Controversy exists as to how rugby was first brought to the borough - some say that the strong links established between Oxford and Cambridge resulted in the game being brought West, whilst others suggest that the drovers were responsible. Both suggestions seem plausible.

Since the 'College' had established strong academic links with the Oxbridge Universities in as much as many masters obtained their degrees there, it is easy to accept the notion that they introduced the game to the town.

Similarly, Llandovery was an important stopping point on the drovers routes which took in such notable early centres of Rugby Football as Blackheath and indeed Rugby itself, where the legendary William Webb Ellis who, 'with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game in 1823'.

One old resident used to recall how a drover gave vivid descriptions of the game as it was played at Blackheath. These drovers were engaged in moving cattle from all parts of West Wales during the middle of the nineteenth century, and Llandovery was the rendezvous for collecting cattle from the surrounding districts as well as much of the west of Wales. It is possible therefore that the drovers did bring the game to the town, but it is likely that the origin of the game in Llandovery will remain as much of a mystery as the origin of the game of Rugby itself.

The "Carmarthen Journal" of Friday, 22 February 1878 carries a report of the tie between Llandovery and Newport Clubs played at Brecon on Saturday, 16 February. This was the semi-final of the South Wales Challenge Cup and Newport went on to win the Cup in its first year. On that Saturday of 16 February 1878, Llandovery lost by two goals to nil.

Some claims have been made that this was an exclusively 'College' side but consideration of all available evidence does not substantiate this.

Examination of newspaper reports of the time almost invariably make specific reference to the 'School' or 'College' when they were involved. The report in the "Carmarthen Journal" of 22 February 1878 however, refers to 'Llandovery' and not 'Llandovery School' or 'College'. Similarly in the Newport R.F.C. records of the time, reference is made to the game versus 'Llandovery'. Teams from both Lampeter and Monmouth also participated but it is worthwhile noting that both were designated as school teams (that is Lampeter College and Monmouth Grammar School). On 15 November 1877 Newport beat Monmouth Grammar School by two goals and four tries to nil, while on 19 December 1878 Newport were again successful defeating Lampeter College by three goals and four tries to nil. It would appear then that when school sides were involved, they were referred to as school or college sides in the fixture list.

The playing of rugby in the schools appeared to have arisen because the middle classes of the mid-nineteenth century wanted their sons to play a rather different game to that played in the major public schools (i.e. soccer). In consequence the minor and aspiring independent schools of the time provided rugby as an alternative - a game that was seen both as a team game and character building.

The town that evening was represented by C. P. Lewis, being one of the 'gentry' families of the locality and having strong links with the tow. Charles Prytherch Lewis was born on 20 August 1853 and was during this period a master at the Llandovery College, having obtained his M.A. degree at Jesus College, Oxford. The records show he did not play for the College in the School game against Brecon during this time.

The clubs represented on that historic occasion were Bangor, Brecon, Cardiff, Lampeter, Llanelli, Llandovery, Llandeilo, Merthyr, Newport, Pontypool and Swansea. These teams have become regarded as the founder members of the Welsh Rugby Union and were honoured in 1981 by the presentation of plaques from the W.R.U. commemorating the occasion.

Any doubts regarding whom C. P. Lewis represented on that historic day in Neath were finally resolved when Herbert Michael wrote from Devon. Mr Michael had previously been in touch with the Welsh Rugby Union and his letter to us was in response to some press coverage of the centenary celebrations in 1981. Herbert Michael pointed out in his letter that he was C. P. Lewis' godson - 'C.P.' being a lifelong friend of his father. Mr Michael is (and here I quote from his letter) . . . "certain in my own mind that he (C. P. Lewis) represented the town in the first place with, of course the interests of Llandovery College resulting therefrom'. Indeed Herbert Michael believes that his father travelled to Neath with C. P. Lewis but is unsure as to whether his father attended the meeting.

It seems reasonable, then, to conclude that local residents were involved in the game well before 1881 and that the town in the person of C. P. Lewis was represented at Neath on 12 March 1881 when the W.R.U. was formed.

Around the turn of the century, Llandovery produced two notable players - Harry Watkins and Guy Morgan who between them won 14 caps from the Llanelli and Cambridge University Clubs after learning the rudiments of the game with the Town XV.

