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'Donkey Island' ready to turn back time for a great Good Friday

Ticket information has now been confirmed

It used to be the must-visit rugby destination every Good Friday for almost 85 years – the Athletic Field, Penarth.

The fixture ended in 1986, but this Good Friday (kick-off 2pm) Penarth will face a Welsh Barbarians side in a special match to mark the 125th anniversary of the first meeting way back in 1901.

It will also be a chance for the Welsh rugby community to pitch in to help the club that recently suffered the tragedy of seeing their clubhouse burned down in an electrical fire.

As usual there will be a sprinkling of star names to attract fans of all ages, although some careers might need a little bit of explanation. The nominated forwards coach of the guest team, Evan Lloyd, is a current Cardiff Rugby and Wales professional star.

He played in the junior ranks at Penarth on their way to the top and under their charge will be big name players of the recent past such as Allan Bateman, Andy Powell and Bradley Davies. The rest of the invitation side will be made up of players from the community game.

The spiritual home of the Barbarians, ‘Donkey Island’ used to be the starting point for the four match East Tour by the world-renowned touring team. After getting their bearings in Penarth the Baa-Baas would head to Cardiff the next day, play golf at the Glamorganshire course on the Sunday, head to Swansea on Easter Monday and then end with a game at Newport on the Tuesday.

The fixture with Penarth came to an end in 1986, breaking a tradition that had begun in 1901. In 1907, there were 10,000 at the game with extra stands brought in to help accommodate the crowd and the Cardiff City Band entertained the fans for an hour before the game kicked-off.

Having won the two previous games, the Penarth side came close to making in an impressive hat-trick before going down to a gallant 8-5 defeat. In 1906 and 1912 Penarth were able to stop the Baa-Baas from scoring any points.

From a Penarth point of view, arguably the greatest game was in 1976 when they beat a Phil Bennett led Baa-Baas side 36-30. Not only that, they outscored their illustrious visitors by seven tries to six,

Two went to scrum half Dennis John, who also kicked four conversions for a matchwinning haul of 16 points, while Mike Chinnock also crossed for a brace. JJ Williams struck twice for the Baa-Baas and Andy Irvine landed three conversions.

The final win for the Seasiders fittingly came in their centenary season in 1980, when on 4 April they won 29-22. Former Wales prop Mike Knill was captain on the day and there were two tries for the former Wales Youth and Cardiff wing Steve McCann, one a spectacular 50 metre interception.

PENARTH’S 11 WINS OVER THE BARBARIANS
1904, 1905, 1906, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1920, 1960, 1971, 1976, 1980

“Around a year ago, Penarth RFC opened discussions with The Barbarian FC on ways to celebrate the 125th anniversary of our first fixture on Good Friday, 1901. It became apparent that to play a full Barbarians fixture would not reflect Penarth’s current status as an amateur club playing in Division 1 East Central,” said a Penarth spokesman.

“Subsequent discussions between the two historic clubs has led to the inaugural game to be played on this Good Friday against an invitational side ‘Y Barbariad Cymreig’ (The Welsh Barbarians).

‘Y Barbariad Cymreig’ is taken mainly from the Welsh Community game structures together with some added well known international players. Fully supported, endorsed and licensed by the Barbarian FC, Y Barbariad Cymreig will be playing in a unique strip, supplied by VX3, encompassing the original Barbarian badge of a skull and crossbones design.

“To reflect the status of the Barbarian FC and this commemorative fixture, a number of past internationals have agreed to play – Andy Powell, Bradley Davies and Allan Bateman – with the match being refereed by Nigel Owens.

“Nigel kindly offered to support the club by refereeing this fixture following the devastating clubhouse fire in December last year. With his and the international players support, we are looking to a fantastic day of rugby.

“The main match will be preceded by a Penarth Youth match against a Welsh Academicals U18 side, kicking off at 12 noon.

