TWO TIERS TEARS PREMIERSHIP APART
Extract from Ebbw Vale v Pontypridd Match Programme 17 March 2017
Five months into this strange season we eventually knew who our remaining opponents would be. In normal times the complete fixture list would be published in the summer which was important enough but necessary in selling season tickets and seeking sponsorship. We knew we would play four of the remaining seven games at home and it came as no surprise that we would have to make another trek north for the second time this season which was welcomed by every pub owner between Blaenau Gwent and and Blaenau Ffestiniog and Builth Wells RFC where the Addicts have bangers and chips on the way home.
The splitting of the Premier Division into two tiers brought tears to the eyes of former fixture secretaries and anyone with common sense and knowledge of club rugby in Wales. It must be the first league in sport where teams are relegated midway through a season.
However Pontypridd are here and another opportunity to mention one of their greatest players Bob Penberthy who literally towered over every opponent. Lineout jumpers consider it a sin and an embarrassment if they don’t catch a ball thrown at them. That never happened to Bob who was taller than any second-row in Wales, won every lineout whoever threw in and was a supreme clubman in the bargain. Never recognised by Welsh selectors who couldn’t select a darts team Bob played 876 times for Pontypridd in three decades and would play for the 2nd XV if Ponty firsts didn’t have a game.
Beating Ponty three times last season was rare indeed and only the second time we have managed to pull it off. The first was in 1982/83 when we won 9-8 at Sardis Road in October, 16-8 at home in the Schweppes Cup in January and 12-11 also at home in April. Not much between the sides but enough to please our captain and former Pontypridd centre Steve Flynn.
Ponty’s old ground, Ynysyngharad Park was where Bob Penberthy began his long career, where Tommy Farr who had been beaten on points by Joe Louis in 1937 fought one of his comeback bouts in September 1950 in pouring rain. A few years before the Park was where one of Wales’s most brilliant outside-halves, Glyn Davies from Cilfynydd, brought much needed light to the game.
After playing for Pontypridd Grammar School he got three Blues at Cambridge and was capped 11 times between 1947 and 1951 benefiting from master scrum-half Hadyn Tanner who was capped before and after the war. Davies could side-step on a sixpence and so did Cliff Morgan, an equally magical outside-half from the Rhondda, who followed him in the Welsh team.
There are more gaps in what’s left of the fixture list than Cliff created in his day. The game has changed since but it is still an achievement to win away from home. Especially on a Friday night in West Wales where three weeks ago we beat Carmarthen Quins 30-26 while Jason Strange’s Wales Under 20s hammered Scotland 65-34, a feast of scoring one point short of a century.
Our scoreboard has never displayed that number of points so the most at our ground remains 84-4 in the October 1973 win over San Francisco six months after we beat them in Golden Gate Park 47-6, a unique double as six thousand miles separated the teams. We left our hearts in San Francisco, the Californians left Ebbw downhearted.

THE MAGIC OF THE CUP
Extract from match programme EV v Merthyr 4 March 2017
I am reliably informed that men in blazers still rattle bags of balls when they make the Cup draw at HQ. Our eye-witness at High Noon on the 21st February kept a stiff upper lip while the balls emerged and refrained from jumping with joy which at his age is not advisable. There were two reasons, we drew a home game at a time when they are few and far between and our visitors would be Merthyr.
When the ”WRU Challenge Cup” was launched in the 1971/72 season it was not welcomed by everyone, there were no Leagues then and clubs arranged their own fixtures but the Cup changed that albeit for a few games. There was also a fear that the competition would be over vigorous like it was in the late 19th century, and not just on the field for the old Cup was discontinued after fighting occurred between spectators!
So the Challenge Cup in 1971 was not new it was revived and all the clubs would take part which encouraged many minnows to have a crack at the big boys. Fifty-eight years earlier the last of the original WRU Cup Finals was played at the Brewery Field when Aberavon beat Blaina 10-0, very different in many ways to the 1972 Final at the Arms Park when Neath beat Llanelli 15-9 before a 6000 crowd. The gate money was £6000 compared to £156 in 1914 but would have been more had the BBC not televised the Wembley Cup Final at the same time. Typical of the Beeb, they never get their priorities right.
The first game of the revived tournament was played on a Wednesday afternoon at Vardre and a good crowd turned up including all the Press looking forward to a David v Goliath clash because the visitors were Ebbw Vale captained by Gareth Howls and included Arthur Lewis whose centre partner Alan Tovey scored 20 tries in the 71/2 season, bettered by Glyn Turner who bagged 27. Not a bad side which after weathering a minor storm early on beat Vardre 40-10.
It was the season when Barry John, who had broken all the scoring records for a Lion in New Zealand in 1971, retired. Wales won the Championship but did not play in Dublin, Arthur Lewis partnered Roy Bergiers, Ebbw played Llanelli in the Floodlit Alliance two-leg Floodlight Alliance final and lost on an aggregate of nine tries to seven.
In 71/2 the Dewar Shield was flourishing, a competition between schools which should still be encouraged. Cardiff Schools were unbeaten and failed to win only once in 27 games when they drew a semi-final 11-11 at Merthyr. I wonder how many visitors here today will remember that or took part. The Ironmen had a good season and finished halfway in the Mid-District Championship with 10 wins, 2 draws and 7 defeats. The Mid-District champions were Beddau, who ran us close in this season’s Cup second round, with the Fenwick brothers prominent, flanker Chris and centre Steve. Knock-out rugby has never been a problem for Merthyr.
In the 1880s there were fourteen rugby teams in Merthyr like Dowlais Harlequins and Dowlais Proper whose battles on roughish turf was dangerous and a little bit physical. Referees were the bravest of the brave and one created history when in charge of Dowlais and Merthyr he sent off a Dowlais player who accused him of being “bought by Merthyr.” It was an early tin bath for the culprit whose Saturday was totally ruined and he was best avoided when the pubs closed.

