Dai Drops Off RIP

[Antepli Ejderha]

Wales and Swansea City great Dai Davies has died aged 72

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...wsApp_AppShare

Really sad news this, from all accounts a lovely man. Forever known as Dai Drop by that takes away from all his achievements.

RIP

[Ray de Galles]

Sad news, the first Wales keeper I can recall. Shocked that he was as old as 72.

[Jah Womble]

He was certainly playing for Everton when I first got into fitba' in the early seventies - which would've been his early/mid-twenties.

RIP.

[Bored Of Education]

Bloody hell, similar to Ray, I was surprised he was that old but, having checked, Gary Sprake was 71 when he died 4 years ago.

[tee rex]

He was a prominent keeper in my "peak football fan" era as a kid, and yet only when he dies do I find out how interesting he was. RIP.

For obvious reasons, keepers are often unfairly represented in highlights, with 85 minutes of competence left on the cutting room floor. So I was trying to recall if I ever saw him in a live game on TV (certainly never saw him in the flesh). Drawn a blank, as Everton weren't reaching finals and the Wales games weren't live like England-Scotland.

[tee rex]

Having checked, I did see him in person, playing for Wrexham at Exeter, division 3 (old). I can pretend I appreciated his talents but I was 15 and probably just gobbed off at him.

[Uros Predic]

I've not really seen it mentioned in the tributes I've read, but Dai was relatively late to professional football, as he'd completed his training as a PE teacher before he joined Swansea. The story being that Swansea offered him more than he'd get as a first year teacher.

His age at passing wasn't a surprise to me, but that's because he was at College with my dad (albeit two years his senior) and they played together for Cardiff College of Education (now Cardiff Met).