Nodiadau Hydref 2001 / October
2002 Notes
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CONNAH'S QUAY
NOMADS 20.10.01 BACK TO LEAGUE
ACTION at last and a big welcome to you all and especially our visitors from
Deeside in North Wales. As you can
see, one of our contributors today is Mike Davies, Secretary of the Dyfed
Schools Football Association.
Reference to this takes me back many years to my schoolboy days at
QEGS for Boys. There were many of my
school friends who were good footballers but I can say that at the time the
contribution of the school towards Association Football was, in one word,
‘nil’! Now the Rugby Union traditions
of the Gram were immense, and rightly so, where distinguished internationals
such as Lyn ‘Cowboy’ Davies and Gerald Davies had been scholars. In fact, you
could say the same about some other schools in Carmarthenshire who harboured
such marvellous traditions. For example, Gwendraeth GS where the ‘outside
half’ factory was in constant production, with Carwyn James, Barry John,
Gareth Davies and Jonathan Davies prominent. Unfortunately, during my days
there was no Schools Football Association in the County and no connection
with the Welsh Schools FA, so any talented footballer would miss out on caps,
etc. This apathy was a great disappointment to me where I felt that the
headmaster and PE staff could have had a more balanced approach to organised
games. But things began to
change and in 1982, mainly due to the vision of our own Peter Hughes
Griffiths. a Carmarthen and District Schools’ Football Association was set up
at Primary level and then later at Secondary level. Then in 1986, Peter
became the first Secretary of the newly formed Dyfed Schools FA. In latter years G O Jones, who is now on
our Committee, and Michael Davies have become heavily involved with the
Association, the former as Chairman and the latter as Secretary. AT THE
RECENT WALES V BELARUS International, it was gratifying to see three former
Dyfed Schoolboys, namely Simon Davies of St. Davids, Mark Delaney, and
Matthew Jones of Llanelli participating for Wales. But there have been other
Dyfed schoolboys who have not stayed with our game but who have made their
names in Rugby Union, such as Stephen Jones who played in the Wales v Ireland
match last week, and Gwion Bowen, who played for our juniors, is now centre
for Cross Keys. Other names of players who come to mind who tried their hand
at the round ball are Darren Simpson who now plays for Carmarthen Quins and
Justin and Giles Thomas who played for the Carmarthen & District Schools
and who now play for Caerphilly and the Quins respectively. And then, former
Dyfed schoolboys Rhodri Thomas and Ian Jones played for the Welsh Secondary
Schools, Rhodri at both U-15 and U-18 level, and Ian a double Schoolboy
International at both rugby and football.
May the Dyfed Schools Football Association continue to flourish. Enjoy today’s game! NEWPORT COUNTY
16.10.01 MAY I BID YOU ALL a
warm welcome to Richmond Park this evening, and especially our friends from
East Wales. Tonight’s clash with Newport County has indeed been eagerly
awaited since the FAW Premier Cup draw was made some time ago. I can cast my mind back to the very early
80s when we played Newport County Reserves in a Welsh League match at
Somerton Park and there was great rejoicing within our club when we returned
with a 1-0 win, having indeed beaten the Reserve team of a Football League
Club. How things have changed in the short space of 20 years when now we
entertain County’s first team and, dare I say it, on a level footing which I
think speaks volumes for the progress we have made, especially during the
last nine years. Last
Saturday Newport moved within one game of the FA Cup First Round which I
think underlines the dream that exists within the Club and its Supporters of
one day playing again in the English Football League. I feel that the Dr Martens League is not
their scene but it is being used as an avenue for a possible return to the
higher echelons of English football. A Football League
club, no doubt, can be a jewel in the crown of a large town or city and it
would be a disaster, for example, if the city of Swansea were to lose their
Football League status. But I feel that things are changing and Football
League membership is not now such a romantic notion as it used to be. In
England, vast sums of money are now being directed to the top of their
Football Pyramid with signs of decay in the lower echelons of the
professional game. Two Football League chairmen visited Richmond Park with
their teams in pre-season friendlies and I can tell you there is tremendous
stress in finding money to keep up with the wealthier clubs.. But in the case of the exiles and their
supporters the dream will live on and I hope that one day it will be
realised. But where does the
LoW stand in this equation? I think it is up to the League to produce a
product which will attract teams such as Newport, Merthyr and Colwyn Bay to
their ranks without any persuasion.
