|
|
The Llandaff club was formed as a village club in 1876 reputedly at the instigation of Cambridge graduate Illtyd Thomas who became captain to be followed a little later by an Oxford blue-1 Watkins, who, in 1881 played in the first Welsh team to play England. The club colours of Oxford and Cambridge blue are thought to have resulted from such forbears. Amongst the earliest clubs in the Welsh rugby union, Llandaff played most of the clubs existing in South Wales at that time, and in 1891/92 won the big trophy of the day--The South Wales Challenge Cup which was the forerunner of the present SWALEC Cup, and a photograph of the winning team is among several from those early days that grace the lounge of the new club house. From its inception, the club has played on the Bishops field, firstly changing in local hostelries, then between the wars, the bishop farmstead on the field was converted into dressing rooms. By this time, the club had somehow lost it's WRU status (rumoured due to late resumption after the 1914-18 war and the failure to pay the subscription on time!!) and did not regain it until 1948. At about this time the Old Llandafian cricket pavilion was removed adjacent to the dressing rooms and converted into refreshment and committee rooms. In the early 60's the church required the club to demolish both buildings and for a season or so, the club sojourned in the Old Pound next to the Bishops Castle in the corner of high street. Then in September 1963, having purchased a freehold site at the oldmill on Western Avenue, next to the Bishop's field, we built the present club house. It was extended a few years later and re-built and re-designed in 1991. Always amongst the foremost of clubs in the new development Llandaff were pioneers in youth, Junior and mini rugby and were the first WRU club to tour the USA in 1968 and 1970, the first to tour Botswana and play in South Africa after the ban was lifted in 1993.
|
||||
|
|
|||||
