Origins and early history
Penarth RFC was founded in 1880 by Cyril and Llewellyn Batchelor, sons of the John Batchelor whose statue stands in The Hayes Cardiff. Originally known as the Batchelor XV the team amalgamated with Penarth Dreadnoughts in 1882 and renamed as Penarth Football Club – soccer being known as Association football at the time. Locally the team became known as the “Donkey Island Butcher Boys”, a nickname that occasionally remains to this day, along with the familiar name of the “Seasiders”. Early games had been played on land owned by Glebe Street butcher and early club benefactor, David Cornwall and located on the field where All Saints Church now stands in Victoria Square.
In 1891 the pitch was relocated to land owned by the Earl of Plymouth roughly where the Masonic Hall now stands on Stanwell Road, behind Victoria School. During the 1914 – 1918 Great War the pitch was dug up and used to grow vegetables for local residents. During the war seventeen Penarth RFC players were killed while performing their army service in France and are commemorated by the Memorial Stand above the clubhouse’s Long Room. At the end of the war the club moved again, this time to a field on Lavernock Road opposite the Penarth County Grammar School sports field, owned by Fred Davies of Morristown. After a brief spell on Thurston’s field (where Erw Delyn School now stands) the team finally relocated to its permanent home at the Athletics Field, provided to the community by the Earl of Plymouth for use by the towns rugby, cricket and hockey teams.
The Golden Years
The earliest Penarth RFC players to achieve international caps for Wales were Richard Garrett (between 1888 – 1892), George Rowles (1892) and John M C Dyke (1906). Three Penarth players were selected to tour New Zealandwith the 1908 Anglo-Welsh team, they were brothers Len and Ralph Thomas and John Dyke (Ralph Thomas was injured prior to embarcation and was not able to join the tour). Also on the Anglo-Welsh team was former Penarth captain Reggie Gibbs, by then playing with Cardiff RFC. Annually between 1910 and 1913 Penarth RFC toured France playing matches against teams from Tarbes, Bayonne pau Brive, Bordeaux and Le Havre.
Tommy Garrett, the son of Richard Garrett together with Tommy Crossman played for Wales against England in a school-boy international during 1909. Both their international caps and Tommy Crossman’s jersey are held in the club archive. Other players who gained their Welsh international caps from Penarth were Mel Rosser (1924), Jack Bassett (1929 – 1932). Gomer Hughes (1934), Frank Trott (1939 – 1945 wartime international games), Elwyn Jones played for the Barbarians against the 1963 All Blacks. Jack Bassett was also selected to tour with the British Lions in 1930 playing in all five tests matches before captaining Wales on nine separate occasions and also playing for the Barbarians.
Glamorgan and England cricketer and all-round sportsman, Austin Matthews also played for Penarth RFC and later Northampton RFC. In 1929, during his time with Penarth, Austin was a final Welsh rugby trialist and his cap is held in the Penarth Clubs archive. Matthews captained Northampton RFC between 1935 – 1937. His Northampton cap is also lodged with the Penarth RFC archive together with the cap gained by Austins father, Frederick, as a final Welsh rugby trialist in 1896. Austin also represented Wales at table tennis.
Until a steady slow decline in the clubs fortunes and a major reorganisation of Welsh rugby during the mid 1970s, Penarth RFC continued to be a regular force in the “Welsh First Class Clubs” playing their weekly matches against top quality sides from Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Bridgend, Neath, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Bath and Gloucester.
Barbarians FC
The highlight of the clubs year was the traditional hosting of the world-famous Barbarians Football Club at annual Good Friday fixtures that were always attended by enthusiastic capacity crowds. This fixture marked the start of the “Baa-Baas” annual South Wales tour from their “spiritual home” of Penarth, which also encompassed playing Cardiff RFC on the Saturday, Swansea RFC on Easter Monday and Newport RFC on the Tuesday.
The non-match day of Easter Sunday would always see the Barbarians playing golf at the Glamorganshire Golf Club, in Penarth, while the former Esplanade Hotel, that was located on the seafront at Penarth would host the gala party for the trip, sponsored by the Penarth RFC club. The first match took place in 1901, and over the next 75 encounters, Penarth won eleven games, drew four and lost 60. Between 1920 and the first Athletics Field game in 1925 the Good Friday games were hosted on Penarth County Grammar School’s sports field. The final Penarth v Barbarians game was played in 1986 by which time the Penarth club had slipped from its former prominent position in Welsh rugby.
