1969 Springbok demo, rabies scare and more made the news 40 years ago.

Seven anti-apartheid demonstrators were routed by Dai John, aged 61, general secretary of Richmond Athletic Ground.

Soon after the 30-strong South African rugby party had started their session, the demonstrators raced on the pitch with banners.

As soon as the demonstrators went on the pitch, Mr John moved into action. A former Swansea player and first class referee, he brought one down with a rugby tackle and then proceeded to rip up posters and then smashed one placard over his leg. He shouted: "Get out. This is private property, now clear off."

Mr John said afterwards that when he approached the small band before the South Africans arrived, they told him that they had come to watch the rugby. "They lied to me and I just had to get them off the ground," he said.

Singer Petula Clark flew into Heathrow Airport with husband Claude Wolff for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall as it was announced that she will start the colour service on BBC 1 at midnight on November 14.

The show is a 50-minute recording of the highlights of her one-woman concert, below.

A BBC spokesman said: "There could not be a better person to launch colour on BBC 1. She has done some marvellous shows for us in the past, and this one is certain to match the best."

The first show in colour for ITV viewers on November 15 will be Thunderbirds.

Police at Neath were hunting for the Mayor's chain and medallion stolen from his car outside the Gwyn Hall.

The mayor, Coun Leslie Morris, had attended a function in the town during the early part of the evening and was afterwards taken to his home in Cimla in the car.

His chain and medallion was taken by the mayor's chauffeur, Ken Bromage, from the mayor's home to Gwyn Hall.

A thief broke into the car while it was parked outside the hall and stole the chain and medallion. It had been insured 10 years earlier for pounds 800, but its historical value, said the mayor, was much greater.

The medallion attached to the chain was presented to the council in 1873 by David Bevan, grandfather of Sir David Evans Bevan, a South Wales businessman. Inscribed on the front of it are the town mottos - one in Welsh, the other in Latin. On the reverse is inscribed "Property of the Mayor and Corporation of Neath, David Bevan, 1873."

Welsh-born singer Dorothy Squires, pictured with former husband Roger Moore, right, agreed in the High Court that actor Roger "The Saint" Moore had been asked for pounds 20,000 and a pounds 4,000-a-year less tax in return for a divorce.

Miss Squires was giving further evidence in her libel action against actor Kenneth Moore who introduced Luisa Mattiolli on a television programme as Roger Moore's wife while Roger Moore was still married to Miss Squires. Mr Moore and Miss Mattiolli were by this time married.

In evidence, Miss Squires denied ever saying that she was prepared to divorce Mr Moore for pounds 10,000 or pounds 15,000.

Mr Havers, QC for Mr More, handed Miss Squires a copy of a letter said to have been sent by her solicitor to Roger Moore's solicitors in 1967.

It said she required a lump sum of pounds 20,000 and pounds 4,000 per annum less tax.

A massive shake-up of local government in South Wales had been decided on by the Secretary of State for Wales, George Thomas.

It would go far beyond his original reform plans and was likely to involve an end to the division between town and country in local government.

The Welsh Office was now urgently taking a second look at the whole pattern of local government in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. In this context the position of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea as county boroughs, was being reviewed.

Mr Thomas was understood to take the view that it would have been right to end the division in these two counties between town and country, if at all possible.

A nationwide police alert was started when a lorry carrying currency worth pounds 40,000 from the Royal Mint, Llantrisant, was found without its driver in a London car park.

But the mystery was quickly solved when the driver, a South Wales man, turned up unaware that anything was amiss. Nothing was missing and a spokesman for the South Wales Police said the whole matter was a misunderstanding. A massive drive to curb tooth decay among children in Glamorgan was to take place. It was to be spearheaded by 15,000 plastic beakers, toothbrushes and tubes of fluoride toothpaste - and a chance to win a Happy Smile badge.

The campaign was Glamorgan public health department's answer to the county's particular bad problem of tooth decay in young children.

Every five-year-old in the country was to receive a dental health pack, 15,000 of which were distributed. As well as a toothbrush, toothpaste and mug, each pack included a Happy Smile card.

This contained a chart showing how often the child should clean their teeth. The parent was to fill it in every night and morning for two weeks - at the end of which the child was given a badge. Forty-four animals and birds were killed in the first wildlife shoot at Camberley, Surrey, by the Ministry of Agriculture marksman engaged to eliminate the threat of rabies.

The shoot, taking place on common land near the town, where a dog had died of rabies, was designed to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease.

Archive information courtesy of: Central Library, Mill Lane, Cardiff, CF10 1FL. Tel: [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail]. Website: www.cardiff.gov.uk/libraries. Opening hours: Mon to Wed, 9am to 6pm; Thurs, 9am to 7pm; Fri, 9am to 6pm; Sat, 9am to 5.30pm

CAPTION(S):

Richmond rugby club's general secretary, former Swansea rugby player Dai John confronts anti-apartheid demonstrators after they waved banners at the South African Springbok team as they warmed up before a training session. The demonstrators were later escorted from the ground by police.