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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Ceredigion

The Point

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Aled Davies, Cae Dandre, Ceredigion, Ceredigion League, Llanboidy, Maesglas, Wales

Sunday 8th March 2015 ko 14.30

Ceredigion League Division One

LLANBOIDY 3 (James 25 33 37)

MAESGLAS 3 (Roche 17 Harman 43 75p)

Att 219

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The great advantage of being stood next door to league secretary Aled Davies at Pencader was that he’d been in near constant contact with Llanboidy, and confirmed there were no issues with the weather, in fact it was blue skies all around! It had stopped raining for the last ten minutes at Pencader, but when I returned to the car and put the postcode for Cae Dandre into the satnav I wondered if I’d got the correct address!

There are no lack of Carmarthenshire clubs in the Ceredigion League, but Llanboidy is right on the border with Pembrokeshire! The village lies on the Welsh side but close to the Landsker Line, where supposedly the first language spoken changes from Welsh to English. Continue reading →

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The legend of Emlyn Wyvern

13 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by laurencereade in N

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Tags

Carmarthernshire, Ceredigion, Ceredigion League, Emlyn, GroundhopUK, New Quay, Newcastle Emlyn, Wales, Welsh League

Saturday 7th March 2015 ko 19.30

Ceredigion League Division One

NEWCASTLE EMYLN 2 (Almond 33 Jake Harris 67)

NEW QUAY 0

Att 194

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The irony of this being the only time that the Ceredigion Hop could stage a Saturday night game with only three games left on the entire 4 year run was not lost on me. The hoppers’ cavalcade travelled south from Aberaeron and encountered a Police speed trap at Ffostrasol.

Twenty or so brake lights flashed in succession, and I was tempted to stop and comment to the sole policeman that if the local constabulary wanted to make money from the groundhop, we at GroundhopUK would have been happy for them to have a stall to sell goodies at any of our games. Perhaps it was our insistence that stall-holders have a full ticket for the entire event that was the problem? Continue reading →

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Second Helpings

12 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by laurencereade in A

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ABERAERON, Cae Sgwar, Cae're Lli, Ceredigion, Ceredigion League, Mid Wales Hop Up, Mid Wales League, Penrhyncoch, Wales

Saturday 7th March 2015 ko 16.00

Mid Wales League Division One

ABERAERON TOWN 1 (James 43)

PENRHYNCOCH 1 (Nyhus 7 James 17)

Att 240

Entry £4

Programme £1

Of course the roots of the Ceredigion Hop lie with the August Hop’s 3-year stint in the Mid-Wales League. After it was all over we had 2 sides that couldn’t play on August Bank Holiday so to visit U.W.A. and Aberaeron  a “Hop-up” was organised to visit them. We wanted a Friday evening fixture so we approached Lampeter, and then the late Dai Davies at the league offered us New Quay too! We enjoyed the two Ceredigion League games so much we returned for the next 3 years!

Continue reading →

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Chapel

09 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Ceredigion, Ceredigion League, Dewi Stars, groundhop, GroundhopUK, Kennedy, Little Britain, Llanddewi Brefi, Only Gay in the village, SDUC, Trinity SDUC, W Williams, Wales

Saturday 7th March 2015 ko 10.15

Ceredigion League Division Two

DEWI STARS 6 (Owens 16 23 29 37 W Williams 74 Thomas 87)

S.D.U.C. 1 (Kennedy 45)

Att 174

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

When you organise the final hop of a league’s run, you always have the difficulty of putting together a schedule with clubs that aren’t necessarily ideally placed geographically. To add to that we had the necessity to put the Dewi Stars on the Saturday as the playing field is owned by the chapel in Llanddewi Brefi, and they objected to the club playing on a Sunday. Yes, that’s right, Llanddewi Brefi of “Little Britain” fame, and as I demolished an early breakfast in Carmarthen my aim for my visit was to dispel the notion of “Only Gay in the village” however funny Matt Lucas’ sketches were.

