It was a great shock this morning to receive an e-mail message from Dai’s wife Larissa saying that, as a result of injuries suffered in a car accident he was involved in on Monday, he had passed away with the other person he was in the car with at the time currently receiving treatment in an Intensive Therapy Unit (Intensive Care).
Apparently, it’s still unclear as to the cause of the accident and I have very few details on it to pass on, but I’m afraid that we’ve lost a much admired and respected contributor to the blog and things won’t be the same on here without him.
I think one of the best things about this blog is that the small number of regulars who reply to my Cardiff City based musings are a civilised bunch and it’s very, very rare to have anything worse than a mild difference of opinion on here when discussing the club we all love.
I called Dai the “glue” which held the board together in an e-mail I sent out earlier. I’ll freely admit that our opinions on football, and aspects of life outside the game, fundamentally disagreed at times, but it never spilled over into anything more than the occasional, fairly mild “spat”.
From my own perspective, I couldn’t stay annoyed at Dai for long because I knew that, on the one occasion when we met up around fifteen years ago it must be now, he’d made a gesture which proved his basic likability and kindness – I was taken aback when he gave me an autograph book from his youth which I can tell you was filled with much bigger names than, say, City’s Welsh League team from 1959/60!
When it came to football, I soon learned Dai was an excellent judge of a player – he’d pretty often mention someone he’d seen in the lower divisions that was worth keeping an eye on and so often you’d see said player turning out in the Premier League or Championship within a few seasons.
Although he was often talking about events from over a half a century ago, I’d say Dai’s memory of City games from his youth was well nigh infallible and this meant that his tales, which often moved off into non footballing recollections from his interesting and well travelled life, were all the more entertaining and authentic.
There’s not much else to say really – I’m at an age now where I’m well aware of my own mortality and that of others within my age group. Sometimes, it’s not too much of a surprise to learn of the passing of a family member, friend or acquaintance, but this news has come very much out of the blue – Dai was just Dai and you almost felt he would always be there.
Of course, Dai was far more well known for his highly original Daigressing video magazines (that’s as good a way to describe them as I can come up with) which came out about once a month than anything MAYA based he did. It really is hard to describe what Daigressing was all about to anyone who hasn’t seen it because it was really was about anything and everything and Dai deserves tremendous credit for recognising as quickly as he did the endless possibilities offered up by a resource like You Tube.
Rest in peace, Dai, you’ll be sorely missed by an awful lot of people.
Your message, Paul, has come like a bolt out of the blue. What a shock! Though Dai had clearly been sufferering with ill health for many years to learn of his death through a car accident was so unexpected.
Dai’s strongly held views, on a whole host of issues, made Dai, Dai. He wrote what he believed from a place of conviction and would back it up. On one such issue on which we were poles apart he recognised that my position was as equally a strong point of conviction and though this and related issues cropped up in his Daigressing’s blog from time to time afterwards we never fell out about it.
His anecdotes of his early life in S Wales, his beloved Cardiff City and strident views on the present Bluebirds always made interesting reading.
His loss will be felt deeply, not only by his wife, Larissa, but equally amongst those who had the privilege of knowing him personally and those who, ‘knew,’ him through MaYA and his Daigressing posts.
On this esteemed blog, I guess there will always be the unanswered question when certain issues crop up viz: “I wonder what Dai would have thought?”
Dai, it was good to, ‘know,’ you.
May his memory be a blessing.
RIP Dai.
This is dreadfully sad and very shocking news. Dai was always ready for a civilized discussion about any topic. We swapped mails about Brexit from our completely different points of view and it always remained friendly …and fun.
I was an avid reader of his “Daigressings” and they often brightened up the coffee breaks at work.
I will never forget the wonderful post he wrote about my father after his passing in 2015 and the letter he still has in his memories box, received from my father back in 1962.
His posts here on this blog were almost “Shakespearian” and highly enjoyable. he was a larger than life character and he will be sorely missed. My thoughts are with Larissa during this difficult and sad time.
RIP Dai, and thanks for all the imput.
That’s very sad news Paul. I used to enjoy receiving his ‘daigressing’ emails regularly and they were always original and entertaining even though like you, I didn’t always concur with some of his views. Apparently he was from the same family as Phil Woosnam the Welsh international from the 1950’s and 1960’s. RIP Dai.
Sad to hear that.
I’m not a big betting man but I think I would be in profit if I had wagered regularly on Dai being the first to reply to one of your articles as well as having the last word!
Dai will be missed and those of us who always read MAYA but, like me, are sometimes too lazy/busy to comment will need to up our game this season to fill the void his absence will leave.
RIP Dai