could not write home. After a young apprentice, also from Swansea, failed to impress at Leeds, manager Major Frank Buckley asked Charles to accompany him on the trip back to his hometown. However, due to his homesickness, Charles never returned to Yorkshire once he made it back to Swansea. Instead Swansea Town scout Joe Sykes persuaded Charles to join the club's ground staff. He was offered a professional contract with Swansea Town at the age of seventeen, and he immediately settled into the Second Division side. His debut came at Bramall Lane on 20 December 1952, in what turned out to be a 7–1 defeat to Sheffield United. However his progress was halted when he twisted his knee on national service, though this injury came as he was messing around outside the cook house rather than on parade or in the 9th Battalion's march to the Army Cup. He went straight back into the first team upon his recovery, and he was played mostly at centre-half, or in his preferred position at right-half. He remained in the first eleven under Ron Burgess, who was appointed manager following McCandless' death in July 1955. He spent seven seasons with the "Swans" from 1952 to 1959, all of which ended with Swansea finishing between tenth and twentieth. They consistently picked up results at Vetch Field, but failed to perform away from home. During this time they also reached the final of the Welsh Cup in 1956 and 1957, though lost out to Cardiff City and then Wrexham. A cash-strapped club, their cause was not helped by the fact that the directors refused to pay for overnight stays, and so many times the team's coach would appear outside the opposition's ground just minutes before the match. Swansea were a selling a club, and during his time Ivor and Len Allchurch, Cliff Jones, and Terry Medwin would all be sold to big English clubs. Including Charles, these five players all represented Wales at the World Cup. Jones' brother Bryn also played for Swansea, as did Cyril and Gilbert Beech; this meant three sets of brothers played for the "Swans" during this time, in what was an extremely local squad. Throughout the 1950s Swansea were an attacking team, and during his time at Vetch Field Charles picked up four goals in a match against Blackburn Rovers, as well as hat-tricks against Stoke City, Middlesbrough and Sheffield