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A WELSH KAP IN STORE PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS TO r OVAL-KICKERS. I I BY P. F. BUSH. I —— Wm. Sprller, of Cardiff, Near St. Fagan's My dear "Bobby ,As your leg has been poisoned in playing for Cardiff, I am going to disturb your rest by attempting to poison the minds of the people against you in the ensuing lines. It will be quite enough to say, for a art-art, that one fine morning in July of the year 1886 the people who live in the immediate vicinity of the level-crossing at the rural retreat of St. Fagan's were startled by hearing the shrill scream of a train whistle, as they thought, when they knew that no train had any busi- ness w,ithin miles of the sylvan suburb. Instantly the place was in a state of commotion, and, when the oldest inhabi- t.ant and his folio-wing had made strict inquiries, the train whistle resolved itself into the first musical sounds from your childish lungs. It appeared t'hat you had been frightened by catching a sight of the stork which had deposited you at Gaol Cottage"—'hence the howl. But i let us stork a.bout what happened after- wards, for a while. ■ Having received a thorough training at the hands—.and ground ash sticks-of your paternal relative, who at that period guarded the peaceful interest of the villagers, you removed, at the tender age of eleven, to the breezy heights of PeiMrth. Here your football career may be said to have begun, and that it has become a big 'un future events, as narrated, will &how. You favoured the Victoria School, and they had entered for the Penarth Schools League. It is worthy of more than passing nc?'. i ,ce that your :ni t notice that your initial efforts were thus under the more dangerous code, Soccer. Victoria finished second in t'he league, ajid for your share in her exploits you became entitled to, and duly received1 a very fine silve-r medal. You sojournoo in the sea,gi-de suburb for the space of twelve months, and then, pining for the birds and trees, the woods and lfowers of your naitive "city," you brought your father back to 6t. I, t ere to settle down in peace and comfort. The .poac? 'an d comfort CQnmeted partly in walking to and fro daily to Lans- downe-road School. Here you came under the influence of R. Smith, Esq., the headmaster, and to that fortunate circumstance I attribute m-ainly t'he fact that you are such a thundering upright a.nd decent chap. Here, also, Soccer pursued you, and, besides playing in the First XI. of your school, you were selected for the Town XI. in your first year at school, and actually captained the Town Team the next year. In one match for Lansdowne I remember you scored eight lovely goals off your own foot, and this is a feat which, I believe, remains a record. Leaving school, with aill the honours thick upon your brow, you joined, when fifteen, the St. Fagan's Rugby team, for whom you played at outside had-f, with t'hast sterling little player, Oharhe Cul- verwell, as your inside. Perhaps you don't remember it, but I played for Old St. Mary's Haili-ans against you about this time. We beat you by two dropped goails, one converted, and a try to nil. One of us two dropped the goate, and it wasn't you. The year 1903 mine, and with it the difpbandment of the St. Fagan's team, owing to lack of Piayem. You and Charlie were invited to come and spoil the Llandaff Yard team; you accepted the invite, and how far you succeeded in your laudable attempt may be seen from the fact th-at you and Charlie and thir- teen others won the Cardiff and District Union cup and mecrals. The next move was to Pontypridd, for yoa were both asked to ptay for that town, and, with the desire to imrprove g—"—■ !■ your football chances, you decided to hie you to the place with the longest station in Wales. You joined Duncan M'Gregor in the centre, and Charlie stuck to-half. The Sootto-Welsh partnership was so eminently successful that Ponty won nearly all her matches this season, 1904. You did a great deal of good to Freddy' my William, for he played on the wing to you, and it is ever so well known that a good centre makes a good wing. Until Fredericus went to Treorky then, you formed a very powerful wing. Perhaps your best game that season w.i.s against Bristol, at Bristol, on Easter Monday. They had beaten Swansea on the Saturday previous, and, possibly, that 1wd somothmg to do with it; but the fact remains that 3-011 played a. grand game. with t,he result that Ponty won by sixteen points to eleven, very much to the disgust of my Bristol brother. A Bitter Pill. Your period of bad luck began with 1906, for when everything watt going well for you. and it seemed that you would very likely be picked for the tri-al match, you m-et with a bad accident at Xewnort, breaking your collar-bone whilst playing against the Harriers of rillgwenliy. Tnis was a bitter pil'l, indeed, and harried you considerably, but it did not really worry you so mveh as the next stroke of bad luck, which came upon you at G loucester in the following season. You had, meantime, got your transfer to Cardiff, and were playing a very fillo game against the cathedral city, when suddenly