The Club Loses a Good Friend

We are all very saddened to hear the news of the death this week of Mr Alun Evans at the age of 69.

Alun was the General Secretary of the Football Association of Wales from 1982 to 1993, and was a very dear friend of our club and a huge fan of women’s football. He was one of its earliest ambassadors for the women’s game, he was always campaigning for the women within the FAW throughout his time in office.

Back in 1992, former player and one of our Vice Presidents Laura McAllister, Michele Adams and myself all visited Aluns office in Westgate Street to meet with him and draw to his attention the fact that there were women playing in Wales and ask for more recognition from our governing body. We were met with plenty of suggestions as to why the women’s game would never be popular, but a couple of weeks later Alun turned up at one of our games when we were then playing at Trelai Park, with him was Des Shanklin who was the FAW President at the time. From that day Alun was hooked, he appreciated the way that women played the game, the skills the players showed and always recognised the hard work that was involved in running a voluntary club.

Alun was the driving force behind the FAW introducing a women’s national team to its organisation, he had to win over many sceptics and opposition from his fellow council members, but in 1993 the FAW entered the UEFA Women’s Championships for the very first time. Our club was well represented with Laura, Michele and myself all honoured to be a part of history being made. The away games were all played within six days travelling to Switzerland, Germany and Croatia. Alun then went on to introduce the Welsh Women’s cup and staged the final at the National Stadium, many of us are grateful to him for the wonderful experience of playing in a cup final in front of over 15,000 Cardiff City fans before the men’s Welsh cup final.

Alun was a larger than life character who was known for his forthright views and many of us ended up debating his opinions with him for hours on end. He also had a much softer side with a very keen dry wit and was always happy to sit with friends and share football stories over a pizza and a good bottle of red wine.

One of my many memories of Alun was seeing him in the stand at an away game in Truro Cornwall, where he sat with his head in a book all the way through the match, but after the game challenged me on every aspect of the game, every bad pass, every poor move, every bad tackle, but always his enthusiasm showed through in the end as he would then throw in what was good about the game, and how much he enjoyed it.

Over the last couple of years Alun has suffered from poor health and my last correspondence from him was a congratulatory note on our promotion to the National Premier League, he said that he missed watching us play at the stadium and how pleased he was that the club was doing so well.

Alun did so much for our club, and we have lost a huge friend, and every player past and present playing in Wales owes a huge debt for the contribution he made, and the courage he showed in driving the women’s game forward.

Our thoughts are with Aluns wife and family at this very sad time.

Karen Jones – Club Secretary

Aluns funeral is to be held at The Crematorium, Thornhill Road, Cardiff CF14 9UA, on Wednesday 23rd November at 2.00pm in the Wenallt Chapel. It is the family's wish, no flowers. Instead they would like donations to neuroendocrine cancer research in Wales. Cheques to be made payable to ‘Cardiff University’