YJB Focus – Jon Jewell

Welcome to YJB Focus, where we meet a loyal Swans fan who also happens to be a regular visitor to the SCFC2 website.

This week features a regular overseas visitor to the SCFC2 website and poster on the guestbook…

Jon Jewell
Jon Jewell
Name or SCFC2 Guestbook/Forum Name: Jon Jewell aka Jackareme
Occupation: Business Development Manager currently located in Windsor Ontario (since 2011)

How long have you been supporting the Swans?
Around 42 years.

Why did you start supporting the Swans?
Seriously when I was about 11 or 12, although my Dad took me when I was younger… (being so old, and it was so long ago, I struggle to precisely remember!!).

What was the first Swans game you attended and what are your memories of it?
It seems crazy now but my earliest memory was attending a Football Combination game at the Vetch versus Arsenal – and Charlie George was playing on his return from an injury. I was only small but I remember the crowd being enormous (I have no idea if many were there at all) and “Good time Charlie” was big news – so it must have been not long after his 1970 cup final exploits.

Tommy Mutton
Tommy Mutton
Around the same time I also remember being sandwiched into the enclosure area between the Centre Stand and the Double Decker underneath the flood light for a league game against Aston Villa that had a huge crowd. Needless to say I was immediately hooked and went on to become a hopeless addict!!

Who is your worst Swans player of all time, and why?
I remember the excitement of us spending around £10-20,000 in the 1999 transfer window to “plunder” the League of Wales for the next great thing – Tommy Mutton. He truly turned out to be Mutton dressed as Mutton.

Other nominations who have infuriated me or made me laugh are our erstwhile skipper George Smith (vintage mid 70’s), Joao Moreira, Carl Heggs and Shefki Kuqi for a more recent anti hero.

What is your least favourite away ground (past or present), and why?
The gut reaction is Ninian Park (how can you forget the volley of half bricks coming over the wall as we were “detained” at the end of the game?).

I also had a bad experience in the 80’s at home Park Plymouth where the car park resembled the modern day Syria with guerilla warfare being conducted around the parked cars. That was an era when only a small part of the excitement of the day was on the pitch!

Willy Gueret - Swansea City
“Free Willy”
Funniest moment whilst watching the Swans?
Walter Boyd’s infamous “cameo” , Kuqi’s open goal miss to end all open goals misses, Willy getting arrested at Bury and the late great Tony Millington entertaining the crowd.

You’ve got a meal deal ticket for Nando’s, which Swans player (past or present) would you take with you and why?
So many legends to choose from – but let’s go with Sir Alan Curtis – he is Mr. Swansea. I have had the pleasure of meeting him several times and he is as much a legend of a man as he was a great player.

The perfect evening would be me and Curt finishing up the chicken and heading down Wind Street for some karaoke with Leon, the late great Robbie and Lord Lee Trundle – greedy I know!!

What do you like most about the Swans?
Owned by the people for the people (at least 20%). I love the community feel and the exotic style – we have twice risen to the top by not conforming.

If there was one thing you could change about the club what would it be?
Manage the expectations of fans who have known nothing other than success – I get bewildered by people that see us compete with (and regularly beat) teams that are in a different stratosphere to our little club and then moan that we do not win every week.

Unfortunately I am old enough to have got my daps soaked in pee in a dimly lit toilet block while the other 2,000 fans shivered on the North Bank watching us lose to Kidderminster or Aldershot or Exeter City. Perspective is the one thing I would change!

Vetch Field pasty or Liberty hot dog?
I have been living in exile for the past 4 years in Canada, but remember the taste of the beer and catering at the liberty! Therefore Vetch Field Pasty every time at thermo nuclear temperature and clutched in the hands I had no opportunity to wash after the pee I mentioned above.

If you would like to feature on YJB Focus, then get in touch via our contact us form and you never know, you could be featured here next time!

2 thoughts on “YJB Focus – Jon Jewell”

  1. Plymouth in the 80’s? I remember helping over run medics patch 2 fellow Swans fans together; 1 with a split head (a stick I seem to recall) and 1 a bust nose!
    Wasn’t you was it Jackareme?
    Great post!

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