UPDATES
• Llanelli & District League
With the help of Llanelli AFC we have received some info and one table on this short-lived League which will be forwarded to participants soon.
Otherwise there have been no significant updates to the tables of individual leagues since the last bulletin. Letters have been sent or e-mailed to the following Leagues:
• Cardiganshire League
• Mid-Wales (South) League
• Rhymney Taff Ely Football Alliance
• Rhondda Football League
• Aberdare Valley Football League
• Merthyr Football League
• South Wales Senior League
• South Wales Amateur League
• Swansea Senior League
• Gwent County League
• Gwent Central Football League
• North Gwent Football League
• East Gwent Football League
• Newport & District Football League
• Port Talbot League
• Cardiff & District League
• Cardiff Combination League
• Bridgend & District League
• Vale of Glamorgan League
Only replies so far have been from the Newport & District League, South Wales Amateur League and Cardiff Combination League who have agreed to help as much as they can.
I will allow sufficient time for meetings to be held and will then contact the remainder again and at the same time contact their local papers with an appeal.
Area FAs will also be formally contacted asking them to promote our project by encouraging their affiliate Leagues to offer co-operation.
• SOCCER HISTORY the current top publication for football historians and statisticians will feature our endeavours in their next issue due out in April.
Text histories
I have received a copy of Whatever happened to the Tugboatonians? - the centenary book of the Newport & District Football League from secretary Peter Aston. This book will provide all the necessary data to cover that League’s text history and also of its predecessors.
If any recipient would like a copy, please contact Peter Aston on 01633 412780.
If anyone has any notes on the creation of any Leagues or knows of any books on the history of any League can you please advise?
Website
We have received a quote of £500 to create a website and manage it for the first year. This seems quite reasonable for the amount of data that we need to make available and what we need the site to do.
I am now looking at ways of obtaining the money via sponsorship and grant aid.
The bodies such as the Lottery Heritage Fund insist on a formal body being set up with officers and a committee and an agreed constitution but as our project has no need of such a formal set-up this will not be considered unless all else fails. We have one single cost and we need to cover it, it’s as simple as that.
Annual running costs after the first year will hopefully be covered by advertising.
Ian Garland has agreed to approach the FAW for a grant to cover as much of the cost as possible. As we are preserving the domestic heritage of football in Wales we are hopeful of support from the governing body. However we do not want to put all our eggs in this basket and any ideas for sponsorship would be followed up.
Those directly involved with the project so far are:
- Mel Thomas
- Ian Garland
- Aled Jones
- Alun Evans
- Peter Arrowsmith
- Gavin Grosvenor
- Dave Rapson
- Alan Ahearne
- Gareth Hughes
- Clive Wyatt
- Dave Collins
- Tony Griffiths
New members will hopefully be added soon as people become aware of the project.
To close, please would all recipients stay in regular touch especially if new items come to light. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Mel 05/02/05