Harry Watkins emigrated to British Columbia where he was instrumental with others in establishing the game in Canada. Guy Morgan, a nephew of the legendary Teddy Morgan (who scored that most disputed of all tries against New Zealand in 1905) was the son of a local practitioner, Dr H. Morgan, and rendered years of service to the cause of the game in Llandovery.

The rugby club of Llandovery has also been connected with another outstanding footballer who won fame over the border via Gloucester and England. He was, of course, the late D. R. Gent, who appeared for Llandovery as a full back. He played several games for Llanelli before moving to Gloucester and only the wizard Dicky Owen stopped him appearing in a Welsh jersey. Vivian Jenkins, a former Llandovery Collegian who appeared for Wales during the thirties, succeeded D. R. Gent as the Sunday Times rugby correspondent.

It is worth mentioning the fact that when Llandovery Town played rugby, they made every endeavour to play an open game. During the early 1900's and even up to the outbreak of the First World War, Llandovery continued to produce some impressive performances and, in 1904, six club members played for Llanelli in Mac Nicholls, Jack Cole, J. C. Jones, D. J. Davies (a cousin of D. R. Gent), Harry Watkins and Edgar Evans, who also appeared for Wales on the hockey field. After returning from Llanelli, Edgar continued playing for Llandovery before calling it a day in the 1931 season.

The 1920's were hard times with the General Strike of 1926 making it difficult for players to find work. But Llandovery survived and players such as Dai Preston, M. Driscoll, Bertie Jones, Mozart Thomas, W. Basey, Bill Clements, A. Glyn Jones, Bill Rees, A. P. N. Roberts, Tudor Evans, Ted Thomas, Gomer Davies and Will Buckland saw that the rugby banner was kept flying. During this era, a successful Thursday XV was launched following an appeal by apprentices in the hostelry and other trades in the town.

Two leading players during this period were the enthusiastic secretary, A. Glyn Jones, and D. T. Davies, who later played a major role in Llandovery's re-admittance as Welsh Rugby Union members.

From 1931 to 1935, the Club functioned successfully but the only record of this time is the fixture card for the Season 1933-34. The fixture list shows the wide range of fixtures played during that time and the results summarised as follows:

Due to inability to obtain fixtures because they were not affiliated to a Union, the club ceased to function in 1935.

Under the captaincy of Douglas Rees, the club soon became established as a considerable force in the area. Also involved at this time were Glyn Jones, Granville Evans, Idris Perrier, Fred Manning, Ernie Prosser, Maurice Weaver and J. D. Lewis. A special mention should be made of Ernie Prosser who has been active in the club since and was made a Life Member in the club’s centenary year. Doug Rees served the club in a number of official capacities including being the club captain on three separate occasions and club chairma. On demobilisation from the Armed Forces in 1946, he first played for Llandybie before returning to captain Llandovery in I948.

Records for the first two post-war seasons are not available but the season 1949-50 saw Douglas Rees as captain and I. Perrier as secretary. The results can be summarised as follows:

The tour must have had an invigorating effect on Llandovery because in the following season the club won their first honours when they won the Llanelli and District League President's Cup under the captaincy of Des Clarke who later was to become the club secretary for many years. Llandovery beat Penygroes 9 - 3 in the final, having disposed of Bettws in the semi-final. They narrowly failed to collect the double having been narrowly beaten in the championship play-off. During the season (1953-54), Llandovery won 23 games, lost 5 and drew 5, scoring 321 points and conceding only 91.

The team was selected from: Des Clarke (captain), John Davies, Les Adams, Ken Evans, John Williams, Jeff Morgan, Colin Doonan, Eric Penlan, Dennis Evans, Len John, Doug Rees, Bernard Jones, Chris Hughes, George Adams, Alan Blatchford, Tony Morgan and D. G. Davies.

On Friday, 29 November 1957, a celebration dinner was held at the Castle Hotel, Llandovery, to celebrate the admission of the club to the Welsh Rugby Union. The guest list shows the impressive list of personnel present.

After being granted the status of a W.R.U. club again in 1957, the next important milestone in the history of the club was admittance to the West Wales Rugby Union in 1965, which meant that Llandovery was now committed to playing "League" rugby at a much higher level. Our entry brought the number of clubs in the competition to 36 but in those days it was rather a strange league in that clubs did not play every other club in the League, hence one's result in the League Table at the end of the season could depend very largely on one's fixture list. (The top four at the end of the season used to play-off for the League Championship.)

