Born in Bedwas, he attended New Tredegar Technical College and became an engineering draughtsman.
He launched his career at Pontypool and played for the combined Pontypool, Taylwain and Blaenavon XV against the touring Australians at Abertillery Park on Tuesday, 23 December, 1947.
The Wallabies had been beaten by Wales three days earlier and the tourists just escaped with a victory in Gwent thanks to a last minute try from Joe Kraefft that earned them a 9-7 victory. He joined Cardiff from Pontypool at the start of the 1948-49 season and made an immediate impact.
He scored nine tries in his first five games for the Blue & Blacks and 24 in all in 27 games that season. He only ended on the losing side on one occasion and went on to score a further 20 tries in the 1949-50 campaign to end his career at the Arms Park with 44 tries in 71 matches.
His Cardiff debut came in an 11-10 win at Coventry on 4 September, 1948, and he marked his first home game at the Arms Park with a hat-trick of tries in a 38-14 demolition of Devonport Services. That was one of three hat-tricks he notched that season against English opposition – Wasps and Leicester were the other clubs – and he scored four against Rosslyn Park.
His only defeat in his debut season came in his 26th game, a 6-5 loss to the Barbarians in front of 38,000 fans at the Arms Park. By then he had been drafted into the Welsh team as a replacement for his Cardiff clubmate Les Williams.
Williams had scored two tries in the Welsh win over England in Cardiff, but then headed ‘north’ to Hunslet. The fact Cook’s hat-trick against Leicester came between the win over England and the next international, against Scotland at Murrayfield on 5 February, 1949, must have helped his cause and he had crossed for 17 tries that season.
Welsh hopes of a possible Triple Crown were thwarted by the Scots, who won 6-5, and Cook ended up a loser in his second and final game for Wales. This time it was against the Triple Crown chasing Irish at St Helen’s in a rugged contest that was won by the visitors 5-0.
Cook was one of six Cardiff players in the Welsh back line that day, along with skipper Haydn Tanner and Billy Cleaver at half-back, Frank Trott at full back and Jack Matthews and Bleddyn Williams at centre. There was also another Cardiff player, Gwyn Evans, in the pack.
After another season at Cardiff he, too, went ‘north’, joining Halifax in August, 1950, for £2,000. Cardiff also lost his wing partner Russell Burn, who had scored 38 tries in 62 games in tandem with Cook over two seasons, who also defected to rugby league with Swinton.
Cook actually watched Burn make his debut against Halifax the week before he turned out for the first time at Thrum Hall against Leigh on 26 August, 1950. He scored a try, but ended up on the losing side, 13-5.
In the 1950s, Halifax were one of the most powerful teams in the country. They were Championship runners-up three times, beat Hull in the Yorkshire Cup final in 1954 and 1955, and were Yorkshire League winners in 1950, 1953, 1954 and 1956. They were unbeaten at their home ground of Thrum Hall between December, 1952, and November, 1956 and they also reached the Challenge Cup final at Wembley final in 1954.
Cook made 102 appearances and scored 49 tries for Halifax and played in the Championship final. He also scored three tries in four games for Wales between 1951-53, marking his debut with two tries in a 27-21 defeat to Other Nationalities at St Helen’s, Swansea on 31 March, 1951.
He was one of three former Wales rugby union caps in the side, with George Parsons and Ray Cale, and was reunited with Cale on the international stage having played in the same side as him against both Scotland and Ireland two years earlier.
Two weeks later he scored again in a 28-21 defeat to France in Marseille in front of 18,000 fans in the European Championship. On December 1, 1951 he lost to Other Nationalities again at Abertillery Park, 22-11. He finally got a win in his fourth appearance for Wales at Warrington’s Wilderspool Ground on 15 April, 1953. He retired from the game later that year at the age of 26.
The WRU would like to offer its condolences to Terry’s family.
