By Tony Organ
Maldwyn Jones Gravell ‘Mal’ Morris was a member of the successful Neyland United youth team which was undefeated in the three years from 1946 to 1949, winning the Wiltshire Cup in 46/47; 47/48 and in the newly formed youth league in 48/49. He was described as a “player with natural ability who could play anywhere, but was most ‘at home’ in a forward position”. He and his family lived at Hazelbank and he was one of many ‘Hazel Boys’ who played for Neyland on its Honeyborough pitch.
At the age of eighteen, he and all of his team mates were despatched to different parts of the country to undertake their National Service. As they all left around the same time, the town was devoid of young players. They returned to discover that, because of this exodus, there had been a cessation of soccer in the town. So he, Len Roberts and Colin Davies joined Pembroke Borough in the Welsh League where, in the 1953/54 season, they were integral to the club achieving the double: Welsh League and Cup champions.
In October 1956, Mal signed for Swansea Town, making his league debut a month later in the 4-1 away victory at Notts County.
He netted five goals in fifteen 2nd Division games before joining Gloucester City in July 1958 for a transfer sum of £3,000. He became Gloucester’s leading scorer for the 1958/59 season, netting twenty-six goals in fifty-one appearances. At the beginning of the following season, he made another eight appearances – scoring four goals – before being persuaded to return home and re-sign for the Borough. However, the manager of Gloucester was leaving to take up the managerial post at Hereford United and had attempted to lure Mal to going with him. But the prospects of a ‘normal family life’ back in Pembrokeshire proved too strong.
He and his wife Pat, together with elder son Phillip, temporarily moved back to Hazelbank before buying their own home in Pembroke Dock, where Mal began working for Hancocks the Shipbuilders. Soon afterwards, younger son Neil was born and later both sons played for local clubs in Pembrokeshire. Mal attended the centenary of Neyland A.F.C. in October 1999 and passed away in the following August.