Pontypridd RLFC was a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

team based in

Pontypridd () ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest () ...

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

, which played for one seasons in the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisa ...

, finishing 27th out of 29 teams in 1926-27, before withdrawing early in the following season.

History

The club was formed following the hosting, at the instigation of the owners of

Taff Vale Park Taff Vale Park is a rugby union ground and former greyhound racing track in Treforest, Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Taff Vale Park is situated on the River Taff The River Taff ( cy, Afon Taf) is a river in Wales. It rises as tw ...

, of a highly successful rugby league international in Pontypridd on 12 April, in which

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

played

in front of 22,000 people. The current tenants of Taff Fale Park, the Pontypridd association football club was in a perilous financial position and eventually folded at the end of the 1925/26 season. Pontypridd Rugby League Club was formed and admission was sought to the

(RFL) in June 1926, the council of which agreed and also set up a Rugby League Commission for Wales to develop the sport in the principality. A supporters’ club was formed in August and by September it had over 500 members. The team attracted an average attendance in its first season of around 5,000, dropping to around 3,000 in the aborted second season.

County match

Pontypridd RLFC supplied all of the Welsh-based players utilised by both sides in Glamorgan's 18–14 victory over Monmouthshire in the non-

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

match during the 1926–27 season at

on Saturday 30 April 1927, the Pontypridd RLFC players for Glamorgan were; Hellings (, 1- try), Grant left-() and T. Davies (), and the Pontypridd RLFC players for Monmouthshire were; S. Fairfax (), Albert Green (left-) and George Oliver right-().Irvin Saxton (publish date

tbc TBC may refer to: Education * Trinity Bible College in North Dakota, US * Tauranga Boys' College, a state secondary school in Tauranga, New Zealand Companies * Triangle Brewing Company of Durham, North Carolina, US * Tram et Bus de la CUB (TBC ...

) "History of Rugby League – № 32 – 1926–27". Rugby Leaguer ISBN n/a

Demise

The team, however, was not successful and by the time it withdrew from professional rugby on 25 October 1927, it had won just eight matches out of the 40 played and conceded nearly 600 points compared to only 271 scored. There was also uncertainty about the club's ground: in August 1927 the owners of Taff Vale Park announced that it had leased the ground for

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

and served notice on the club to find a new ground by 1 January. It was debt, however, that led to the club's demise, with £1,400 owed in the end. Much of this was owed to the RFL, which had lent the club money to purchase playersDaryl Leeworthy (2013). ‘The Dragons of the North: Working-Class Culture, the Miners' Lockout, and the Development of Rugby League in South Wales, 1926–31’. In ‘’Sport in History’’, vol. 33, issue 1, 2013. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460263.2013.763284#abstract.

References

{{Reflist

History

County match

Demise

References

See also