Scarlets’ long-serving historian Les Williams was recognised for his voluntary work for the club at the annual Actif Carmarthenshire Sports Awards.
Les was one of three individuals to receive the award for Outstanding Services to Sport, sponsored by Castell Howell.
This season marks Les Williams’s 60th as the historian of the Scarlets. During this time, Les has documented the highs and lows of the club throughout its proud 152-year history, producing an unrivalled archive of statistics.
In recent years Les has spent hours and hours going through past newspaper reports in Llanelli Library to put together a comprehensive list of every player who has pulled on the famous jersey, along with every game played.
He first became involved with the club in 1965 at the age of 17 and went on to hold a variety of voluntary posts, including the editor of the official Scarlets matchday programme, which was twice voted the best in the UK.
During the 1970s, the great Carwyn James would ask Les to make a note of the number of scrums, line-outs, penalties etc that were won and lost during the match and Les would hand Carwyn the details on a bit of paper at the end of each match – in-game analysis that was way before its time.
He was part of the organising committee that celebrated the Centenary of the Scarlets and of course, Les was there at Stradey Park on that famous day in 1972 when Llanelli beat the mighty All Blacks.
His archive, all hand written, includes an extensive list of brothers, fathers and sons and even twins who have played for the club, players who have represented the Scarlets on the international stage, our decorated British & Irish Lions and much, much more. The diligence and accuracy in which his records have been kept over the years has made him a ‘hotline’ for journalists and authors wanting to ensure that their information was correct before going to print.
As part of our 150th anniversary celebrations, Les helped put together an exhibition at Llanelli Library and at the age of 77 continues to attend matches and keep immaculate records. He is currently in the process of helping the club update the honours board at Parc y Scarlets and regularly attends the club’s Sporting Memories group, where he has brought along old programmes containing the names of relatives of many of the group’s members, sharing personal stories and memories from his time at the club.
Les estimates he has watched more than 2,500 Scarlets matches, many seasons he didn’t miss a fixture, both home and away.
The evening also saw club president Derek Quinnell and son Scott (pictured below) – two of the greatest players to have worn the Scarlets jersey – inducted into the Carmarthenshire Sporting Hall of Fame. They join a list of fifteen previous inductees which was first introduced in 2006.
