Dear Collectors,

            Apologies for not having heard from us for so long but things as usual have been very busy here - as you can see…

            Back in November 2003 we had a visit from the popular BBC Series ‘Flog It’. The team spent 5 hours filming and we hope the results will be shown sometime this summer. Richard was filmed working on a Grogg of the show’s star presenter Paul Martin. It is hoped this will eventually be auctioned for charity on the show. John was required to sit on his settee in the shop with Paul for three hours, pretending to be a star (his life time ambition!).The film crew were great and a good time was had by all.

            On the 14th January as representatives on Neil Jenkins Testimonial Committee, the Grogg family were delighted to be present at his inaugural Testimonial Dinner held at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel. The night was a great success with speakers, Garin Jenkins, comedian Rob Woodward and special guest of Honour, legendary Lions coach Ian McGeechan. Ian made a 24 hour round trip to be there and to thank him for his appearance Neil presented him with an exclusive surprise double Grogg of  ‘Geech’ in Scotland and Lions strips (these figures are now available as a Limited Edition of 300, Lions to order).

There were also some great auction prizes including Neil’s only No 10 Lions shirt. Also the only ‘Just Kick It’ figure to be made available in Lions Kit was auctioned and was eventually bought by a great Grogg Collector Mr. Mike McDonald (see below) of Ebbw Vale, who was determined not to be outbid and went up to £4,100 on the night! Well done Mike!

            Earlier this year we began celebrating John’s 70^th Birthday. Events kicked off with a ‘State Visit’ from Wales’ First Minister the Rt. Hon Rhodri Morgan AM. Rhodri was overwhelmed by the shop, “It’s like Aladdin’s Cave!” he exclaimed. John later presented the First Minister with a Limited Edition figure of Rhodri’s favourite player Gareth Edwards.

            The actual Birthday party took place at Pontypridd RFC’s Main Function room, under the Grandstand, which brought back great memories of former glory days at Sardis Road. We unfortunately had to restrict the guest list to 200 which was painfully difficult. We surprised the ‘Birthday Boy’ by organizing a ‘This is Your Life’, which was presented by the well known public speaker Mr. Mel Thomas. Everyone thought it was hysterically funny but we had to point out later that most of the stories were actually true!

Garin Jenkins, with live musical back-up, followed on with his now famous and hilarious ‘Man of a Thousand Voices’ routine. Our only regret was we couldn’t invite everyone who’d like to have been there on the night. It was great to see most of the Warriors squad and giants of the ‘Black and White’ past such as Bob Penberthy, Chris Seldon, Tommy David and ‘Baz’. Also present were John’s old heroes Clive Rowlands, Steve Fenwick, Gareth Edwards and Neil Jenkins (not so old!) still looking great.

            Richard, Cathy and Pat worked hard organizing the event and were very grateful for the able assistance of Cenydd Thomas, Mark and his bar staff, our excellent M.C. Rupert Henry St. John Barker Moon and the brilliant catering of Linda Williams. It left a lot of people asking if we could do it again next year!

            Another great Grogg collector and famous Welsh Rugby supporter John Brett celebrated his 21^st Birthday with a surprise, specially commissioned bust of himself in his favourite Welsh shirt. Thanks again to the Brett Family for a great day at John’s party.

            Back at the Groggshop it was great to see some of the current Welsh team at the end of the Six Nations campaign with Welsh Captain Colin Charvis dropping in to sign ‘The Wall’ and get some souvenirs for his team mates back in Tarbes. Colin and Gethin Jenkins were on a mission to find something distinctive to present to their coach Steve Hansen and they eventually chose the Large Ltd Ed Traditional Dragon, which commemorated  his stay in Wales with a special inscription from the whole squad.

            Talking of our very versatile prop Gethin Jenkins, both he and record try scorer Gareth Thomas have been into the studio to check on the progress of their new 9” Limited Edition figures, now available at £59.95 each. Gethin was kind enough to present us with his Welsh shirt from the Irish game to add to our ever growing collection, cheers Gethin! Gareth’s figure commemorates his 34^th try for Wales, when he finally broke Ieuan’s great record by scoring against Italy this season. Ieuan broke another barrier this year by becoming 40 years old and celebrated in style with a special 9” set of Groggs in every strip he played in.

A similar set of 6” Robert Howley figures has been created for Rob, capping his phenomenal season with the London Wasps. Another 6” figure to finally be completed is the long awaited Iestyn Thomas (thanks for being so patient Iestyn!). Also now available is the 9” Limited Edition / 300 (£59.95) of the Scarlet Runner, the great J.J Williams which will allow a lot of frustrated people to complete their Grand Slam Teams!

Another Scarlet runner, Garan Evans, has been celebrating his testimonial this year and has topped his special season with a commemorative Grogg. Standing six inches high, it is now available priced at £24.95 each.

            Sharp eyed collectors watching Coronation Street will have no doubt recognized the figures of Wales and Liverpool legend Ian Rush during the intervals. These are vintage Groggs - very rare and we can only wonder if they are from Ian’s personal collection.

            Richard has almost finished modeling the Irish Triple Crown Wolfhound and the Grande Chelem Cockerel ‘a la Francais’ to add to the set of National Mascots. New figures in the pipeline include Wales and Newcastle Star Gary Speed , Wales and Ospreys prop Duncan Jones both  9” Limited Editions and last but not least we plan to complete the last Pontypridd ‘Premiership’ side ever by making the missing piece of the jigsaw - Cory Harris. As many of our collectors know Cory was cruelly left out of our Cup Winning Ponty Set in 2002 even though he played for 20 minutes in that nail biting game, “All things come to he who waits!”.

            In June we received a call from headquarters in Modena, Italy. As you are probably aware the Il Maestro was on a farewell visit to the UK before his retirement and had seen a bust of himself made by us in the 90’s at a friend’s home and was keen to have one for himself. Although the mould for this rare piece had long ago been destroyed, we agreed to remould it especially for him and as a thank you we received a package of Pavarotti memorabilia from Modena including CD’s, T-Shirts and a personally inscribed book!

            To return to the beginning, all of Neil’s four unique ‘Just Kick It’ Ponty strips are now sold or spoken for, leaving only the Warriors and three individual Wales strips. The Warriors ‘Just Kick It’ figure is being auctioned at Neil‘s final event, a Summer Ball being held in the grounds of his home on August 14th. The highest bidder will become the lucky owner of this rare and incredibly detailed piece.

We have also produced a Limited Edition of 44 9” Neils in the Warriors strip to celebrate Jinks’ amazing 44 consecutive kicks in his final season of rugby, priced at £79.95 (to order only). A singular commemorative double figure of Neil and Jason Leonard has also been produced to celebrate Jink’s and Jason’s Battle of the Centurions at the Millennium Stadium on the 6^th of June. The figure will be presented to Jason to thank him for taking part in Neil’s swansong event. Neil’s Limited Edition Testimonial Ties are also exclusively available from the Groggshop priced at £20.

            Both Gethin and Gareth Thomas’s new figures will also be available in Ponty / Bridgend and Warriors strips, but please be patient as these do take a very long time to paint.

            Finally, The World of Groggs would like to convey it’s sympathy to the family of the late, great John Charles, and pay tribute to a true legend of his sport and country. We met John on only a few occasions but both John and Richard have fond memories of his kindness and generosity which, if possible, surpassed his footballing genius. Ever modest and a true sportsman he bestrode the World of Soccer like a Colossus - a true Gentle Giant.