However, a special commemorative game, recognising the 100 years since the first Good Friday match, took place in 2001 and was played at the Athletic Field next to the Penarth clubhouse the day before the Barbarians played Wales at the Millennium Stadium. Gary Teichmann captain of both the South African International squad and the Barbarians, unveiled a plaque at the clubhouse to mark the event.
Following the last Baa-Baas game on Good Friday 1986 the club was fortunate enough to secure one fixture against the French Barbarians in October 1987. Penarth RFC is currently the only Welsh club side to have played against the premier French tourists.
Club Captains 1880 – 2014
1880/81 Cyril Batchelor
1881/82 Arthur Llewellyn Batchelor
1882/85 John ‘Jack’ Neath
1885/86 George Rowles
1886/87 John ‘Jack’ Hayes
1887/91 Richard ‘Dickie’ Garrett
1891/92 Herbert ‘Herbie’ Morgan
1892/93 Tom Hutchings
1893/95 Herbert ‘Herbie’ E Morgan
1895/96 William Gibbs
1896/97 George W Shepherd
1897/98 Hubert G Alexander
1898/99 H.G Alexander/W.Gibbs/Ch Thornley
1899/00 Charles H Thornley
1900/01 Cyril Stranaghan
1901/02 Charles Warburton
1902/03 Charles Haywood
1903/04 Reginald ‘Reggie’ A Gibbs
1904/05 Ralph C Thomas
1905/07 John CM Dyke
1907/08 Edward Hamilton
1908/10 William H Gunstone
1910/11 Pascoe Howells
1911/12 Gerald Heslop
1912/13 Jack Hill
1913/14 Arthur ‘Patsy’ Bryant
1914/18 The Great War
1919/20 Tom Crossman
1920/21 Tom Johnson/Jack Hill
1921/22 Charles R McIver
1922/24 Malcolm Vyvyan
1924/25 Harry Norman
1925/26 Newman ‘Tommy’ David
1926/27 Norman Payne
1927/32 John ‘Jack’ A Bassett
1932/33 Trevor Lee/AG ‘Snowy’ Clark
1933/34 Arthur G ‘Snowy’ Clark
1934/35 John Joel Davies
1935/37 Dr Herbert Weston
1937/38 Thomas « Treorchy » E James
1938/39 Frank R Trott
1939/45 2nd World War
1945/46 Lindsay Morgan
1946/47 Stan Barrett
1947/48 John Heslop
1948/49 Jimmy Gibson
1949/50 Derek W Evans
1950/51 John S Davies
1951/52 Maurice Walsh
1952/53 Terry N Smith
1953/55 Kevin Bush
1955/56 David Hughes
1956/57 Terry N Smith
1957/58 Charles Holding/T.N Smith
1958/59 Harry Jacobs
1959/60 Bernard Templeman
1960/61 B. Templeman/Brian Vizard
1961/62 John Price
1962/64 Elwyn Jones
1964/65 Alun Jenkins
1965/66 Bryn Evans
1966/67 Frank Wilson
1967/68 Colin Prescott
1968/70 Alun Jones
1970/71 Brian Mort
1971/72 B Mort/J. Huw Williams
1972/73 John Huw Williams
1973/74 Alan Stamp
1974/75 Alan Tame/Peter Griffith
1975/76 Lyn Baxter
1976/77 John H James
1977/78 Anthony Hodge
1978/79 Colin Owen
1979/80 Mike Knill
1980/81 Haydn George
1981/82 Ernie Williams
1982/83 Alun Davies
1983/84 Viv Crane
1984/87 Robert ‘BobbyMac’ McPherson
1987/88 Baden Evans
1988/89 Mark Owen/Carwyn Lewis
1989/90 Carwyn Lewis
1990/91 Roddy Crane/ Chris Lakin
1991/92 Chris Lakin
1992/93 Chris Clarke
1993/94 Tim Crothers
1994/96 Mark Edwards
1996/97 Mark Edwards/Greg Swaine
1997/98 Greg Swaine
1998/99 Craig Miller
1999/00 David ‘Dai’ Carter
2000/05 Michael ‘Mike”’Clare
2005/06 Andrew ‘Andy’ Edwards
2006/07 Andrew ‘Andy’ Edwards
2007/08 Michael “Mike” Clare
2008/09 Geraint Evans
2009/11 Richard Merrett
2011/14 Gary Power
