Newyddion
GB sprinter Berwyn Jones was inaugurated into the Wakefield Trinity Hall of Fame
19/10/2026 00:00, I Mewn Blog /
Just one week after Wakefield Trinity Rugby League Football Club became the sixth team to win the Super League 1960’s Welsh and GB sprinter Berwyn Jones was inaugurated into the Wakefield Trinity Hall of Fame at Wakefield Trinity’s Stadium, Belle Vue.
Berwyn was born and bred in Rhymney, South Wales and slowly rose through the world of athletics. In 1961 he was chosen for the Great Britain athletics team to travel behind the Iron Curtain to Poland. It was here that he bought a Voigtländer Camera on the black market; he took photos of his sporting trips and the photographs have never been seen. Berwyn represented Wales in the 1962 Commonwealth Games and won a bronze with his fellow relay team members Ron Jones, Nick Whitehead and David English.
Berwyn’s most successful year was 1963 when he became the second Welsh man to win the British AAA Championship 100 yards title. The same year he was a member of the “flying squad.” This relay team of Peter Radford, Ron Jones, David Jones and Berwyn beat the American relay team and equalled the world record at White City, London. The relay team were destined to run at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 but Berwyn was offered a trial with Wakefield Trinity Rugby League Club. As an amateur athlete he could not take part in sport for money so in March 1964 under the pseudo name "A Walker” he played in two trial matches. Berwyn signed for Wakefield for a fee of £6000.
Berwyn was determined to make his new career on the rugby pitch a success and it was. In 1964 Wakefield won the Yorkshire Cup. Within nine months Berwyn was chosen to play for the British Lions Rugby League Team and scored on his international début against France in Perpignan. In 1965 he played for the Other Nationalities against St Helens; the same year he played for the Commonwealth XIII against New Zealand at Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre, London. In 1966 he toured with the Lions to Australia and New Zealand. In 1967 he transferred to Bradford Northern for £3,000 and before his retirement in 1969, due to an Achilles injury, he played for St Helens.
Berwyn moved to Ross-on-Wye where he taught at the secondary school along with his wife Ann. Sadly, Berwyn died in 2007 from MND. He’s left an autobiography about his sporting life in the 1960’s with many of his unseen photographs which will be published in 2027.