Herb Howell reports on his travels around the clubs of North and Mid Wales.
MACHYNLLETH RUGBY CLUB
It is often something of an obscure act for Rugby writers to travel to the North Wales Division Three venues for spectating a training session or a substitute match for a rescheduled cancellation in the early season. However:
When researching the history of North Wales, one has to consider a whole lot more than just visiting the scattered North Wales Clubs of Nant Conwy, Bala, Bethesda and Llangefni to secure a more diverse view of the Rugby of the region, and, in fact, Welsh Rugby in general.
As a traveling American (Oregonian) sports history writer, this search could not be easily accomplished without the North Wales Council’s website and the Website Master Gary Williams, of Welshpool. My initial travels of 2017 and now (2018) have been driven by Access to the Brit-rail and their maps. After an initial week at Division Two level clubs, of the Severn Valley, I had booked a couple days in Machynlleth before returning to Newtown for their home match v Rhyl.
After watching the crisp, well organized training session, for but 17 players, and having a chat with the Club Chairman, Rhys Morris, it seemed like a good opportunity to attend a D-3 match.
Prior schedules had Llangollen at Machynlleth but with Llangollen and Harlech dropping out for the season, “Mach” had to scramble but found Llangefni’s seconds willing to travel and provided Machynlleth a desired home match!
Concurrently, the Machynlleth Town “proper football club” had a home Cup Match, on the adjacent pitch-only a few yards away. Interestingly enough the village had a paired matchup as old as rugby itself: rival sports were to both kick off at 2:30! The two fixtures were within easy site of one another. Who will prove to be King for a Day?
Well fans, Llangefni arrived with a busload of contestants and staff, while the yellow clad Montgomery footballers straggled in from the rail station. Both home sides in light blue, appeared ready. Proper rugby took the early lead and attacked successfully for a 26-5 halftime advantage.
It was the stout defence from the home side that set the stage, with firm tackling and completely shutting down the outside attack for the visitors, despite frequent overload opportunities. On the offensive side, Mach secured quick loose ball and found the seams in the Llangefni defense. The few home side reserves all got to play, while the silence from the neighboring match spoke loudly in a pending defeat. The rugby final ended with a 38-17 advantage for the Blues. So, rugby won at home and football lost their match, and then four teams all vanished from the sunshine afternoon.
Hospitality has not vanished from rugby hosting but the two rugby teams selected opposite ends of the clubhouse floor. The meals were served and the thirsts were quenched!!
From a visiting writer’s perspective, the highlights of the day came when the former players and officers converged to share stories of an alleged side in 1946 and an early beginning in 1907! The restart of the club, in 1976, had a few stories from those historic matches, mostly scoreless, for the first few outings! There were a few chuckles as they recalled those early days.
These days, it is their annual season kick off with a 7’s Tournament the first weekend of August, which is now 23 years old. They described organizational needs, board followup on goals, a coaching need from a non-player’s perspective and a more strategic approach to club management. They might not be unique in that regard.
The club has bounced back from a clubhouse fire in 2008, which destroyed most of the ancient history and archives. Now concerns are about the next generation of players whom need to be developed to keep these Old Boys amused for the next few decades. Is there a generous sponsor awaiting somewhere, is their to be a breakthrough for youth development.
Other such clubs have similar needs and their voices need to be heard in the coming decade, before some of these small village clubs go away forever. Does the texting generation care or feel it is up to them to keep the spirit of rugby alive?
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