It was the beginning of September in the nineteen-sixties when I boarded a bus in Cardiff to join another Accies' tour in Cornwall . Besides a number of hardened old tourists whose faces were familiar to me there were two young schoolboys who looked decidedly out of place.

The pair were very quiet on the long journey to Truro on pre-motorway roads, made even longer by the obligatory comfort stop at the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor. They were still subdued when we arrived at the Trygie Hotel and Country Club, to be greeted by its owner Tony and his famous three-legged Graet Dane, Gaston. Our host was one of those rare hotel owners who actually enjoyed a visit by the Accies and was happy to join in the banter and fun of the tour party. Gaston had lost a hind leg in a road accident, but this in no way impaired his ability to run around. In fact he was clocked at 27mph when following Tony's sports car up the hotel drive.

The first night was traditionally a time for the whole party to gel socially. The consumption of a fair amount of Cornish ale accompanied by good Welsh singing got the evening off to a fine start and our two youngsters began to relax and enter into the spirit of the party. However, I will never forget the wide eyed look on their faces as they were introduced to some of Paul Holland's more bizarre party games

Next day me took on Truro RFC and I recall being surprised to see that both our teenage recruits were selected to play against a side which was then among the top teams in the south west. However, once the match started it was the rest of our team, and the opposition, and the spectators, who had the look of wide eyed wonder in ther faces - when they witnessed the pace, power and skill of the two youngsters. On the side - lines people hurriedly consulted programmes - to find that their names were Gareth Owen Edwards and Thomas Gerald Reames Davies.

Will the Accies (or anybody else) see their like again? I wonder.