Old Tyleryan
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Old Tyleryan
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
The founding of Old Tyleryan RFC
By Eric Cox
I played rugby at school, at college
and in the RAF. I then found when I was
de-mobbed if you didn’t belong to an
organisation, getting a game of rugby
wasn’t as easy as it sounds. In Abertillery
at the time there were only two teams:
the town team - they didn’t want me
obviously, I wasn’t good enough – and
Blaenau Gwent. I played for a while for
Blaenau Gwent and then competition got
a bit warm and I couldn’t hold my place
there.
It was then that the idea struck me. I
was teaching at Aberbeeg School at the
time and Ken Lloyd, who taught there
with me, was the Sports Secretary of the
Old Tyleryan Association. And as such,
he had some sports equipment – he had
cricket equipment, hockey equipment
and a set of rugby jerseys, which we
used once a year on Boxing Day for the
Old Boys match. So I said to him, “if I
could fix up a match, say, with the Old
Hafodians, could I use the jerseys?”
He readily agreed. I fixed it up, with
difficulty, and we had a game in Blaina
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because they had access to a field and I
didn’t.
It then struck me that it might be an
idea to try to get a permanent side going,
which wasn’t easy, but it was at this point
that I roped in Colin Blacker and Colin
Lewis. Now they had both played a bit
of rugby at school and both thought the
idea was sound, so off we started.
I did all the paperwork, I contacted
the Head of the school and got his
support and I wrote to the Governors
and asked for the use of the school field.