Something a bit different today. After a lifetime (sixty two years in my case) lived in Cardiff, it’s now nearly five months since I moved to Tynewydd, a village in the Rhondda just north of Treherbert and I’m beginning to feel quite settled here now.
When I moved back in March, I wrote on here that I hoped to catch a game at Ton Pentre before the end of the season because I wanted to have a local team I would hope to watch a few times every season when City matches allowed. I never got to watch that match in 17/18 and am still hoping to catch a game at Ynys Park sometime in the upcoming months, but over the summer, I became aware of another team, which is much closer to home, that I am adopting as my local side.
One of the things I became aware of quite soon after my house move was that my sense of perspective (in terms of distance judgement and general awareness of where you are in relation to your home) had not adapted well to my change of location.
For example, on one of my first days here, I drove east over the Rhigos mountain to Hirwaun and after leaving home and driving for about three or four minutes, I went past Treherbert RFC’s ground. A week or two later, my dog and other cat were coming with me on early morning walks as I searched for my lost cat Felix (he’s still missing I’m afraid) and we came across a rugby ground no more than about a quarter of a mile from my house. I assumed this was where Tynewydd RFC played, but, as I walked alongside the pitch, I found myself thinking “this looks uncannily like Treherbert’s ground” for a few seconds before realising, to my embarrassment, that it was! I had completely misjudged things, the ground that seemed a mile and more away from my house when I was driving was nowhere near that distance away – I had been fooled by how much the road zigs and zags in it’s climb up the mountain while covering little distance as the crow flies .
The second example also involved the Rhigos as I discovered a place I can drive to on there where, as long as there are not sheep about, I can safely let my dog off her lead for a run. The first time I went there I found myself looking down on a couple of villages, one off to the north west of where I live and the other to the north – I resolved to find out about and visit them in the coming days.
However, for a second time, I’d completely misjudged where I was – I was assuming I was miles away from my new home, when the truth was that I was looking down on the villages of Blaencwn (Blaen-y-Cwm in Welsh) and Blaenrhondda which were both no more than a five minute walk away from where I lived.
The penny dropped on my second visit to the place my dog likes so much, when it suddenly became obvious to me that I was looking two places that I not only knew, but had also walked my dog to on a few occasions!
I walk to Blaen-y-Cwm and back with the dog a couple of times a week and it’s probably more than that with Blaenrhondda. Blaen-y-Cwm and Blaenrhondda are similar in that, whereas I am within a two minute walk of a post office, various other shops and three pubs in Tynewydd, these two close by villages have virtually nothing in the way of shops.
In fact, Blaen-y-Cwm (which is a fair bit smaller than Tynewydd) has no shops, but does have a pub/hotel, while Blaenrhondda (which is definitely bigger than my village) has nothing other than a tiny post office.
More on that post office later, but, returning, to my realisation that I had made another idiotic mistake as I looked down from the Rhigos on my second walk there, I noticed a set of football goalposts with what looked like a concrete terrace behind them.
This picture was taken in June, so the goalposts had been taken down then, but you may just be able to make out the terracing which so fascinated me in the circled section of this picture taken on the Rhigos.
It was that terracing which fascinated me – initially, I’d assumed I was looking at a school football pitch, but how many of those do you see with their own terraces? Maybe it wan’t terracing, but, then again, what else could it be? As someone who has always had a child like love of exploring old football grounds, I had to find out what it was and so my poor old dog’s enjoyment was cut short that morning as I drove down the mountain to go football ground hunting!
The pitch was obviously in Blaenrhondda, but as I drove up and down it’s main street a couple of times with no sign of it anywhere, I began to think my eyes must have been deceiving me (again!). With it being so early, there was no one around to ask and as I thought the locals may not be best pleased to have some stranger waking them up by hammering on their front door and demanding to know where the football ground was, I thought there was nothing to it but to have a wander about to try and find it myself.
So, I pulled in outside that post office I mentioned and, as it turned out, that was a good decision because directly opposite was a small footbridge over the River Rhondda which led to Blaenrhondda Park and there, next to the Bowls club was the ground I had been looking at from hundreds of yards above about a quarter of an hour earlier.
I’ve just added this marvelous photo which I found this morning – my thanks to Richard Huws who took it ten years ago, for more of Richard’s work visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/llwyngwair/
It was definitely a football ground rather than just a football pitch. The concrete terracing I’d seen ran not only behind the one goal, but also along virtually the whole length of the pitch on one of it’s sides and opposite that was a small covered shelter (it couldn’t be called a stand) which had no seats, but offered protection from the elements – for anyone reading who can remember Corinthian Park on Llandaff Road where City used to play their Welsh League games back in the 60s and 70s, it was like the “stand” they had there.
