Wizards League: Round 9

The Wizards League has been dramatically affected over the last few weeks due to the horrendous weather that has occurred. Many games have been called off which has created a back log of games to be played. Fortunately, there was games being played on February 20th.

Traethmelyn who are the most up to date team in terms of fixtures played Groes and St Therese. St Therese are currently unbeaten in netball and remained unbeaten by beating Traethmelyn 10-0, in rugby Traethmelyn won 10-40 in a very good game. Traethmelyn also beat Groes 45-40, which was an even better game. Groes showing that they are the most improved team in the league this year. In netball, Groes lost 7-0. Coed Hirwaun, Central, Sandfields and Awel Y Mor travelled to St Joes to play games. Coed Hirwaun beat Awel Y Mor in rugby 20-10 and lost 1-11. St Joes beat Sandfields 15-10 in rugby and 11-6 in netball. A very good game of rugby between St Joes and Central created a 20-20 draw, with another draw of 2-2 in netball. Central also played Coed Hirwaun, Coed Hirwaun were unbeaten until they met Central who just beat Coed Hirwaun 10-5, with Central also winning the netball 9-0.

St Joes and Dyffryn Comprehensive School Champions

The final round of the Costain Secondary Schools League saw Dyffryn play against St Joes. This game turned out to be the deciding match with St Joes needing to win the game to win the Y7 title. The match was pretty even throughout, with a try being scored by each team in succession. Dyffryn held the lead at half time, winning 15-12. St Joes came out eager and a new side. Despite the great efforts at the ruck and tackle area by Dyffryn, St Joes managed to win the game 27-34. This game was the best game of the campaign. The game offered great attitude, competitiveness and plenty of skill. There we have it, St Joes are the winners of the Costain Y7 Wizards League. As you can see by the result above, the Y7 league has been very competitive, an objective achieved through the Junior School Wizards League.

Dyffryn ran away with the Y8 Secondary Schools Wizards League sponsored by Costain, winning 4 out of 4 games, racking up 183 points. Unfortunately, St Joes in this age group went without picking up a win, with Sandfields doing the double of St Joes. An excellent achievement by Dyffryn and they showed what a great side they are. Although school years is a number game and the roll over of children are different each year. The two leagues speak volumes in terms of what is happening in the Junior Schools. Since the development of the Wizards League in the Junior Schools, rugby has got stronger in Port Talbot—The Y7 program proves this.

A BIG thanks must go to Costains who have supported this program for its first year cycle . Costain have been influential in Port Talbot over the last four years constructing the ’Harbour Way’ which is the road connecting from Margam to Sandfields via the Steel Works. Costain have supported the development stages of the Junior School Wizards League for three years and have now committed in developing Secondary Schools rugby as a result of the growth of rugby in the Port Talbot area. Hopefully, Costain will continue to be involved at some level with sport in Port Talbot. Nevertheless, if not, Costain have done so much for the Port Talbot area in regards to sport. We should all be grateful to their enthusiasm and support.

TATA Steel TAG Rugby Festival [29th Jan, 2014]

As part of the Aberavon RFC and TATA Steel sports program TAG Rugby festivals were held in order for the children taking part to showcase their skills.

The Y4 children who took part received 4 on hour sessions of TAG Rugby and one visit from Warburtons as part of promoting Healthy Living and raising Physical Activity.

On Wednesday 29th January, 8 schools took part in the TAG rugby festival, they were:

Tywyn
Sandfields
Traethmelyn
Awel Y Mor
Eastern
Coed Hirwaun
Central
Cwmafan

With over 200 children taking part it was an excellent event with children contentiously playing sport for over 2 hours. Part of the element of the program is to offer development of rugby through TAG to promote awareness of rugby it hope that children will join local clubs. Also, the program offers development for the Wizards League and helps teachers identify talent for the future.

It was great to see the smiles on the children's faces as they enjoyed getting out of schools and getting some exercise. It is easy to play sport within school in the comfort of knowing who you are playing against. At the festival, the children are able to express skills against other schools and this encourages team work and determination.

The festival could not have been run without TATA Steel's influence and willingness to help out within the community via supporting this project. Also, thanks to Liam Evans and Mike Dyer of the WRU who also helped organise and facilitate referees for the day.

