The Welsh name problem

'Evans, out to Jones, popped inside to Davies, wide to Williams...'

Wales is not a place renowned for the variety of surnames. There are several names in Welsh rugby, or in fact in any Welsh institution, which are always bound to crop up.

Evans, Jones, Davies, Williams, and a few Thomases are ever-presents in the principality's teams and club sides, choirs, working men's clubs, and colliery payrolls.

Wales have confused fans, journalists and commentators alike with their Jones-based selection policy for the November Tests. But if you thought six in one team of fifteen was bad...

Early in the summer of 1963, the London Welsh Male Voice Choir (including several members of the London Welsh Rugby Club) set out on a concert tour of Berlin.

The itinerary included performances on both sides of the wall, and after a number of sell-out successes in the Congress Hall on the west side, the boys set off for the murkier east side of the wall, which had only recently been built.

The choir had been warned about the possibility of delays at the border crossing, and so they split into two groups: one to cross at Fredrichstrasse, the other to tackle the infamous Checkpoint Charlie.

The groups had been chosen so that if one group failed to make it, there were enough voices in each group to give a concert anyway.

At the Friedrichstrasse checkpoint, all passports had to be handed into the border guards, and the owner of each passport was then called individually to be asked questions about his trip to East Germany.

The operation appeared to be proceeding slowly but satisfactorily when suddenly - after most of the group had passed through - the border guards barked at the group to stop, and asked for all the passports back.

The guards laid all the passports out side by side on the counter, and firmly declared their disbelief in the validity of all the documents, absolutely incredulous that "so many men could be brothers".

When asked what they meant, they pointed to the passports - out of a total of 30 passports, no less than 13 belonged to someone called 'Evans'.

The ensuing mirth at the guards' rather understandable mistake did not please the officials at all, and the laughter ceased abruptly in the face of a few raised guns, while interpreter Mike Stephens patiently explained to the guards about the name and its frequency in Wales.

Eventually the group was rather grudgingly allowed to pass through, and sped hastily to the concert venue, looking forward to telling a good story.

When they got there, there was no sign of the others, and more worryingly, no word from them.

In time, however, the other group did turn up, and with a story of their own.

The guards at Checkpoint Charlie had given them the same treatment - out of that group of 30, 16 were called 'Jones'!

With thanks to Mike Stephens