TOP 10 HARDEST WELSHMEN
Super Ted. Chris Needs.and last but not least Aled Jones. Well they all frighten the living daylights out of little old me. I find it just so hard these days to stand up to them, honest.....pressure, pressure, pressure. I do wish they would just lay off, cos they are doing my sweed in....For God's sake It can't be healthy.....There should be a law made about it/them..?
Passion. Thats what he had. You need some to be hard.
Gareth, Saw the Plymouth gun team practising long time ago when I was down that way on a course. Yes they were tough lads, good enough to be in the Army
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!(sorry, Gaabi answering for Ceri, who is outside and doesn't know I've highjacked him....)
You were right on the first one, it is your state of mind, which just goes to prove that modern urban industrial electro-technological society has robbed us human beings of trusting our initial gut instinct.With treatment you should overcome this lack of trust in your gut feeling, so don't despair.Hugs n ksses n fluffy stuff x x xGaz (A Really Hard Welsh Bloke)
Damn...we've been rumbled...the sordid truth about Americymru and corporate sponsorship has been revealed.....lol
Is it just my state of mind, or does the title of this entire thread sound like something Pfizer might do for a new Welsh Viagra campaign?
Ye well hard mate, top Pirate. All this flurry just goes to show how hard a breed we are eh.Tell you what, was watchin Hopko in 'Hannibal' the other night and thought to myself he should be on it, not as himself, tho I can imagine he was fairly handy in his day, but as Dr Lecter! Haha, honorary Welshman, ficticious serial killer, well hard!!No Im only jokin mate, please dont put down Dr Hannibal 'the cannibal' Lecter, although it would be well funny!!!!Gaz
Hey Gareth can I have a second nomination? I'd like to throw in Henry Morgan ...the scourge of the Spanish Main. I might point out ( for the umpteenth time ) that we went to the same school, though not at the same time. For sure he lost his battle with the demon rum in the end but theres no doubting he was as hard as nails.
I don't know how I got to this but I was looking up Jimmy Driscoll and I came across Tommy Farr and then saw that Mal Pope (who's on here) had done a musical about him called Contender . Anyone seen or heard this?I found a video interview with Mal Pope with excerpts of the show and here it is: I LOVE wiki.
ok...we'll be adding the following six nominations tomorrow morningRay Gravell ( diolch Robert )Jim Driscoll ( diolch ArthMawr )Henry Tudor ( diolch Christopher Wynne Davies )Vinny Jones ( after special pleading by Dave Parry )Tommy Farr ( diolch Emyr )Johnny Owen ( diolch Dave )With the 12 weve already got that means were looking for two more nominations by tomorrow morning. Then we'll relaunch the poll ( with a closing date of December 14th )
This is Vinnie Jones right? Not Idi Amin.
I nominate Tommy Farr boxing legend from the Rhondda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Farr http://www.johnnyowen.com/tommy_farr.html
Thought Idi was the last king of the Scots!
k...in that case I'm looking for four or five more nominations ( Vinny Jones has been challenged so we need further discussion on that ) and I'll reset the poll on Friday morning to run until the 14th of December. It will be the top twenty hardest welshmen rather than the top ten.
