Ken Jones was an exceptional sportsman, excelling as an athlete and a Welsh rugby international.
He began playing for his home team, Blaenavon, before moving on to Pontypool and Newport, the club with which he is most associated. In 1947 he won the first of his 44 caps for Wales, scoring some memorable tries, including one in a famous and rare victory against the All Blacks. He also played for the British Lions.
In 1948 he was part of the 4×100 metres relay team that won silver medals in the Olympics. The USA team won gold, only to be disqualified and then reinstated after an appeal.
At the age of 32 Jones was still fast enough to gain a silver medal in the 1954 European Championships and a bronze at the 1954 Empire Games. The conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Games – involve a baton containing a message for the Head of the Commonwealth to be brought to the stadium by a series of relay runners. Jones was given the special honour of being the final baton-carrier in the 1958 Games. He handed it to the Queen’s representative, the Duke of Edinburgh. He was awarded the OBE in 1960 for services to Welsh rugby. Off the field, he was a sports reporter for the Welsh Sunday Express and taught in the English Department at Llantarnam School.
He died in 2006 aged 84. He would have been worthy of a race at Chepstow, but the race there ran from 1976-84 in November and was called the Ken Jones Memorial, so it wasn’t anything to do with him. It probably refers to a Welsh bookmaker of that name.