Perter Jackson column: Chris Ralston sad as ‘innocent’ man Charlie Thomas passes away
reality television star and model, over an alleged affair with the footballer Ryan Giggs.
They laid Charlie Thomas to rest on Christmas Eve, years before his time and almost four decades after a blood-curdling incident near Twickenham. The Welshman’s death at the age of 62 removed one of the central figures from the dramatis personae as cast for Richmond‘s home match against Llanelli on that Bonfire Night weekend of November 1978. Because of what happened on the pitch that day, and what did not happen subsequently off it, the clubs have avoided each other ever since.
What some considered an open-and-shut case is still unresolved after all these years, a cause celebre that has run for almost as long as Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap. Chris Ralston, Richmond’s England and Lions‘ second-row forward, had been kicked on the head badly enough to require 36 stitches.
Richmond wrote a formal letter of complaint in which they alleged that Charlie Thomas may have had something to do with it. Llanelli, embarrassed and more than a bit annoyed that the subject had been made public, had to be seen to be doing something.
In the absence of a confession from any of the forwards in action at Richmond, the Scarlets suspended all eight for their next match, at Swansea the following Wednesday. A week or so later they announced that all eight had been reinstated.
By then, Charlie Thomas’ name had been bandied about. The row having raged on both sides of the Severn Bridge for a fortnight, Charlie, anxious to clear his name, broke the silence.
“It is not very pleasant to be blamed for deliberately kicking someone in the heard when I did no such thing,” he told me. “I’m glad to be able to say it wasn’t me. I’ve never kicked anyone’s head.
“What happened to Chris Ralston was a terrible thing but I am convinced it was purely accidental.”
Ralston spent days so besieged by reporters that he claims the intrusion forced him to sell up and move elsewhere. Llanelli RFC claimed their investigation led them to the ‘inescapable’ conclusion that Ralston had been the victim of an accidental blow.
Richmond, clearly convinced that it was deliberate, cancelled the fixture in protest at their dissatisfaction over an ‘issue too important for rugby football to remain unresolved’. Unresolved it has remained, for 37 years and counting.
If Charlie thought he been embroiled in enough controversy for a lifetime, another came along more recently. His daughter Imogen’s involvement in the scandal swirling round Ryan Giggs four years ago had Thomas leaping in defence of her reputation.
His popularity ensured that they came from miles around to Llanelli Crematorium for the funeral of one of their own, remembered by his first club, Carmarthen Athletic, as ‘a lovely man’. The mourners did not include an ex-England cap from Dorset, not because Chris Ralston chose to stay away but because he knew nothing of Thomas’ passing.
“I am sorry to hear that Charlie Thomas has died,” Ralston said. “He was accused of doing it. Whether he did, I don’t know but I do believe that the wrong person was accused initially.
“The matter was never resolved to my satisfaction. At the end of the day it was almost as if I kicked myself in the head. I was on the ground. I couldn’t see what was going on above me and whose boot landed on my head. Whoever did it knows he did it. As players you know where you put your feet.
“I had to leave the field with blood spurting from a severed artery in my head and that required about 36 stitches.
“Llanelli closed ranks and it sort of got brushed under the carpet. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then.”
While Ralston made it clear he had no wish to stir old memories, no half-decent obituary on Thomas could be written without reference to the incident and the unholy row it provoked. Back then, with a few enlightened exceptions, the Establishment frowned on those who had the courage to speak out about gratuitous violence.
Better to say nothing and pretend it never happened. Not worth the fuss. Richmond, to their credit, decided in Ralston’s case that it most certainly was worth the fuss. Now 71, the old England lock takes belated exception to the accusation from his fellow 1974 Lion, Phil Bennett, that Ralston “had run to the Press.”
“I certainly did not run to the Press,” he said. “I was hounded at my home by news reporters to such an extent that I had to move out. I was certainly not looking for notoriety and nor did I chase publicity.”
Five weeks after the incident behind ‘the Ralston Affair,’ the hitherto indestructible Wales full-back JPR Williams was stamped on the face playing for Bridgend against Graham Mourie’s All Blacks in December 1978. One of John Ashworth’s studs cut a hole through Williams’ cheek.
JPR has always claimed that in the 37 years since, the New Zealand prop never offered an apology. At least he knew who did it.
Despite waiting every bit as long, Chris Ralston still has no idea who kicked him and he probably never will.
The scars will always be there but even he acknowledges that Charlie Thomas was accused of something he never did.
