Ron Davies was 20 when he left his home-town club, Merthyr Tydfil, for First Division Cardiff City.

Never establishing himself there, he joined Third Division Southampton, taking over from Len Wilkins, who was emigrating to Canada, and becoming a fixture at right-back for the next three seasons. An ever-present in Saints’ championship-winning side of 1960, he adjusted well to Second Division football. But he had to share the No.2 shirt, in 1961-62, with Roy Patrick, who’d arrived from Forest. And then, when the next season started woefully, Stuart Williams was summoned from West Brom. The debate continues as to which of these two Welshmen was better suited to play behind the exquisite triangle of Wimshurst-Paine-O’Brien on Southampton’s right. George O’Brien preferred Ron’s no-nonsense clearances – “you can’t score goals from Row Z, can you?” – but Ken Wimshurst felt that a quadrilateral sashaying through the opponents’ left flank needed Stuart’s skills going forward. Manager Bates was of the latter persuasion, so Davies was now restricted to a handful of first-team outings, in the last of which he blotted out a young George Best.

Transferred to Aldershot, he remained resident in Southampton, becoming a stalwart of the Ex-Saints XI and helping to look after the social needs, in his old age, of Bill Stroud. Retiring from managing the Winchester Snooker Centre in 1997, Ron soon returned to Merthyr. He became a regular – until overtaken by Alzheimer’s – at Morlais Golf Club, where his nine holes with a visiting Ballesteros remain legendary. “Blimey!” Ron exclaimed as Seve drove from the first tee, “I don’t go that far on my holidays.”