Tag: South Wales FA Senior Cup

Nelson Cavaliers raising their standard at The Wern

With a free Saturday last weekend there was the opportunity to visit my 100th football ground and/or complete the Welsh League again. The short trip to Ynyshir Albions would have meant hitting two birds with one stone, but their home game with Treowen Stars didn’t really appeal to me with lots of other football on. Besides, I reasoned prior to Coronovirus outbreak, there will be plenty of opportunities to finally visit the Ynyshir Oval before the end of the season when the midweek fixtures in the spring begin to kick-in.

There was the FAW Trophy semi-final on offer but having been to Cardiff Met’s ground several times already this season I didn’t fancy a re-visit this time around. There were South Wales FA Senior Cup ties still to be resolved, two in particular stood out: Cwm Rhondda v Porthcawl Town Athletic and Nelson Cavaliers v Island Marine.

Both ties had their appeal and as it turned out Cwm Rhondda (of the Rhondda & District League) pulled off a big shock by beating cup favourites Porthcawl. However, on the morning it was the chance of a slugfest between two sides playing at district level and going well in their respective leagues that swung me. I wasn’t disappointed.

The current Nelson Cavaliers trace their origins back to the 1980s. The original Nelson Cavaliers club were formed in the early 1970s but folded after a short lifespan. The history of football played in the village goes back to the early days of organised football in the south of Wales, a Nelson [Unionists] club playing in the South Wales League in several campaigns between 1896 and 1910. The Welsh League table in the 1919/20 season includes a Nelson club but they appear to have either folded or not participated at that level beyond that campaign. Nelson Welfare club joined the Welsh League in 1946 and played thirteen seasons before dropping out in 1959.

Back to the modern club, they took on the name Nelson Cavaliers in the 1990s as a tribute to the 1970s club (also around the time they moved to the current home at Wern Field on the eastern edge of the village) and were founding members of the former South Wales Senior League in 1994 where they played for 18 seasons. Since relegation in 2012 the club have been re-building with the ambition to return to regional football in the South Wales Alliance League.

One of the features of the Wern Field, this makeshift terracing. Great to see this sort of thing at grassroots grounds.

This was my second visit to the Wern Field but my first opportunity to have an extended chat with club secretary and legend Rod Powell, who has been involved at Nelson since 1983; first as a player, then as first-team manager before handing the responsibility to his son Aaron in 2017. It is always a privilege speaking to long-standing custodians of grassroots club football with plenty of anecdotes to share and an enthusiasm for the sport that is as genuine as you will find.

Anyone familiar with Nelson’s club website and social media channels will know they are one of the more modern-thinking clubs in district football, operating as professionally as possible with a very informative website packed with archive information and relevant, positive content through their Twitter page. Information is so important for building a club’s narrative and heritage, it is an opportunity missed when clubs make so little effort to inform any potential audience.

It isn’t surprising then that the club maintain a folder of old newspaper clippings featuring the club’s achievements down the years, including some valuable records of local football. My thanks to Rod for sharing it with me and it is genuinely worth a visit alone, as well as the fact Nelson produce a programme for every home fixture despite no league requirement to do so. I’d venture that is probably unique at this level of football and a credit to the club as even some Welsh League clubs barely make an effort.

Nelson are pushing again this season for the Taff Ely & Rhymney Valley League title (they were champions two years) and their opponents Island Marine are also going well in the Vale of Glamorgan Premier Division. Both sides have eliminated South Wales Alliance League teams in this competition this season so there was the potential for a good couple of hours of knockout football.

The game didn’t disappoint, ebbing and flowing as you might expect between two evenly matched sides. Nelson had the better of the first quarter of the match, Liam Dellanna had already been denied by a brilliant point-blank save before he won the penalty that allowed Dan Falconer to break the deadlock for Nelson. The goal sparked the Barry side into life though and they were the stronger outfit as the game headed towards half-time. Adam Bowsher’s poached finish to level the scores was no more than they deserved at the break.

After an early second half chance was squandered by Marine’s Joe Mellars, Ryan Donovan restored Nelson’s lead from Dellanna’s cross and for a long time this looked like it would be enough for the homesters but a scrambled equaliser from Sam Adamson set-up and end to end finale. Both sides had chances but Nelson took theirs. Cameron Szpadt edged them ahead with a close range strike from a corner before Liam Dellanna capped his impressive display with Nelson’s fourth goal in added time to seal their win and keep alive their hopes of a quadruple this season.

Match notes
7.3.2020
Nelson Cavaliers 4-2 Island Marine
(Dan Falconer 22′ pen, Ryan Donovan 50′, Cameron Szpadt 86′, Liam Dellanna 90+2′; Adam Bowsher 31′, Sam Adamson 73′)
South Wales FA Senior Cup round of 16
Wern Field, Nelson
Attendance: c. 45 | Entry: Free (programmes £2)

Treharris Athletic Western looking forward and not just back to the past.

Among groundhoppers interested in Welsh football there are two grounds that historically capture the imagination in south Wales to such an extent it’s something of a badge of honour among those that have “bagged” those grounds to have done so.

