Rhydymwyn

Saturday 8th September

Cymru Alliance (Welsh Step two North)

Rhydymwyn 5 Penrhyncoch 1 HT: 0-0 Att: 38

Pugh 55, 65 Ralph 66, Drazdauskas 68, 89 : Pen 85, missed pen 87

from Dolfechlas Road (pictures)

Another jaunt into Wales, with both my lads in tow, stopping off halfway for a picnic at Beeston Castle, which is well worth it, by the way. From the summit of the castle you have a panorama of cheshire, all the way up to Ellesmere Port. Rhydymwyn is another tiny dot on the map that boasts a second division football club. Founded in 1911, they were promoted from the Wrexham based National League last season. This is not their first taste of football at this level though, having actually won the league in 1997/98. Various reasons though prevented the club from being promoted to the League of Wales. Since that time they have made various improvements to the ground.

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Caersws

Saturday 8th December 2012

Cymru Alliance

Caersws 6 Rhydymwyn 1 HT: 2-0

Att: 112

from the Recreation Ground

Most football connoisseurs will have heard of Caersws (pron. care-soos), from James Alexander Gordon’s reading of the football results at 5 o’clock on a saturday afternoon, from when they were a top flight Welsh club. It’s unlikely you’ll have come across it in any other context as it is very much a one horse town. In fact, I doubt it has even the one horse. Like quite a few successful Welsh clubs, they are based in a village, that only reveals itself as a tiny dot, after much zooming in, on Google maps. The entire population could fit into the Recreation Ground almost three times over.

Caersws sits between Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth, a right turn a few miles after exiting Newtown. Caer means fort and its thought that the Sws is named after an old Roman Queen called Swswen. A pretty road bridge over a river brings you into the village, but don’t look down to change the radio station as you’ll risk missing it altogether, especially if the lights are green. Two pubs (one defunct) and a Spar headline in the village. The Red Lion pub is a friendly real ale house, selling Monty’s ale, from the local brewery at nearby Montgomery. The IPA was a delicious amuse-bouche to the afternoon’s entertainment against newcomers Rhydymwyn (pron. Riddy-moo-in).