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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: South Wales

The Gem Of The Valleys

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by laurencereade in B

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Tags

Blaenrhondda, groundhopping, Non League, South Wales, South Wales Alliance, South Wales Amateur league, Ton and Gelli, Wales, Welsh League

With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 25th August 2007  ko 18.45

South Wales Amateur League Division Two

BLAENRHONDDA 0 Thomas (gk) sent off 30 (violent conduct)

TON & GELLI BOYS & GIRLS CLUB 2 (R. Jones 63,81)

Att 268

Entry £4

Programme £1

Every so often someone asks me for some suggestions as to some wonderful football grounds in South Wales. I think most would start with Garw and the sadly now-demolished Treharris and I’d add the likes of Penrhiwfer and Ynyshir Albions too, and that is far from being an exhaustive list. I’d also point out that all but Treharris have been on Welsh Hops, and so was my visit to the another ground that really ought to be on any self-respecting groundhopper’s bucket list- Blaenrhondda Park.

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The Carpenter

28 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by laurencereade in S

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Tags

Cardiff, Cardiff Airport, Football, Groundhopper Day, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Maes y coed, Playing Field, South Wales, South Wales Alliance, St Josephs, Wales

Monday 28th August 2017 ko 13.45

South Wales Alliance Division 2

ST JOSEPH’S 0

CARDIFF AIRPORT 5 (Richards 7 Caton 35 73 90 Fallas 64)

Att 258

Entry £3

Programme £1

It didn’t take long for the coaches to get from Penarth to Cardiff, despite the usual bank holiday traffic. In fact the only issue was working out exactly where the ground was, tucked away as it is behind the suburban housing. The fact that this was for a hop game helped, after 9 games I could recognise many of the hoppers’ cars! Continue reading →

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For Old Times’ Sake

17 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by laurencereade in P

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Tags

Alliance, Amateur League, Constitutional Club, League, Llandrindod Wells, Mid Wales League, Osborne Athletic, Penrhiwceiber, Pentwyn Field, Senior League, South Wales, South Wales Alliance, Wales, welsh cup

Saturday 12th September 2015 ko 14.30

Welsh Cup 2nd Qualifying Round

PENRHIWCEIBER CONSTITUTIONAL ATHLETIC 2 (J Evans 18 S Thomas 64) Bennett missed penalty 34

LLANDRINDOD WELLS 4 (A Jones 44 Layton 38 B Jones 54)

Att 23

Entry FREE

Programme £1

You climb to get to Penrhiwceiber, up past Pontypridd then up again through Abercynon. Not for nothing is a nearby village called Mountain Ash! It’s just about superfluous to say that the South Wales Valleys villages were built on coal, with just about every settlement having its pit. Except here the pit was called Penrikyber, a piece of Anglicization which at least give the outsider an idea of how to pronounce the place! Continue reading →

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How Green Was My Valley?

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by laurencereade in T

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Athletic, Athletic Ground, Commercial Terrace, narrow, South Wales, Southern League, Treharris, Wales, Welsh League, Western, Western League

Saturday 28th May 2011 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Two

TREHARRIS ATHLETIC WESTERN 2 (Harris 54 Glasey 65)

DINAS POWYS 1 (Jones 74)

Att 115

Entry & Programme £3

I remember my first glimpse of the Welsh Valleys, as the A470 crept north past Merthyr Tydfil, heading north away from Cardiff. Other than the signs in both Welsh and English, the scenery whilst beautiful, Castell Coch is here after all, the scene only really changes when you head into the valleys. You’re heading into coal mining territory here, and the streets narrow, the hills get steeper and the lines of terraced cottages stretch as far as the eye can see. The book and film, “How Green Was My Valley,” was based on here.

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The School of Hard Knocks

10 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Ben Evans, Big Pit, Blaenavon, Brewery Field, Bridgend Ravens RUFC, Bridgend Town, Bryntirion, coal mining industry, Coychurch Road, Elliott Ford, Josh Bell, Leighton Rhys, merger, Monmouth Town, NCB, Nick Harrhy, NUM, soccer, South Wales, The Fed, Torfaen

Friday 8th February 2013

Big Pit, Blaenavon, Torfaen.

Entry FREE

Guide Book £4

Then,

19.30 Welsh League Division One

BRIDGEND TOWN 2 (Bell 12 24)

MONMOUTH TOWN 3 (Evans 22 E Ford 31 Harrhy 62)

Att 53 (h/c)

Entry & Programme £5

If the School of Hard Knocks had a headmaster’s office then it would definitely be in the valleys of South Wales. I’d wanted to visit Bridgend’s current home at the Brewery Field for some time, but from a 5pm start in Oxford, it was just outside of my radius of opportunity. So with a day off, and an enquiring mind, I decided to make a day of it, and visit somewhere else I’d had on my to-do list for some time.

