On top of all that, he has also received the MBE for his work with young people via his involvement with children’s marching bands.
Now 83, he is still going strong and has just recently enjoyed a new career highlight. That was when he took the Mid-District side to the Principality Stadium as team manager for the WRU District final against West Wales.
He has also been instrumental in organising a memorial match at Penygraig in memory of the club’s former Youth team captain, Logan Luker, who passed away two years ago.
After playing rugby as a young man, Henderson was forced to give up the game at just 21 after injuring his back in a mining accident.
He continued working at a number of different mines in the valleys, both above and below ground, through to the late 1980s. At the same time, he was treading the boards with the Mid-Rhondda Operatic Society. Having started out on the stage when he was just 11, he carried on until he was in his early 60s, taking lead parts in productions like Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific and Oklahamo.
“I did use to have a decent singing voice!” he says. “I was offered the chance to go professional, but I turned it down because I had just started my family off and I preferred to see them.”
Then there’s the rugby, which he became involved with in the early 1980s at Penygraig RFC.
“I started off doing first-aid and a bit of physio with the boys and then took over as team manager in 2002,” he says. “I look after the first-aid kit, I make sure the water bottles are clean, that the balls are pumped up, that the contact pads and all the stuff the coaches want are there.
“I help the groundsman by doing the rolling and the spiking of the field. I also clean the changing rooms and help out on the committee in any possible way I can.
“I live next door to the club and I am over there every day doing something.
“It’s more or less a full time job. It’s a good thing I retired because I definitely wouldn’t have the time if I was working!”
Arfon Henderson enjoyed his day at Principality Stadium with Mid District XV
Henderson, who has received a Diolch award from the WRU in recognition of his contribution to the game, has also been involved with the Mid District RU for the past nine years.
Plus he remains secretary to the children’s marching bands league, which covers more than 70 bands in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
So just where does he get his energy from?
“Good question!” he replies. “I am a firm believer if you do something, go into it wholeheartedly or don’t bother. I try to do my best, put it that way.
“I got involved so heavily because it was something to do after I finished in the mines. I can’t just sit in the house.”
It was with the Mid District XV that he had his very special day last month in the District men’s final at the Principality Stadium.
“It’s such an experience to go down that stadium. Anybody that hasn’t been there has got no idea what it’s like to do it,” he said.
“It was all so exciting. We had the Welsh team bus outside the club getting the boys on. There was a wonderful atmosphere going down to Cardiff.
“The bus pulled up outside the stadium and you have got the big WRU emblem on the doors. You go up those stairs into the changing room and that experience alone is mind-boggling.
“Then when you go down the ramp onto the field, that caps it all. You look around and you think ‘My God’. It’s a hell of an experience.
“We lost the game, but the feeling is something that’s a real one-off, without a shadow of a doubt. It was almost as good as going up to the Queen and getting my MBE.”
So having had that big day, is Arfon now ready to put his feet up? Not a bit of it. “I am going to keep going. I just love being involved,” he declares.