Who knows, this might be achieved one day when the rewards of Europe
will outweigh the attraction of the Football League. AND NOW A
WORD about the Premier Cup Programme competition. The Board of Directors have
decided that this year there will be a Programme Competition with a healthy
price at the end of it for the best programme at the Group stage and of the
Quarter and Semi-Final stages. Well,
I hope you enjoy reading this programme, as also the one against Rhyl,
especially the contributions of Ryland James, Football Correspondent for the South Wales Argus, Llyr Hughes
Griffiths, our worthy Mayor of Carmarthen and, not least of all, Gareth
Hughes who contributed in our Rhyl programme last week. Enjoy tonight’s game! RHYL 09.10.01 A GOOD EVENING TO YOU ALL and welcome to this special
night when we play the first of this year’s Premier Cup group matches. This
competition has no doubt been eagerly awaited within this Club ever since we
qualified by securing a top seven spot last season in the LoW. There were some concerns regarding the future of this
competition but I finally landed up as the Club’s representative at the FAW
Premier Cup AGM at the end of last month which heralded another season for
the competition. At the meeting the
competition’s very articulate Chairman, Dr Ian Skewis, emphasised the
importance of presenting a good product for the BBC and hoped that the
attendance at all matches would be worthy of the competition and that TV
figures at the Quarter Final stage when the matches will be televised will
justify the BBC’s investment. And of
course, the marketing starts with the clubs.
One of their major outlets is via publicity in the media, both in
broadcasting and the press and as far as this club is concerned I can safely
say this is an ongoing process throughout the season. I can underline this by
firstly mentioning our Chairman’s considerable profile in the media both on
the radio and TV as is, of course our Manager, and I would also like to
mention the excellent work Malcolm Williams does in presenting live radio
reports quite extensively on Saturday afternoons. There is the added bonus of
the three mentioned being able to make their presentations bilingually. And
then there is the press, especially the local press. Over the years, you may
have been reading the match reports in the Carmarthen Journal and you must have noted their pathetically
stereotyped presentations week after week, which may not capture the
imagination of the reader. But hold on, before you think I’m being unfair to
the Editorial Staff. Can I say that it is not their fault because the match
reports are the work of yours truly (although I have had the assistance over
the years of Howard Williams, Nigel Williams and Peter Price to name three)
In fact, the Editorial Staff have been marvellous in printing every report I
have made. These have often gained prominence on the back page and, of
course, sometimes in less significant areas of the paper. But things are going to change. I had a phone call this week from the new
Sports Editor of the Journal,
Jonathan Roberts, who informed me that he would be covering many mid-week
matches from now on - news which I was delighted about as these matches will
now be reported on an unbiased and more professional basis which will no
doubt go down well with the readers and help to publicise our Club. Unfortunately,
however, you will have to put up with my mundane Saturday afternoon reports.
Jonathan did indicate that there will be a new style of sports presentation
in the Journal with match reports
for all sports in the inside pages and the back pages reserved for breaking
sports news items and major features.
We wish him well in his new post. Finally,
I hope that Neville Southall will be here tonight. We at the Club were most appreciative of his support some two
years ago when he officially opened our Fete
and Gala. On arriving, he
indicated that rather than make a speech, it would be better if he would don
his kit which he duly did to act as goalkeeper for the numerous children
present to take penalties against him. It goes without saying that Neville
did not charge us for his services that day. ENJOY
TONIGHT’S GAME! AFAN LIDO 02.10.01 A warm welcome to you
all to this evening’s final LoW Group Cup Match, especially our friends from
the Lido where we are always well received. To quote an oft mentioned cliché,
we can safely say that this match is a purely academic one. Whatever the
result, we will have qualified whilst our opponents will not. One can
question the profile of this competition in the group stages at least. I
suggest that clubs are not as totally committed as the League would like -
they may field fringe players on occasions and support, at least here at
Carmarthen, is not as forthcoming as in LoW matches. On a personal note, however, I like the competition and
has not every National League in the United Kingdom and the Republic of
Ireland got a League Cup? I feel that
an opportunity for younger players to play in the first team is an excellent
concept. Tonight’s game, for example,
provides an ideal situation for experiments to be made. But should the competition be revamped? One of our staunchest supporters, Bernie
Davies, whose company ATB Davies & Sons sponsor us year after year, has
provided me with an interesting strategy to possibly increase the interest in
this competition. Due to the heavy fixture list of LoW Clubs, he suggests
that the top eight in one year who will be playing in the FAW Premier Cup the
following year be exempt from the competition. This could allow the top four
clubs of both the Welsh League here in the South and the Cymru Alliance in
the North to join the remaining ten in his competition. As a result, clubs
with Premiere fixtures would be relieved of some serious congestion. At the same time, some very interesting
confrontations would arise. Giant
killing acts could be the forte and Welsh League and Cymru Alliance clubs
would be provided with a helpful measure of their possibilities if they were
ever promoted to the LoW. I think, however, that there would have to be a
tempting financial reward for the eventual winners. You will note that our guest writer today is Gareth
Vincent of the Evening Post. We welcome Gareth as a newcomer to Wales,
especially the LoW scene. You will
note from his article that he hails from Stoke in the Potteries and after
attending University at Sheffield where he studied Politics he joined the
Evening Post about two years ago in the News Department. Upon the move by the Deputy Sports Editor,
Jonathan Wilsher, to other work within the Newspaper, he along with Phil
Dillon, who has also written in this Programme in the past, filled in
Jonathan’s slot and Gareth now reports on Swansea City matches for his
paper. Gareth accompanied us to Stockholm last June
and thoroughly enjoyed the experience
and is very hopeful that we will once again qualify for Europe next season so
that we can renew our friendship.
Enjoy tonight’s game! |