The Danny Davies story: From injury ending his cricket career to playing a key role in Connah’s Quay Nomads’ title defence

When an arm injury brought an end to Danny Davies’ promising cricket career, it would have been easy for the Connah’s Quay Nomads wing-back to pull up stumps.

The 25-year-old, who joined the Cymru Premier champions in the summer, looked set to be on the path to a long and distinguished career in the sport until suffering the cruel twist of fate while playing for Meliden against Prestatyn Sports.

Having returned from his first stint Down Under, Davies signed for Firwood Bootle Cricket Club in Liverpool. He impressed to such an extent that professional outfit Northamptonshire acquired his services, and, after scoring a half-century on debut, he seemed destined for great things.

A further two UK winters were spent in Australia, and just two weeks before he was due to fly out for a fourth time, he was persuaded by his friends to play in the top-of-the-table clash.

“A few of my mates played for Meliden, they were persuading me to play because it was a big game,” he said. “I had already signed the contract to play cricket in Australia.

“It was two weeks before my flight and I thought ‘I’ll play one game’. I ended up one-on-one with the goalkeeper, took the ball around him and he just took me out.

“I landed really badly and ended up snapping my humerus clean in half – a clean break. It took me 18 months to get over that and when I was getting over it, I rushed coming back.

“The season I came back, I went straight back to Northants for the second half of the year, and I knew myself that it wasn’t quite right and my performances showed in that time. That led to the end of Northants really, which is gutting on reflection.

“It’s a massive regret to actually play that game of football and obviously hinder my chances of going onto bigger things, because I was doing really well at the time and I knew that other season in Australia was a big part, and I didn’t actually tell Northants when I did it, because I didn’t know how serious it was.”

Having had his cricket career cruelly ended by injury, Davies returned to football and re-joined his boyhood club Prestatyn Town.

After a good experience working with then manager Neil Gibson earlier in his career, Davies was keen to work under his tutelage once again.

“I think that everyone who works with him will say exactly the same,” Davies insisted. “Everyone who works with him always want to go back.”

“I know that players took big pay cuts from the clubs that they were at because he signed players that had played for him before from Cymru Premier teams. Quite a few of them, like Rob Hughes, Mike Parker from Connah’s Quay, obviously they’re taking pay cuts too.

“Everyone that plays for him would say the same, his man-management is very good, he works closely with players and he can also get everyone together as a group and get them playing well as a team which is very good.”

Despite the fact that the Seasiders were struggling in the second tier when he returned, under the guidance of Gibson the wing-back had a successful two years at the club, culminating in the club finishing top of the Cymru North last season.

Davies was keen to praise the job that Gibson did during his time at the club.

“I’ve always been a massive Prestatyn Town fan,” he said. “I watched them home and away because my brother – Chris Davies – used to play for them, he won the Welsh Cup with Prestatyn and came through the ranks, he’s another one under Gibbo. So I’ve always been a massive fan, it’s my home town. 

“Just to see them bottom of Tier Two, it was gutting, I was hating seeing them doing so bad and when I heard that Neil was coming back, I knew that was the right time for me so I just picked up the phone, phoned Gibbo and told him I wanted to come back and play for Prestatyn.

“He told me to come down and train, then he outlined the plans for how we were going to stay up and the plans for next year. Obviously last year we won the league, so Gibbo’s done an amazing job there to turn it around, being rock bottom of the league to being comfortably safe that season, and then walking the league by 16 points – it was quite the journey in a short amount of time.”

Having impressed during his two years back at Bastion Road, Davies caught the attention of Connah’s Quay Nomads, who had just won a maiden Welsh top-flight title.

He joined the Deeside outfit last summer, with the club looking to back up their Cymru Premier and Nathaniel MG Cup double.

His Nomads debut came on the biggest stage, in the Europa League tie against Dinamo Tblisi at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground.

Davies stressed the value of the experience, despite agonisingly falling to a 1-0 defeat.

“That was amazing. I’m still gutted we lost that game 1-0 in the 97^th minute to a penalty. 

“Everything that had happened the week before with Covid, we lost – I think – six players to Covid and I think we had two subs, and one was an 18-year-old. 

“We were backs against the wall before we’d gone into that game, with half a team. The game plan was always to stay in the game, to make sure we’re in the game and we did that perfectly. 

“We were solid at the back and they created no chances all game but it was such a good experience, one I’m gutted about but the experience is there now and the hunger to go and win in Europe is definitely there.”

Since joining the Nomads, Davies has been a revelation on his return to Wales’ top flight, recording eight assists and bringing added dynamism to the champions’ squad.

The wing-back says he has really enjoyed his time at the Deeside Stadium so far. 

‘’It’s been really good. Our whole team at Connah’s Quay has been really good, the whole team’s performances.

“I’m gutted that it’s stopped now because of Covid, but hopefully we can kick on and get back to it. 

“I’ve always been massive on assists, always played wide, whether it’s getting crosses in or cutting inside with through-balls. 

“I’ve always been told by my dad from a very young age that a good assist is just as good as a goal so he’s one for big assists as well.”

One of, if not the most significant result in the Cymru Premier this season, was Connah’s Quay Nomads’ 2-0 victory over The New Saints at the Deeside Stadium, keeping Andy Morrison’s side well and truly in the title race.

Davies believes that the result was hugely important for the Nomads. 

‘’It was massive because I felt like the game at Park Hall had the wrong result, and I think anyone who watched the game would pretty much say the same, that we were very unlucky that day. 

“If we came away with a point we still would have felt unlucky and hard done by, so we knew that the reverse fixture back at Deeside was even bigger.

“To lose at Park Hall, you’ve kind of lost six points so it just makes it massive. It showed in the performance, we were massively the better team again and luckily the goals went our way that day and we got the result.

The Nomads’ win over the Saints in December sets up another closely-contested Cymru Premier title race when the league resumes. 

Playmaker Davies believes consistency will be the key in the Nomads’ quest to retain the title.

‘’I think we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” he said. We just need to remember the run we were on, how we were playing because we were confident going into every game that three points is what we were going to get.

“The gap doesn’t help us at all but if we can get back, win a few games and get the confidence flowing again with everyone playing well, I definitely think there’s going to be points dropped in the title race so if we can just keep winning and keep those performances together and keep picking up three points, I think we will just clinch it.”

(Featured Image: Nikitas Mesney)