John Saunders-Griffiths

Welsh hockey player Christopher John Saunders-Griffiths, known on the pitch as both John or Chris, was an outside-left for the North Wales club Deeside Ramblers, his only club side. His brother Peter was a team-mate. Saunders-Griffiths was educated at Hampton House School, Chester, which was founded by his father in 1927. He later attended the local Ruthin School and, after two years National Service in the Army between 1949-51, went to St. Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Saunders-Griffiths played cricket and hockey at Ruthin and went on to win the first of three hockey Blues at Oxford in 1951. The following year he was appointed assistant secretary of the Oxford University Hockey Club.

Having won the first of his 31 Welsh caps against Ireland in 1952, Saunders-Griffiths competed in the trials for that year’s Olympics, but had to wait until the 1960 Roma Games before making his début. In the longest known hockey match on record at the time at the 1960 Olympics, Saunders-Griffiths scored both of Great Britain’s goals in the match against Kenya that lasted more than 2½ hours. Unfortunately Spain thwarted Britain’s hopes of a medal in the third-place match.

Saunders-Griffiths, who made 52 county appearances for Cheshire, lived on the Wirral peninsular. After leaving University, he returned to Hampton House School as a sports master and eventually became joint headmaster with his brother Peter.