A brief history of Pontypridd
A brief history compiled by Dr.Andrew Hignell
08-Jan-2006
A brief history compiled by Dr.Andrew Hignell (Hon. Statistician and Historian to Glamorgan CCC)
Pontypridd entered the first-class cricket calendar in 1926, as
Glamorgan`s officials tried to boost the club`s membership by
taking county cricket into the valley communities. Ynysangharad
Park still stages an annual fixture, either a championship game
or a one-day game. However, in 1994 the South African tourists
visited the ground, followed in 1996 by the Pakistanis. These
games came about as a result of generous sponsorship from
Taff-Ely Borough Council , and a lot of hard work by the
officials from Pontypridd C.C. However, as in the match with the
Pakistanis, it seems that every time county cricket ventures up
the Taff Valley to Pontypridd, the heavens open, and the games
end in rain-affected draws.
Cricket in Pontypridd dates back to 1858, and like many other
clubs in these industrial communities, its origin was the result
of the influx into the Valleys of English born and educated
migrants. A few barriers existed to the development of the game
with the shortage of suitable land and long hours of work at the
booming iron foundries and steelworks, and the earliest games
were often just glorified practice sessions. Things had improved
by May 1870 when a formal club was established, and fixtures were
gained with other recently formed teams from other valley towns.
These games were initially staged in the grounds of Gelliwasted
House, before a move in 1873 to a more spacious area of farmland
owned by Gordon Lenox, the resident director of Brown Lenox, the
town's largest ironworks.
Over the years, there has been a very close link between Brown
Lenox and Pontypridd C.C. Gordon Lenox oversaw the laying of a
decent wicket in one of the fields at Ynysangharad Farm (loosely
translated as Angharad`s Isle) alongside the River Taff. The
company, who manufactured anchors, chains and cables for the
Admiralty, also acted as generous philanthropists by giving the
cricket club money to buy equipment and also kit, knowing that
many of the club`s members were men of quite modest means. Given
this help, the number of members increased and in 1897 Pontypridd
were able to enter the newly-formed Glamorgan Cricket League,
playing fixtures with clubs from Treherbert, Treorchy, Merthyr
Tydfil, Ferndale and Mountain Ash.
The farmland home of Pontypridd C.C. was transformed into an
attractive parkland after the Great War, when hundreds of
soldiers and servicemen from the town were killed. When the War
finally ended, plans were set in motion for the creation of a War
Memorial for Pontypridd, and in keeping with their role as
generous patrons to the town, Brown Lenox offered their farmland
at Ynysangharad. Public subscriptions and grants from the Miners
Welfare Fund helped to finance the conversion of the farmland
into a spacious park and public recreation ground. The War
Memorial was opened on August Bank Holiday Monday 1923, and over
the next few years a bowling green, rugby pitch, swimming pool,
tennis courts and bandstand were added to the already existing
cricket pitch and small pavilion.
The Park proved to be a popular attraction, and it was no
surprise that when Glamorgan were looking to tap new support
during the late 1920`s, they should choose the Ynysangharad Park
ground. The attendances at the earliest county games were so
good, that in 1929 Pontypridd was allocated the prestigious
tourist match with South Africa, plus two other county games with
Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Indeed, in the latter game,
George Geary recorded the best ever bowling figures against the
Welsh county, taking 10-18.
As Glamorgan took county cricket into Monmouthshire and
Carmarthenshire, Pontypridd`s allocation was limited to one
annual game. In recent years, this has been a limited overs
contest, but in 1994 sponsorship from the Borough Council and
local businessmen, saw South Africa return to Ynysanghard Park.
During the previous winter, the old single-storey pavilion had
been replaced by a modern two-storey brick building, and although
Glamorgan have to install temporary seating and other facilities
at the Park, the games at Pontypridd have been well attended.
For further information about the history of this, and other
grounds used by Glamorgan, you may be interested in purchasing
"The Cricket Grounds of Glamorgan", written by Andrew Hignell and
published in 1985 by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and
Historians. For further details, please consult the A.C.S.
homepage on CricInfo, send e-mail to acs@cricinfo.com or write to
Peter Wynne-Thomas at 3, Radcliffe Road, Nottingham.