Ken Braddock, the fourth of the 10 players capped from Newbridge in their 130-year history, has died eight days short of his 80th birthday.

A rampaging back row forward, he won the first of his three Welsh caps against the 1966 Wallabies in Cardiff. Other new caps in that game were Barry John, Gerald Davies and Delme Thomas.

He went on to play in the opening two matches of the 1967 Five Nations Championship, but was then dropped ahead of the trip to Paris to meet France. Wales lost all three games - Australia (14-11), Scotland (11-5) and Ireland (3-0) - in which he played.

Born in Treowen, in August, 1938, he went to Greenfield Secondary Modern School and played for Trinant before joining Newbridge. He was a key figure in the side that won the Western Mail Championship in the 1964/65 season.

He featured in the combined Abertillery-Newbridge XV that earned an 11-11 draw against the touring Fijians in September, 1964, and appeared in his first Welsh Trial in the Probables pack in a 19-6 win over the Possibles at St Helen's on January 2, 1965.

He didn't win a cap that year, but kept knocking on the door. He featured in two trials in the Possibles XV in the 1965/66 season and was there again in the build up to the 1966 touring match against the Wallabies. This time he was picked in the Probables back row with Newbridge teammate Dennis Hughes and Aberavon's Omri Jones.

The Possibles won the match 3-0 at Maesteg on 12 November, but Braddock was picked alongside Abertillery's two British & Irish Lions back row men in the side, Alun Pask and Haydn Morgan, as reward for two seasons of excellent club form.

Despite Wales losing to Australia for the first time, Braddock was retained in the Probables for the final Welsh Trial ahead of the Five Nations on January 21 at Swansea.

He played against the Scots at Murrayfield and the Irish in Cardiff, but then lost his place to Coventry's Ron Jones for the French match.

He was a regular player for Monmouthshire in the Welsh Counties Cup, helping them to reach three successive finals. They drew the 1964 final against Glamorgan, but lost the replay the next season.

They then beat Breconshire in the 1965 final before Braddock signed off with a try in the 13-8 triumph over Glamorgan in 1966. After that he moved to England, where he played for Staffordshire in the County Championship.

Having worked for 10 years underground as a collier at the Celynen North Colliery, between Newbridge and Crumlin, he switched profession and became a policeman.

This helped to extend his playing opportunities and he captained Newport Police, Monmouth Police, Welsh Police and British Police.

He missed most of 1967/68 season with a knee injury and moved up to the Midlands at the start of the following campaign when he switched forces to join the Staffordshire Police.

At first he continued to play for Newbridge, but later turned out for the Stafford club. He also played for Staffordshire Police, with fellow Newbridge player, outside half Ken Jones, and Cross Keys centre Roger Davies alongside him, West Midlands Police and the English Police.

In 1971 at Richmond he captained British Police to a 25-16 win over French Police. He returned to Wales to play for Cross Keys towards the end of his career.