This is the introduction I included in Oval
Ways and Treble Days which I hope explains a bit about where I come from and
the reasons I decided to write the book.
INTRODUCTION
As a young boy
growing up in the village of Rhosgadfan in the seventies, I had very little to
do in my spare time other than play football with my friends on the school field.
I can vividly recall spending hours at a time trying to play like my idol,
Kenny Dalglish, with my peers, and trying to copy his trademark goal
celebrations.
My father was not a big follower of
the game and so I owe my love of football to my grandfathers, Taid Llwyn and
Taid Jones. The former was chairman of the village football team, Mountain
Rangers, and for a number of years I would spend most Saturday afternoons with
him watching the side play in the Caernarfon and District League. In those
days, local football was much more popular than it is now, and matches often
attracted large crowds, which obviously made a big impression on me. Those
Rangers players were heroes to me and I looked forward to seeing them every week.
My favourites were Dilwyn Roberts, a left-footed winger who created and scored
goals on a regular basis, and striker Des Roberts, who seemed to score in every
match and became my postman years later!
Throughout my childhood I dreamed of
wearing the team’s black and white striped shirts and black shorts, and
eventually did so for one season in the early nineties. Although I was never
anything more than average, at least I achieved a dream and can say I played
for Rangers!
Liverpool was my ‘Big Team’ and in
the days before Sky began its over-saturation of the game, watching the Reds in
action was confined to highlights on Match of the Day, the Big Match and
Sportsnight. Luckily, Taid Jones was more than willing to take me to Anfield on
coaches run by Caelloi Motors and so I enjoyed many trips with him to watch Bob
Paisley’s all-conquering side of the seventies and early eighties. Kenny was my
favourite, and still is, and Emlyn Hughes, Graeme Souness and Ian Rush were
close behind him.
As you see, Caernarfon Town Football
Club has not been a lifetime obsession for me and it was not until my teenage
years that I started supporting them.
I first started watching the
Canaries, also known as the ‘Cofis’, in 1984 when I walked into the Oval with
my friend Gwyn Roberts. Having taken our customary Saturday afternoon walk into
Caernarfon, we wondered into the ground on the way home and my only vague
recollection of the match is of Meilir Owen scoring for Town in the closing
minutes.
In the thirty years that have passed
since that day I have enjoyed many highlights on the Oval terraces and, it has
to be said, more than a fair share of disappointments. The team’s epic FA Cup
run under John King in 1986/87 was of course the best of times and incredibly
exciting for the club and its supporters and, in all honesty, nothing has ever
really come close to matching it. Actually, that’s not quite true, as I hope to
prove in this book.
The club went perilously close to
folding in February 2010 when it was suspended from all competitions for non-payment of
fines to the Football Association of Wales. Had it not been for a small group
of supporters who came together to run the club following the resignation of
the previous chairman, then Caernarfon Town Football Club would have ceased to
exist.
I
was not part of that original group but joined the newly formed committee a
month into their new regime, for which I owe a debt of gratitude to Marc
Roberts. I was still recovering from a kidney transplant when he asked if I was
interested in joining the new Board and was wary of taking on the
responsibility but of course I put my name forward and here I am, four years
later, and still serving the club. It is one of the best decisions I have made.
There
have been many ups and down in that time, and we have faced more obstacles and
challenges than most people would imagine but, thanks to the impressive
leadership and driving force of the chairman, Arfon Jones, Caernarfon Town is
once again amongst the country’s leading clubs.
In my
opinion, the 2012/13 season was the one that saw the club regain its lost pride
and, despite the setbacks and challenges that came our way, the hard work of
the committee, management team, players and all the staff and volunteers ensured
that the Canaries were finally back amongst the headlines for all the right
reasons.
I
hope you enjoy my recollections of what went on behind the scenes and on the
pitch during a very special season.
Paul Evans.
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