Tag: Treowen Stars

Abertillery pushing to keep tier 3 hopes alive

I ‘completed’ the Welsh League last season at Kimberley Park in the shadow of the M4 on a balmy evening last May. Watching Albion Rovers beat Ynysygerwn 1-0 to retain their Welsh Football League status for another campaign meant I had watched a game at every Welsh League ground up to the end of the 2018/19 season.

An 18-month crusade along the full length of the M4 in Wales, along countless valleys A and B roads, hundreds of cups of coffee, too many windswept drenchings to remember but plenty of good memories and a lot of good – and bad – football consumed at nearly 50 grounds.

However, with annual promotions and relegations that ‘completed it’ status didn’t last long and the return of Abertillery Bluebirds and arrival of Ynyshir Albions from the Gwent County League and South Wales Alliance League respectively meant there were two grounds still to visit to regain that badge.

Of course, fixture scheduling this season has Abertillery and Ynyshir at home on the same weekend but also these games always falling on the same weekend as many commitments with Pontypridd FC. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a big concern in Welsh football because there are always postponements and you can visit lots of grounds for midweek games in the spring. Abertillery Bluebirds play on 3G though, so I was running out of games as far as they were concerned.

Fortunately, the weather intervened in my favour as RCT council called off all football on grass pitches in the County Borough, postponing Pontypridd’s visit to Hopkinstown, I was free to head east over the valleys to the Ebbw Fach.

Unsurprisingly, Abertillery is a town steeped in south Wales’ industrial past with half a dozen deep coal mines around it’s vicinity as well as various other works. At it’s height the town’s population numbered some 40,000, although it is around half that nowadays. This part of the valleys is renowned for it’s narrow gorge-like landscape, with the towns and communities piled up the steep hillsides.

Abertillery Bluebirds are one of two clubs in the town (Abertillery Excelsiors being the other), formed in 1989 the club has mostly played at Gwent County level apart from a five-year stint in the Welsh League between 2009 and 2014. They returned to this level for this campaign having won the Gwent County League title last season. Their home ground is currently at Abertillery Sports Centre where they use the 3G football facility. The club’s spiritual home is at the Cwmnantygroes Six Bells, where the Bluebirds are returning next season as part of their bid to meet the incoming FAW tier ground criteria (which the Sports Centre ground won’t adhere to).

Should Abertillery Bluebirds be successful in their application to play in the new FAW tier 3 leagues, Cwmnantygroes will be a welcome ground on the circuit for groundhoppers because it is as picturesque a setting as you will probably find in this part of Wales.

The Bluebirds are making a good fist of their return to the Welsh League in it’s final season. Lee Thomas’ side sit in the upper reaches of Division Two with the possibility of finishing near the top of the division. However, it is very tight in the top 7 and with such a discrepancy in games played among the sides, it is difficult to predict exactly who are the front-runners. Visitors Treowen Stars are scrapping away in the lower reaches of the table.

League position is even more important for clubs at this level this season. The new FAW tier 3 leagues will condense the existing eight divisions at tiers 3 and 4 across Wales into four regionalised tier 3 divisions – SE/SW/NE/NW. There will be 64 places available in the new tier 3, but 93 clubs have applied. My understanding is criteria + sporting merit will determine which sides are included, with priority given to clubs already playing at tier 3. Fifty-four current tier 3 clubs have applied and if all are successful in achieving the criteria that will mean just 10 places for applications from tiers 4 & 5 (39 have applied). There are going to be a lot of disappointed clubs at the end of this season; some that may forced back into “recreational” leagues despite achieving a relatively high position in their respective league.

We all await the outcome of the Tier 3 Certification applications in April with some enthusiasm.

In this game Abertillery did their bid to stay in the mix with the frontrunners no harm. Luke Lewis completed his hat-trick inside the opening 20 minutes, including a fine header for his third, and Treowen never really looked like they would mount a comeback.

There was a lot of effort on both sides but the game felt largely like a procession to the final whistle until a flurry of activity in the final quarter after Tommy James had been sent off for Treowen. Daniel Suter scored an excellent goal for the visitors that had a few home eyebrows raised but Bluebirds substitute Thomas Beynon put paid to any thought of a grand finale within a minute when he restored the three-goal cushion from close range.

Charlie Davies then scored a potentially offside goal to make it five before Chris Jones at least earned the consolation of the scoring the goal of the game: a beautifully curled free kick from outside the box.

Match notes
22.02.2020
Abertillery Bluebirds 5-2 Treowen Stars
(Luke Lewis 10′ 15′ 20′, Thomas Beynon 69′, Charlie Davies 72′; Daniel Suter 68′, Chris Jones 86′)
Welsh Football League Division Two
Abertillery Sports Centre, Abertillery
Attendance: c. 70 | Entry: £3 (free programme on admission)

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