When most people reach retirement they slip gracefully from work to the golf course or other relaxing pastimes. Not so George Evans.
The Cardiff Evening News caught up with an extraordinary athlete who, at the age of 73, after two knee replacements, has gone unbeaten for a season to help Cardiff A win the Welsh Veterans Team Table Tennis Title and has an eye on the 2010 World Veterans Championships in Mongolia, the only title he hasn’t won.
Mr Evans, of Heol Peare Tree, Rhoose Point, is no ordinary pensioner. The Barry-born Welshman has led a remarkable life of sporting excellence, representing Wales at football and table tennis, brushing shoulders with Kevin Keegan, and competing across the world and across the generations at the highest level.
And having won the Veterans British Nationals for the last three years his career shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
Mr Evans, a dock worker for most of his life, hit the sporting headlines winning a cap for Wales Under-18s against England at Fratton Park. They lost 3-1 but George, a fleet-footed winger, provided the cross for Wales’s only goal.
Trials at Everton followed before a professional career with Barry Town and Haverford-west. Evans earned £5-a-week with a £2 win bonus in the days when Barry played in the Southern League.
But it was as a master of the bat and ball that Mr Evans carved a name for himself. He had always played table tennis and juggled his footballing commitments to ensure he could fit in his fixtures.
In 1951, aged 15, he won the Welsh Junior Table Tennis Championships, kick-starting a career that has lasted more than half a century.
The Welsh weather played a part in his decision to get into the sport. “You are not affected by bad weather conditions,” he said. “I used to play tennis but you’d look out of the window and see the rain and you have to sit in the clubhouse for an afternoon.”
His proudest moment came at the age of 42 when most sportsmen have hung up their boots. It was 1979 and he became the first Welshman to win every game in his category at a World Championships.
The fact they were held in Pyongyang, in communist North Korea, in front of 20,000 fans only adds to the remarkable tales Evans can tell.
“It’s not a financially rewarding sport but you do travel,” said Evans, whose playing years have not been short of air miles.
His North Korean escapade launched him on a professional career in Germany with Lubeck and then Hamburg where he shared flights home to Britain with the then Hamburg footballer Kevin Keegan.
Mr Evans even robbed the Geordie legend of the back page of the Hamburg Bild when he signed for the club, proof of the extraordinary interest in table tennis on the continent.
Bundesliga table tennis teams were only allowed one foreign player and Lubeck signed George after his performance in North Korea. He said: “They had heard about my results and were expecting a 21-year-old. I had to whistle to them when I came off the plane. They weren’t expecting a 42-year-old.”
In the twilight of his life he has found renewed success. “In the last three years I have probably had the best results,” he said.
He won the 2005 European Veterans' Table Tennis Championships in Bratislava, reached the semi-final of the 2006 World Veterans' Championship in Bremen and the semi-finals of the 2007 Euros in Rotterdam. “I think I’m starting to outlive the opposition,” he said.
The next World Championships are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this year but Mr Evans is unable to attend due to family commitments. Twice married, with six children, such commitments are considerable. But he is not sad to miss out due to the risks attached to such a trip.
“We’ve been warned about violence and thefts,” he said. “I’ve been told your only chance is to wear only a thong. That way they can’t steal anything off you.”
His earthy humour stems from his time at Barry Docks, an unintended career but one which allowed him plenty of time to train. “It was a family thing, working as a coal trimmer, my father and grandfather before me. It was not something that I wanted to do,” said Mr Evans.
“I went to Barry Grammar School but I knew that working on the docks was great for playing sport. If there was no work you could get away and get in three rounds of golf.”
The 2007/2008 table tennis season has been one to remember for Evans, to the extent that he was relieved rather than excited to win the Welsh Veterans Team Table Tennis Championship earlier this month.
He said: “Last year I won almost every title so, winning the Welsh one, it was nice not to lose. A lot of people in Wales I have played so many times it is quite hard as they know you.”
Mr Evans and his teammates, two 50-something Cardiff residents, Steve Eades and Gareth Dommett, won the Veterans (Over-40s) title in dramatic fashion in the last match of the season.
The Championship is played over four different weekends and three teams finished level on points. Cardiff A took the title by virtue of winning more individual games than Amorfa A and Cardiff B. Evans’s season-long unbeaten run was a key factor.
Gareth Evans, from the Table Tennis Association of Wales of which George is now chairman, said: “It hasn’t been as close as that ever. It is the first time the Championship has been decided on points.”
He said: “If you speak to anybody in table tennis they will know George Evans. He has had two operations on his knees and he is still the best veteran in Wales. He’s a very competitive player at the table and a very nice man off it, but he plays to win.”
“I have played a lot of sport,” said George, reflecting on his lengthy career. “I was playing golf this morning; I can’t not be active. I deserve to have bad knees.”
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