Penarth Rugby Football Club is a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club based since 1924 at The Athletic Field, Lavernock Road, in Penarth, in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Team history

Origins and early history

Penarth RFC was founded in 1879 by Cyril and Llewellyn Batchelor, sons of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

politician

John Batchelor John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and host of ''Eye on the World'' on the CBS Audio Network. His flagship station is New York's 710 WOR. The show is a hard-news-analysis radio program on current events, world his ...

, first named the Batchelor XV. There was another mention of a Penarth team playing in 1877 and again with the formation of a Penarth team in 1880. It joined with Penarth Dreadnoughts in 1882 and became Penarth Football Club. The team were nicknamed the "Donkey Island Butcher Boys" or the "Seasiders". Early games were played on a field which is now occupied by Penarth's All Saints Church. In 1891 the pitch was relocated to land owned by the

Earl of Plymouth Earl of Plymouth is a title that has been created three times: twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. History The first creation was in 1675 for Charles FitzCharles, one of the dozens of illegitima ...

on Stanwell Road. This was used to grow vegetables during the 1914-18

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Seventeen Penarth RFC players were killed during the war and are commemorated by the Memorial Stand above the clubhouse's Long Room. The club subsequently moved to a field on Lavernock Road owned by Fred Davies of Morristown. Finally the team moved to a permanent home at the Athletics Field, again provided by the Earl of Plymouth for the town's rugby, cricket and hockey teams.

International players

A number of Penarth RFC players have achieved international caps for

and the British Lions, between the late 1880s and the early 1960s. These included Richard Garrett (1888 – 1892), George Rowles (1892) and John M C Dyke (1906). Brothers Len and John Dyke were toured

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

with the 1908 Anglo-Welsh team, joined by former Penarth captain Reggie Gibbs. Tommy Garrett and Tommy Crossman played a school-boy international for Wales against England in 1909. Other Penarth players gaining Welsh international caps were Mel Rosser (1924), Jack Bassett (1929–1932), Gomer Hughes (1934) and Frank Trott (1939-1945). Jack Bassett also played all five test matches with the British Lions in 1930. He also played for the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

and captained the Wales team on nine occasions. Elwyn Jones played for the Barbarians against the 1963

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

Annual games against the Barbarians FC

The club traditionally hosted the Barbarians Football Club each year from 1901, for their annual Good Friday fixture. Over the next 75 meetings, Penarth won eleven games, drew four and lost 60. The final Penarth v Barbarians game took place in 1986, though a special centenary commemorative game took place in 2001 before the Barbarians played

at the Millennium Stadium. A plaque at the clubhouse marks the event.

Notable former players

* Jack Bassett (15 caps)''Fields of Praise, The Official History of the Welsh Rugby Union 1881-1981'' pp463, David Smith, Gareth Williams (1980) *

James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...

* John Dyke, Wales and British Lions * Dickie Garrett (8 caps) * Reggie Gibbs (16 caps) * Gomer Hughes * Iorwerth 'Iorrie' Isaacs * Leslie "Les" Manfield * Austin Matthews * Jamie Ringer * Mel Rosser * George Rowles * Ralph Sweet-Escott *

Hemi Taylor Hemi Takatou Taylor (born 17 December 1963) is a former international Wales rugby union player. A back row forward, he was part of the Wales squad for the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He is a cousin of former Australian squash player Danielle Drady ...

* LS Thomas 1908 British Lions * Chris Thorne * Allan Martin, Wales, Barbarians and British Lions *

Les Keen Leslie "Les" Keen (born 13 November 1954) is an ex-Welsh rugby union international who played for Aberavon RFC during the 1970s and 1980s. Born and brought up in Port Talbot Keen was educated at Sandfields Comprehensive. He was a left wing and a ...

, Wales *

Rudolf Straeuli Rudolf August Wilkens Straeuli (born 20 August 1963 in Pretoria, South Africa) is a former South African rugby union player and coach and currently the CEO of the Lions Rugby Company. He played in the positions of flanker and Number 8, making ...

, Springboks player and coach

Penarth RFC today

The club celebrated its 125th anniversary during the 2004-05 season. During the course of the year a number of special games were played, including fixtures against the Glamorgan County, Welsh Academicals, and Coal Island Éire sides. Former Penarth Youth RFC player Jamie Ringer took part in the 2006

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, as part of the

Wales national rugby sevens team The Wales national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens and in the Commonwealth Games. Wales were the World Cup Sevens Champions after winning the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in the United Ara ...

. Also that year former Wales rugby Captain

, a playing member of Penarth RFC senior team, presented the club's highly successful youth section with a cheque for £1,500 on behalf of the ‘Bears Golf Society'. Originally the Bears, who formed in 1982, raised money only for the senior Penarth team. After a hard and concerted campaign in 2006-07, Penarth RFC won promotion to the Welsh National League Division 3 South-East by finishing runner-up in Division 4 South-East. After the 2009-2010 season the team gained promotion to Division 2 East. The club currently play in Division 3 East Central A of the WRU Leagues. Penarth are coached by Matthew Bolton and Tristan Davies. The Club Captain for the 2018/19 season is D. Rhys Morgan with Chris Mortimer and Alan Doyle being vice captains.

References

External links

Penarth RFC Official Website
{{Coord, 51.428059, -3.181636, display=title Welsh rugby union teams Rugby clubs established in 1879 Sport in the Vale of Glamorgan Penarth