50 Glorious years. A brief History.

The original Newtown Rugby Club (NRFC) was founded in the early part of the 20th century, there’s precious little history unfortunately. The club was disbanded during the war years.

The current club was formed following a meeting which was held at the Elephant & Castle Hotel, on the 2nd November 1971. Some 50 founders members were present, the officials elected to serve were:- Chairman H.L.D. Jenkins; Secretary David Jenkins; Treasurer Adam Stanton. The committee was Terry Drage, Doug Underhill, Ray Jones, Dewi Lloyd-Jones, Bernard Corfield, John Collinson. The subs were £1.50. The only founder members I can recall who are still with us are, Murray Owen, Ray Jones, John Collinson and myself. Club colours were red/white, and it was hoped to use the facilities at Newtown High School.

Yhe first game was a trial match to gauge interest in forming a club, this was played on the BRD field (where Morrissons is situated) by courtesy of Ray Slade MD of BRD. The teams were from the Grapes and the Lion. Some of the players, who went on to play for the club included :- Roger Morgan, Chris Williams, Teddy Jones, Clive Morgan ( who went to play at Llanelli), Hugh Lloyd, Russ Green, Black Ned Evans, Murray Owen, Dick Evans and many more whose names I can’t recall.

The first “official” fixture was played at Welshpool on the 6th November Welshpool winning by 31pts to 9pts. The match report named some of the players :- forwards D. Hopkins and Ray Jones, back M.Owen (scrum half), Adam Stanton, R. Owen, back row D.L. Jones/J. Jones an H. Lloyd.

Following fixtures included 4th December versus Rolls Royce, Shrewsbury – 16pts each. 11th December versus Builth Wells losing 7ps to 27pts and 1st January versus Dolgellau losing 0pts to 34pts.

Plans were then laid to have our “own” clubhouse and pitch at Maesydail. A clubhouse was built the driving forces behind this were John Collionson, Bob Thomas (former President). There was plenty of help available from players, supporters including a very active ladies group. Some happy memories of matches and nights at Maesydail !!!!!!!!

Our pitch was needed for factory building so the move was made to the Recreation Ground. The club took the initiative to build new changing rooms, raising money through various outlandish schemes, ie buy a brick, carnival float etc. Max Boyce did the official opening.

Blood sweat and tears were spilled making the pitch playable, and really establishing the Rec as the Club’s new home. A lot has happened since those early years. The Rec clubhouse burned down, and again the club took the initiative to rebuild it.

So looking back at developments at the Rec we have an excellent clubhouse, changing rooms (in need of development) the main pitch, generally agreed to be one of the best in North Wales, a second team pitch, formerly Newtown Hockey Club’s pitch, which we extended by moving the old Town tip!! a floodlit training area, storage sheds, and with support from generous sponsors a spectator stand.

The club entered the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) Probationary Period on September 1992 and gained Full Status in June 1995. There’s a lot which could be added to “fill the gaps” but there’s an awful lot been achieved in the last 50 years – we can look back with some pride.

All the work outlined above was only undertaken so that local people could play rugby, and the club has a proud reputation of being welcoming to players from the whole locality. So let’s give ourselves a huge pat on the back for what we’ve achieved:-

Hooson Cup Winners for 9 years.
Eagle Brewery Shield Winners for 4 years.
Mid Wales District; Harlech Sevens; Lucton Floodit Cup; Mid Wales League Winners, North Wales League Runners Up 1992/93; Mid Wales First Team Cup Winners; Royal Mail Shield. Not to be outdone by the seniors, the Youths and Juniors have had their share of success as well being winners and finalists in their respective competitions.

The most crowning achievement certainly on the pitch was reaching the final of the Welsh Brewers Cup in1989/90. This was the principal National competition in the Welsh Rugby Union Calendar. What a great day for the Club, coaching staff, players and the supporters travelling to the National Stadium, Cardiff. We lost narrowly to Hartridge High School Old Boys, but what a day to record in the annals of the Club’s history.

I’m proud and honoured to have been elected Club President, and to be given this opportunity to write this “potted history”. I follow in the footsteps of some pretty special people who’ve devoted so much of their time for the club A great deal has been achieved, there’s still more to be done so now it’s over to the next generation to build new memories for this special club.

Dai Davies
Club President
Newtown RFC