BORTH UNITED (Uppingham Playing Fields)

CYNGHRAIR ABERYSTWYTH LEAGUE, BORTH UNITED 1-8 BONT FC,

ATTENDANCE: 47 (h/c)

My season of groundhopping ended, domestically anyway, with a trip to the seaside to watch the 2023/24 Aberystwyth League champions Bont comprehensively beat Borth to wrap up their season in style.

It finished with the visitors scoring eight but, after coming through the opening 15 minutes when Borth were well on top, they could've scored double that. It was only 1-2 at the break though but the game ran away from the homesters after a four goal blitz just after half time, The Crows heads and legs clearly going.

Goals:

Borth United - Ross Diamond (44)

Bont FC - Keiran Duggan (15) William Evans (22, 56) Jordan Perry (51, 57, 79) David Evans (54) Richard Jones (67)

Founded in 1890, Borth have spent the majority of their history in local leagues though, after winning the Aberystwyth League in 2014 they took promotion to the Mid-Wales League Division Two. In 2017 they reached the third tier of Welsh football but that sojourn only lasted one season as the club finished bottom of Division One. The club returned to the Aberystwyth League in 2020.

This has been a difficult season for Borth as their ground was flooded last October and this was only the second time they had played at home in 2024. Hopefully brighter days are to come for The Crows next season.

AFC LLWYDCOED (The Ron Jones Stadium)

FAW AMATEUR TROPHY 4th ROUND, AFC LLWYDCOED 3-1 NEWPORT CORINTHIANS, ATTENDANCE: 34 (h/c)

The fourth round of the FAW Trophy took centre stage this weekend and, not for the first time this season, I was drawn to South Wales. The big attraction was a chance to witness a game at the Ron Jones Stadium in Aberdare where AFC Llwydcoed are playing their home games whilst their Welfare Ground is being redeveloped to meet Welsh Tier 2 standards.

An historic location having being used for various sports since the late 19th century, the stadium complex was built on the site of the old Ynys Stadium which was the home of Aberdare Athletic, who were members of the English Football League between 1921 and 1927. There is no overlap of the original pitch with the current grass pitch, an all-weather pitch is located on the site of the original football pitch, just beyond the athletics track.

The stadium was opened and named in honour of Ron Jones, who still remains one of Wales' greatest athletes having won 12 national sprint titles between 1956 and 1970. He competed at three Olympic games and was part of the Great Britain 4x110 yards relay team that set a world record in 1963.

Outside of athletics, he became Chief Executive of Queens Park Rangers in 1976, the first Managing Director at Cardiff City in 1980 and then Managing Director at Portsmouth in 1988. Ron Jones was inducted into the Welsh Sports 'Hall of Fame' in 2013 and passed away in December 2021, aged 87.

This afternoon's trophy tie pitted AFC Llwydcoed, of the Ardal South West League, against Newport Corinthians, of the Gwent League Premier Division. An interesting match up for the neutral as despite the difference in status, Llwydcoed are down near the bottom of the table and in a bad run of form whilst Corinthians sit top of their league, having lost just one game all season.

It suggested an upset but in truth Llwydcoed were always in control of this tie but after creating plenty of chances they were only 1-0 at the interval, thanks to a goal from Ricky Carter after 14 minutes.

It seemed Llwydcoed would pay for their profligacy when Newport equalised within seconds of the restart, Nathan Perkins scoring the goal. The goal, obviously, lifted Corinthians but they couldn't find that second goal and eventually Llwydcoed recovered and once Dewi Abbruzzese restored their lead on the hour, they never looked like losing the tie. Carter scored his second on 75 minutes and that was game over. 

AFC Llwydcoed will now be at home to another Newport team, Newport City, in the next round on 16th December.

CORRIS UNITED (King George's Field)

ABERYSTWYTH AND DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE, CORRIS UNITED 5-3 PENPARCAU RESERVES, ATTENDANCE: 41 (h/c)

This afternoon I took a trip to visit a ground that has been on my "bucket list" for quite a while - King George's Field, the home of Corris United. 

Wales is famous for it's grounds with stunning views and Corris' home regularly appears in books, pictorials, articles, or high up in polls, as one of the best, most scenic, grounds in the country. Today the stars finally aligned and I finally headed down to into Mid-Wales to see for myself. It certainly didn't disappoint!

Corris itself is a former slate mining village in the county of Gwynedd and is around 5 miles north of Machynlleth. It is now more famous for the Corris Railway, a preserved narrow gauge railway, with steam trains, that runs on the border between Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire. It was originally built to carry slate from quarries in the Corris area and it first opened in 1859. This was my first port of call pre-match and was an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so.

Corris United are the local football team and they reformed in 2019, after eight years in abeyance. Given the history of the village they are nicknamed The Quarrymen. They play in the Cambrian Tyres Aberystwyth and District League, which is the 5th tier of Welsh football. There are just 10 teams in the division so, despite this being the second weekend of September, this was actually the opening day of the league season.

As the village is in the Dyfi Valley and the pitch can been seen from the A487, and also from the Corris railway, which both overlook the ground. It all makes a stunning location and an amazing vista. It looked even better in the glorious sunshine that beat down.

Admission was by donation and included a 4 page programme, which was a very pleasant surprise. As for the football, it was a good game to watch as The Quarrymen beat current Aberystwyth League champions Penparcau Reserves 5-3. Credit to both teams for producing such a watchable game in the blistering heat.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring through Lee Jones (32) before a Dion Kohler double (35 & 41) put the homesters in front. A penalty from Liam Lewis in first half stoppage time ensured it was all square at the break.

Charlie Jellet (62) fired Corris into the lead before an incident in the 77th minute saw both teams reduced to 10-men with Ryan Jones and Liam Lewis shown straight red cards.

Jake Hinge (82) extended Corris' lead before Jones grabbed his second for Arky deep into stoppage time. Any thoughts of a dramatic comeback were quashed moments later when Kohler scored once again to complete his hat-trick. Excellent stuff indeed.

It was a wonderful afternoon in mid-Wales and, if you haven't been here before, I would certainly recommend you putting a visit to Corris United on your groundhopping "bucket list".

EDIT: On 30th September 2023 Penparcau folded their reserve team due to "lack of commitment and attitude shown to managers in recent weeks". Therefore this was one of the games that was declared null and void and expunged from the records. Revisit required then?