Channi Kaler

Chairman and Team Captain

1965 - 2008

Cardiff Hockey Club – Mid to Late 1960s

When I joined, we used to play Hockey matches at Cardiff Arms Park (the current Cardiff Rugby pitch) and shared showering and tea facilities with Cardiff Rugby. The Tennis and Bowling courts were also next to the Cricket and Hockey ground at the Cardiff Arms Park.

I played in the team with Judge Norman Francis, Judge John Roach, Tim Whiteway (then Welsh Captain), Len Morgan, Nigel Rees and Neil Pallot. Towards the end of the 1960’s, Cricket and Hockey moved to Sophia Gardens, now the home of Glamorgan Cricket Club. Once a year, we would travel to London to play against Hounslow and Beckenham, who at the time were the 2 top teams in British Hockey.

I can never forget playing against 2 British Internationals - Alan Page and Paul Svehlik. Alan used to use his hand to stop the ball in the middle of the ‘D’ and Paul (GB short corner expert) would ping the ball in the top of the net. During this time there was no protection for the defence on the goal line and you were playing at your own risk.

However we were not just blessed with well-known hockey personalities at Cardiff, figures from football and rugby have also played a part. Colin Brown was neighbours with ‘Il Gigante Buono’ - John Charles. The Welsh Football great took us for Pre-season training which was quite an honour.

A highlight of the calendar was the Boxing Day Hockey Sixes. Imagine everyone’s surprise when the Welsh Rugby Legend, Barry John aka ‘The King’ - turned up to play. Barry’s connection to the club was via Rod McKerlick, both of their daughters played hockey at school together.

Cardiff won many hockey trophies and played in the British Hockey Club Championship held annually on the Isle of Man.

1970s

I established myself playing for the first XI when I joined the club in 1965 and I took on the role of captain of the 2^nd XI in 1975. A highlight for our team was the winning of the 2^nd XI League, and Cup.

4 minutes cost us a final

Another ‘highlight’ is the incident where in the Welsh 2^nd XI Cup game against Whitchurch. I scored the goal from a short corner giving us a 1-0 win. After the game ended, we left the pitch and headed for the changing rooms. However, the Umpire Martin Gallivan, came into the changing room afterwards and ordered us to return to the pitch to play an extra 4 minutes as he had blown the final whistle too early. I refused as some of my players were already in the showers and we were asked to replay the match and ended up losing.

The GB International Howie Williams played his first game for Cardiff 2^nd XI under my captaincy before he made his mark in Cardiff, Welsh and British Hockey. I remember giving him the ‘hair dryer’ treatment for too much dribbling and not passing the ball. I can’t be sure if my hair dryer advice helped his career, or if ignoring it did.

Other noteworthy players included: Tim Percival before becoming a regular 1^st XI player; and Ian Campbell who became our number 1 short corner taker – I had heard that he was fast off the blocks. Everybody remembers Geoff Percival (after his stint in Chile) umpiring games at Sophia Gardens with his threatening walking stick being waved at any dissenting players.

The Sophia Gardens Bar became a social gathering place on Saturday evenings after the afternoon matches, which were all played at 3.00pm. Hence all the teams used to be in the bar together and members of other teams in Cardiff used to come and join us. Peter Mills (GB Goalkeeper) played for the Club and used to lead the various ‘shenanigans’.

After a few drinks, we would start singing old Bollywood movie songs. Bill Hunt became an expert in playing on his guitar and singing an old song “Dil Deke Dekho” from a 1959 movie of the same name.

1980s - CHC goes to the Caribbean

In the 1980s I captained the 3^rd XI. Cardiff 1^st XI got knocked out in the 1^st round of the Welsh Cup by Whitchurch, so, 1^st XI Captain Andy Gowman, offered the place to me to play in the Plate competition. We went on to win the Plate Final with a team comprising of John Hunt, Steve Sparkes, Nunnie Sohanpal, Salim Khan, Dal Kaler, Nazir Mohamed, Jas Matharu, Jas Daffu

In 1988 I organised a very enjoyable trip to Barbados. The photograph below shows all the Cardiff players and supporters at the famous Kensington Oval in Barbados where all matches were played on the outfield of the famous Cricket Ground. My son Ravi had his first senior game in goal in Barbados at the age of 13 (till then he had played Mini Hockey) and went on to play for Cardiff up to 2^nd XI before moving away because of his job, where he went on to play for the Crewe Vagrants 1^st XI.

We entered Men’s and Mixed hockey teams and reached the final of the Mixed Tournament where we were runners up.

Of course, it wasn’t all about the hockey and everybody who went still talks about our 2 trips on the ‘Jolly Roger’ party boat. Other highlights include a visit to the all-night street dancing in Baxter Street, Bridgetown and the day the day when the ladies got drunk on Pina Coladas, Daiquiris (and a few other concoctions) while the men were playing. The excuse given was that it was Mrs. Tony Rhys-Jones’s Birthday. I would return to Barbados in 1995 to play in the tournament with the Ancient Britons. When looking over the 1995 tournament programme, Aberystwyth University were taking part in the tournament and I was pleased to see Cardiff Hockey’s 1988 runners up position mentioned – we made a lasting impression.