Saturday 30th May 2025 ko 14:30

Montgomeryshire Amateur League

TREFONEN 2 (C Jones 4 L Davies 32)

LLANGEDWYN 1 (Buckley 36)

Att 72

Free Entry

With the season in England and Wales in its last couple of days it was a case of leagues squeezing in their final fixtures. I decided to do something specific and that is to mine the seam that is the narrow strip of territory in Shropshire, that’s still English but the place names are Welsh.

Invariably you’ll reach here via Shrewsbury and once you turn off the A5 there’s a fair chance you’ll pass through the pretty village of Knockin. The name is a corruption of the medieval Cnukyn but the fun is in the village shop whose owner clearly has a sense of humour.

From there we approached the Welsh border without ever crossing it. You are right on Offa’s Dyke, it runs through the village of Trefonen. Now I’m sure many groundhoppers will visit here and make a beeline for the Barley Mow pub with the Offa’s Dyke microbrewery next door, but I fancied something a little more esoteric…

Drive up to The Hawthorns and set in the wall of one of the houses is a tiny house, for a hedgehog if you take the name literally! I have no idea why it’s there, perhaps it pays not to worry why! If you want a silly reason, well the street is on the Offa’s Dyke path, perhaps it’s for tired rambling hedgehogs?!

When you are only 3 miles from Wales, and with a Welsh name you do get a certain latitude as to which country you play in. Trefonen may be English but but they’ve always played their Saturday football in the Welsh Montgomeryshire League; as an example nearby Llanymynech have played in both Shropshire and Montgomeryshire!

Trefonen play at The Pit- a former colliery lies just to the side of the pitch. It’s a vibrant place, and boy did it attract the groundhoppers, including the one who every time he sees me he tells me he’ll never attend a groundhop event as he doesn’t like to watch more than one game a day. Does he want me to try to sell to him? I genuinely have no idea!

I chose to concern myself with what was important, and that was trying the excellent tea bar, catching up with friends, and enjoying a game at one of the prettiest grounds you’ll ever see. All credit to Llangedwyn, who are Welsh- by 2 miles- for fulfilling the fixture they turned up with just the 11 players. The 11 fought manfully to lose by the odd goal in a game that in terms of titles and status didn’t matter but still managed to be entertaining!

That ended my UK football for the season, but do expect to see more of this part of the world, if for no other reasons than I do love a border, and Llanymynech is a tale that needs telling. But in the here and now it was time to head abroad. And me being me, it was rather involved.