“Also on the day, the Welsh international rugby connections will continue with special guest Allan Martin, who played in the last Barbarians fixture for Penarth, presenting match shirts prior to kick off.

“In addition to Allan, Tom Shanklin will be comparing the event on sound systems supplied by the Genero Group and the day will be finished off with a celebratory dinner at the Penarth Conservative club with Adam Jones joining as guest speaker in an event co-hosted by ‘The Events Room’”.

Earlybird tickets are available for the match via TICKET SOURCE 

There are a limited number of dinner spaces available HERE

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

5 April, 1901 – THE FIRST FIXTURE
PENARTH 4 – 14 BARBARIANS
Scorers: Penarth: DG: H Jones. Barbarians: Tries: Stout, Graham, Elliot; Con: Graham; Pen: Graham

Penarth: FC Tillett; H Shattock, F Davies, H Williams, AM Ricketts; Reggie Gibbs, Neville Thomas; Cyril Stranaghan, H Hutchings, Charlie Warburton, C Pavey, Frank Kirby, E Ellis, W Hamilton, J Beer

Barbarians: Cecil Boyd; Edgar Elliott, Norman Cox, Arthur Brettargh, Percy Stout; A Brown, George Cookson; EC Galloway, Bernard Hartley, Tufton Beamish, George Fraser, JG Graham, SG Wood, Tom Gibson

4 April 1980 – THE LAST PENARTH WIN
PENARTH 29 – 22 BARBARIANS
Scorers: Penarth: Tries: McCann 2, George; Con: McAloon; Pens: McAloon 4; DG: Jones. Barbarians: Tries: Morgan 2, O’Brien 2, Robertson; Con: Bennett

Penarth: Brendan McAloon; Paul David, Tony Morgan, Rob Jones, Steve McCann; Mike Goldsworthy, Joe Davies; Charlie Marshall, Arthur Davies, Mike Knill (captain), Ernie Williams, Henry Bohlen, Dai Hancock, Stuart McCormack, Haydn George
Reps: Alan Davies, Terry Ellis

Barbarians: Kevin O’Brien (Broughton Park); Nick Preston (Richmond), Paul Dodge (Leicester), Peter Morgan (Llanelli), Derek Wyatt (Bath); Phil Bennett (Llanelli, Keith Robertson 45), Jacques Fouroux (La Voulte); John Doubleday (Bristol), Mike Luke (St John’s, Canada), Clint McGregor (Saracens), Richard Field (Moseley), Paul Ackford (Rosslyn Park), John O’Driscoll (London Irish), Richie Dixon (Jordanhill), Andy Ripley (Rosslyn Park)

Referee: Corris Thomas (Cardiff)

28 March 1986 – THE LAST MATCH
PENARTH 15 – 39 BARBARIANS

Scorers: Penarth: Tries: Wall, Rees; Cons: Davies 2; Pen: Davies. Barbarians: Tries: Burns 3, Titley, Palmer, Douglas, Clough, May; Cons: Davies 2; Pen: Barnes

Penarth: John Davies; Wayne Morgan, Ian Hopkins, Huw Rees, Les Keen; Ian Hall, Rob Dyer (Gwynfor Williams 5); Jeff Pope, Phil Davies, Chris Morris, Gareth John, Allan Martin, Steve Lakin, Nick Wall, Baden Evans (captain)

Barbarians: Stuart Barnes (Bath); Mark Titley (Swansea), John Palmer (Bath), Fran Clough (Cambridge University), Arthur Emyr (Swansea); Gareth Davies (captain), Mark Douglas (London Welsh); Richard Lee (Bath), Willy Burns (Lansdowne), Lawrence Delaney (Llanelli), Phil May (Llanelli), David Waters (Newport), Alex Keay (Saracens), Sean McGaughey (Hawick), Owain Williams (Glamorgan Wanderers)
Reps: Rob Jones (Swansea), Nigel Redman (Bath)

Referee: Ken Rowlands (Ynysbwl)

 

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