Penarth Rugby Football Club is a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

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

Penarth Penarth ( , ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a Seaside resort#Brit ...

, in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Team history

Origins and early history

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

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

politician

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

, 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 Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 illegitimate ...

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

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

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 is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

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, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

Annual games against the Barbarians FC

The club traditionally hosted the Barbarians Football Club each year from 1901, for their annual

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

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 The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

. 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 Richard Garrett (1865 – 17 February 1908) was a Wales, Welsh international rugby union player who played club rugby for Penarth RFC, Penarth and international rugby for Wales national rugby union team, Wales. Garrett was a collier by trad ...

(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 The 1995 Rugby World Cup (), was the third Rugby World Cup. It was ...

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

Rudolf Straeuli Rudolf August Wilkens Straeuli (born 20 August 1963) is a South African rugby union administrator, and a former player and coach. He is currently the CEO of the Lions Rugby Company. He played in the positions of flanker and Number 8, making 1 ...

, 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 is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, as part of the

Wales national rugby sevens team The Wales national rugby sevens team did compete at the annual SVNS, World Rugby Sevens Series between 2000 and 2022, however merged with England national rugby sevens team, England and Scotland national rugby sevens team, Scotland to form the ...

. 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 Rugby union teams in Wales Rugby clubs established in 1879 Sport in the Vale of Glamorgan Penarth 1879 establishments in Wales