Continue reading →

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Slovak the Pole

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by laurencereade in C

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Tags

B Davies, Cardigan Town, Ceredigion, Ceredigion League, Chris Berezai, GroundhopUK, Gwbert Road, Jack Morgan, K Morgan, Kevin Morgan, King George V Playing Field, Lamb Cawl, Marc Davies, New Quay, Wales

Saturday 8th March 2014 ko 13.15

Ceredigion League Division One

CARDIGAN TOWN 6 (B Davies 19 28 J Thomas 52 D Nash 74 86 K Morgan 80)

NEW QUAY 0

Att 224

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Beer £2.20

Lamb Cawl £2.20

As the coach pulled into Ceredigion’s county town I was more than pleased to see the rugby club there on our right with the football pitch next door. The previous year we’d tried to negotiate Cardigan’s one-way system en route to Maesglas and its fair to day we’d seen a little more of the town than we’d planned! Continue reading →

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When the sun declared war on the butter, and the butter ran

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by laurencereade in N

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ceredigion, Charles Harvey, Chris Morgan, Jamie Thompson, League, Maesglas, New Quay, Parc Arthur, Peter Almond, poet dylan thomas, Richard Evans, travel

Saturday 10th March 2012 ko 4.15 pm

Ceredigion League Division One

NEW QUAY 1 (Harvey 41) Thompson sent off 88 (dangerous play)

MAESGLAS 2 (Howell 38 R Evans 88) Morgan sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att 276

Entry & Programme-Hop Ticket

Badge £3

3 bottles of Pen-Lon beer at £3 each

Curry and Chips £3

Not having to worry PRICELESS!!!!

The last game saw us head south once again to the pretty fishing village of New Quay (not to be confused with the Cornish town of Newquay!) Once again, in footballing terms this was another step down in status, and once again it felt like a step up! Continue reading →

Mae cyfle a gollwyd?

11 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by laurencereade in A

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

ABERAERON, Ben Thomas, Ceredigion, Football, groundhopping, Kurt Jarman, MACHYNLLETH, Mid Wales Hop, Rhydian Davies, Ryan Jones

Saturday 10th March 2012 ko 1.30pm

Mid Wales League Division 2

ABERAERON 3 (R Jones 20 B Thomas 64og R Davies 85)

MACHYNLLETH 1 (Jarman 60)

Att 224

Entry FREE

Programme £2

Badge £3

It really was a very short drive south from Aberystwyth down the coast to Aberaeron. The pretty fishing town is that way for a reason. There are very strict guidelines on what get built and how it looks. Unusually for a Ceredigion/Cardigan settlement there is a regency feel to the place, due to the work of Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock. The council keeps a book of pastel colours approved for houses, and the houses have to have sash windows. In typical Regency style the village is built round a square, and in untypical Regency style, the town square is where the football team plays.

This fact is why we were there, as on August Bank Holiday the square is used for the town carnival, and the club are moving off at the end of the season, in favour of a move of a shared pitch with the local rugby club nearer the sea front. That facility was where the players and officials changed before walking through town to the pitch. The Town Square, without meaning to, caused a whole host of problems.

In order to get a visit in we had to schedule the hop a year earlier than we’d planned, and not so early in the year as to risk postponements. We also didn’t want to clash with next week’s Central Midlands League Bonanza, run by our good friend Rob Hornby. Putting our event on a week before was not ideal, but we couldn’t run later, as that would clash with the final arrangements for the Northern Counties East Hop, in a month’s time, over Easter.

On a more local level the ground has one other massive problem, namely that, despite the presence of a quite wonderful old turnstile, the club are not allowed to charge for admission. That inevitably means entry by programme, and under those circumstances a club has to work all the harder to get people to pay. I’m not sure how many two pounds were collected. Again, with no catering facilities, a burger van was parked behind one goal, and the bakery and pub on the square did a roaring trade. I managed to get the line-ups put up on a blackboard, and many locals delayed watching Wales play 6-Nations rugby in favour of more local entertainment. I’ve certainly never seen a ground like it, and suspect I never will again. It was certainly worth the effort getting there.

It was a bruising encounter with a couple of unsavoury off the ball challenges.  After one I commented to a fellow hopper that the perpetrator was lucky to stay on the pitch, I was told by a Machynlleth fan, that it was a “Contact sport!” Well I suppose kicking out at your opponent is contact-of a fashion! Aberaeron had just that little too much for their guests. Ryan Jones’ opener was equalised by Kurt Jarman courtesy of a defensive howler. Parity didn’t last long as a good cross was turned into his own net by Ben Thomas, and Rhydian Davies made things safe with 5 minutes left.

As we waited for Keith and the coach (he had to park some distance away at a local school) I watched as all trace of the big match was quickly dismantled and the locals disappeared into the pub to watch the rugby. I just left wondering how much impact the day made on the town and its football club.

Apart from the first one, and the last eight, all pictures by Craig Dabbs






The town as viewed from the north

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