Apologies as I just cannot find a photo of the Old Abergele British Legion apart from a burnt out shell of a building which was always quite suss.
Spent quite a few years in the snooker room, very cheap beer, made some good friends and a great atmosphere. It was so lovely hearing stories from the old guys about the past and how the younger drinkers got on so well with their older peers and vice versa.
I lost touch with all of them when i moved away. Such a shame.
Just some of the characters I remember from there:
Cloggie – I know he was a chef in the hospital, looked like Gareth Chilcott, heart of gold, funny as hell and the guy would buy 2 pints when he walked in to the club. 10 footsteps away was the snooker room and he always managed to drink 1 pint whilst walking in! I sadly heard that he passed away a few years back.
Snelly – Nice guy, thought he was a gift from the gods towards women, looked like Magnum PI on a bad day, good snooker player though.
Nige Slaphead – Funny guy Nigel, remember saying to him when i was looking out of the legion front window and after he had been on a session with his friends all day, ‘hey nige, i didn’t know your car had tinted windows’ he replied with ‘it hasnt!’, ‘yeah it has’. He walked over and saw they were pitch black, it happens that his friend who is a nutter, well they had left him miles away in a pub and his friend decided to paint Nigels car windows in Bitumen Paint!
Gaz the Girl – Got his name as when he first came to the Club he had long hair. Excellent darts player and had good nights clubbing it in Rhyl with him.
Mental Mark – Wow, now this guy could have pages written about him. He was such a star and just thinking of him put a smile on my face. Remember him wanting to play a snooker match for the club but they had a full team. He was upset so they said he could do the scoring on the board. He turned up to the match nite in a suit with white gloves, the problem arose when he told people he couldn’t add up numbers! It took hours for just one match bless him.
Les – Such a nice guy but he passed away very young. He was the spitting image of ‘Sinbad’ off ‘Brookside’ and was a scouser. One hell of a snooker player and was always joking that the job centre were trying to get him a job. So he said he wanted to be a cobbler and they got him a job as one haha he was not impressed.
Some of the older guys who I really miss and would assume they are not around any longer as this was 30 years ago.
Andy – I know he lived at the top of Abergele but can’t remember his first name. He was the spitting image of Corporal Jones off Dads army. Was such a character and always had me laughing. Really miss him.
Morris/Maurice – I think it was Maurice and he used to stay in a caravan in Town with is wife and maybe sister? Such a lovely gentleman, so polite, always a huge beaming smile on his face. Very good player also.
John the Ref – This guy was a dark horse. I knew he was a good snooker player but I ended up playing him in the Billiards Final. He absolutely slaughtered me. After the game he taught me lots about the game.
Met some really lovely people in my times at the Legion in Abergele and so wish i could turn back the clock to see them all again.