Although not unanimously acclaimed as such by all members of the committee at the time, this was a vital step forward in the development of rugby in Llandovery. Some viewed the step with trepidation, but indeed it turned out that we were not going to be one of the "chopping blocks" for some of the more famous clubs to run up high points totals. Far from it, as one of the top clubs of that era, Pontardulais, found out. In our first season in the League, they beat us 12 - 0 away and they won by a whisker at Llandovery after a very close and tense contest which was decided by a penalty for a "trip" in mid-field on the Pontardulais scrum-half! A very close shave indeed for the League champions.

Similarly in January 1967, the top team at that time, Seven Sisters, just managed to beat us 5 - 0, and in addition there were some memorable victories which helped keep Llandovery generally in a very respectable position in the League.

So we surprised more than a few people with our play in those early years - in fact the papers referred to us as the Draw experts in our first season. The team was captained by T. G. (Twm) Jones and included towards the end of the season a number of school boys, many of whom moved away from the area - Don Llewellyn and Colin Evans (both then at Trinity College), Colin and Clifford Basey, Michael Davies and Adrian Lloyd - in addition to other players who stayed with the club and who were to make their mark on the W.W.R.U. scene for many years to come.

In 1978-9 ten more clubs were admitted making 5 sections, A, B, C, D and E and the idea of "4 up - 4 down" was extended for a further period. Some argued that this made for more interest right up to the very end of the season; this was certainly true, for in 1978-9 Llandovery were relegated with the high figure of 17 points from 18 matches - in fact the fate of 5 clubs out of the 10 in Section C in that year hung in the balance until the very final League Saturday of the season; two of the five teams were promoted to Section B, two stayed in Section C and Llandovery was relegated to Section D after being beaten by Bynea (away) - such a thin line between relegation to D and promotion to B!

In the mid-1970s Llandovery were alternately promoted and relegated at frequent intervals, as the table below shows.

In 1974, another milestone was reached when Llandovery were in a situation to obtain their own clubhouse. For over twenty years, the search had gone on until they acquired the Great North Western Hotel on lease from the Felinfoel Brewery. The Club set about immediately renovating the old building and carrying out alterations so that it would meet the requirements of the club.

The first floor was turned into a large lounge with bar facilities and a dance floor at one end. It seats about 100 people comfortably. Downstairs there were bar and lounge facilities as well as a pool room and dining room.

With the club continuing to prosper, it became increasingly obvious that it needed its own playing fields. Excellent facilities still existed at the Castle Fields but with more than one side playing at home, the club had to look elsewhere for suitable playing facilities. It was in 1979 that the club was able to purchase two fields within the close proximity of the town. The purchasing of this property was an important milestone in the history of the club.

David Gealy (LIanelli)
Bernard Jones (LIanelli)
David Jones (Swansea)
Glanville Richards (London Welsh)
Gareth Jones (Aberavon)
Jim Sutton (Waterloo and Lancashire)
Mervyn Bevan (Neath and LIanelli)
John W. D. Jenkins (Maesteg, Neath, Welsh trialist)
John Davies (Nuneaton, Captain 1969)
John Davies (Maesteg)
Adrian Lloyd (LIanelli)
Gareth Lloyd Jones (Combined Services and London Welsh)
Colin Basey (Swansea)
Gareth Davies (Combined Services)
Don Llewellyn (Cardiff)
Colin Evans (Oxford)
Dai Williams (Llanelli)

[TO BE EXTENDED]

This was the platform for a continued trend of thinking in that direction. Ever since when the minutest profit has been made on the day, we have shared it with some town cause. Without disclosing amounts, or even each and every beneficiary, a quick glance at our records indicates that the following groups have benefited: Women's Institute, St. John's Ambulance, Red Cross Society, Soccer Club, Pony Club, Local Blind, etc.

Over and above, for ten years or so, we organised and financed a Xmas Party for the under nine year old children of Llandovery and District. This invariably took the form of a kiddies' film show and a Father Xmas with his give-aways.

We are also proud that in 1972 we purchased approximately a third of an acre of land adjacent to the Castle Fields Children's Playground and thereon constructed a kiddies' paddling pool, suitably constructed a fencing enclosure, provided seating for parents, and adorned the area with ornamental trees.