Issue 52 of Dial M For Merthyr is out now. You can request a copy via wolvesy@yahoo.co.uk all we ask is that you donate £1 to the Orgreave Justice Campaign via their PayPal account on their website.
I was actually there when he came up with the name. It was Walsall v's Sunderland in '88 and we were talking with the Editor of the new Sunderland Fanzine, Wise Men Say.. 'So, what's your called then?' Asked the Mackem... 'Dial M for Merthyr' replied Wolvesy. The guy laughed. I laughed. He turned to me and said, 'I just made that up'. 'It's good mate. Not sure how many people on the Wank Bank will be aware of Hitchcock's brilliant suspense masterpiece but it's better than my idea for the name'. (I was all for 'You sexy Merthyr F*ckers' as Prince was big with the song at the time). And so that was it, 'Dial M for Merthyr' was born. The rest, as they say, is a mystery... The one thing about Mark Evans is that he's a born leader. It's true. He may get 'all shucks' about it but his legacy is astonishing. I'd never be doing what I'm doing now if it wasn't for
It’s the 30 th April 1924 and Merthyr Town are in the Welsh Cup Final for the first time. A 2-1 semi-final victory at Penydarren Park in front of 10,000 fans over local rivals and fellow Football League members Aberdare Athletic means that the Red & Greens faced Wales’s oldest club and the Welsh Cup’s perennial winners Wrexham AFC in the Final tie to be played at Taff Vale Park near Pontypridd. Taff Vale Park was the home of Pontypridd FC at that time and had hosted a previous Welsh Cup Final two years earlier when Cardiff City had hoisted the famous trophy after a 2-0 win over Ton Pentre. Pontypridd FC were members of the Southern League from 1911 until their demise in 1926 (their first game at Taff Vale Park had been for the visit of Queen’s Park Rangers). The venue though had been a multi-sports arena from the 1890s when it was built for Pontypridd RFC. Sports such as athletics, greyhound racing, speedway, cycling, rugby league, boxing contests and even baseball would
“Badges, we don’t need no stinking badges!” is one of the best lines in the classic Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles but we all need badges, don’t we? Something personal that shows both who or what we support and what our values are to the outside world. I wore this Merthyr Tydfil AFC badge on the lapel of my Vaynor & Penderyn school blazer every day I was in that fine establishment of learning. I probably wore it firstly because the chance of getting any MTFC merchandise in that era was virtually nil. The club shop operated out of the tea hut at the end of the grandstand and it was never open in the seventies and when those wooden boards were ever open then every kid in the ground would flock there to buy anything available but it was always the same stuff – key-rings, rosettes and badges. So even a badge was a rarity and such a rare item could never be allowed to rest somewhere in a drawer to be lost in some clear out years later. It had to be shown off, it was a family heirloom
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