EBBW AND ABERAVON ‘STEEL’ THE HEADLINES
Extract from the Ebbw Vale v Aberavon match programme 11 February 2017
Last April Ebbw Vale and Aberavon staged one of the best games of the season and one of the most important. The winner would make it to the semi-final play-off and by coincidence S4C selected it for one of their Sunday telecasts in contrast to other channels who are unaware Welsh club rugby exists. It turned out to be the first of three of our games televised in three weeks and each of them was worth saving. There were memorable moments and one was Chunky’s run and chase against the Wizards which showed how younger players can teach the old ones a trick or two.
The game had everything and would have graced a Cup final. We would have drawn a bigger crowd to the Stadium than the last one when there were more water carriers than spectators. Which reminds me, with all the awards presented these days why not one for the fastest water wallah? And don’t forget the lads and lasses who wipe the ball for the hooker.
Those who make cameo appearances in a game, like the water boys (in our case middle-aged men) are also secret agents for when they take water for the thirsty or a tee for a kicker they pass messages from the head coach. He has several assistants for there are almost as many coaches in our game these days as there are interpreters in a Premier League football club.
Many of rugby’s greatest characters are hookers and one was Albert Jackson who played for us in the Fifties. Sadly he passed away in January but memories of him will remain, not just because he was a fine player and was in two Ebbw sides that won the Championship in the 1950s but he was a really nice man and when the final whistle is blown that is how someone should be remembered.
Horace Matthews of the famous Cwm clan remembers Alby as a great hooker and friend and played with him for an Abertillery/Ebbw Vale side against the All-Blacks in 1954. The tourist’s hooker was Ron Hemi and the background of both hookers could not have been more different, Alby from Blaina in the north of the Western Valley and Hemi from Whangarei in the north of New Zealand.
Hemi was first capped against Wales on the tour and was in the last New Zealand side to lose to Wales on December 19th 1953. He went on to play 46 times for the All-Blacks, sixteen of them internationals at a time when there were fewer international matches but longer European tours which gave players like Albert Jackson an opportunity to play the best in the world without even having to catch a bus to the ground.
South Wales is where the national game prospers. We have more rugby posts than post offices and it’s where the game has thrived since the late 19th century when it was a friendly war between local tribes and where there are still volunteers who work their socks off to keep the club game alive despite the changes it has been subjected to.
Forty seasons ago our fixture list included teams from four other nations, Ireland, Argentina, England and Cornwall but only one against the Wizards which we won 3-0, not an inspiring scoreline and nothing to compare with 32-30 last April. Two citadels known over the years for quality rugby and steel meet again and once more it’s an important game so fasten your safety belts.

BIG GAMES WITH BEDWAS (120217)
Extract from match programme Ebbw Vale v Bedwas 4 February 2017
There is a misguided belief that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain and gales in Wales fall mainly on the Vales, for last Easter Saturday we experienced a downpour at Bedwas which is nearer the equator than we are. The heavens opened at the wrong time at the wrong place because it affected an important game the result of which had a major influence on the play-offs.
Speaking of influence someone in Bedwas knew someone Up There because having played into the wind in the first half we played into a gale in the second! Drop outs resulted in the ball ending behind the kicker and only the genuine supporters stuck it out to the bitter end.
It was not a day for running, handling or kicking, spectators shivered but their problems were nothing compared to the task of the players who could not afford to make a mistake but somehow handled the ball that got more soap-like by the minute and defended like the 24th of Foot at Rorkes Drift. We won 16-8 but what an ordeal.
On Boxing Day 2016 we returned to Bedwas and although the temperature was low the heat from yet another close encounter kept the spectators warm. Local Derbies over Christmas are perfect for the heavier members of the teams who want to get back home quickly to play with their train sets and like a close Epsom Derby it was a neck and neck finish that resulted in a one point win for Bedwas which meant we had work to do to ensure a place among the gentry. Two more narrow wins did the trick and we avoided what can be described as relegation to the bottom eight while Bedwas romped home as runners-up. When the second edition of fixtures were eventually released in January, while pleased to draw Bedwas at Ebbw, we were not overjoyed to be the only Premier club to have to travel to the North Wales Riviera twice in a season.
Looking back is the norm in this column and the young will wonder how we put up with such low scores in the old days. For example a team leading 6-0 after an hour could keep it and close the game down by kicking directly to touch from anywhere. Wales v England games in the 1950s included a 3-0 victory and a 3-3 draw and in that decade the average score when the old rivals met was 8-3 despite the presence of clever backs of the calibre of Lewis Jones, Bleddyn Williams and Cliff Morgan of Wales and Jeff Butterfield, Peter Jackson and Dickie Jeeps of England. Great players who would have flourished even more under the current Laws of the Game.
he game needed brightening up and we played our part, but compare the fixture situation in 1976/77 to the mix-up forty seasons later. We played 44 games, won 35, drew 1 and lost 8, met 33 clubs, nine of them Welsh home and away and twelve outside Wales, two Scottish, one New Zealand and nine English. Because of new Laws rugby might be more attractive now but nothing will be as good as the old fixture system, full of variety, matches galore and real value for season ticket holders.
Wales got the Grand Slam in 1976 and won three of the four Five Nations games in 1977 and where did the players come from? The clubs of course.

TIME FOR ANOTHER CUPPA (290117)
Exract from the Ebbw Vale v Skewen programme 28 January 2017
When Cup ties were played on grounds new to us it was an adventure into the unknown. So-called smaller clubs rose to the occasion on their own patch and there was a great atmosphere but now, sadly in my opinion, the Cup is restricted to clubs in the two top Divisions. Nigel Davies will recall those days, he played in nine finals for Llanelli winning six including one at Ashton Gate in 1998, our only Cup Final which we lost 19-12 although our totally unbiased Chairman still claims we wuz robbed.
Winning on strange grounds in midwinter was tough, like the game at Hendy a few days before Christmas 1978 when even brass monkeys froze. Skipper Phil Gardner shivered like Scott of the Antarctic in the dressing room after we scraped a 4-0 win but got no sympathy from the Club Treasurer alias Scrooge who flatly refused to buy him a bottle of brandy. It was warmer at Cwmgrach two seasons before where we won 41-6, met Max Boyce and headed home around midnight leaving eight members of the committee behind.
We like making new friends and were pleased this season’s first round draw brought Skewen to Ebbw Vale to renew games with them that began on March 27th 1920 when we won 9-0. Thanks to Ray Ruddick of Pontypool a leading rugby statistician we know the fixture was sandwiched between Machen who we beat 6-0 and Cardiff Scottish who we demolished 43-0. With so many foreigners playing in Wales nowadays it would be difficult to field a team called Cardiff Welsh.
Skewen are enjoying their first season in the Championship and are one of many vibrant clubs in a heartland of the game. Among their former players is prop Paul James who played over sixty times for Wales and also Bath in the Aviva Premiership. There are industrial connections between us, Skewen in the County Borough of Neath once had a number of collieries in the village and it was from the pits both our clubs drew the men who made rugby football the Welsh national sport. Just a thought, if we hadn’t made steel as well would be known as the Coalmen?
A Cup tie is the time to recall exciting, dramatic and unusual ties of the past and there were two in the second round of the new Challenge Cup in 1971/2 when Ebbw drew 9-9 at Waunarlwydd and Pontypridd 7-7 at Whitland. As the competition developed extra time would be played, results decided on try count or the away team would go through so it’s incredible now to believe that forty years ago Ebbw and Ponty went through on the toss of a coin.
This season the Premiership is different to say the least. After playing every other club once we didn’t know who we would play in the remaining seven fixtures. To say the campaign has been disjointed is an under-statement and former Fixture Secretaries view it in disbelief. Before Leagues they arranged an average of 45 fixtures a season without fuss using a telephone, a pen, paper and a book of stamps, but there was a competition they had no control over – the Cup.
The ties were decided by men in blazers picking small balls from a cloth bag watched by televiewers who kept fingers crossed hoping for a home draw. Skewen play Ebbw Vale for the first time since the 1920s, a long time ago but worth waiting for

