Our History

50 Years And Counting For Cefn Coed RFC

Cefn Coed Rugby Football Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary having initially been the brainchild of Morgan Chambers in 1965.

Mr Chambers - who remains an active member of the club's committee - hoped back then that the club would provide valued sports and social activities in the village.

He, his brother David and their friend Jeff Jones hoped their love of the game would be shared by others in the community.

An initial meeting was called in the Station Hotel, Cefn Coed to see if any interest could translate into support and for the formation of a club, but unfortunately only five people turned up.

Undeterred by this, Mr Chambers rallied around and sought support from more of his friends. He also placed an advert in the local paper, stretching the truth a little stating that the first meeting was a resounding success in order to try to drum up some more interest.

Thankfully his determination and guile paid off and this time almost 50 people turned up for the second meeting and it was decided to form a side and then look for fixtures to play matches. Incidentally the clubs first game was away a few weeks later at Gwernyfed RFC and Cefn's first captain was Roy Jenkins.

Mr Chambers was elected as the club's first chairman and its first president was the famous Merthyr boxer Howard Winstone, who was followed a few years later by local businessman Rupert Bush. The Bush family also remain firmly involved with the club to this day with Rupert's son’s Alan the current club president and Stuart its treasurer.

The club's early seasons were spent trying to ensure teams could be fielded. Local players Trevor Thomas, Steve France, David Davies, Lyndon Childs, Tony Bevan, Norman Monger, Glan James and Elwyn Price all played during those early years, and like members of the Bush family, they have stayed involved and supported the club down the years to this present day.

The team posted an average set of results in the first few seasons with as many matches being won as lost. However, the important thing was that the foundations had been set in place to maintain a side in the area and enthusiasm was building.

Then in 1967 the local branch of the Royal British Legion went in to liquation and with a £10,000 loan from the brewery the building that became the clubhouse was purchased.

The following years saw an increase of interest in the club and the Athletic (second team) and a Youth team were subsequently formed and the numbers enhanced the clubhouse as a social hub in the community for all to use.

Cefn have had many great seasons since their formation, winning a number of trophies and titles along the way while some of its players have gone on to represent the club at District, County, Crawshay's level and even play for the famous Barbarians side.

Many of Cefn’s former players have also gone on to represent other teams in the first class tier of rugby with Elwyn Jones, Wayne Bow, Robert Gould, Steve Jones (Spiky) and David Rees (Scotty) among those to have played at the top level of the game.

Cefn Coed RFC has enjoyed many rugby tours over the year, including jaunts to Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, Holland as well as making more local trips to the likes of Tenby, Gloucester, Corby and Nottingham.
The tours were often subsidised by money raised via the many in-house fund raising activities usually organized by the youth and ladies sections or by hard working club stalwarts such as Howard Barrett, Kevin Driscoll or Gerwyn 'the Bear' Thomas.

This season Cefn has two senior teams, but like many Welsh community clubs has suffered from too few players wanting to represent its Youth section. However,the clubs current thriving mini and junior sections are expected to help ensure players will go on from the Under-7 to Under-16 age grades to re-form and sustain a Youth team in the near future.

This seasons new head coach Chris Payne was himself a former Cefn Coed Under-16 player who went on then to captain the first XV and become a player of the year before going on to higher levels of the game in South Wales.

When his playing days ended, Chris's coaching experience began at Taffs Well RFC before he took over the managerial duties at Senghenydd RFC prior to moving back to Cefn Coed RFC. Assisting him this year as backs coach is Mike Silcox. Mike is a former Bedwas player and also been coached with Chris at Senghenydd RFC. Both are now looking forward to the challenge of developing the club's players and warmly welcome any players - old and new to training.

After his half century of involvement Mr Chambers now looks forward to the club doing what it has always done in the past by providing grassroots rugby for the next 50 years and beyond. The purpose remains the same - to give local people the chance to play and to have a clubhouse social centre for the village community to use and enjoy.