With old looking graffiti on the shelter’s brickwork and grass growing through the terracing, the ground had certainly seen better days, but I preferred to imagine how it must have been in it’s pomp. My mind went back to either the time in the 1920s when there were Football League teams in Merthyr and Aberdare or the post Second World War attendance boom and it seemed to me that if the ground was being used at those times, then it could easily have seen attendances which ran to four figures, let alone three.
My photography fails to do justice to the fantastic views at Blaenrhondda’s ground, this is the corner of the pitch joining the two sides of the ground which has concrete terracing.
Having found the ground, the next step was to discover who, if anyone, played there. It didn’t take much online research to discover it was the home of Blaenrhondda FC who play in the Highadmit Projects South Wales Alliance League.
Back in my youth, I remember the Alliance League being regarded as the next step up from the Cardiff and District or Cardiff Combination Leagues which most of my ex schoolmates who opted to play parks football rather than go down the City every week (like I did) ended up playing in.
The winners of the Premier Division of the Alliance League last season were Penydarren BGC, who also reached the last eight of the 17/18 Welsh Cup, and they are now in the Third Division of the Welsh Football League – Ton Pentre are in the First Division of that competition now after their relegation from the Welsh Premier League last season, so that gives some idea of the sort of standard we are talking about.+
So, what of Blaenrhondda FC? Well, as members of the Second Division (the third tier) of the Alliance League last season, I make it they were playing six divisions below Ton Pentre.
However, like Cardiff City, Blaenrhondda play in all blue and, also like Cardiff City, they were promoted last season, so now they are five levels below the Bulldogs of Ton Pentre.
Whereas City managed ninety points in ensuring their second season in the Premier League, Blaenrhondda could only get eighty eight, but I suppose they could be excused this shortfall because we did play sixteen games more than they did!
City are rightly proud of being runners up in the Championship, but Blaenrhondda were champions of their division – in fact those who are mathematically inclined will have worked out that eighty eight points from a thirty game programme can only mean one thing as far as a playing record is concerned;-
P 30 W 29 D 1 L 0
So it was, that the only points Blaenrhondda dropped in 17/18 came in an early season 1-1 draw at eventual runners up, Cardiff Airport. Not only that, the aforementioned Welsh Cup Quarter Finalists, Penydarren BGC, won the Premier Division with an identical twenty nine wins and one draw record, but they were beaten by Blaenrhondda 2-1 in the W J Owen Cup Final, which is the Alliance’s version of the Football League Cup, in May with supporters of the beaten team acknowledging that the better team on the day had won.
Look at that view! A photo taken at Blaenrhondda’s 7-3 win over AFC Butetown on the opening day of this season.*
It’s early days yet for this season, but with 7-3 and 6-1 home wins over AFC Butetown and Penrhiwceiber Con Athletic respectively so far, Blaenrhondda sit at the top of the First Division of the South Wales Alliance League currently, therefore it seems I can offer no defence to any charges of “glory hunter” which may come my way in the coming weeks!
Finally, a reminder of my request for readers to consider becoming my patrons which was outlined over the weekend here – early results are pretty encouraging with some saying that they would prefer to help via direct payments into either my bank account, my PayPal account or by cheque. If you are willing to become one of my patrons, then, firstly, thanks very much, secondly, if you would prefer to make a direct payment to me, e-mail me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com so I can send you my etails and thirdly, you can also pay through Patreon .
* picture courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/squadronleaderhayes/sets/72157698486100071
(there’s more fantastic photos at this link address)
+ correction – it’s been pointed out to me that Ton Pentre finished bottom of the Welsh League Division One last season, but they were not relegated and are still competing at this level, I apologise for that mistake.
Ahh!…beautiful Blaenrhondda, much greener now than then.
Glad you are settling in, Paul.
Sorry to hear you haven’t found Felix.
I was only having a conversation yesterday with one of my neighbours about how black it used to be around here forty years ago Colin.
I just hope Felix has found a nice home somewhere -I think it’s much more likely that someone finding him would take him in rather than go to a vet to get him scanned.
