Titled Boots and Spikes, Ken Jones’ biography traces his story from Blaenavon to West Mon. School, St. Paul’s College Cheltenham, the war years spent in India with the RAF, Loughborough College and his glittering career as a rugby player and athlete.
On the rugby field Ken Jones became the game’s most capped international player and joint record try scorer for Wales, including the match winning try against New Zealand in 1953, the last time Wales defeated the All Blacks. Lauded in New Zealand when he toured with the 1950 British Lions, Ken also enjoyed a long and successful career with Newport.
On the running track there were medals won at the Olympic Games in 1948, the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954 and the European Championships in the same year on which occasion he was captain of the Great Britain men’s team. He claimed 16 Welsh AAA’s titles between 1946-1954 and made his final appearance on an athletics’ track when presenting the Duke of Edinburgh with the Queen’s message at the opening ceremony of the British Empire and Commonwealth Games when the prestigious event was held in Cardiff in 1958.
On retiring he became a leading correspondent for the Sunday Express, ever present in the press box at the major rugby matches and athletics meetings.
A stroke victim, Ken Jones spent his final years in a wheelchair but his triumphs in two sporting arenas ensure he will remain one of Wales’ most revered sportsmen, certainly the greatest all-rounder the country has ever produced.
