Dial M for Merthyr

Merthyr Town FC will be appealing to its fans at the Hitchin Town match on 29th August to raise funds to help purchase a bronze copy of the Christmas Truce Statue as part of the fan-owned club's heritage project to remember former players who served and fell in the First World War. More information on the statue can be found via the following link; http://www.christmastrucestatue.co.uk/ The club has committed to paying 50% of the cost for the statue which will be used to remember Frank Costello, Jabez Cartwright and William Kirby who all died during the conflict. Fans will be encouraged to donate via a bucket collection upon arrival at the ground. Any money raised over the required target will be donated to the Help for Heroes charity.

It was Lyn Mittell who started it all off in the autumn of 2003. We were enjoying a couple of pre-match pints in Strikers when he dropped an envelope on my lap and told us to investigate this new idea of a Supporters Trust as it could help the club, he was certainly right with that prediction but not in the way he probably imagined. The envelope contained a circular from Supporters Direct looking to promote a new way for supporters to engage with their clubs. The premise being that funds raised for the club should be matched with representation in the Board Room. A steering committee was required to take the project forward and all groups within the Club were contacted to be part of it. Very soon we were able to contact Supporters Direct to confirm that we would seek a mandate from the supporters of Merthyr Tydfil FC to form a Supporters’ Society AKA the Trust. The title of “Martyrs to the Cause” was adopted in the first steering group meeting which was a perfect statement...

Two world wars and the debut game for the Town It can be pretty tedious trawling through registration books and newspaper microfiche when researching Merthyr Town players who may have served in the First World War but some of the stories need to be told to a new generation. One of the characters that was rediscovered was Williams Sebastian Carrier who was known as just Bill Carrier throughout his life. Bill Carrier was born in Huyton on 20 th January 1885. He was a labourer at sixteen years of age but started his football career with Stretford in the Manchester League before joining Manchester United in September 1906, it didn’t seem to work out for him though as he returned to Stretford within a year. Bill seems to now have moved to South Wales to live and to eventually take up the challenge of registering for the fledgling new professional football club at Penydarren Park called of course Merthyr Town FC. He signed contract forms in August 1908 and made his debut in the c...

When Merthyr played at Highbury Arsenal 3 Merthyr Town 0 – FA Cup First Round 1915 Nowadays the news that your club has been drawn against Arsenal in the FA Cup is the signal to celebrate the prospect of a financial windfall and massive TV exposure. However a century ago the reality was somewhat different. At this time World War One has fossilised into a line of trenches stretching from the French Channel coast to the Swiss border and many of the eager volunteers of the summer of 1914 were getting an unfortunate taste of what the reality of war was all about. Frank Costello who had worn the red & green of Merthyr Town in only the previous season had been killed in action only a few weeks before the third round was played. Although many footballers had ripped up their contracts in order to enlist in the armed forces, the decision of the football authorities to continue with a league and cup programme led to the game being subjected to mounting criticism from many sectio...

A century ago the Southern League was being played under very difference circumstances to how we are able to watch the Martyrs in 2014. The world was beginning a global conflict which most people thought or maybe just hoped would be over by Christmas. Merthyr Town continued to play, the Southern League season of 1914/15 was completed before being suspended for the remainder of the War. The professional football players at Merthyr Town were affected by the war in the same way as every other tradesman in the country, they were working class men who joined to fight for their country. We’ve looked into the records to note as many Merthyr Town players who would have fought and sadly died in that catastrophic war. The following list is by no means complete and if you have further information on the players listed or of other players or even staff from Penydarren Park who served then please get in touch. William Kirby William Kirby was born on 21 st June 1882 in Preston. H...

Just Say NO If you don’t want to buy Dial M for Merthyr, then take a leaf from the book of Samuel “Zammo” MacGuire and JUST SAY NO. Whilst selling the issue 48 of our low brow publication it became our mission to make sure we maximised our sales. There was a lot of the feel good…. well you know at MTFC at the end of last season so we wanted to spread a little happiness and donate a few quid to the clubs coffers. The proceeds of the last issue paid for the Ex-Players Day – so thanks if you purchased. So with this aim in mind our sales network of yours truly, Wingy and Jack Hodgkins hit the terraces with the aim of hitting 200 sales. For the most part selling the rag is boring, it is pretty much a slow process. Crowds are down on the halcyon days when Dial M was in its pomp. Today’s sales days are interspersed with games of Kerbsy or even Pitch & Toss. If you are interested Pant beat Trefechan last time out and are the reigning MTFC Kerbsy Champions. The sales process...

What do they expect of us? Merthyr Town has a tradition, probably more a culture, of its supporters following them home and away. Whether it’s walking up Park Terrace, cycling to Cossham Street, trains to Sholing, cars to Yate or the tried and trusted Travel Club bus to almost everywhere the Martyrs will take fans to an away ground no matter the distance. In fact it’s a rarity in our division for any club to bring fans to Penydarren Park, even Paulton only brought a mini bus to CF47 for the play-off final last season, notable exceptions have been Poole Town, Mangotsfield United and Leamington in recent years. So we’ve established that we take a few supporters away with us. Next would be the fact that we also like a drink or two. So we finally come to the conundrum of the fan/drink/profit equation for every clubhouse in the country. Once a season, unless you’re unlucky to pull a midweek game against the Martyrs, you get about sixty to a hundred very thirsty Merthyr folk ...

Each season since the start of the Supporters Trust at Penydarren Park a charity has been nominated to benefit from a fundraising event over the Christmas or New Year period. Two seasons ago the idea of a special shirt to commemorate the day was started, you may remember the Pink & Black striped shirt for Cancer Aid or the Gold shirt last season for the Trinity Fields special school. This year the chosen charity is the Motor Neurone Disease Association. The charity has been chosen to remember Stephen Jarrett who followed the Martyrs but sadly recently died after a 15 year battle with this dreadful disease. 100 years ago Merthyr Town wore a Red shirt with a Green "V" on the chest, we're hoping to resurrect that shirt design for the Boxing Day fundraiser v Cinderford Town. We hope you will once again support Merthyr Town FC and our chosen charity for 2014/15 season.

Jabez Cartwright began his football career at Mapperly and Grantham Town in February 1912. He was a right back who very soon transferred for £110.00 to Bolton Wanderers but for some reason he never played for the Burnden Park club. He joined Merthyr Town FC in January 1914 and played in the Southern League fixture at Portsmouth. His appearances were mainly in The Southern League Charity Cup and South Wales Senior Cup. He was released by Merthyr Town at the end of the season and he rejoined Grantham Town in 1914. Private Jabez Cartwright of the Lincolnshire Regiment was killed in action on 4th October 1917 and he is remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial .