Tag Archives: Gwent County League

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

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Saturday 25th August 2018 ko 16.15

Gwent County League Division One

VILLA DINO CHRISTCHURCH 1 (Butler 61)

NEWPORT CIVIL SERVICE 3 (Eidoori 8 9 Ridler 80) Berry sent off 84 (2nd booking)

Att 201

Entry £3

Programme £1

Let’s start with by answering the obvious. The village is Christchurch near Newport, the chairman’s name is Dino Gulotta, and he owns an Italian restaurant called Villa Dino. So that ought to explain the name oughtn’t it? Well not quite…. Continue reading →

Roger

04 Thursday Oct 2018

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Saturday 25th August 2018 ko 13.00

Gwent County League Division One

ROGERSTONE 1 (McIntosh 90)

NEWPORT CORINTHIANS 2 (Morgan 30p Lewis 80)

Att 201

Entry £4

Programme £1

You’d find it hard to imagine the village of Rogerstone as anything other than a sleepy suburb of Newport, a place of trees and a well-planted flower boxes at the Welfare Park. However the Park’s name hints at the area’s past.  Continue reading →

Passing On The Baton

03 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Saturday 25th August 2018 ko 11.00

Gwent County League- Division One

A.C. PONTYMISTER 3 (Thomas 53 Davies 71 Kidman 85p)

BLAENAVON BLUES 2 (Burton 28 Cuff 76og)

Att 238

Entry £3

Programme £1

Saturday dawned, and the University of South Wales looked the same as it always did. I readied myself for the day ahead and walked down the hill to meet the coaches. The hill was still as steep as ever. And breakfast at the Upper Boat Inn, at Rhydyfelin was the same as ever, and I remain amazed that there’s any bacon left in Wales. But for all the familiarity, everything had changed. Continue reading →

The X Factor

10 Monday Jul 2017

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Saturday 9th July 2017 ko 12.00

Pre-season Friendly

NANTYGLO 2 (7 60)

WHITEHEADS RHISGA 5 (16 25 36 72og 78)

Att c10 at Ebbw Vale Sports Centre

Free Entry

The delight of this one was how all the pieces fell into place. Firstly I knew I’d be in Bristol, making easy a trip over the Severn Bridge to probably my favourite place to watch non-league football, the South Wales Valleys. Then when Nantyglo left me know that they’d booked Ebbw Vale Sports Centre for midday, it allowed a visit to a ground -not (yet) used, by a club side, and the chance to double it up with a 3pm kickoff too! Continue reading →

The Pub Team That Isn’t

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Saturday 16th July 2016 ko 13.00

Pre-season friendly

NEW INN AFC 7 (13 17 32 41p 47 48 77)

SEVERN TUNNEL NPC 3 (65 75 90)

Att 35

Entry FREE

No Programme

The feeder leagues to the Welsh League are manna from heaven for the groundhopper. There’s a multiplicity of villages steeped in history (mainly in coal mining and steel production) and in the case of the league these two clubs play in, the Gwent County League, programme production is mandatory.

Mind you if the printed word is a deal-breaker for you I’d phone ahead before travelling, print runs do tend to be low, often in single figures. It’s seen as a chore by the majority of the clubs, little more than a means of avoiding a fine from the league! Continue reading →

Steelmen

25 Thursday Feb 2016

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Tuesday 23rd February 2016 ko 19.30

Gwent County League Division 2

FC TREDEGAR 1 (Monk 35)

CLYDACH WASPS 1 (Williams 45)

Att 35 at Eugene Cross Park, Ebbw Vale

Entry FREE

No Programme

In Ebbw Vale there are 2 kings, one is steel, fired by the South Wales coal industry, and the other is Rugby Union. Oddly, both are represented in the town’s stadium, Eugene Cross Park, but this ground’s connection with Association Rules is a little more tenuous. Continue reading →

Gorge

27 Monday Jul 2015

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Saturday 25th July 2015 ko 14.30

Pre-Season Friendly

CLYDACH WASPS 0

NEWPORT YMCA 5 (28, 32, 66, 78, 81)

Att 24

Entry FREE

No Programme

If I were to scroll back through my football watching, 10 years ago I simply wouldn’t have watched this. It seems to me the lot of the new groundhopper is that the potential enormity of the hobby leads to the pursuer making rules to limit the sheer volume of possibilities on any given Saturday. Some of the popular ones include, “I don’t do fields,” ” I must have a programme,” and ” I won’t do below (names a division)”

Now the trouble with any hard-and-fast rule is that as soon as you make it, someone will immediate find an equally hard-and-fast exception to it. And the Clydach Wasps are a classic example of this. Continue reading →

Dickie Davies’ Eyes

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

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Tuesday 21st July 2015 ko 19.15

Pre-Season Friendly

TRETHOMAS BLUEBIRDS 1 (Spain 3)

BARRY TOWN UNITED 1 (Fahiya 89)

Att c200

Entry £3

Programme £1

When I was growing up in Oxford my footballing routine was to cycle to my grandmother’s house before heading off to the Manor Ground. Afterwards Dad and I would have a cup of tea in willow-pattern cups whilst watching the football results on her Rediffusion television.

Sometimes it was on the BBC’s “Grandstand,” and sometimes is was on ITV’s “World of Sport.” If it was the ITV option then there was the added bonus of the rugby results, both Union and League too. Now I soon wondered where all those football and rugby clubs were, and I’m indebted to Dad for simply handing over the road atlas and telling me to look them up for myself, although I haven’t quite forgiven him for the likes of Port Vale and St Mirren! But those Welsh rugby clubs held an almost exotic quality for a small boy from the shires, and as I travel from town to town its wonderful to link what I’m seeing back to that Rediffusion TV. Continue reading →

Rattle & Hum

16 Sunday Nov 2014

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Saturday 16th November 2014 ko 14.00

Gwent County League Division One

NEWPORT CORINTHIANS 1 (Perszewski 5) Perszewski sent off 28 (violent conduct) Berry missed penalty 37

ABERGAVENNY TOWN 4 (Morgan 10 17 C Norman 18 Jenkins 45)

Att c30

Industrial areas have a sound all of their own. Whether its the hum of the steelworks, or the buzz of overhead cables, or the distant thunder of a goods train there’s a personality to be found here. And let’s be honest, I picked Coronation Park solely because of the transporter bridge behind. You have Dave Collins to thank for this piece, and if you don’t know Dave, and you really should, he’s the publisher of the excellent magazine Welsh Football, and a recent magazine had a quite wonderful picture on the front cover, several versions of which you’ll see at the end of this text. Me being me, I forgot which team I needed to visit, so that’s another reason to be grateful to Mr Collins! Continue reading →

Arrivals & Departures

07 Saturday Jun 2014

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Saturday 22nd May 2010 ko 12.00

Welsh League Division Three

ABERTILLERY BLUEBIRDS 4 (L Lewis 17 Davies 32og Goodenough 64 80)

GARW SBGC 0

Att 126

Entry & Programme £2

So another of my “Greatest hits,” and sadly this is one Valleys ground you can’t see a game at anymore. Bluebirds have just vacated Cwm-nant-y-groes in favour of a 3G pitch at the local leisure centre. The club finished bottom of Division 3 this season, so I would imagine they’ll return to the Gwent County League. The ground isn’t actually in the town, rather than small village outside of Six Bells, and perhaps that’s why the move is so popular with both club and council. The club get a more practical ground, suitable for their needs, and the council save on the costs of maintaining Cwm-nant-y-groes. But of course, sometimes there’s more to it than mere practicalities. Continue reading →