Into the Principality

Posted by Peter Davies

Sunday 2 May

A trip to my Aunty's in Wrexham, North Wales, so an opportunity to visit Brymbo CC. According to one website, 'Brymbo is a village in the county borough of Wrexham, Wales. It forms part of the Wrexham Urban Area (pop 63,000); the name is also shared by an electoral ward and local government community. At the 2001 Census, the population of the community area was 3,482, although the population of Brymbo Ward itself was only 2,653. The former Brymbo Steelworks was a prominent industry for the village and much of the surrounding area.'

The ground was spacious and well appointed. After the opening game of the Sunday 3rd XI competition, Brymbo were actually top, with Bangor, Hawarden Park, Conwy, Buckley, Connah's Quay, Pontblyddyn and Gwersyllt Park the other teams in the division. Gwersyllt Park were the visitors today, and they included a young female cricketer in their ranks.

Brymbo were piling the runs on when I arrived. The openers must have put on more than a 100, with the first wicket going down when opener no.1 holed out to point for 49. The other opener reached his century with some amazing attacking shots, and then the wickets began to fall. Third XIs in this league generally comprise older players and younger players, but this was a very competitive fixture. I had a cup of tea, looked at the memorabilia on the wall, and then had a sit outside and a walk round the boundary.

The North Wales League is very geographically diffuse, with few local derbies and when Brymbo visit Bangor, for example, they'll be travelling maybe 50 miles. Quite moving as well because 50-odd years ago, my Dad would have been visiting grounds such as Brymbo's as Gresford CC's young, teenage scorer. But that's another story.