FROM CLUBS TO CAPS (160117)
Extract from match programme Ebbw Vale v Cross Keys 7 January 2017
Why is there no Welsh name for Cross Keys? We are Glyn Ebwy, there’s a Castell Nedd, Abertawe and Aberflyarff but not even S4C describes our neighbours in Welsh. With respect to the Mother Tongue it doesn’t really matter to those who come from Pandy Park where away wins are rare, especially in Western Valley Derbies. It was there that the first Floodlit game in Wales was played in the 1950s, quite a novelty which heralded a new era of midweek games throughout the season.
The Lion’s next tour is a year away and they will be going to New Zealand which is no problem for the players who have nothing better to do in the summer and would be honoured to be selected and would like some extra pay. They haven’t got to take time off from work because rugby is their work, but it was different in 1938 when the Lions went to South Africa. Those with posh jobs, understanding employers or were students put their names down but it must have been a difficult decision for a bobby in Monmouthshire to make. Welsh international Russell Taylor was a Cross Keys forward and one of nine Welshmen in the Lions party which sailed to Durban from Southampton on a Castle Line vessel in a fleet which two years later carried troops. Russell a Monmouthshire man beginning his career with the Keys and ending it with Abergavenny where he died aged 51.
It meant a lot to clubs all over the rugby world when one of their kind was capped, a means of identification that began for Wales in their first international in 1881 against England at Blackheath. Some of the England side came from clubs with strange names like Queen’s House and Malborough Nomads but the most unusual of the time was The Gypsies formed in 1863 which supplied five players to England between 1871 and 1876. One of them was a former Epsom schoolboy Jefferson Vennor Brewer who got one cap against Ireland and is mentioned here because his father was a doctor in Ebbw Vale.
Gypsies RFC was disbanded in 1880 and it still holds the record of being the club with the shortest life but Brewer junior didn’t finish with rugby, he was one of seven who reviewed and re-wrote the Laws of the game. It would take seventy to unravel the present Laws but at least we can claim that a gypsy from Ebbw Vale played for England.
Cross Keys was one of the powerful Welsh clubs in the Twenties and Thirties but of the eleven players capped from the Club there was only one post-WW2 and that was Rex Richards, capped once against France in 1956 who went to Hollywood as a stunt man. In that Welsh side that beat France 5-3 there were ten from Gwent clubs, in the famous team that beat the All-Blacks in 1935 there were only two, one from Newport and the other from Cross Keys.
There were four from the Swansea club which had already beaten the tourists and one of them was hooker Don Tarr of the Royal Navy who played the Kiwis four times that season. With Wales leading 13-12 and defending desperately Tarr went down injured and lay motionless. English referee Gadney ensured no-one moved him and that he was placed face down on the stretcher which many believed saved his life. It was the end of a promising rugby career but Tarr stayed in the Royal Navy and retired as a Lieutenant Commander, thanks to Cyril Gadney who refereed thirteen international matches, but none more important than that one.

FROM RASSAU TO WESTGATE STREET (060117)
Extract from match programme Ebbw Vale v Cardiff 311216
When Cardiff are visitors the programme will always mention Bleddyn Williams the Prince of Centres who turned side-stepping into an art form we no longer see. One of seven brothers who played for Cardiff he and his centre partner Dr Jack Matthews dominated every game they played in. Bleddyn would dazzle the opposition, Doctor Jack would stop them in their tracks and then help them recover. Bleddyn’s reign as Prince drew huge crowds to the Arms Park on which Cardiff, Cardiff Athletic, Wales, the Barbarians and lots of other teams played. A groundsman’s nightmare.
It was in the Arms Park that Bleddyn side-stepped like no one else, where Barry John who had emigrated from West Wales dropped four goals for Cardiff against Llanelli, where Gareth Edwards scored memorable tries for the Barbarians v New Zealand and Wales v Scotland, where the All-Blacks were beaten by Wales in 1905, 1935 and 1953.
Many of the Davies clan have represented Cardiff RFC for Wales and others deserved to but didn’t. One was a second row from Rassau, Ebbw Vale – Alandale Road to be exact – who played his first senior game with the Steelmen. Graham Davies went to Ebbw Vale Grammar School and was selected by the Welsh Senior Schools to go on a youngster’s dream trip – South Africa. Graham played 177 1st XV games for Cardiff and two of them were against the best in the world, the 60/61 Springboks and the 63/4 All-Blacks. He partnered Keith Rowlands in the first opposing Pelser and Classen and with clubmate Danny Harris against the Kiwis who faced, literally, Colin Meads and A J Stewart. No other former pupil of Rasssau Infants School can match that.
When Graham took the field on a famous pitch he followed in the footsteps of some of the world’s greatest. It’s a different pitch now and in a slightly different location but traditions never change and neither does the need for a powerful pack. It is very rare that a side beaten up front will win a game, but some Cardiff players did just that in their heyday. There was no tougher series of Derby games than Cardiff v Newport, four games every season packing their grounds. Cardiff were never beaten four times by their rivals despite being out-gunned in the forwards sometimes. A heading in the Argus said it all after a Cardiff win at Rodney Parade – “Newport got the ball, that’s all.”
What better way to end the year than playing at home to Cardiff? 2016 might not be remembered for Welsh international success but our final game last season will not be forgotten. It concluded a six year campaign to climb to the top and showed that the game is alive, well and flourishing in our parish.
Praise is due to the club for using the Challenge Cup games to view youngsters from local clubs who permit them to play mid-week. The best example of that policy was against Merthyr a few weeks ago: of the 23-man Ebbw Vale squad eighteen were on permit and they put on a great show. It’s not easy welding total strangers into a team so credit goes to those who pulled it off.
The road ahead is endless, there’ll be ups and downs, but sport is like that. To those who gave us great pleasure in 2016 and who take us into another year, good luck and a very happy and successful 2017.

DERBIES, BUFFALOES AND KIWIS (141216)
Extract from Ebbw Vale v Merthyr Challenge Cup programme 7 December 2016
In its early years rugby in the South Wales hinterland meant battles in which thirty men fought for 70 minutes without reward then declared a ceasefire when everyone shook hands and quenched thirsts together. The combatants were generally colliers and iron workers, men who worked hard, played harder and sought forgiveness on the Sabbath. One could describe a game between Merthyr and Ebbw Vale as a clash between Men of Iron and Men of Steel but Merthyr and Ebbw Vale are no longer heavy industry towns yet remain rugby strongholds and this season have launched a new local Derby.

