Dial M for Merthyr

The Black Parade No, this isn’t a review of some music album by some over-rated rock band from New Jersey but recognition of one of the two Jack Jones books that are based in and around Merthyr Tydfil. Jack Jones was born in Merthyr Tydfil, the eldest of nine surviving siblings. He was a miner from the age of 12 years and later a trade unionist for his fellow mineworkers during the general strike of 1926. Jack was a political chameleon, he started as a communist, and moved from Labour through to Oswald Mosley’s New Party via the Liberals (he stood for them in the Neath constituency having been attracted by Lloyd-George and his policies for coal and power). The Black Parade was published in 1935 and was his breakthrough novel in which creates a superbly riotous, clear and unsentimental picture of Merthyr life through the viewpoint of Saran as her home-town ploughs headlong into the twentieth century. As one of Merthyr’s Victorian brickyard girls, Saran watches the world parade ...

A few years ago, a Wales shirt appeared on eBay with some astronomical bid amount  included. The shirt was advertised as match-worn during the disappointing 2-0 defeat  against England at Old Trafford in October 2004. The bid amount looked to increase as  fans bid to get their hands on a piece of football history, but the shirt had a flaw, although  in this case it was more about a lack of flaw, which confirmed it as a fake. The shirt seemed genuine enough with the match details embroidered as was the style  for Wales games during that era. Sadly, for the seller their sewing skills and more  importantly their knowledge of the Welsh language was better than the FAW staff at the  time as the words  Lloegr v Cymru  were spelled correctly whereas the actual match shirts  had advertised the game as  Loegr v Cymru . The original match shirts were wrong, and the  advertised item was right which made it wrong. A fake. There are 29 lett...

Following on from the recent post about how a Merthyr Tydfil AFC badge accompanied my journey through the highs & lows of secondary school education in our fair borough, a recent clear out of stuff from my house has brought a few more items of memorabilia from that era of youthful exuberance back into focus. The seventies wasn’t a bad decade to follow the Martyrs. It started with John Charles and that beautiful mauve & yellow football kit. Broken hearts against Hendon and Tooting & Mitcham too. It ended with the heartache of that midweek defeat to Burton Albion and no promotion but in between we had the Chesham United FA Cup disappointment. Penydarren Park was a lot different to the stadium we enjoy today. The ground was only two-sided with just Main Stand and Wank Bank providing any cover so behind each goal there was plenty of space to play football, tell tall tales and run wild. We watched both Match of the Day and The Big Match every weekend and marveled at the b...

Should we leave and play at Penydarren Boys Club  with our current ground mothballed until we reach the National League? The basic  premise for this extreme solution to a problem that probably only exists inside my  paranoid mind is that our ground is too nice, comfortable, welcoming and it inspires our  opposition. It’s also a burden on our finances but more on that later.   One of the attractions for me growing up following the Martyrs was visiting other  Southern League grounds and experiencing a big match atmosphere, mostly without  any of that 80s and 90s terrace nonsense that seemed to haunt the professional game.  It wasn’t always peaceful of course, no police presence meant that if there was trouble  it would escalate quickly, but the grounds were full of atmosphere and you could sense  the shared terrace history of clubs like Worcester City, Kidderminster Harriers,  Cheltenham Town, Bromsgrove Rovers and Bath City. ...

I’m hoping this article will provide a cathartic release from the whole Farnborough debacle, from the home club’s pathetic response to the attacks (there were notable exceptions of course), the initial reaction by the media, the ineffectual investigation by the Hampshire Police and the realization that justice on this septic isle is out of the reach of the working classes. I also want to put the record straight for those if you who choose to read this. What really happened on December 4th 2021. The annual “Christmas Jumper” trip was one of the highlights for Martyrs fans in any season; a chance to be silly, wear daft festive fashions, meet exiled fans and lately raise money for local charities. Some of the toys donated by Merthyr fans at Harrow in 2020 In 2020 hundreds of Merthyr fans donated toys for the fans on the Christmas Jumper to take to Harrow Borough to distribute to children affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster. As usual the people of Merthyr Tydfil rose to the occasio...

This is how a matchday at PP looked after the businessmen who owned our club ran it into the ground back 2008.