Happy 150th Birthday Pontypridd RFC!
HAPPY 150th BIRTHDAY PONTYPRIDD RFC!
We all know that our club’s badge tells us that we were established in 1876, and we celebrated our centenary season in 1975-76. The legend has it that a group of young men, led by one James Spickett, met in the Butcher’s Arms Hotel sometime in 1876 to discuss the formation of a “football club” in the town of Pontypridd. This may well have happened, although the first press reports of rugby in Pontypridd after that date do not appear until October 1878, However, there is evidence that rugby football was first played by a team carrying the title “Pontypridd Football Club” long before that.
One hundred and fifty years ago this week, on Thursday, 18 December 1873, a notice appeared in the South Wales Daily News that told of a football match to be played on that day “between the Roath and Pontypridd Clubs.” Play was to commence at 2.30 pm at the Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. A subsequent report in the Cardiff Times on 20 December 1873 told of “a splendid and well contested match”. Apparently, rain had fallen heavily for several days before the game, and “the ground was in anything but a favourable condition.” However, “Notwithstanding the inclement state of the weather, a goodly number of ladies honoured the players with their presence.”
The soggy conditions “did not for a moment daunt the courage of the players” and play proceeded “with great energy on both sides”. The game lasted for seventy minutes, and “so equally matched were the teams” that it all ended without a goal being scored. Eleven players are listed in the two teams, with four backs and seven forwards. The Pontypridd team were: W.C. Penn, A. Stockwood (backs), G. Lenox, A.P. Gaskell (half backs), E. Penn, D. Morgan, J. Sprague, H. Briscoe, C, Davies, W. Jenkins, and A. Porcher (forwards).
Although the number of players was eleven a side, mention is made of Pontypridd having to touch the ball down in their goal are to prevent the opposite side from scoring, which clearly means that the game was played according to the Rugby Rules. The rugby game had only recently established a general set of rules to distinguish it from Association Football (soccer) and the number of players seems to have varied according to who could turn up on the day.
The G. Lenox mentioned in the report was Lewis Gordon Lenox, part owner of the Brown Lenox Chainworks, who had recently come to live in Pontypridd. He would obviously have gone to a good public school and learned the rugby game there. W.C. Penn and E. Penn were the sons of the manager of the chainworks, and H. Briscoe was the son of the owner of the Great Western Colliery in Hopkinstown, who would go on to captain the Pontypridd club in 1878/79. It is likely that more of the players were workers at the chainworks, so were able to get Thursday afternoon off to go and play rugby.
So, there we are. Happy 150th birthday Pontypridd RFC, and long may we live and thrive!
Alun Granfield