It might come as a surprise to some but I did not see the first game between our clubs in 1885, a low scoring hard hitting affair after which “both teams enjoyed an excellent tea in the County Hotel.” So recounts David Boucher the historian of Ebbw’s early years who researched ancient copies of the Merthyr Express which was once our local paper.
Merthyr and Ebbw Vale played rugby league together at a time when the working man succumbed, understandably, to the temptation of getting paid for playing. In 1907 the WRU looked in to allegations that Merthyr was paying its players which caused apoplexy to the rugger types in richer Kerdiff. One hundred and nine years later sensation would be caused if there were allegations that clubs were NOT paying their players.
In the Tank Museum in Dorset is an armoured vehicle named SEVENOAKS and numbered 3. One of our props Robert Sevenoaks wears No.3 and we now find that the tank is known in the Army as a Buffalo. By coincidence we had a great No. 3 in the Eighties too, Peter Morgan now Merthyr’s chairman known to us as – Buffalo.
In the programme for our home game against Bargoed, Lyndon Miles was mentioned. A tiny outside-half from Tredegar he can claim to be one of the few Welsh players to be on a winning side against New Zealand opposition. On Tuesday 25th October 1977 we beat the Wellington Club whose No. 8 was Murray Mexted one of New Zealand’s greatest. He was capped in 1979 and won 34 in all at a time when there were far fewer internationals than there are now.
The 77/78 season had begun well, before the Wellington game we had played eleven, won 8, drawn 1 and lost twice but typically of the standards of the time the programme editor reflecting on a 7-3 defeat to Pontypool wrote, “What has gone wrong for Ebbw Vale ?” The Ebbw side against Wellington was Robert Evans; Russell Cole, Gary Lawrence, Arthur Lewis, Chris Edwards; Lyndon Miles, Ian Lewis; Colin Williams, Gerwyn Williams, Gareth Howls (capt); Elwyn Jones, Michael Van Der Loos; Peter Jones. David Fryer, Paul Ringer. The replacements were Nigel Osborne and Robert Holmes and Phil Gardner was unavailable due to “evening class commitments.”
The game was decided in the closing minutes with Ebbw playing towards the beer and little Lyndon poised to do something if he only got the ball. He did, dropped a goal, we won 10-8 and enjoyed the after match party when the club floor took a pounding as the Kiwis did the Haka.
Great days.

LOCAL BOYS MAKING GOOD (291116)
Extract from match programme Ebbw Vale v Bargoed 25 November 2016
The last international in which Welsh players represented their clubs was played in Hamilton, New Zealand on June 21st 2003 and like every game against the All-Blacks since December 1953 it ended in defeat and a heavy one, 55-3. Martyn Williams captained Wales and after the mis-match said, “We struggled to live with them in the second half.” Pity the captains and coaches who have to face the media after a stuffing.
Dan Carter made his debut for New Zealand and the Wales team that conceded eight tries was made up of players from Llanelli (5), Cardiff (3), Swansea(2), Pontypridd (2), Neath (1), Saracens (1) and Bath (1). Two months later Wales played a friendly in Dublin and the players represented Cardiff Blues, Gwent Dragons, Celtic Warriors, Ospreys, Scarlets plus Alix Popham of Leeds. An era had ended and there was hope at HQ that the five regions would be the foundations on which future Welsh teams would bring success. Within a year one of the regions had vanished.
When clubs had internationals in their ranks supporters packed grounds to see them and team selections were eagerly read in the Western Mail which in those days was full of news of clubs at all levels. Cardiff usually had several in Welsh teams and on one occasion chose scrum-half Brynmor Williams for their game at Ebbw Vale. There were groans from the big crowd when Allan Foster our Secretary announced over the tannoy that Brynmor had withdrawn but cheers when, after a dramatic pause, he told us the replacement was Gareth Edwards!
Clubs whose players had moved into what was called the first class game were proud when their local lads made the big time. On October 30th 1963 supporters from the Darran and Rhymney Valleys went to Rodney Parade to watch Newport play the All-Blacks. It was a game to remember for the 25,000 present, won by Newport 3-0 through a drop goal by Dickie Uzzell (from Deri) after a break by Dai Watkins (from Blaina). Four of that Newport side which was captained by Brian Price (from Deri) were selected by Wales to play New Zealand just before Christmas, Uzzell, Watkins, Price and Alan Thomas which prompted preachers in Newport chapels to turn to the Psalms and proclaim, “I will lif up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.”
Imagine the sheer excitement that engulfed the village of Trefil when Denzil Williams won the first of his thirty-six caps for Wales at a time when fewer international matches were played. Denzil’s first game for Wales was against England in 1963 and his last was against France in 1971.
Local heroes were seen in our villages and towns and we felt close to the national team if one of ours was in it. Those days are long gone and are unlikely to return but the local connection remains. There are many in Trimsaran who were pleased when local boy Nigel Davies was capped for Wales against New Zealand in 1988 when he was thrown into the deepest of ends. This autumn we shared the pride of Nigel when his son Sam won his first cap a few weeks ago. There will be many more, so play it again Sam.
The names of clubs are no longer bracketed in the Welsh team list but there are still links between town or village clubs and local boys who make good. From mini to junior and youth rugby and then via clubs the stairway to stardom is climbed by home bred lads heading for the top, and not only those born locally. When seven year old Taulupe Faletau came from Tonga to join his family in the house inside our gates his first taste of the game was with RTB Ebbw Vale mini rugby.
But was he a ‘local’ boy? Of course he was, he went to Pontygof School and you can’t get more local than that.

DAVID NASH (161116)
Extract from the Ebbw Vale v Carmarthen Quins match programme 121116
David Nash who died a few weeks ago was a gentle giant, a great rugby footballer and a gentleman. His passing was mourned by all who had the privilege of playing with him in the Ebbw Vale side and those who watched him from the terrace which in his day was packed with spectators.
Born in Markham in 1939 David attended Hafod y Ddol Grammar School in Nantyglo, a rugby academy with a team unbeaten for two and half seasons. With two other school-mates David played for a successful Welsh Secondary Schools team and in 1958 was in the first Welsh Schools team of that age group to play England at Twickenham. Denzil Williams and Allan Foster were in the first Welsh Schools team to play there, the Under 15s, five years earlier in 1953.
David went to Cardiff Training College in Cyncoed, qualified as a teacher and joined Ebbw Vale playing against the best in Wales and England, many times for the County and for the Barbarians on their traditional Easter tour to South Wales in 1962. His debut for Wales was against the powerful 1960/61 Springboks who only lost once on their tour. The conditions were atrocious with a gale force wind and icy cold temperatures and only a penalty goal by South Africa was scored. There were five other new caps in the Welsh team, one being former Ebbw Vale three-quarter then with Llanelli, Denis Evans.
David’s second international was against England in January 1961 at Cardiff won by Wales 6-3, then came Murrayfield where Wales lost for the fourth successive time, 3-0 through a try by Arthur Smith who had rejoined Edinburgh Wanderers from Ebbw Vale. Wales beat Ireland at Cardiff 9-0 then lost in Paris 8-6 to end a poor Five Nations championship. Injuries kept David out of the international side until the last game of the 1961/62 season when he played in the second row against France, Wales winning 3-0. As a result he was selected for the Lions squad to tour South Africa in 1962 under the captaincy of Arthur Smith.
After a few games on the tour after impressing the South African media he was injured and became seriously ill. He was well cared for in South Africa and recuperated in the home of Danie Craven the leading figure in Springbok rugby. The illness ended what would have been a great career but he did not give the game up, he became coach of the club at a time when coaching was beginning to be taken seriously thanks to the pioneer work of Welshman Ray Williams who travelled to the Southern Hemisphere like a missionary spreading the gospel of squads and coaching.
In September 1967 the WRU General Committee appointed David Nash coach of the Welsh team but decided not to take a coach on the 1968 tour to Argentina. Alun Thomas, former international and Lion tried to persuade the General Committee to do so but failed. He resigned and so did David Nash, both men of principle but their decision was not wasted, the clubs in Wales at the WRU AGM applied pressure and a coach, Clive Rowlands, did go to Argentina.
When the sad news of David’s passing became known, former players were deeply saddened. Allan Foster said, “David in all respects was a bit special. A gentleman on and off the field with a huge talent that could occasionally turn on a performance that was world class and a performance that left everyone else in awe.” That was David Nash, a man great in so many ways who will never be forgotten.

