Tag Archives: Wales

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 →

Uncertainty

31 Tuesday May 2016

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Saturday 21st May 2016 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division 2

TATA STEEL P

CHEPSTOW TOWN P

Thursday 26th May 2016 ko 18.45

TATA STEEL 1 (M Lewis 59)

CHEPSTOW TOWN 1 (Murphy 68)

Att 17

Entry £4

Programme £1

Unless you live outside the UK and South Wales in particular you can’t help but have noticed the problems that have befallen Port Talbot. The town is dominated by steel production, so the decision by the steelworks owners Tata to sell the loss-making plant has the potential to be devastating for the area. At the moment the owners, unions, politicians and potential buyers are trying to find a way forward. Until a conclusion is reached the area collectively holds its breath. Continue reading →

Glenafod

30 Monday May 2016

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Saturday 21st May 2016 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division One

GOYTRE UNITED 2 (Harris 6 Ryan 14)

ABERBARGOED BUDS 3 (Maisey 8 Hughes 46 Meacham 54p) Harding sent off (2nd booking) 90

Att c100

Entry £5

Programme £1

This turned into something of a mad dash! The original plan was to watch Margam-based Tata Steel but a deluge over the Neath/Swansea/Port Talbot area saw my game correctly waterlogged off, so using a little local knowledge I ducked under the M4 and made for Goytre. For the avoidance of doubt this is the Goytre that’s near Port Talbot, not the Goytre who play in Penperlleni, south of Abergavenny. It really doesn’t help that Goytre and Goytre United are in the same division! Mind you I remember when you could watch the local derby that really isn’t! Click here! Continue reading →

The Unusual J

24 Sunday Apr 2016

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Saturday 16th April 2016 ko 17.00

Carmarthenshire League Division 2

JOHNSTOWN 1 (J Evans 49)

DREFACH 3 (J Jones 40og Baker 79 S Jones 82)

Att 137

Entry £3

Programme £1

We headed back to a rather chilly Carmarthen for our final game of the day, and again there was a quirk, the name of the club! Perhaps if there’s an etymologist reading this they can tell me why so few place names begin with a “J?” There’s Jarrow, but offhand I can’t think of any well-known others, and I know there was at least one hopper at this game that this was his first “J” club. But there was far more to like about Johnstown than just a letter. Continue reading →

Saint Teilo

24 Sunday Apr 2016

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Saturday 16th April 2016 ko 14.00

Carmarthenshire League Division Two

LLANDEILO 5 (Jones 5 90 Dainton 9 Thomas 26 Willams 59)

LLANGENNECH 0 J Williams sent off 29 (violent conduct)

Att 107

Entry £3

Programme £1

From Abergwili we headed further east along the A40 to the town of Llandeilo. We turned left into the town and spotted a well-apppointed ground, with an impressive stand. Sadly for us, that was Cae William, home to Llandeilo RUFC and Llandeilo CC, while the football club plays in the nearby village of Ffair-Fach at the back of Ysgol (School) Bro Dinefwr. The tragedy is that it could have all been so different. Continue reading →

Decisions

22 Friday Apr 2016

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Friday 15th April 2016 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division One

GARDEN VILLAGE 2 (Morris 36 Matthews 63)

TON PENTRE 1 (Davis 52)

Att 108

Entry, Programme, and Sausage & Chips- Special GroundhopUK deal £7

Back in 2010 I found myself on a working visit to South Wales, so on the basis that no trip anywhere is complete without a football match I pondered where to head. It boiled down to either Gorseinon-based Garden Village or Mayhill-based West End. I plumped for Garden Village, I’ve no idea why, I haven’t yet got to West End, and so I allowed myself a wry smile when Garden Village became the obvious precursor to the inaugural Carmarthenshire Hop. 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 →

Ynysangharad

15 Monday Feb 2016

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Wednesday 10th February 2016 ko 19.15

Welsh League Division 3

PONTYPRIDD TOWN 3 (Gullick 25p 61 90)

CAERLEON 0

Att c30

Entry £3

Programme £1

If you want to know where my love affair with Welsh non-league football football started, it was here. It was August 2005 I’d signed up for my first Welsh hop, and the Friday night game was at the (to English ears anyway) the almost unpronounceable Ynysangharad Park. Pontypridd beat the soon-to-fold Gwynfi United 4-0 but the evening wasn’t remembered for that. Continue reading →

Blind Melon

11 Monday Jan 2016

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Saturday 9th January 2016 ko 14.00

Welsh League Division 3

STM SPORTS 4 (Worsley M Nessbert 48 Davenport 63 83)

ELY RANGERS 1 (K Johnson 65)

Att 80

Entry & Programme £3

It has to be said that I’m a lucky boy. I have a girlfriend Robyn who loves football, and she asked to come to one of my non-league jaunts. Now that gave me one of those problems you love to have, which ground and game to show her? I settled on an icon of the Welsh game for her first Welsh non-league game, the frankly stunning Blandy Park, home to Garw, on the basis that if she didn’t like it there, she wouldn’t like non-league full stop. Of course life never quite works out how you plan it does it? Continue reading →

Unitary

29 Sunday Nov 2015

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Friday 27th November 2015 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division One

ABERBARGOED BUDS 4 (Haggett 21 Shaw 37 Meacham 48 K Thomas 82) K Thomas missed penalty 37

RISCA UNITED 3 (Williams 16 32 Thomas 68)

Att 113 at Centre for Sporting Excellence, Caerphilly Road, Ystrad Mynach

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3

It’s all change in the footballing world of Caerphilly for this season, with the opening of the Centre for Sporting Excellence in nearby Ystrad Mynach. The facility was built in 2014 by the local county council on the site of the former hospital and close to Penallta RUFC’s Ystrad Fawr ground. It’s an unusual, but highly impressive facility with two international-grade artificial pitches each with a 500-seat stand. One is for rugby, and one for football. It’s hardly surprising with a facility this good, that two sides have moved in, and since those two sides, Aberbargoed and Risca were playing each other, it was the obvious time to visit. Continue reading →