Vinnie s got the genes and the mental attitude of a Tough Taff so I d stick him in there BUT I take your point, Olli Cromwell was well hard and some say he had some Welsh but I doubt if thats proveable but he did stay in Anglesey overnight on his way to kick ass in Ireland!!! And word has it that Idi Dada Amin, top hardman, once stopped off in the Singing Kettle at the foot of Rhuallt hill on the A55 on his way to Capel Curig camp on a two day climbing exercise when a student on the foreign and Commonwealth Officers Commissioning short course at Sandhurst!!!So what d'ya reckon Neil? Shall we ask Ceri to put in old Idi?Haha
Ye, them guys are deserving of some acknowledgement
Been ponderin hard on this (no pun intended), shouldnt really cos its just a bit of fun, Wales and her history has a plethora of 'hard' characters in diverse fields.Obviously Tasker 'to me' is the tops but to others he may not be and thats fair enough. The final result is not that important, whats been important is the discussion, the justification and the celebration of our national character as tough old boots, I even let the chicks in on it cos all you have to do is go down to Cardiff Bay this weekend and see them girls outside the clubs n bars, smoking, wearing less than I do to go to bed in, in chill factor that takes it below zero.Also as a big rugby fan, and a product of the golden days, word had it that Ponty's Cobs was the hardest guy to ever pull that red jersey on. The Neath lads will undoubtedly claim their Dai the shadow, and Llanelli boys will claim Albert Jenks or Gravs, Aberavon, John Bev the brick wall man etc etc we could go on on and on. The journey is more important than the destination.So I look forward to a good conclusion, and all the candidates are deserving of the top slot in their own unique way.As an aside, some of the Navy gun teams that used to 'run' the guns at the Royal Tournament were nails, and Wales was once again proprtionally over represented among the teams, Portsmouth, Plymouth etc etc.
I think we should disqualify Vinnie as the nearest he got to being Welsh was when his grandad visited Ruthin once.
As we rather suspected might happen closing nominations and opening the poll has led to a late flurry of new nominations including:-Ray GravellJim DriscollHenry TudorVinny JonesWe can easily reset to include these names and others but that will mean starting over with a new poll. If we did we would probably include the above four and another four nominations to make the total up to 20. What do people think?
Good point....I'll try and add Driscoll to the poll. Not sure if I can amend it at this late stage but I'll have a go.
Naturally, Calzaghe's record is impressive 46-0. Living in Florida, I have enjoyed taking money off fans of Lacey and Roy Jones in local bars when his fights were televised.For overall boxing hardness, my money would go on "Peerless" Jim Driscoll . 77 fights 58 wins only three losses - throw in a disqualification for headbutting and the 'fact' that no opponent ever put him on the canvas and you have a portrait of hardness.You could also make a case for Tommy Farr who went the distance with Joe Louis. Louis, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, had knocked out 8 of his last 9 opponents and proceeded to knock out his next 7, but was unable to do the same to Farr.
I think both he and his defenders are at pains to deny that he is dangerous but not his courage and physical strength. What I find admirable about him is his refusal to compromise, though whether that is doing him any good or not is another question I guess.
This is personally disturbing to me as Bronson's real name is Michael Peterson, which is also my Dad's name - no relation.On reading the wiki Bronson claims that he has been portrayed as dangerous because he retaliates to prison brutality but others say he is not as dangerous as his media hype. Does that not disqualify him from the hard man poll, since he denies his reputation?
I have to say that my choice for hardest welshman has to to be the late and great former Scarlets player "Ray Gravell", what a hard man he was on the picth but a true gentleman off it. If he had been cut in half he would have had wales all the way through like a stick of rock. A welshman through and through.
Thats a brilliant review.Outstanding.Obviously this Bronson guy is several sandwiches short of a picnic and its amazing he managed to get all that stuff on paper at all. I have the book and I dip into it as reference, lots of good stuff in it but also lots o waffle and as the reviewer points out there s no logic in it.Ive used many of these exercises, as a smoker I especially found the blowing ones really good, just get a piece of cloth, tie to a string and hang the string on a drawin pin off top o door frame and keep it up by just blowing, balloon blowin too. I swear, it keeps the lung capacity good, and if you are a smoker, clears a lot of the phlem n shitGaz
Gatch. If anyone doubted you were a sergeant in the British Army . . . .
If there's one thing that Gwynfor Evans should be remembered for is is that he helped prevent the kind of bloodshed that characterised the troubles in Northern Ireland. Talk and reason were his stock in trade. As for the the inception of S4C. Thatcher allowed a television channel to be created knowing full well that satellite TV would make the whole exercise pointless.