REMEMBRANCE (121116)
Extracted from the Ebbw Vale v Carmarthen Quins match programme 121116
On Remembrance Day a wreath is laid on behalf of the club at the Ebbw Vale War Memorial, a short distance from our ground. For some with memories of wartime it will remind them of young men who played for Ebbw Vale and joined up. Not all of them came back.
September 1939 did not herald a new rugby season but the start of a six year war. The steel and coal produced in Ebbw Vale was vital to the war effort and men employed in the brand new steelworks and two collieries were retained in essential jobs. Some of them played rugby for Ebbw Vale and continued to do so even though regular fixtures were difficult to find. Many more joined the armed services, among them John James Merritt, a full back of quality and a native of Beaufort.
Royal Air Force aircrew were all volunteers, John was an air gunner in 51 Squadron flying Halifax bombers. His ‘plane took off on April 2nd 1943 for a raid on Essen. They headed for home but thirty minutes after midnight a fire developed in a circuit and the ‘plane crashed just north of Selby in North Yorkshire. Three of the seven man crew were killed, Sergeant Merritt was one of them and he is buried in Saint David’s Churchyard, Beaufort.
He was an outstanding full-back and played for the Royal Air Force in several charity games staged at St. Helen’s Ground, Swansea. The Ebbw Vale outside-half of the time was Benny Southway of Blaina, another top class player who in April 1941 was in a South Wales XV that played at Swansea against a RAF side that had John Merritt at full-back.
One of the great characters of pre-war international rugby was Alexander Obolensky, son of a Russian Prince. An Oxford Blue he scored two classic tries for England against New Zealand at Twickenham in 1936 and joined the RAF when war broke out. In March 1940 he was in an England XV that played a Wales XV at Cardiff Arms Park before 42,000 spectators. Twenty days later he was killed when his Hurricane fighter aircraft overshot the runway in Suffolk.
The Welsh scrum-half was the great Hadyn Tanner capped before and after the war. He joined up and became physical training instructor with the Training Battalion, Welsh Guards at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher. He was partnered with Benny Southway in the South Wales XV that played the RAF in April 1941 and played for the Welsh Guards in the 1941 Middlesex Sevens final. They lost 6-0 to Cambridge University and in the seven was a young officer named Peter Hastings who became a famous trainer of racehorses. His son-in-law was another trainer, Ian Balding father of Claire.
Prince Obolensky’s brother Serge joined the Welsh Guards and was a tank commander. He survived the war but a fellow officer, Maurice Turnbull, Welsh international scrum-half, England and Glamorgan cricketer was killed in Normandy. There were hundreds of other rugby players from Britain and the Empire who were victims of both world wars.
In the morning and at the going down of the sun we will remember them.

RUGBY FROM TALGARTH TO TOULON (081116)
Extracted from the match programme for Ebbw Vale v Llandovery 29 October 2016
Last season our three games with Llandovery were so dramatic supporters took ages to recover from them but despite the intensity there was entertaining rugby and the result was that both clubs won trophies. All it needed was a Drovers/Ebbw Cup final which would have drawn a bigger crowd than usual because good teams have good supporters.

Rugby has taken decades to control its more aggressive participants who in the early years used the game to release tempers after a hard week’s work under and over the ground. Llandovery, as one of the founder members of the game, were not as rough as many of their opponents like Carmarthen Diamond Skull Crashers, and this was perhaps due to players who studied at Llandovery College. The College fielded a team in the first ever Welsh Cup competition in 1877 which compared to today’s Swalec Cup ties was most unusual: Talgarth v Merthyr, Cowbridge Grammar School v Llanelli, Llandeilo v Neath, Swansea v Abergavenny and Glamorgan 10th Rifle Volunteers v Llandovery College.

The club in Talgarth these days is Gwernyfed and several former Ebbw Vale players are running it, but I can’t see them doing well against the 2016 Merthyr side can you?<

In this century the emphasis has been on Leagues, professionalism and in Wales regionalism but very little on schools and youth rugby. End of the season schools international matches were very important and big crowds watched stars of the future graduating by playing regularly. In 1949 the Welsh Senior Schools team that played Yorkshire Schools at Rodney Parade included future Welsh greats Bryn Meredith, hooker, Cliff Morgan outside-half, Russell Robins lock and Gareth Griffiths, centre. At full back was Clive Best of Brynmawr Grammar School who joined Ebbw Vale, had a successful Rugby League career and on retirement was involved with our club and is still mourned and greatly missed.

When Saracens won at Toulon in October in the European Cup the anglicised press reported it was the first win there by a British club which of course was a load of cobblers as Chris Kirwan of the Argus pointed out because in 1999/2000 we got the double over Toulon 21-19 away and 56-26 at home. It was the biggest shock in the port since Admiral Nelson anchored his men of war offshore. Nelson was noted for his inspirational leadership, superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics which aptly describes Mark Jones our captain in 1999/2000. He excelled in unconventional tactics even the Admiral would have feared.

Our team that lost 20-21 to London Irish in the European Shield semi-final when a late Shaun Connor drop goal was not allowed by the French referee was Jonathan Williams; Rhys Shorney, Siua Taumalolo, Jonathan Hawker, Andrew Wagstaffe; Jason Strange, Guy Easterby; Alun Phillips, Leighton Phillips, Andrew Metcalf; Glyn Llewellyn, Kuli Faletau; Nathan Budgett, Mark Jones (capt), Paul Williams. Shaun Connor, Richard Smith, Iestyn Thomas and Lee Banks. Eight of them were or would become internationals. Those were the days my friend, those were the days but one day they will say the same of the Hudd Era

A DECADE OF DOWNS AND UPS (251016)
Extract from the match programme Ebbw Vale v Bargoed 19 October 2016
We are here tonight as Premier Division clubs, membership of which came after years of toil and determination and histories that go back a long way. It hasn’t been easy and it certainly was not for our predecessors who kept the game alive between the two World Wars. It was the unemployed who literally created the sporting complex we call Eugene Cross Park and no doubt Bargoed can say the same of their ground. It wasn’t money that created us and today those behind the scenes carry on the tradition supported by genuine rugby folk who, to misquote a famous US President, ask not what their club can do for them but what they can do for their club.

