16 - Wyndham Evans

Wyndham Evans joined Swansea City as a professional in 1971 and the full back spent more than a decade at the Vetch Field, playing in all four divisions during our rise from the Fourth Division to the First under player-manager John Toshack.

He made his League debut for the club in the 3-1 defeat at home to Bristol Rovers in March 1971.

Before joining the Swans, Evans previously played for Llanelli Schoolboys and Llanelli Steel before signing for Stoke City as an amateur. Evans played at centre back and as a forward before settling into his regular full back role.

Evans had two seperate spells at Swansea. He had a brief time at local side Llanelli as a player-manager before returning to the Vetch Field. He scored 15 goals and made 389 appearances, which puts him 7th in the all-time list of players to play for the club, behind Wilfred Milne (586 games), Roger Freestone (563), Herbie Williams (510), Robbie James (482), Ivor Allchurch (445) and Harry Griffiths (421).

Wyndham Evans was a massive fans' favourite for his excellent ability, his superb service during the good and bad days in the 70's and early 80's, plus the fact that he was a jack through and through who loved the club.

John Toshack: 'Players like Speedy, Dudley Lewis and Wyndham Evans are the heart and soul of any club. During the last 10 games the three of them played a prominent part in helping the club climb out of the Second Division.'

He was a small but very strong player who would never shy out of a challenge. He liked to get forward and provide an overlap down the right flank and he had pace to cause the opposition problems.

He was a regular for the Swans and was an important player in John Toshack's team that enjoyed the rise to the top flight in 1981.

After his time at Swansea City came to an end, he became Pembroke Borough's player-boss in 1985 before managing Llanelli. He now works in double-glazing.

Wyndham Evans testimonial match was against Liverpool at the Vetch Field in 1981, The Swans won 7-6 in a thrilling match, Evans scored a late penalty to win the game.

Did You Know? His nephew is former Swan Stuart Roberts, who played for the Swans in the late 90's and early 00's.

Views from our Members:

I remember Wyndham Evans as our left back in the seventies and early eighties, he was a strong, brave, hard tackling player who liked to get forward on the overlap when the opportunity arose and was surprisingly pacey.

Quite small in statue but would never shirk out of a challenge, if any of the opposition fouled one of our boys Wyndham would be the one to sort them out.

A true passionate Jack who would always give 100% and one of my all time favourites.
Swan Lady2

If you like the commitment shown to the club by the likes of Britton & Tate then you would have loved watching Wyndham Evans - our Joe Calzaghe on the wing ( yes he did play full back ). He played a sort of push and run game and created loads of opportunities for our forward players - was very difficult for anyone to push him off the ball - had a shot that would break the cross-bar - and was the team minder.
Exeter Swan

With thanks to Colin Jones and his book 'The First Comprehensive Player A-Y' and Vital Swansea member 'swanjackal' for supplying information from the book.

Links to the Top 25 Players:

25 - Chris Coleman
24 - John Cornforth
23 - Dean Saunders
22 - Lee Trundle
21 - John Toshack
20 - Harry Griffiths
19 - Nigel Stevenson
18 - Roger Freestone
17 - Herbie Williams