‘Little fellow’ Bleddyn gets giant farewell from Tigers | Peter Jackson
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 30: General view inside the stadium as players and officials take part in a minute of silence to commemorate Former Leicester Tigers player and BBC Radio Leicester commentator Bleddyn Jones prior to the European Rugby Challenge Cup match between Leicester Tigers and Ulster Rugby at Welford Road on April 30, 2021 in Leicester, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
THEY sat alone with their memories in Leicester Cathedral as the St Anne's church choir brought Cwm Rhondda to a crescendo, their masked attendance ensuring an occasion like no other.
Almost a complete XV of venerated English rugby warriors had come to pay homage to one of their own, a mercurial Welshman from a distant valley, one who rolled off the assembly line at the fabled fly-half victory two years after Barry John and two months before Phil Bennett.
The old Tigers emerged blinking into the glare of a summer's day. And there, in the grounds of the 12th century Norman cathedral, they stood spinning yarns of Bleddyn Jones as warm as the sun beating down on them.
The 120 guests invited by the family included a who's who of the English game: two England captains (Peter Wheeler, Paul Dodge), three English Lions (Wheeler, Dodge, Dusty Hare) and three more England internationals whose careers spanned five decades (Bob Rowell, Garry Adey, George Chuter).
And then there were those who never played for England but whose names have long been enshrined in Tigers' gold: John Allen who played more matches (457) than anyone and his scrum-half successor, Steve Kenney (365 in 15 seasons).
John Duggan, 158 tries in ten seasons, was there, reunited with his fellow wing Tim Barnwell (95 in 189). So, too, playercaptain-coach Ian ‘Dosser' Smith, second row Malcolm Foulkes-Arnold and fly-half Dave Berry. Factor in Jones' 333 matches over 12 years and their aggregate appearances top 4,500.
“Dad would have been totally shocked and more than a little embarrassed that so many attended the funeral,'' Gareth Jones said of his father who died suddenly on April 27 at the age of 72. “And that was because he never had an ego.
“When you see Lewis Moody and Austin Healey and Ben Kay paying tributes to him, you realise he touched so many people. And yet he was never into namedropping, never into talking about himself.
“With all the charity work, he did so much across so many walks of life. We don't know he fitted it all in. He would have been very honoured that the funeral was at the Cathedral.''
He would have been tickled pink at fond recollections of how he negotiated his Tigers debut, a pre-season game against Wilmslow, without tripping over a pair of shorts so voluminously baggy that they could have doubled up as a tent.
“They were ten times too big,'' he said last year. “There were a pile in the corner of the dressing room and by the time I got there all they had left was an extra large size 44, perfect for a giant in the second row but tricky for a little fellow like me.''
Garry Adey told the same story before Bleddyn's Tigers went off to raise a glass to the ‘little fellow' from Brynamman, a team man always more concerned about others than himself.