My vote goes to Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.Although my hero Mr.Glyndwr was a ruthless barsteward he wasn't a patch on old Gruffydd.Not saying he was anyones vision of a romantic hero but boy was he 'ard.
i have a girl friend great body high iq a rabid democrate she does not understand the ways of the world , as most demos are want to do , she bought a complete collection of jet magazine and is putting them on the net , of course jet is a racist sexist magazine ( cant belive me saying that)and homophobic to boot , ( did i say that , well i got some real good gay friends but they are as bent as a nine bob note)
fooking hell out of the mouth of babys and brown jobs you will hear the truth
Plato said mate 'only the dead have seen the end of war' and we are what we are today where we are today because of our ruthless bellicosity, not cos we were a fluffy caring species eh. We survived cos of that nature, the double edge to that sword is that that warlikeness could be our undoing too.Ants and humans are the two most successful species on the planet at present and they are the only two that wage mass war in societies against each other.So, I'll have enough peace whe Im dead.Or maybe not, that Lucifer will be tasking me with shit jobs left right and centre probably!!!!! Like bumping off aid workers or charity folk or ruining kids tea parties and such like haha
just yanking your chain for a bit of fun boyo but i do think the hassel there giving the breaconshire regiment of the loyal gurkas is way out of order , johnny gurka has been a loyal part of the british army and should be treated as such no question , , did you know when they were down sizing the gurkas after malay police action they were offer,d to the yank,s for nam , of course due to the frogs using the waffen ss pow,s in the legion they were turned down , two chances to win and the pols screwed it up , there might be some truth to the old saying pols talk of peace squaddies pray for it
I still go with Tasker mate, but I take your point on 'hardness'.Getting up in the dark to do a 12 hour day down the pit and coming home in the dark, day in day out for all your working life is HARD.Gaz
as usual our pet brown job has fixed bayonets and charged , its not about valour and blood up gary boyo its about hard men , old tasker V.C. was duty bound , kill or be killed , to save others , sombody slap him on the head ( he likes it) and please dont tell him afganistan and the iraq wars are wrong it,s the only ones he got at the moment other than getting with the gurkas and starting a welsh border war
i vote that, working musles are far different from developed ones , could charles hatless work on his side in a eighteen inch seam of coal for eight hours , using a pick and shovel? no but dai and janto could
dont know about our "heros" to much, but hard men mainly have broken noses or blue scars or both 
A lot of worthy candidates... I am leaning towards: Owain GlyndwrInspirational life
dunno about the other two , but i bet they never took their former owners name
Americymru's Top Ten Hardest Welshmen Poll (The Poll can be found on the home page HERE .)
The nominations are in and the vote is on. Please feel free to cast multiple votes if you feel that more than one nominee deserves the title. If you need to research the careers of any of these illustrious gentlemen ( and ladies ) you will find links in the Top 10 Hardest Welshmen thread. Predictably enough the candidate with the most votes will be the winner. Others will be ranked in accordance with the number of votes they receive. The winner will be declared in one months time ( Dec 8th ) In the event of a tie the casting vote will be given by Gareth Williams who initiated this thread. Vote early and vote often!!
Nails mate, all of them but little Tasker s still my vote
I forgot Gruffydd ap Llywelyn-the shield of the Welsh,now he was hard,look him up
Owain Gwynedd,Owain Glyndwr ,Simon Weston amd JPR Williams
------ Eeeek.....I know why prisoners would need anal exercises........there's lots of sodomy there!If he's that bad of a writer, it might have just been his very awkward way of referring to the glutes, the large muscles involved in a lot of lifting.You could probably get similar advice in other places, better presented and without the cringe-inducing adverts. For example, I'm told the U.S. Marines have very good exercise regimens that require little more than one's own body weight (although I have not personally tried it, so I cannot say for sure). I'm betting a quick net search could turn up some good possibilities.(Personally I have more respect for a Welshman whose exercise regime consists of going to work in the mines. Muscles from honest work are far more attractive than thug physiques, in my humble opinion.)
Queen Bodecia (sp) was Celtic, does that count?(I have a photo of her statue in London. It was so cool to see that.)
