Prestatyn Town FC

Date: Saturday Mar 03 2012
Ground: Bastion Gardens
Comp: Welsh Premier (Welsh step one)
Match: Prestatyn Town 1 Llanelli 2  HT: 0-0
Rogers 90: Griffiths 53, 77

ATT: 156
Additional: Entrance £7.00, Programme £1.50
Bastion Gardens in pictures

Ground Statistics (marks out of ten, maximum 40)
Character 6, Structures/Terracing 5, Hospitality 7, Backdrop/Scenery or aesthetics for larger stadiums 7
Total 25

Prestatyn Town was the last of the northern based Welsh Premier clubs I had left to do. However, just a few weeks back, Bangor City moved to their new Nantporth Stadium, just to spite me, so it was a case of one ground forward, one back. Hopefully I can visit Nantporth for a European tie in July to properly complete the Northern and Midland Premier clubs.

Prestatyn Town were founded in 1910, but it is only since the 2008-09 season that they have been a top flight club, spending most of the preceding years in the Cymru Alliance. Promotion in that year was dependent on the Bastion Gardens ground having floodlights, which they duly installed.

The road down to Prestatyn called Hillside, off the A5151 gives you some spectacular views of the town and the coast (and indeed Bastion Gardens). It is worth the visit for this road alone, which has a viewing point and car park half way along.

As you can see from the next photo the ground is very close to the seafront, named after the street it resides next to. I wonder if it is a contender to nearest ground to the sea in Britain or not?

The ground is very flat with little elevation on any of the sides. It does have a very long low stand down one side though, with a few hundred seats two or three rows up – the Martin Walsh stand.

Flay uncovered standing made up the rest of the ground. The visitors today were high flying Llanelli, Welsh Premier winners in 2008. Unusually for my Welsh visits, the game was disappointing, a scrappy affair with neither side producing anything worthy of the three points.

Llanelli finally broke the deadlock and then added a second in the second half, with Prestatyn converting a free-kick in the dying seconds for a consolation.