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.