Right, having stepped down from my soap box, let’s look back over the past ten years. Our seasons in Division One 2010/11 and 2011/12 and the Championship 2012/13 and 2013/14 brought incredible results, we played 96, won 88 and lost 8 for a win ratio of 91.17%. The eight defeats were at the hands of Newbridge thrice, Merthyr, Narberth, Whitland and tonight’s visitors Bargoed twice. The games at Narberth, Merthyr and Whitland should have been won but Newbridge traditionally were always difficult and the games at Bargoed were intense, gripping and a lot more.

2006 was an eventful year for Welsh rugby but it was not all good news. In February Mike Ruddock met the Union’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Lewis and told him he did not wish to renew his contract coaching Wales at the end of the season. The response was quick and sharp, Mike would end a successful period as Welsh coach at once. End of story? Not really but we should remember that when Mike was national coach Wales won the Grand Slam for the first time in 27 years and six of the seven defeats by Wales under his command were by Southern Hemisphere countries, a fate suffered by almost every European coach.
2006 was a sad year for us, Clive Burgess died aged 55, one of six former internationals who passed away, four of them men of Gwent: Clive, Ray Cale (Pontypool), Glyn Davidge (Newport) and winger Ken Jones (Newport) who was also a silver medallist in the 1948 Olympic Games.
Threatened with relegation in season 2005/06 we needed a Messiah to lead us out of the mire and along came an England international lock forward we had never heard of – Alex Codling. He saved us at the last and we survived a Premier Division season of 10 wins, a draw and 19 defeats. Our record in all games was 36%, dismal and damned disappointing but in 2006/07 we finished second to Neath with a 67% result.

We are playing in this mid-week tournament because the British and Irish Cup games take over Saturdays, another new “attraction” which doesn’t seem to attract crowds. Sad to say big attendances are now confined to the Principality Stadium and even sadder is the fact that many of those who go there enjoy waving at the cameras more than watching the game.Those lads from Liverpool sang “Can’t Buy Me Love” and once upon a time rugby people believed that money can’t buy success, but this is the 21st century and money can buy everything. Having said that if someone wants to buy me a pint afterwards I won’t say no.

FOSTERING WELSH TALENT (161016)
Spotting young players is a pleasure and duty of those running clubs and now we have the Fosters Challenge Cup to help. It’s a Wales Has Talent show when clubs field their own youngsters and others on permit from neighbouring clubs whose cooperation is greatly appreciated. Not everyone has looked at it that way however, on one occasion a replacement for an opposing club was forty years old! Another benefit for the new Cup is the return of mid-week rugby albeit on a much smaller scale than in the past when it was necessary to fit in 45-50 fixtures a season. For example in our busy 1979/80 Centenary season we played 52 games and only 28 were on Saturdays.

There were several off the field celebrations in 79/80 topped by the Centenary Dinner which was considered by guests from all over the UK as the best of its kind, and we even had a competition for a Centenary logo. It ended with a second tour of California where the natives were very impressed when told our Patron was the Duke of Beaufort. He attended the Centenary Dinner at the Gwernvale Manor Hotel, Crickhowell and he enjoyed himself so much we were asked to go to Badminton House on his 80th birthday. The lunch was nice, the welcome warm and the Duke enjoyed our hymn singing, reinforced by members of Ebbw Vale Male Voice, and invited us to the Badminton Horse Trials a month later. The entire Royal Family was also there.

Because of the crowded fixture list we only played Pontypridd once in 1979/80 and it was our heaviest defeat for some time, 33-0 at Ebbw after a pointless first half. Tommy David scored three tries and we had no excuses but in fairness it was our tenth fixture in 34 days! Welsh players were used to heavy fixture lists and they all worked for a living, but end of seasons tours were worth waiting for, especially Cornwall. Our first tour to California in 1973 set a precedent for later flights across the Pond and one who went on it, Graham ‘Gomer’ Evans, an outstanding wing forward, celebrates his 70th birthday on Saturday in his home town Nantyglo a rugby hotbed that produced great players and he was certainly one of them. Happy birthday Gomer!

Schools rugby prospered in an area that is now Blaenau Gwent especially in its five Grammar Schools. Two years ago Ebbw Fawr Learning Community Under 16s played Whitchurch Grammar School in a Cup Final at the Millenium Stadium. Supported by their school friends all smartly dressed in school uniforms our lads lost but did us proud and Dawid Rubasniak, player of the match, is now in the Ebbw squad. He made his Premiership debut as a replacement against Bridgend, scoring a try, and started at The Gnoll where he also scored a try. Another local boy making good.

It’s not only schoolboys that play rugby; the Jesters, a new girls’ team, played on Cae Canol recently and will be looking for more fixtures. But a word of warning, if St. Trinians ask for a game say thanks but no thanks.

WHEN FLOODLIT RUGBY BRIGHTENED OUR GAME (260916)
A visit by Bridgend always reminds me of the greatest game ever seen at our ground. In the 60s and 70s, in order to liven things up and encourage more open rugby, a Floodlit Alliance was created and only tries counted. In a memorable game to reach the final we had to beat Bridgend and score seven tries, a tough task, but we did it and Glyn Turner crossed their line three time.
Llanelli dominated the Alliance in its nine years of existence but never won at Ebbw Vale where we only lost once, to Cardiff in the inaugural season of 1964/5. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, players began to concede penalties knowing kicks at goal were verboten so in the final season of the competition penalty goals were allowed and in the last Alliance final Llanelli beat Swansea 6-3, all penalty goals.
Every point will count next year when the Lions go to New Zealand where visitors hardly ever win. They will be tired when they return so will they recover in time for the domestic game? In amateur days Lions rested for a month or two when they came home but loyal clubmen like Bridgend’s Steve Fenwick of Bridgend didn’t. Seven weeks after a tough tour he was back in Bridgend colours.He went with the 1977 Lions to New Zealand, played in the four test matches and seventeen other games on a tour that began in May and ended in August. The Lions captained by Phil Bennett lost the series 3-1 but during the wettest season for many years almost won the fourth test losing 10-9, a scoreline that many current touring sides in New Zealand would be satisfied wit
Six weeks today Wales play Australia and the television interviews will bore us as they always do and losing coaches will trot out the same excuses. They should react as Welsh skipper Mike Watkins did in 1984 after Australia beat Wales, when asked “What next for Wales?” he said “Over The Angel for a pint!”
In the summer England white-washed the Aussies, Ireland won a Test match in South Africa, Wales lost every game in New Zealand but they faced the world champions and the most successful team in any sport. It was several bridges too far for Wales who played an incredible eighteen Test matches in a season but they put on a better show against the All-Blacks than Australia did.
Equally incredible was photographic evidence of an exhibit in the Tank Museum in Dorset with the name SEVENOAKS on it and Number 3. A war machine named after an Ebbw Vale tight-head does not mean props are aggressive, frightening and dangerous because the human Sevenoaks like his mates in the front row is a peaceful character. Most of the time
When Hollywood churned out musicals in the 30s one was called “Flying Down To Rio” which is what Rhys Shorney did in August as a physio to the successful GB swimming squad. One day he was treating bronzed beauties in Brazil and a few days later in Bedlinog he was treating husky hulks whose idea of beauty is a driving maul. Well done Rhys, we look forward to see you doing the samba at the annual dinner.