Arthur Hudson, kicking at the ball, missed it, and hoofed your shin instead. This caused a hole in your ma.ntl-.Nl leg nearly large enough for an orange to bo '1mt; hi, though I don't expect you would have been eaten up with pride if anyone had placed an orange in the cavity. For six weeks thereafter you reposed in your little cot, No. 6 in No. 2 Ward, and there, I am sorry to say, you are now, with this wretched blood-sipoiisonmg. It occurs to me that the best perfor- mance you have brought off in the Rugger A-orld-for that e-ighrt goals Soccer episode takes some beating—was last year, when you played for Mog. Griffiths' team against Pontypridd in a charity match. You were playing full- back, and, as a special act of charity, took the trouble to run right through the whole team and sc-ore a great try, which, by -the way, won the match, for it was the only score in the game. Many county marches st-aiid to your credit, and you have earned your cap very thoroughly by pen-forming against Yorkshire three times and Gloucester- shire twice, not to mention the South of Ireland and the Australians. I wonder if you have had that cap yet, Billy! Your ability has brought about the 1 "double event," so to .vpeak, for you have been capped for cricket, having represented Glamorgan on five occasions. Play-ing at Swansea v. Surrey Club and Ground you brought off a fine per-for- ma.nce. It was horrible weather, and the I first day had been drawn blank. On the second, Surrey went in and made nearly 200, then proceeding to get Glamorgan out. They got eight wickets down for under the hundred, and then you went in. Poor old Billy Russell was your I partner, but, unluckily, he got out, and I Harry Creber ca-me in last, with three- quarters of an hour to play. To Surrey it seemed that they had won, but they I didn't know, evidently, that the best bats had been kept for the last. I Uninteresting! I Well, to make an interesting yarn un- interesting, you and Harry C. kept up your ends for the rest of t'he day and I saved the ga.me. It looked as if you could have stayed in for the rest of the week! You have played for the Earl's side I for many years, and got three centuries in 1904, with a great 133 (not out) v. Puhlic Schools Nondescripts, in conee- I qtienee o-f which you were picked for Glamorgan, but couldn't g?t off to play. Last season you gave Gwyn Nioholls ) and Randall Davies a treat when they came to t»hy f-nr Whitchurch v. St. Fagan's. Whitdhu-rch made 143; tihen you and your brother Charles went in for St. Fagan's. I well remember the "Wes- tern Mail" on the subject: The Brothers Spiller opened the homesters' batting. Fifty in a quarter of an hour. When stuniipe were drawn the score was 213- W. Spiller (not out) 13.5, with 22 4's, and C. Spiller (not out) 66. different from th-a-t 8-tirrey match, eh, sweet Willi am? Your average varies from 17 to 50 J for the Saints, while your wicket- keeping and fielding are superb. A striking proof to your popularity was funwished on your twenty-first birthday, when your colleagues in the cricket team presented you with a splendid silver cigarette case. When the captain made the presentation you were so taken 8Ihaok that your humorous old face was, for once, quite disturbed, and you thanked them in a "voice husky with emotion." In 1901 there was a sports at St. Fagan's in connection witn the flower show. There were certain races for boys under sixteen, and Willie Spiller went in for them. He won the 120 yards flat, 120 hurdles, quarter-mile, high jump, long jump, and then, as a sort of refresher, he cantered over the mile steeplechase on Shanks' pony, and won that too, and thus won a special medal presented by the Countess of Plymouth for the highest number of points. In social life your humorous songs are in great demand, and few can render them more excellently. It is always worth while to hear you warble, "Stop your ticklin', Jock," which is, perhaps, your favourite. But 1 expect you felt far from funny that night in the hotel at Exeter, when the man who shared your room had retired early. When you went up you entei-e-LI your room, as you thought, and was just about to spring upon the bed where your partner lay sleeping, to find out why he was scoring, and suddenly a fern inline voice said, "Is that you, Jack?" Even then, however, your sense of .humour and tact did not desert you, for, merely replying, "Yes, dear, but I have forgotiten my tobacco pouch and am going down for it," you quietly sloped, feeling very small. It must have been rather awkward for "Jack," though, for next day you fo-und out that he didn't -smoke. And that's about all I'm going to plague you with, Billiam, so look sharp and get quite fit again. Unless I'm very much mistaken, there's a Welsh Ka.p ,to be kaptured this year by a straightfor- ward, honest little "bobby, named William a'1") Spiller, so don't hiang ab-otit longer than you,t-an help. And now, good-bye. Ever yours,

RUGBY I

GWYN NIOHOLLS AS AUTHOR.

A BIG KICK. -

I MID-WEEK SOCCER.-

CARDIFF IN8TI r UTES' LEAGUE

SWANSEA.I

!Rugby Club Gossip. I

ITAFFSIDE RECORD GONE. I

Schools' Football-I

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