Senghenydd RFC

A Brief History of Senghenydd Rugby Football Club

A detailed history can be found in the book 'Senghenydd, A Village and Its Rugby Club' by William G Boulton, which is sadly out of print.

• 1891 - 95 The first mine shafts are sunk and a small sleepy village previously known as Parc Hamlet is transformed into a hive of industry known as Senghenydd.
• 1898 - 99 The club is officially formed.
• 1901 (5 am 24th May) The first mining disaster to occur in Senghenydd. Eighty one men died due to an underground explosion, it wasn?t until the 24th of February 1902 that the last body was recovered.
• 1904 - 1905 A man named Evan Roberts arrived in the area with his religious revival which had taken the rest of Wales by storm. He was accompanied by two young ladies, Mary and Anne Davies, who both led the singing at meetings. Many of the locals (including players of Senghenydd) were converted, they renounced the game of rugby as sinful and wicked (lots of teams were disbanded Cilfynydd for example usually fielded two teams could only manage five first team players, the rest of the side was made up of five juniors and five schoolboys). During this time though drunkenness declined and the number of arrests fell. Senghenydd R.F.C struggled through these times, but by 1907 they were at full strength again, but now calling themselves Senghenydd Bluebells R.F.C (It can only be assumed that ?Bluebells? was dropped from the name after a short while, as no record of it being dropped could be found).
• 1913 (October 13th 8 am) Britain?s worst mining disaster, 439 men are killed out of a total of 935 who were down the mine that morning (Senghenydd R.F.C lost five players, a local U16?s football (soccer) team lost five of it?s eleven players)
• 1914 - 15 Senghenydd accepted into the WRU (Welsh Rugby Union) and the Glamorgan league. They were now among the big teams. Senghenydd eagerly prepared for the forth coming season, but the season never started it was abandoned due to the outbreak of war.
• 1949 - 50 The youth team comes into existence
• 1950 - 51 The club eventually comes up with its own badge. The first trainer at the club (Ken Jones), came up with the idea of using the same design as the flag of the Lords of Senghenydd had carried into battle against the Norman's. At the time it was decided that players had to play eighty games to have a badge and a committee man had to be elected for three years.
• 1956 (November 10th) In a game involving the second team, playing against Llandaff North, all thirty players were sent off after something had been said to the referee.
• 1975 Senghenydd set a new club record by beating H.M.S. Glamorgan ( a missile destroyer visiting Cardiff, we beat their players, not the missile destroyer obviously) in a friendly 114 - 6)

Honours

• Cardiff and District League Championship, 2nd Div. :- 1911-12
• Glamorgan League (runners up) :- 1922-23
• Pontypridd and District Union League :- 1931-32, 1933-34
• Rhondda and East Glamorgan League:- 1949-50
• Mid District Championship:- 1965-66, 1966-67, 1967-68, 1969-70, 1970-71,1973-74, 1974-75
• Lord Ninian Stuart Cup:- 1911-12, 1923-24, 1924-25
• Berni Cup (finalists) :- 1917-1918, 1919-20
• Mallet Cup (finalists) :- 1926-27
• Ivor Williams Cup :- 1949-50, 1976-77
• Mid District Cup :- 1952-53, 1954-55, 1955-56, 1969-70, 1974-75, (finalists :- 1977-78, 1980-81)
• Glamorgan County Silver Ball :- 1970-71, 1971-72, (finalists :- 1965-66)
• WRU District 7's :- 1965-66, 1971-72
• WRU District C 7's :- 1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1972-73
• Rhondda East Glamorgan 7's :- 1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72