Paul, as a regular reader of your excellently written & well researched MAYA blog I was very disappointed to learn from your most recent contribution ” Blaenrhondda FC-I’ve found my local team to support” that my local team Ton Pentre FC, only a few miles down the Valley from your new home at Tynewydd, had been relegated at the completion of the 2017/18 Season. Ton Pentre FC may have finished bottom but were NOT relegated & will continue to compete in the Premier Division in 2018/19.
To prove my point, Ton Pentre will play Cambrian & Clydach in a league fixture at Clydach(Rhondda) tomorrow evening. Kick Off @ 7.15pm.
If you would like to & are able to attend I would gladly meet up with you in Treorchy at approx 6.30pm and escort you to the game which I can assure you will be a typical Rhondda “derby”. By the way, just in case you are not aware Clydach is situated approx 5 miles south of Treorchy, near to Tonypandy, so travelling time will be about 20mins.
Hope you’ll be able to accept the offer as it’s my way of welcoming you to the beautiful but often maligned Upper Rhondda & to thank you for the many enjoyable hours I’ve spent reading your MAYA blog.
There’s one condition to the offer….don’t bring Dai Woosnam with you. I’m sure you’ll know what I mean.
Speaking as somebody who has watched City for hundreds of years (seems like) but has also been involved with and watched a lot of Welsh League football, I found that an enjoyable read.
Like you, I find the history and architecture of older football grounds fascinating and I remember going to Blaenrhondda for a cup match with a team several divisions above them and being soundly beaten. However, I found the ground a lovely place to watch football and it was easy to imagine large crowds being there in the past. There are a number of similar grounds around and Penrhiwceiber springs to mind with it’s stand and lovely mountainside view of the opposite side of the valley. Chatting with locals they could still recall local derbies against teams like Tynte with four figure crowds in attendance.
Glad to hear you’re settling in well and I’m sure you’ll find local football very rewarding when the City are away. I will also be on the move soon and won’t be far away from Pen Y Pound Stadium in Abergavenny. Another ground with some old architecture and lovely mountain views.
Enjoy the season everybody.
Thanks for pointing out that error (which I’ve acknowledged in the story now) Harry. I was so keen to get it right about Blaenrhondda that I took Ton Pentre for granted somewhat by assuming that, because they were obviously going to finish bottom when I looked at the table with about a fortnight of the season left, they were bound to be relegated – the truth is that it’s not that uncommon for a team to stay up or down as a consequence of off field issues like finance or lack of adequate facilities at the sort of levels we’re talking about here and I should have checked to see where Ton Pentre were playing this season.
I looked at a couple of houses in Clydach Vale early this year and I’m pretty sure it was their ground I drove past on the way to them, but, sorry, but I cannot make it tonight – I was thinking in terms of maybe going to a home game for Ton Pentre during an international break if their fixtures work out that way.
Thanks Clive, it is tempting to visit a few grounds in the area, but with City in the Premier League, there are always streams about somewhere enabling you to watch the games you can’t get to yourself, so I think there’ll be a few Saturday afternoons in this winter.
Best pf luck with the move, I hope to still see you at some of those midweek Under 23 matches where we can watch yet another team of trialists trying to get to know each other!
What a wonderful piece, Paul. Thank you so much for sharing.
I was born in Cardiff, and, from 10 months of age, have been pretty much in permanent exile from Godzone.
In my case, that just serves to intensify feelings for the city and the country.
If the Welsh hadn’t already created the word ‘hiraeth’, your lovely essay would have had me having to come up with something like it!
Sad, though, about Felix – my two have survived leaving London, and moving twice within Norwich…all in 18 months. Not without some day-long alarms, so, you have my fullest empathy.
Paul,
I am delighted you are happy in my native Rhondda Valley.
Great photos…and happy memories for me of regularly meeting my late uncle Jimmy Davies, school janitor, football referee and stalwart of the local boys club. He lived at Tenby House, 5 Clara Street, Ton Pentre. (In those days people did not realise that it was a bit infra-dig to give a name to a house with a street number!!)
Jimmy would meet me off the train from Porth at Ton Pentre railway station…and we would walk the short distance to his home, have lunch, and then walk to the game down Ton Row to Ynys Park.
And trust me LS Lowry’s Going To The Match had nothing on the throng of people that would be walking alongside us down Ton Row, to watch the wonderful Bulldogs. I could probably name the whole team…and saw them many times. My particular favourites were the inside forwards Albert Davies and Norman Davies (unrelated).
But incidentally, I have no intention of accompanying you to meet the absurdly named Harry Kirtley.
Kirtley was a player of grace and style who had the courage to play under his own name, as I have the courage to write under mine.
