Nodiadau Chwefror 2002
/ February 2002 Notes
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FLEXSYS CEFN DRUIDS
23.02.02 A WARM WELCOME to you
all to this afternoon’s game where it is nice to be back at Richmond Park
again after a long journey North last week.
It is indeed a pleasure to welcome the ‘Ancients’ from Cefn Mawr who
are appropriately playing here on a site which can also easily be labelled
‘ancient’ with the considerable Roman antiquity which lays below the surface
of our pitch. No doubt our Manager in
his Notes may have something to say about last week’s encounter at Deeside
but despite achieving an excellent result of a draw, I felt that our
performance was somewhat disappointing, emphasising our inconsistency this
year. I am indeed in my final season
in my current role and it would be a great thrill to qualify once again for
European competition having had a foretaste last summer in Sweden. I feel, however, that our main hope of
qualifying will be via the Welsh Cup rather than achieving a top three spot
(and I stand to be shot down here).
The competition this season at the top is extremely intense but we
have the players and the expertise to beat anybody in the League and just
being a mere three games away from possibly winning the Welsh Cup I think we
have a glorious chance of qualifying.
So we shall see! On our journey North
last week we made our usual stop at Welshpool for a delightful breakfast
which reminds me of a tale to tell you. I’ll start by referring to the strict
rules of presenting team sheets to the referee by a certain time. For only
recently two clubs were fined £200 for late presentations of the team sheet whilst another club was
fined £40 for being just four minutes late.
The rules are well-documented and our Football Co-ordinator Malcolm L
Williams always ensures we leave Carmarthen in good time to arrive at the
visiting ground, not only for the team sheet to be presented in time but
primarily for the players to acclimatise to the surroundings and prepare
themselves mentally for the game. Well, we were playing
Rhyl in a Premier Cup match and Malcolm as usual arranged for an early start.
But after stopping for a meal at Welshpool, mine was presented very very late
– after most people had finished theirs in fact- and we were very late in
leaving. I was absolutely blameless!
Unfortunately, more problems arose due to considerable roadworks on
the A55 which delayed us further. We arrived at the ground a minute before
the deadline for the presentation of the team sheet, much to my relief. The
problem, of course, was that Tomi didn’t have much time for his team
preparation but we won the game, which ensured qualification for the Premier
Cup Quarter Finals. So all’s well
that ends well. I SHALL BE AWAY this
weekend, so I won’t be in attendance at today’s game but I hope you all enjoy
yourselves! CONNAH’S QUAY NOMADS - WELSH CUP 09/02/02 A GOOD AFTERNOON to you all and welcome to this very much awaited Welsh Cup tie. Both our friends from Connah’s Quay and ourselves, to varying degrees, have suffered the deluges that have beset our country for some weeks. Let us hope that the weather will now relent at last! Well, I must say that our Cup
tie traditions at Carmarthen are not bountiful. In fact, during the 50s and 60s we did not enter the Welsh Cup
and I cannot quite understand the reasoning of the Club Committee not to
enter the competition, bearing in mind that in those days the three Welsh
Football League clubs and the former Newport County, together with a
sprinkling of English League sides from across Offa’s Dyke were contestants.
So the incentive to progress in the Competition was evident. Memories therefore are few and far between
although I do recall in the late 80s whilst we were in the Third Division of
the Welsh League playing First Division Llanelli at home with the TV cameras
present at Richmond Park for the first time ever. Later, whilst also in the
Third Division, we had a memorable battle against Barry Town who were
sweeping the board in the Welsh League.
And there was a first timer here as well with the cameras being
present in the Clubhouse to make the draw live on television. You will note from this
programme that our Match Sponsor today is Hefin Thomas who has a Plant Hire
business. I specifically refer to Hefin on this occasion to highlight the
excellent persuasive powers exercised by our Chairman in attracting such a
wide-range of sponsorship to our Club.
You see, ‘Hefin JCB’ as he is affectionately known, was an
enthusiastic playing member of the Carmarthen Athletic Club. He played in various positions in the
front five and is now an equally enthusiastic supporter of that Club. It is to the credit of people such as
Hefin that they are able to diversify in their sporting interest and we are
quite proud to feel that Jeff is able to offer such an attractive sponsorship
package. Sponsorship being such an important source of income for our Club, I
would urge our supporters to patronise our sponsors as much as possible. AND FINALLY, I will end
my contribution this week on a very sad note and refer to the passing of
Albert Davies, one of our Life Members.
Albert, as many of you recall, was always ensconced at the back of the
main stand, just about opposite the half-way line, and his vocal
encouragement was often very audible, especially if the referee was having an
off-day. Albert was a Committee man with the Club when it was elected to the
Welsh League in 1954 and served into the 70s with great enthusiasm. He actually
took part in the construction of the present stand in the early 50s. He was employed as a Cable Foreman with
British Telecom and his wife pre-deceased him some 12 months ago. Albert will be dearly missed here at
Richmond Park. |