A WARM WELCOME to you all and particularly to our visitors from Gwynedd. And a ‘well done’ greeting to the Cofis for qualifying for the Quarter Final of this year’s FAW Premier Cup. Our manager Tomi Morgan is always cautious in his predictions about his team but no doubt a top seven place which would guarantee qualification for next season’s Premier Cup must at least be one of his ambitions by the end of the season.

Well, have you heard the one about a well known football personality and renowned after dinner speaker who was booked to speak at a charity dinner in Carmarthen? One hour before the said dinner the function organiser received a telephone call from the guest requesting exact details of the directions to the hotel as he had now arrived in the area. Upon being requested to describe his present location in order that the necessary directions could then be given, the reply came ‘Oh!, just outside the castle towers, in fact, very near to the Lloyd George Statue.’ Yes, the similarity in the names of the clubs of Carmarthen and Caernarfon have often led to confusion. I remember well in the days when Caernarfon were playing in the Northern Premier League (now called the Unibond League), receiving telephone calls after matches on Saturdays from North of England Press Agencies and correspondents requesting our match final score. My reply, such as ‘Carmarthen Town 3 Penrhiwceiber 0’ must have raised eyebrows at the other end of the phone as the startled reply came back ‘ Pen’ who?!’. Of course, once again, lines were being crossed.

Mind you, our two clubs have something very much in common in that we are both embraced in a strong Welsh language culture. Our clubs are two of a very few number in the LoW who directly contribute in the Welsh media both on radio and television. Representatives of the two clubs are frequently interviewed and, as you know, both our programmes are extensively bilingual. Also, all communication between Caernarfon and us is entirely conducted in Welsh. As Secretary, I am of course the main communicant with other clubs, and as I can just about manage the spoken word , unfortunately my standard of literacy for the written word is negligible - (partly due, I’m sure, to the legacy of the complete absence of a Welsh language policy in QEGS and Pentrepoeth during the late 40s and early 50s.) I am, however, fortunate that I can turn for assistance to any direction within the Club, e.g., Chairman, Vice Chairman, Vice Presidents’ Liaison Officer, Programme Editors, Operations Manager, Football Co-ordinator, Manager and certain members of the Committee who are proficiently fluent in the ‘language of heaven’.

IT IS ABOUT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR that suspensions of players begin to take place. As you may know, players accumulate penalty points for cautions, ranging from one point to four points, depending on the nature of the offence. (e.g. four for dangerous or foul play to one for re-entering the field of play without the referee’s permission) and last year when 21 points were accumulated a player would be suspended. Well, this season, the threshold has been increased to thirty points. Alun Evans, the former FAW Secretary, and now the LoW’s representative on the FAW Council, has been instrumental in persuading the FAW to increase the threshold to 30. He felt that FIFA’s more stringent guidelines for referees have resulted in the increase in the brandishing of yellow cards and I think the FAW have adopted a sensible approach which has given players a sort of stay of execution.

Enjoy today’s game and not too many yellow cards, I hope!!

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AT THE DAWN OF THE NEW YEAR (I‘ll spare you the usual clichés, puns, etc. on this occasion), may I welcome you all to Richmond Park, especially our near neighbours from Pembrokeshire. I am told by some of my friends from way down West that during their present unbeaten four match run, two of their drawn matches could easily have been won if luck had not deserted them. Well, let’s hope that their luck does not change, just for today, anyway.

I’m focusing this week on the creditable Programme that our Editors produce. Andrew Sneddon, the ‘authority’ on the analysis of match programmes, here in Wales anyway, recently wrote an interesting feature in that independent Welsh Football magazine called Welsh Football and in it he said (quote) ‘One of my personal favourites from last season has found a way to improve itself without a massive price hike, so it’s hats off to Carmarthen Town for another thoroughly entertaining and informative programme this season.’ Mr Sneddon further goes on to say : ‘All the necessary articles are in place as you would expect, but what sets this apart for me are the extra news and opinion type articles which are written with a passion, and a little humour now and again (come in G.O!), by people who so obviously care about their Club and their League. The layout is simple and smart and although not the most lavish of LoW programmes for me in its present format, will always be one of the best.’ Lavish praise indeed. I feel it is more of a Match Day Magazine than a Programme which gives an opportunity for people to air their views, even though we may not always agree with them. A case in point is today’s article by Curtis Hessler but more of that later. There are also regular contributions giving a younger generation perspective and I refer here to articles by Llyr Hughes Griffiths. And there will be further contributions in the future by high profile figures.

And now back to Curtis Hessler’s article. In fact, Curtis E-mailed his notes from Adelaide, Australia to where he emigrated with his late wife, Jayne, in 1990. In Curtis, we definitely have a Carmarthen Town stalwart, having started in 1963 in Town’s Junior Team when the side was run by Emrys James, W W (Jock) Hagan, and Jim Hughes. In 1984, Curtis went on to manage the Under-16s himself and brought great honour to the Club by winning the Carmarthenshire League Junior Double. He played for the first team in the 1960s, but mainly for the Reserve Team and after a period of instability, a Carmarthen United team was formed in 1970, independent of this Club, to play in the Carmarthenshire League of which Curtis was a member. Curtis’ article does provoke discussion. I agree with his comments regarding the lack of memorabilia but efforts have been made to redress the situation. His reference to previous Town stalwarts not being very well recognised may be valid. Since 1976 Town’s Player of the Year has been recognised by way of the Board in the Clubhouse initiated by a new regime. Previous to that, details were sketchy and many played for a separate team in the town. Whilst the social aspect of the Town Club hardly existed , it was difficult to redress the situation.

As for honours, well, we did win the Welsh League Double in 1995-96, only the second occasion for this to be done since the war, and our Operations Manager, assisted by his regular helpers, has arranged for considerable refurbishment to be undertaken within the Club since Curtis has returned to Australia after his short break. No doubt Curtis will pick up my comments on the Club’s Website, so I would like to send him our best wishes and hopefully another contribution will be forthcoming in the near future from him..................Enjoy today’s game!

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