Ray Cale - Second row
Wales RLHeritage No | 228 |
Date Of Birth | 18/07/1922 |
Place Of Birth | Usk |
Height | 183 |
Weight | 86 |
Clubs | St Helens, Pontypool, Newbridge, Ebbw Vale, Usk |
Honours | Wales RL, Wales |
William Raymond Cale was capped seven times by the Wales rugby union team, before winning four more in the rugby league code. Ray grew up on an Usk farm and went to Usk Grammar School, alongside former Glamorgan and England cricketer Alun Watkins. He played rugby union for Ebbw Vale, Usk, Newbridge and Pontypool clubs, playing for Wales whilst at the latter two. In 1947, he played for a combined Pontypool, Blaenavon and Talywain side against the Australian national rugby union team, but after being left out of the Lions tour in 1950 as he was deemed "too rough", he turned professional with St Helens for a British record fee of £2,500. He played for Saints for five seasons, helping them to win the Championship Final in 1953 against Halifax. Originally, his trade outside of rugby was running a greengrocer's shop in Abersychan with his wife Pat, until the move to St Helens, where they opened a new shop. He was forced to give up rugby in 1954 after breaking a leg and moved his family back to South Wales, buying a dairy farm in Cardiff which he ran until retiring in 1986. He died on May 23rd 2006 in Spain, with his family beside him, after he was suddenly taken ill with bronchial pneumonia.
COMPETITION | PLAYED | T | G | DG | PTS | YC | RC | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1951-1952 European Championship | 2 + 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
1950-1951 European Championship | 2 + 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Note: The statistics tab shows all of the player’s known appearances for this particular Wales side against international sides or other non-capped recognised first class matches. To see exactly how many full test rugby league caps for Wales (or any other country) that this player has, please click the “Test Summary” tab. Nines individual player records are not shown, please click here for full details about Nines. Please also note that clubs’ current names are used throughout this website, due to the database only being able to feed one name per club (e.g. Wigan will also be known as Wigan Warriors throughout all player profiles).