in Wales. 

In Wales, the custom of ‘Hunting the Wren’ usually took place between the 6th and 12th of January.

it involved a party of young men catching a wren and putting it in a cage.  They would then carry it through the community, singing songs acclaiming it as the King of the Birds. They would be invited into houses and given food and money.  In Pembrokeshire, it was called ‘Twelfth-tide’ and the wren's cage was in the form of a wooden cottage adorned with ribbons.   

Born on this day 1905 in Rhymney 

Idris Davies - miner, schoolmaster and poet, described as the voice of a generation.  He is perhaps best remembered for ‘The Bells of Rhymney’ from his debut collection, which became well known after being set to music in 1957.

Davies began writing poetry after being made unemployed as a miner following the General Strike of 1926 His poetry being inspired by mining disasters and the depressed South Wales coal mining communities valleys. 

Born on this day 1956 in Merthyr

Johnny Owen, the fourth of a family of eight children to working class parents Dick and Edith Owens.  He began to box at the age of eight and progressed to winning several Welsh titles. As a professional, he held the Bantamweight Championship titles of Europe, Great Britain and the Commonwealth.  Owen was a quiet, reserved, friendly character outside the ring, but inside it, he was a formidable opponent with determination and strength in contrast to his frail looking body, which earned him many epithets, including ‘the Bionic Bantam’ and ‘the Merthyr Matchstick’. He possessed an impressive stamina built by long hours running up the steep hills of the South Wales Valleys.

On 4th November 1980, boxer Johnny Owen, died, following a knock out by Mexican boxer Lupe Pintor, during a challenge for the World Bantamweight title at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles on 19 September 1980. Owen fell into a coma and never regained consciousness.  Owen’s family, far from blaming the World Champion, telegraphed him shortly after their loss and encouraged him to go on fighting. Twenty years later, a memorial to Johnny Owen was unveiled in Merthyr Tydfil and at the request of the late fighter's father, the unveiling was performed by Lupe Pintor.  

Today is the feast day of Saint Cwyllog

Born c.510, she was the daughter of King Caunus of Alt Clut in Yr Hen Ogledd and sister of St Gildas.  She fled with another brother, St Caffo to Anglesey where they were given land by King Maelgwyn Gwynedd, where she founded St Cwyllog's Church in Llangwyllog, Anglesey(pictured).  She is said to have been the wife of Mordred, the notorious traitor who fought and was killed by King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, after which she decided to follow a religious life.  

Edward "Celtic" Davies (7 June 1756 – 7 January 1831) was born in in Llanfaredd, Radnorshire.

Davies was a writer and clergyman who wrote on the origins of Celtic languages and mythology. He was a contemporary of Iolo Morganwg and their work became part of the 19th-century reinvention of the druidic tradition. However although popular in his time, he is now regarded as being wildly inaccurate, but unlike Iolo, this was not deliberate and in fact at the time, he was one of the very few who was suspicious of Iolo's work.

Born on this day 1873 in Maesteg

Christopher Williams - artist whose known best for picture entitled, "The Welsh at Mametz Wood", which he painted at the request of Lloyd George and depicts the charge of the Welsh Division at Mametz Wood, 11 July 1916 as part of the Somme offensive. 

His portrait of Sir Alfred Lyall exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1910 brought him an invitation to join the Royal Society of British Artists after which he received a commission from King George V to paint the Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1911. 

After the war, he painted many landscapes in Wales as well as, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco and Holland and was a frequent adjudicator at the National Eisteddfod.

In January 1823, Reverend William Buckland discovered  in Goat's Hole, one of the Paviland Caves on the Gower, one side of a human adult skeleton, stained with red ochre and accompanied by seashell necklaces which he incorrectly assumed was a female and became known as the"Red Lady of Paviland".

Buckland who was Professor of Geology at Oxford Univerity and a devout Christian also underestimated the dating of the find as he believed that no human remains could be dated earlier than the Bible's Great Flood.  However, further examinations have shown that the "Red Lady" was, in fact, a male and at 24,000, the oldest known ceremonial burial in Western Europe.  

Born on this day 1937 in Tiger Bay, Cardiff

Shirley Bassey - world famous superstar.