MON UNITED v SOUTH AFRICA (190916)
Travelling by train from Ebbw Vale up Llanhilleth Incline to Pontypool might not be as exciting as going to Istanbul on the Orient Express but in November 1957 it was quite an adventure. The line was normally used for goods traffic but GWR specials were laid on for rugby enthusiasts going to see the Wallabies play a Pontypool/Cross Keys XV who narrowly lost. A few days later another big crowd went by train to see the tourists play Newport who narrowly won.

We came from every club, large and small, local allegiances were forgotten for the reputation of Monmouthshire rugby was at stake and we were a part of it. Whoever played a touring team got our support and we went to all their games wherever they were.

The 1960/61 Springboks who beat the four home countries were unpopular on and off the field. They had won 28 and drawn one of their games in the British Isles part of the tour with the traditional Barbarians finale left. The tour ended in Paris with a 0-0 draw in a game so ferocious diminutive Welsh referee Gwyn Walters threatened to abandon it.

Sixteen thousand saw them beat Pontypool-Cross Keys 30-3 and they attracted 20,000 at Ebbw Vale and 22,000 at Rodney Parade. The Ebbw Vale/Abertillery XV had a strong pack which gave as good as they got and there was no score until well into the second half when Ebbw Vale scrum-half Roy Evans had his head cut open and went off for five minutes.

No.8 Alun Pask took over at scrum-half and with him out of position the Springbok left wing Hennie van Zyl scored a try in the corner. Hadyn Morgan came near to getting an equaliser but the Boks won 3-0 after a game described as “one of the finest exhibitions of spirit and determination by a Combined side in any part of the Commonwealth since the War.”

The 24th match of the tour was against Newport whose full-back Norman Morgan their exceptionally gifted place-kicker was injured and could not play. He was badly missed for in the first quarter three penalty kicks at goal failed, one in front of the posts. The Springboks scored in the first five minutes and rarely looked dangerous afterwards. Glyn Davidge led the Newport pack and post-match critics declared they were the first eight to get the better of the tourists in every phase. The Springboks won 3-0 but did not deserve to.

Undefeated the 5th ‘Boks expected to beat the Barbarians but two Monmouthshire men had other ideas. Abertillery’s Hadyn Morgan and Derek Morgan who played in England but came from Newbridge scored a try each, the Barbarians won 6-0 and future Newport full-back Hadyn Mainwaring, a former Royal Marine, became a legend when he tackled the ‘Boks captain Avril Malan so heavily it prevented a try. No-one has shoulder charged like that since.

The 1960/61 Springboks lost one game, but it could have been three.

OUR FINEST HOUR (160516)
In the 1950s and 60s Ebbw Vale won the Welsh Championship four times. The first was in 1951/2 and a survivor of that great team, Horace Matthews one of several brothers who played for Ebbw, has telephoned to say how proud he was of our performance at Sardis Road on Sunday. He sensed the atmosphere, a packed ground and great spirit between the supporters which took him back to days when Welsh club rugby could not be matched anywhere in the world. Both teams on Sunday showed how good it can be, and when the final whistle was blown and spectators quenched their thirsts it was also pleasing to be told by Ponty faithfuls that we deserved to win.
It was a remarkable 38-12 scoreline the game ending with a breakaway try by Ebbw full-back Dan Haymond who took flight as he touched down after an 80 metre dash. Ronny Kynes smuggled his way over for his 18th and 19th tries of the season and David Williams crossed twice in Tigerish fashion as a graduate of Leicester’s academy should. To top it all Dai Langdon converted four in cool Carter like style.
Before the kick-off the ground was buzzing, a male voice choir sang, the weather was fine and the crowds mingled happily in Ponty’s answer to Gloucester’s famous Shed. What followed was a game to remember, it was our finest hour for not only did we defeat a side that had won the Premiership title in the previous five seasons, but we scored five tries to Ponty’s two. The Sardis Road fans are not used to suffering defeat and only lost two League games there this season, both at the hands of Ebbw.
The road to the play-off final began back in September but after a few set-backs a run of ten consecutive wins kept us in the hunt. Our defence was outstanding, typified at Bedwas with the clock running down in torrential rain and on a pitch turning into a morass. We were wrongly reduced to fourteen men but we won.
The 32-30 win over Aberavon in a great game was a credit to both sides and was preceded by an emotional tribute to the steelmakers of Port Talbot. Llandovery away when a Chris Thomas tackle denied the Drovers a try and a Cameron Regan steal of the ball at a lineout in the danger zone will also be remembered as will the final at Sardis Road. One of the hundreds of Ebbw supporters at the ground said, “There are real rugby people here.”
Sunday’s grand finale was won by coaches, support staff, administrators, volunteers who do all sorts of tasks, clubhouse staff, sponsors and supporters but above all by the players who wore the jersey with pride and rose again to the big occasion. Thus endeth our 136th season and it will be remembered as one of the best.

A TALE OF TWO RUGBY CITADELS – PART TWO (090516)
By coach, mini-bus and car a happy horde headed west on Sunday hoping to turn the tables on Llandovery and prove that west is not best. We hadn’t won there in seven years, had lost heavily there last September but this was a different Ebbw Vale, one full of confidence and well equipped fore and aft to defeat a highly rated side fresh from winning the Swalec Cup.
The game was a credit to Premiership rugby, we even got a mention on Scrum Four, and our bilingual duo of Nigel Davies and Adam Jones once more said all the right things on the tele, so I’m told. There were several turning points in a thrilling game that was often agonising to watch for supporters the majority wearing Ebbw colours. Try saving tackles, lineout steals, shrewd game management, power up front, enterprise behind saw us through but above all it was the total commitment by the players that takes us to the Rhondda again for the final which should show to the Upper Crust in the game how good the club game can be.
Ol’ Blue Eyes once sang a song about the Big Apple, “If I can make it there I’ll make it anywhere, New York. New York.” I don’t know the colour of Damien Hudd’s eyes or if he can sing but he can say of Llandovery, “If we can make it there we’ll make it anywhere, Ponty, Ponty.”
2015/16 has been another success, like the previous campaign we won the play-off semi-final and ended the regular season with 16 wins and 6 defeats marginally better than the 15 wins and 7 defeats the campaign before. In two Premier seasons we averaged 70% an answer to those who expected us to struggle when we returned to the top flight. The winning habit that began in Division One and Championship seasons has continued in the Premiership, those easy wins were the building bricks for the serious challenges to be met when we won promotion. So many on and off the field have taken us to where we are but there’s one more game to play, the most important of them all.
The Premiership will change next season for the umpteenth time with the addition of the top four clubs in the Championship and we know who three of them are, Merthyr, Swansea and Bargoed. The fourth place will be go to RGC 1404 if they win at Glynneath on Saturday, if they don’t Pontypool will come up. We will re-visit St. Helen’s, Bargoed Park where we used to play Championship games and Merthyr where we once lost a Division One East fixture. It’s going to be a busy time.
There was important voting in Wales last week but the one result that really counted was by the Welsh Rugby Writers who named Ronny Kynes Premiership Player of the Year. Ronny is our chief smuggler whose hidden activities has aroused the interest of H M Customs & Excise. He has scored so many tries it needs a calculator to decide how many.
Snuggled in the middle of his fellow forwards, clutching the ball and never losing it, the Catch ‘n Kynes ploy has brought us many tries and has an air of inevitability about it when the opposition line is within striking distance, and that’s only one of his specialities. If England had a Ronny in the last minute lineout on the Welsh line in the 2015 World Cup they and not Wales would have reached the quarter-finals.
Congratulation Ronny, keep on smuggling.