Many people collaborating to make Port Talbot a stronger place for the future. More pictures can be found here 

Wizards League - Round 8

Not many games featured in this round of the Wizards League. St Therese continued their unbeaten run in netball against Awel Y Mor winning 11-2. Awel Y Mor’s rugby team showing huge improvements gaining a 0-30 win over St Therese. Also, like St Therese, Tywyn continued their unbeaten run in netball winning 10-0 over Sandfields with Tywyn rugby team involved in a tough game against Sandfields. Tywyn won the game 15-5. Lastly, Traethmelyn travelled to Cymmer where they won both netball and rugby games 1-8 and 5-35 respectively. There are a lot of games to be played and these games are most likely to be held on January 30th and February 13th. Some exciting games are yet to come. Also, the annual Baglan Bay Cup competition is one for the diaries [Thursday 1st May].

Wizards League - Round 7

This week saw some convincing wins in the rugby, some tight games in netball and one or two great performances. Traethmelyn downed Eastern 40-10 in rugby and also winning 4-0 in netball. Eastern also played Tywyn in a catch up game with Tywyn winning both rugby and netball 30-0 and 10-0 respectively.

Sandfields beat Awel Y Mor in rugby 30-0 but a good tight game in netball saw Sandfields win 15-10. Cymmer Federations are still searching for a win as they lost to Blaenbaglan 10-30  in rugby and 0-10 in netball.

Some tight games in a three way game day between St Joes, St Therese and Groes took place. In rugby St Joes beat Groes 20-10 and drew 10-10 with St Therese. Whilst Groes beat St Therese 10-5 in a great match. Groes are showing huge improvements. In netball St Therese remain unbeaten winning 4-11 against St Joes and 11-1 against Groes. St Joes and Groes drew 1-1 in the netball game. Some great games are going ahead in the Wizards League.

Wizards League - Round 6

The Wizards League is very competitive this season with some good results all round.

Traethmelyn secured two wins over Awel Y Mor winning 40-10 in rugby and 4-2 in netball. Cymmer show that they are improving each week by getting a good draw against Eastern in rugby, yet Cymmer are still waiting for a win in netball with Eastern winning 0-4.

St Therese continue their fine form in netball beating Sandfields 11-1 but losing in rugby 0-30. Like Cymmer, Groes are showing great improvement in rugby earning a good 30-30 draw against Blaenbaglan.

No joy for the Groes netball team though as they lost 1-11 to Blaenbaglan. Tywyn also continue their unbeaten run in netball winning 10-0 over Cwmafan. A reverse story in the rugby as Cwmafan ended Tywyn’s unbeaten run in rugby winning 0-20. A very good result for Cwmafan as Tywyn until this point had not conceded a try.

Baglan traveled to St Joes to play two games. St Joes won 35-15 in rugby and Baglan won 3-7 in netball. Baglan are another team showing great improvements in rugby. Coed Hirwaun traveled to St Joes to play Baglan and Coed Hirwaun won 25-5 in rugby and drew 3-3 in netball. The wizards league sure is getting better and better each round.

Teams are improving, children and being more competitive and teachers are more committed and involved, its great to see and many people are talking about sport in Port Talbot. Coed Hirwaun and Cwmafan remain unbeaten in rugby and is set to be a great game. In netball, St Therese and Tywyn are also unbeaten which is also looking to be a great encounter. With so many strong teams in the league … upsets can be caused. School Sport!!!

Players Visit St Agnes Church

Today, Daryl Thomas [aka Trigger], Neil White [aka Chalky] and myself [aka The Swankman] visited St Agnes Church in Port Talbot to help the church put up their Christmas tree's and also to decorate our very own 'Wizards Tree'.

Chris Davies [left] and Neil White place star on Wizards Tree

The idea was put forward from Allison Murray and Mair John that each player of Aberavon RFC would bring in a black or red decoration for a Christmas tree and then decorate a tree in St Agnes. So ... today along with Mair and Katie John we went to work.

Daryl Thomas and Neil White help put up Christmas Trees

Still trying to put up 1 of 6 trees

All together we put up around 6 trees for other members of the church to decorate and of course our own tree. I must be honest, I did not do much as Daryl and Neil had it all covered, they were enjoying their time. I swept the floors and watched haha.

The trees were real pine trees that needed to be placed in buckets and filled with stones. At the end, the Church looked really nice and ready for Christmas. It was great to be involved in a community event like this and it was also great to see members of the Port Talbot community pulling together.

Another tree done and that lady has my broom

Thanks to Mair, Katie and Allison for helping out today and also to Neil and Daryl for their work also. A big thank you to the St Agnes Church for a warm welcome and their hospitality. Hope to see you all again soon.