This is turning into a hard mothers forum, looks like all us who pee standing up dont know what hard is!Mind you, I must admit this, but dont get no ideas, it aint no regular occurance, I once put a pair of heels on and walked down the shop in them for a dare.Hell, you girls ARE hard, my feet n calfs were in tatters for days after, I even skipped a coupla runs for few days later.And I been constipated badly a cupla times, dont suppose thats even 5% of childbirth but it was painful enuff for me to thank the Good Lord he gave me a penis!!!!!
Lookin' fer more! I found her when I was looking for this other woman, who was a pirate but then I was disappointed to find that she was Irish, not Welsh, but still a butt-kicking Amazon. The second most successful pirate in history was the Dread Pirate Bartholomew Roberts, a teetotaling Welshman who kept a small chamber orchestra on his ship and held sermons there and commanded a vast fleet (and upon whom the Dread Pirate Roberts is somewhat based) and captured or sank more ships that any pirate save one: a Chinese woman, Cheng I Sao ("wife of Cheng"), who commanded more than 1500 ships and 80,000 pirates. She was never captured or prosecuted and at the end of her career brokered a deal with the Chinese government that allowed her to retire in comfort and most of her crews to go free and keep their booty.
Oooh, I like her! Nice one, Gaabi! :-D
How about some chicas?Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwenllian_ferch_Gruffydd
Another great Charlie link HERE . Should Charlie be released? What does anyone think?
I was hoping someone put him in. Despite our Rugby side's succes in the 6 nations, there's not one guy there at the moment that stands out as a real hardman. I guess Joe could be hardest living Welshman,we'll see when all the votes are in how he fares against history. An iconic individual is what we are after here and he's certainly that.We got guys out in Iraq and Afghan who are doing real heroic hardman stuff as Im typing, and a few of mine are missing limbs and stuff n still cracking on and not cracking up. So its a kind of a given that these boys are hard and a few individuals are truly hard but theres been no VCs yet, although sometimes these things are very arbitary and need witnessing n verifying, I've known guys do stuff that deserve one but nobody could verify in the smoke n confusion you know.
Yeah Ive been meaning to look at one of his books for a while ...maybe review it on here....dunno about 2,500 press ups a day though...that seems a trifle excessive.
He is ...but not terribly well adjusted....lol. Heres a link to his wiki page. Charles Bronson
Not the same guy unfortunately...the welsh Charles Bronson...is errrrm an interesting character shall we say...he is Britains most notorious lifer. He is held in a maximum security prison somewhere in England.
Ye definately a good choice Ceri, the criteria is just pure 'hard', not noble or kind to little kids n stuff. Actually old Charlie can be a perfect gent by all accounts.I've gone for Tasker, but my candidates were some Gododdin characters, Terry Cobner, Owain Glyndwr and Johnny Owen the stick man lightweight.
LOL...well I'm gonna go for the obvious choice. Aberystwyth's very own Mr Charles Bronson....NOT, I hasten to add, an admirable character, but certainly as hard as nails. I'll post a couple of links as soon as I have time to research them. Just off to "google" Tasker Watkins.
Once again a dissproportionate number of candidates for such a small race of people, as in most fields, such as drinking, drugs, womanising and wifebeating, we are overepresented!Could be categorised in terms of activities, sport, warfare, politics, journalism, criminal violence etc, but we'll just go for a mix in that ten, I'll kick off with my contribution.Plenty of boxers, footballers and rugby boys but I restrict myself to one vote as we all have. We'll tot up in a couple of weeks. Ceri and me will compile the final ten.The late Sir Tasker Watkins VC. I had the honour of meeting him at Glam Wanderers Rugby club years ago, modest, unassuming, tiny,10stone wet through. This ol boy charged a company of Waffen ss, well dug in defence, machine gun posts, barbed wire, the lot, pretty much single handedly, and bayoneted shitloads before they did one in a hurry. Anyone in doubt, check him out on google.
updated by @gareth-williams: 12/05/15 01:42:32AM
updated by @gareth-williams: 12/05/15 01:42:32AM