“Have you been to Garw?” “Did you ever go to Treharris?”

Blandy Park and the Athletic Ground were two of the most sought after south Wales grounds. Blandy Park in the Blaengarw valley still stands, captivating and alluring hoppers from all over; new and old visitors. Sadly, the Athletic Ground in Treharris is no longer with us. The changing rooms and stand were condemned around 2015/16, demolished in May 2018 and exist now only as relics in memory and photographs. However, the playing field remains and Treharris Athletic Western hope to base their junior set-up there in the future.

Unfortunately, I never got to the Athletic but I’m still enamoured with the story of the place and it’s famous covered terrace and, to an extent, the football club that was based there for over 100 years – Treharris Football Club, Treharris Athletic, or their modern rendition, Treharris Athletic Western.

If you’re interested in the history of football in the south of Wales, Treharris – along with Aberdare – are two of the foremost place names; communities where the “association code” began to win hearts and minds, almost with the same popularity as rugby union, in the final decade of the 19th Century.

Treharris Athletic Western claim to be the oldest football club in south Wales, sharing heritage with the Treharris football club that is believed to have been formed in 1889 and was a founding member of the South Wales League in 1890 and the league’s inaugural champions. Their prominence in football in the southern valleys in these early decades is illustrated by their honours: lifting the South Wales League title twice more, the South Wales Senior Cup four times, the Welsh Football League (then called the Rhymney Valley League) in 1910, as well as being crowned Western League champions in the same year and among the south Wales clubs that joined the Southern Football League as professional outfits between 1908 and 1913.

Those pre-World War I days were very much the glory days for football in Treharris, where the men and boys worked the seams of the Deep Navigation Colliery, because when football resumed after the Great War the town’s club, now called Treharris Athletic, did not re-join the English football pyramid but instead remained exclusively a Welsh Football League (and probably amateur) club. Treharris appear to have enjoyed uninterrupted Welsh League membership since 1919, or at the very least from 1935 (from examination of historic league tables at welshsoccerarchive.co.uk).

The modern idenity as Treharris Athletic Western is the result of incorporating another local football club, Western Hotel FC, in 2009.

While it is tempting to keep looking back with regards to football in Treharris, the modern-club is now very much forward thinking. After a couple of years as groundhoppers themselves, Treharris Athletic Western have set-up a permanent home on the former ground of the now defunct Trelewis Welfare football club in Parc Taf Bargoed – a regeneration of the former Deep Navigation grounds into a nature reserve/public park which sits between Treharris and the neighbouring village Trelewis.

Whereas the Athletic Ground was very much a relic of an era of football the FAW want to put behind them at the top levels of the domestic pyramid, the ground at Parc Taf Bargoed provides Treharris with scope to develop a ground in line with the FAW’s regulations for playing in the new national tier 3 league that commences at the start of the 2020/21 season.

I first visited the ground last season, not long after Treharris had moved in, and it was impressive to see the work the club has done since then to improve the facility even further. In place last season was the covered stand with 100 seats and hard-standing along the side of the pitch but the teams were changing in the park’s visitor centre several hundred yards outside the ground itself. There were no spectator refreshments or facilities inside the ground.

Now Treharris’ modern home boasts floodlights and a modern, stylish looking wooden structure that houses the changing room facilities as well as some much needed indoor communal space with a cafe for serving hot food and drinks. The ground is well-exposed to the elements so that opportunity to escape them and replenish oneself is very welcome, not to mention the benefit for players having facilities on-site. There is also scope for further improvements, including the pitch. Maybe it is a flight of personal fancy but I would love to see in the future the club install an additional stand behind the goal at the southern end of the ground; a terrace in the style of the old Athletic Ground would be a fantastic homage to the club’s history and identity.

The tone of the Welsh League encounter I watched against Treowen Stars was set early by several crunching tackles from Treharris’ Conor Morris. They were indicative of Treharris’ physical domination and desire on the night. The midfield trio of Morris, Shane Davies and Ryan Hawkins were a class above for the hosts.

Jaymie Wearn’s pace and flair up front provided the cutting edge and it was his perfect cross that presented a tap in for Alex Jones early on. Treharris might have extended their lead further before Treowen’s Jordan Price pounced on a mistake by the home keeper Daniel Field to level the scores but that was as good as it got for the Stars on the night.

Wearn finished a lovely flowing move with a caressed finished to give Treharris a half-time lead before he doubled his tally after the interval. Shane Davies chipped Treowen’s keeper from 40 yards before Ross Jolliffe’s red card on the hour for two bookable offences removed any hope of a Treowen fight back.

Treharris substitute Christopher Rees completed the scoring on the night with the only black mark for the home side being a completely unnecessary red card for James Rees following an off the ball incident shortly after namesake Rees’ strike.

Matches Notes
7.2.2020
Treharris Athletic Western 5-1 Treowen Stars
(Alex Jones 7′, Jaymie Wearn 31′ 54′, Shane Davies 58′, Christopher Rees 71′; Jordan Price 20′)
Welsh Football League Division Two
Parc Taf Bargoed, Trelewis
Attendance: 90 (approx) | Entry: £3