STEELMEN AND DROVERS GO NECK AND NECK (030516)
Some believe a team that tops the Premiership at the end of the season should be declared the champions there and then, thus rewarding consistency throughout a season without having to play-off. The fact is that a play-off system exists and for the second year running we are involved in the mini-series of games that for us begin at Llandovery on Sunday. Last year we were home in the semi-final but wherever the game is played it will not bother coaches and players or the supporters who on a very cold Boxing Day in 2006 wore Hawaiian clobber at Llandovery and will be there in numbers again to cheer their lads on.

Memories of September 2015 will have no effect, that 50-0 drubbing at Llandovery took some getting over but we did and gained some satisfaction when we won the return fixture 14-6 in January, not as impressive but valuable at a time when the battle for play-off places was heating up.
The Drovers like all home teams will be favourites on Sunday but that too is irrelevant because the league statistics show that there is very little between us :-

Won Lost Bonus Pts Points
2nd Llandovery 15 7 18 78
3rd Ebbw Vale 16 6 10 74

Six of Llandovery’s defeats were away, one at home to Pontypridd who got the double. But the major difference, and the reason we did not finish second, lies in the bonus points. Our highest scores were 40 over Bridgend followed by 36 over Llanelli and 34 over Cardiff (twice) and Pontypridd and it’s the last one that is most interesting, for we did something very few clubs have done in recent times: a double over the self-styled Valley Commandos.

Last Saturday in an all-West Wales Swalec Cup Final the Drovers, 2nd in the Premiership table defeated Carmarthen Quins who finished 11th. The Quins salvaged some pride after a disappointing season but it was a final that bore no comparison to the finals before regional rugby down-graded the club game. Playing at the Principality Stadium was a great experience for the players but they drew an audience of hundred not thousands. A great pity, yet another traditional event that has gone down the Taff.

Rugby comes to Manchester in the summer where the Under 20s World Championships take place with European champions Wales under Jason Strange facing the world’s best. Outstanding players have graduated from the under 20s, one was Sam Davies currently with the Ospreys, son of Nigel, who in 2013 was named the International Rugby Board’s Junior Player of the Year. We expect Harrison Keddie to go far in the game too and he will relish the challenges of the other teams in Pool A of the Championship, New Zealand, Georgia and Ireland. The crucial pool game is on June 15th when Jason’s boys try to do what Wales senior teams have failed to do since 1953 – beat a team in all-black wearing the silver fern.

A THRILLING SHOWDOWN AT THE EV CORRAL (270416)
It takes two to tango and two teams of the same calibre and rugby philosophy to produce a game that was pulsating, fascinating, enthralling with a finale that shattered what nerves supporters of both sides had left. On a nippy Sunday evening with a stiff breeze billowing from Beaufort the scene was set for the final act of the very competitive Premier Division regular season.
It was the most absorbing game seen at our ground for some time, we expected the Wizards to pull some tricks out of their bag but not as many as they did. They kept playing rugby as it should be played, in the second half threatened our line too much for the comfort of the home crowd and in the end it was an early penalty kick that decided which side would go to Llandovery for the play-off semi-final although a great Ebbw team effort defensively and in attack had something to do with it too!
We only needed a win but added a bonus point to confirm third place in the final placings. Several former players were there and one, hooker Martin Preece took particular notice of our No. 2 whose speed around the park, whose total commitment and all-round performance was that of a club legend. Mathew Williams, alias Chunky, was one of a team that have trained hard to get us in the play-offs again and a combination of powerful forwards and imaginative backs augurs well for the future. You know what they say, if you see one augur you see ‘em all, but next season promises to be another cracker.
The liveliness of both sides was a credit to their fitness and enterprise at the end of a long disjointed season that, as far as attendances were concerned, never recovered from the World Cup which nailed watchers to their sofas from which they never rose. The Premiership regular season resulted in sixteen wins and six defeats, a good return and enough to take us into the west where Damien & His Merry Men are determined the sun will not set on our ambition to take on Ponty in the final.
Recording TV programmes is now very simple but there are snags. Our game on Sunday was S4C’s answer to Songs of Praise but the red button was out of action, not that the commentaries were missed because where I sit in the stand I hear lots of them in several languages, English, Welsh, Wenglish and Bad. We knew that Nigel Davies, native of Trimsaran, would be interviewed in Welsh but it was a surprise, to me at least, to discover that our centre and Man of the Match, Adam Jones – who penetrates defences like a Chieftain tank – also speaks the Mother Tongue. S4C remember is a Welsh language channel but it shows club rugby unlike another which shall remain nameless and concentrates solely on the icing on the Welsh cake and not the cake itself.
Martin Preece was in the Ebbw Vale-Abertillery front-row who in 1961 out-played a Springbok front-row on our ground. He was also a Welsh reserve and was in a Welsh Under 23 team in December 1962 which beat Canada 8-0. The Under 23s only played one game then the age groups were changed but sadly we don’t even have an A team anymore. Instead we spend money on a Sevens squad that tours the world, doesn’t do well and contributes nothing to the real game.
On Saturday TV brought us European competition rugby and a classy try by a classy player who began his career with Ebbw, Carl Meyer. Another example of the importance of clubs for it is with them that players like Carl are nurtured.

THE GAME’S AFOOT (160416)
A disjointed season as far as fixtures were concerned, and the typhoons we had didn’t help either, leaves play-off hopes on the brink. But let’s forget all that for the moment and concentrate on Sunday’s game at home to Aberavon which will be televised by S4C. To those at the ground please don’t wave to the cameras, to those chained to their sofas don’t forget the red button.
Aberavon have had a good season and we found them tough nuts to crack at the Talbot Athletic Ground last November but won 20-16. Three doubles over them in forty years is nothing to write home about not even on a postcard but a fourth is possible on Sunday. After a welcome and much needed break the players are keener than ever, all we need is Shakespear