Dame Shirley found fame in the mid-1950s and has since become one of the world's most popular female vocalists.  She is perhaps best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films "Goldfinger"  "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Moonraker"

Shirley Bassey was raised in the working class neighbourhood of Splott. Her mother was from Yorkshire and her father was a Nigerian seaman who left the family when Shirley was a baby.  Bassey initially worked in an Enamelware factory, before making her professional debut at 16  and her first major hit was "The Banana Boat Song," after which she has had countless hits and has become a highly respected figure in the music industry.   

Born on this day 1823 in Llanbadoc, near Usk.

Alfred Russel Wallace, who was one of the greatest natural history explorers of the 19th century and a leading thinker on evolution, whose unconventional ideas caused much discomfort to the scientific community at the time.

Wallace was also a biologist and social activist, but he is best known for independently coming up with the theory of evolution by natural selection and co-publishing a paper on the subject with Charles Darwin in 1858.  Despite this, his fame faded quickly after his death,  however recently with the publication of several his biographies and anthologies, he is becoming a much more well known and respected figure.  

Born on this day 1846 in Maesteg

Henry Bracy -  one of the most popular comic tenors of the Victorian era.

Bracy, the son of an ironworks manager began his career in Plymouth, before spending four years performing at London's Gaiety Theatre in the early 1870s. He and his wife then toured Australia, returning to Britain in 1880, where Bracy further built his reputation in comic opera and operetta.  In 1888, they returned to Australia, where until his death in 1917, he became a performer, stage manager, stage director and casting agent in Sydney.  

On 8th January 2006, four members of Rhyl Cycling Club, including a 14-year-old boy were killed in a road accident near Abergele, when the driver of a car lost control on the icy road that had not been gritted. Subsequently, the driver was fined for having defective tyres.

Win a Copy of Niall Griffiths The Dreams of Max And Ronnie

In the New Stories From The Mabinogion Series

All you have to do is answer the following question:- "What does the Mabinogion mean for you?" The prize ( see below ) will go to the author of the most eloquent and/or insightful answer. The competition is open to all group members and the winner will be announced on March 1st.Answers can be a couple of sentences or a couple of paragraphs in length. SO dust off your old copy of the Mabinogion and get your thinking cap on.

To join the group go here:- Mabinogion Group

To answer the question go here:- What is the Mabinogion?

• The Prize

  
  
• 'The Dreams of Max And Ronnie' by Niall Griffiths

• Iraq-bound young squaddie Ronnie takes something dodgy and falls asleep for three nights in a filthy hovel where he has the strangest of dreams. He watches the tattoed tribes of modern Britain assemble to speak with a grinning man playing war games. Arthurian legend merges with its twenty-first century counterpart in a biting commentary on leadership, individualism and the divisions in British society. Meanwhile Cardiff gangsta Max is fed up with life in his favourite nightclub, Rome, and chases a vision of the perfect woman in far flung parts of his country.

  http://www.serenbooks.com/book/the-dreams-of-max-and-ronnie/9781854...

On 9th January 1972, UK miners' went on strike, after wage negotiations between the National Union of Mine workers and the National Coal Board failed to find an agreement. It was the first time since 1926 that British miners had gone on strike and resulted in power shortages.  A state of emergency was declared on 9th February, with the dispute finally being resolved on 19th February.  

Born on this day 1917 in Penclawdd, Gower. 

Haydn Tanner - former Wales captain and Lions rugby international 

Tanner was part of the Swansea side that beat the touring All Blacks in 1935, whilst still a schoolboy.  His outstanding performance in that match was to earn him his first Welsh cap later that year when he was again on the winning side against the All Blacks.  He later studied chemistry and maths and taught in Bristol, before becoming an industrial chemist and moving to Surrey.

Born on this day 1987 in Llantrisant

Bradley Davies - Wales rugby international, who was captain of the under 20s squad when they won the grand slam in 2005.    

Brian Nancurvis (14 August 1937 – 9 January 2012), who fought under the name Brian Curvis was a former British and Commonwealth welterweight champion and one of the greatest boxers ever produced by Swansea.

He was undefeated champion and the only welterweight to have won two Lonsdale Belts outright.  Curvis won the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award in 1960.