Part of me would rather like to attend such a meeting though, so I can “out” him for the coward he is, sniping from the safety of his hideaway in the bushes of the new bosky Upper Rhondda.
Write your proper name, mister…!!
Thank heavens soon government legislation may well come in to outlaw aliases used by snide cowards. He can happily traduce me by my name, and anyone googling** my name might immediately pick his references to me up, and think I am an unpleasant fellow.
I had two e-letters from MAYAns when his insidious patronising contributions hit your pages about two years ago. They both were of the opinion that this chap had injected a degree of bile that was unacceptable in a most friendly football blog.
Yet you continue Paul to print his gratuitous insults, like the one above. I sort of understand you, because you are at heart a libertarian. You have always printed every word of the few hundred thousand I have written here on MAYA over the last 10 years. I commend you for that. ( I guess that you will only censor foul language and clear lies.)
So in a way, GOOD on you for printing this coward’s latest attempt to bring his peculiar brand of vomit-inducing behaviour, into your pages. My MAYA comrades will note there was no need whatever for his shameful nastiness in that throwaway comment of his above.
Look Mr whoever you are…I am a big boy and I can look after myself. I don’t need Paul’s protection. But I do need – something that used to be reasonably rare in the Rhondda of my boyhood – a LEVEL playing field.
Let me finish on a happier note…
I remember writing to my boyhod pal Alun Evans when Ton Pentre’s Ynys Park had the ultimate insult. Alun’s answer is up in my loft somewhere…with hundreds of old letters from around the world. Broadly speaking, he shared my sadness on the fact that Wales’s opponents in an under 23 international (was it Norway…? Alas my memory is not what it was, and the events are getting lost in the mists of time) had taken one look at Ynys Park and the dressing rooms, and insisted the game be switched to a “proper stadium”.
Which it was, at the eleventh hour.
*you are so right btw, Colin…on its new verdant hues.
**deliberate lower case.
Dai, perhaps it’s because I have been using messageboards where it’s not uncommon to see major falling outs between contributors which can end with threats of violence for the last twenty years and more, but, having taken the chance to have another look at the original disagreement between the poster who calls themself Harry Kirtley and yourself over the merits or otherwise of Joe Bennett, I still don’t see too much that was offensive in the contribution of either party while the discussion stayed on the subject of how good or bad a player our left back is. Unfortunately, and unusually for this site, it did get a bit personal after that, but, again, I thought it was pretty mild stuff compared to things I’ve read elsewhere – I’m proud of my record of never having edited or deleted a reply to one of my pieces unless asked to do so by the poster and have never thought the above disagreement merited such drastic action.
I will admit that I did wonder a bit about the last sentence of Harry Kirtley’s first contribution in this thread when I first read it, but, again, my messageboard background kicked in – I’ve had similar such comments from some who I’ve disagreed with, but have not taken offence because I didn’t think they were being serious. I can only say that if it were me who was the person who was asked not to brought along, it wouldn’t have bothered me, in fact I probably would have had a quiet smirk at it.
Thank you Lindsay – I think “hiraeth” is a great word and, at the risk of increasing that feeling in you, have a look at the marvelous photo I’ve just added to the story.
http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=12305&action=edit
As usual Paul, a very magnanimous comment re me and our anonymous friend.
And I particularly appreciated your very last sentence.
But that said, you and I are different characters who not only don’t see football the same way*…we clearly don’t see contributors in the same way either.
If you read over that correspondence again, you will see that this bounder questions whether I had ever played the game…!! (All the time never telling us his playing credentials. Clever stuff eh? His own only football injury could well have been a strained index finger at …
…Subbuteo…!! Talk about chutzpah…!!)
I have since talked here on these pages about my own undistinguished playing career for Porth YMCA and Porth Grammar Tech. I can produce several team members as witnesses who are still alive. We have heard nothing about his proof….largely because we don’t know who he is….!! Go meet him for a coffee, and don’t be surprised if Harry is not a 75 year old Harietta…
Go read him again. It is the fellow’s patronising subtext that you need to look at. Not so much the words themselves.
I printed them out and sat in the smallest room of my house with them in front of me. And pretty soon they were behind me.
* last night’s pathetic playing out from the back by Swansea made me even more convinced than ever that The Gospel According to St Neil should provide the text for all our sermons this coming season.
And talking of asterisks, I missed out my first in my earlier contribution on this page. So apols to Colin. It should have appeared next to the word “bosky”.