Torfaen is coal-mining country, as I drove from Abergavenny over the foothills of the beautiful Cambrian Hills, I considered my upbringing in Oxford. The only mining that ever took place was the stone quarrying for the colleges, a couple of centuries ago. The Miners’ strike of 1984/5 had little impact on me save for news reports, flying pickets outside of Didcot Power Station, and the acerbic notice of the front gate of the local coal merchant saying that there was no coal, ” Due to the (insert expletive) miners.”

It’s hard to feel any sympathy without empathy, and I have football to thank for understanding the other point of view. Visits to colliery sides shorn of their pit in places like Rainworth, and Clipstone in the Midlands, with the pit wheel outside set half-way down in a concrete grave, taught me that not only did the mines disappear in the 1980’s and 90’s but so did the entire economies of the communities that supported them.

The Big Pit is a case in point, as Blaenavon thirty years ago was a single employer town. As a young boy you went to school until aged 13 then down the mine you went. It was a thoroughly unpleasant occupation, dirty, dangerous, and poorly paid, but it created a sense of belonging, a reason-to-be, the reasons on a smaller scale that I find football so attractive. The pit now is a fascinating glimpse of what was, and whilst Blaenavon does have industrial estates, light industry attempting to provide some of what the pit provided, a town selling itself as a heritage town seemed melancholy to me.

Even today the pit sends out mixed signals. On one hand it harks back to the days of “Coal is King” with full employment and a strong community backed by the Federation union later swallowed up by the National Union of Mineworkers. On the other hand, there’s a sense that they’re glad to escape the deaths, injuries, and pollution of the mines, with the women having just sufficient education to marry a miner and become a domestic drudge. It would be interesting to see where the valleys find themselves in 50 years’ time, as the re-invention is by no means complete. It goes without saying that the Big Pit is a wonderful, thought-provoking place to visit.

It’s about 50 miles south-west to Bridgend from Blaenavon. The town had no coal seams, but was an important transportation centre for the black diamonds as the confluence of the rivers Garw, Ogmore, and Llynfi made the town rich. The town escaped much of the bombing during the Second World War, perhaps due to a naturally occurring air pocket above it, but like many other towns in the area suffered with the decline in the coal industry.

The football club have unquestionably suffered with their FAW enforced return to the Welsh pyramid. As a Southern League outfit in the English pyramid, they won the Championship in 1980, but have found success hard to come by after their return to exclusively Welsh football in 1983. They vacated Coychurch Road in 2006, their home for many years – to make way for a new supermarket, and have led a peripatetic existence since. They’ve played on a university pitch at Trefforest, and on an outside pitch at Porthcawl, before co-signing a 99 year lease with Bridgend Ravens RUFC for use of the rugby union ground, The Brewery Field.

As a sports venue its steeped in history and atmosphere, a wonderful place for the sports fan to visit. It’s also way too big for Bridgend’s meagre crowds of around 50, and there are moves afoot to merge with Bryntirion who play in the town’s suburbs. There’s money to spend on improving Bryntirion Park so as to create a UEFA compliant ground, mandatory for elevation to the Welsh Premier League. When Bridgend sold Coychurch Road £2,000,000 was held in trust by the local council to provide a permanent home for the club. Since then the club haven’t managed to find anywhere suitable, so an upgraded ground on Llangewydd Road, with a 3G pitch could just work for them.

I smiled when the man at the main entrance had no change, and allowed myself a knowing smile when the programme was its usual poor effort, just 2 sheets of photocopied A4 folded in half, but the welcome was genuine enough, and the game was an entertaining finale to my day.

Monmouth have risen rapidly through the leagues, and most present had them as firm favourites at kick off. They were surprised as former Barry Town forward Josh Bell danced through the visitors’ defence to open the scoring. Ben Evans nodded home from a cross to equalise, before Bell restored the lead, with a beautifully placed curling effort. Evans then turned provider as his long ball found Elliott Ford, who rounded Leighton Rhys in the home goal before tapping home for 2-2.

After the break the teams tightened up significantly but Monmouth deservedly won the game when Nick Harrhy’s wonderful cushioned volley broke Bridgend’s resistance. No great quality but honest endeavour, and that of course had been a running theme during the afternoon’s adventures.

Will Bridgend stay at the Brewery Field? Who knows, but its clear that the Brewery Field is far too big for their needs, or even the club officials capabilities. For the lover of stadiums and their history, the Brewery Field needs to be visited sooner rather than later.






 

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