Sunday 26th August 2012 ko 11.30am

Mid-Wales League Division One

TYWYN/BRYNCRUG 4 (Edmondson 27 Holt 42 54 Grant 44p)

BOW STREET 0

Att 267

Entry/Programme Hop Ticket

Badge £3

Ice Cream £1

Sunday beckoned, and its a factor of the longer hops that you inevitably feel slightly more tired than the day before. Not great when there’s two full days’ hopping left! Still, the weather was glorious, and there was a happy hubbub on my coach as Alan left Newtown and headed west to the Gwynedd coast.

Perhaps it was fortune, or Minsterley Coaches supplying the perfect man for the job, but I soon spotted that Alan wasn’t bothering with either a map or sat-nav. I asked if he was happy where he was going, and he said,”

“Absolutely! I’ve played at most of these grounds, I’m just trying to remember whether this one’s on the left or right side of the road!”

Now, just for the record, it was on the right, and Alan had guessed correctly, so we pulled into Cae Chwarae in plenty of time to meet the club officials and see what was on offer.

Nowadays Tywyn is a tourist haven, but in 1990 a high tide and rough seas caused the town’s flood defences to be breached.  4 square miles of land was flooded, affecting 2,800 properties and causing areas of the resort to be evacuated. The coastal defences have since been reconstructed and significantly enhanced as a result.

Even though the football club plays a mile or two north at Bryncrug (pronounced Brin-creeg) its Tywyn that provides the identity, and a particularly delicious honey flavoured ice cream that sold very well for £1. Bryncrug’s history is a little more puritan, being where Mary Jones settled after famously walking barefoot for 25 miles from Llanfihangel-y-Pennant to Bala, in order to buy a bible.

Referee Mark Farington seemed totally unconcerned as he let Chris jot down the line-ups to put on our new whiteboard. I got the distinct impression that he’d have approached the game the same if there’d had been 20, 200, or 20,000 present.

I had just enough time to explore my surroundings before kick-off; there’s only 2 sides available for viewing, and a steward assiduously patrolled behind a goal lacking a rail. There’s a small 50 seat stand set at an angle to the pitch, that had its view impeded by the sheer number of hoppers present. I didn’t get to see much of the game during the first half, what with chatting with Paul from the North-West Counties League, and to club officials, and doing the crowd count. The warm weather made for a pleasant morning’s viewing, and everything was going swimmingly.

Still, I did get to see Bow Street have a goal disallowed for a dubious looking offside, before Tywyn took the game by the scruff of the neck. Mark Edmondson’s strike gave them the lead and two goals just before half-time ended Bow Street’s interest in the tie.

After the break I did get to see more of the game, and Paul Tolchard very kindly helped me to fill in the gaps. The law of sod, of course means that the bit you can see is never as good as the bit you missed!

Captain Matthew Jones was clearly leading from the front and Tywyn clearly decided to tighten up and defend what they’d got. Bow Street tried hard but found no answer to some stout defending, and you wondered at what point they would over-commit themselves.

Unfortunately for them that happened within 10 minutes of the restart, Ben Holt taking advantage of some slack defending. The remainder of the game saw Tywyn dominating and it always looked inevitable that our little run of both teams scoring would end.

Near the end I spied Taunton-based Martin Bamforth looking rather nonplussed, I asked why, and he revealed why. He’d won a spoon on the club’s tombola, but wondered he he needed to enter again to win the knife and fork!

Trying not to laugh, I found Alan and Clive, as they’d had to a park up a short distance from the ground and gathered everyone for the short trip south to Aberdyfi. The day was shaping up nicely.