The old Costain League now known as the Wizards League went through the first round of fixtures this week and saw some interesting fixtures being played. Three season winners in rugby and netball, Tywyn featured against Blaenbaglan who were Tywyn’s biggest rivals last season. Tywyn won this fixture in both rugby and netball, 20-0 in rugby and 7-0 in netball. New comers to the league Groes Primary School had their first game against Sandfields Primary, who returned to the league this season also. Sandfields won 30-5 in rugby and won 7-0 in netball. Regardless of the result, it was great to see Groes Primary involved. With Tir Morfa and Glanymor amalgamating to form Awel Y Mor, it was also a fresh start for them. Awel Y Mor fea-
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tured against Cymer Federations, which is an amalgamation of Cymer, Glyncorrwg, Croeserw and Pen Afan. The rugby game was a strong game for both teams, which eventually saw Awel Y Mor win 30-25. The netball was won by Awel Y Mor 11-1. Other games included St Joes V Coed Hirwaun, showing a high score of 50-45 to Coed Hirwaun in rugby and St Joes winning 11-2 in netball. Cwmafan played Baglan, with Cwmafan winning both the rugby and the netball 20-0 and 4-3 respectively.
Round 2 of the Wizards League saw some great matches on display. Highlight of the matches was St Joes V Traethmelyn, both rugby and netball were close encounters. Traethmelyn were the winners in rugby winning 3045, an excellent display of rugby. St Joes won the netball out scoring Traethmelyn 6-5. In rugby, the Coed Hirwaun V Blaenbaglan game proved to be close, with Coed Hirwaun edging the win 20-10. However, the Blaenbaglan netball team won 2-12. New comers Cymmer Federations again came close to their first winning, losing to St Therese 20-30 in rugby and 1-10 in netball. Groes have won their first game of rugby, which is a great achievement as it is their first year in the league. Groes beat Awel Y Mor 25-20 but lost 0-10 in netball. Sandfields beat Baglan in
rugby and netball, whilst Cwmafan also won their matches against Central. There are a few games to be played in order to catch up, they include: St Therese V Eastern, Traethmelyn V Central and Tywyn V Eastern. Hopefully these games will be played this week. Two games down in the Wizards League and there is good elements of competitiveness and constant development in both rugby and netball.
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The Wizards League is really picking up with some consistent performances from some schools but also some schools are getting better every week. Examples of improving weekly is Baglan Primary, 3 games in and 3 loses, however the improvement each week is great. This week Baglan lost to Awel Y Mor 15-25, but also recorded their first three try’s of the campaign. Awel Y Mor also won the netball game against Baglan in a close game, 9-10 that ended. Other big games were Sandfields V Central where a draw was recorded in both rugby and netball, 25 all [rugby] and 9 all [netball]. Cwmafan beat Traethmelyn 0-25 and 0-10 in rugby and netball respectively, with Cwmafan really showing good form this year. Coed Hirwaun continue their unbeat-
en form in rugby beating Eastern 35-20 and just winning 3-2 in netball. St Joes lost to Blaenbaglan 10-25 in rugby and 2-6 in netball. Tywyn had a clean sweep over Cymmer Federations claiming a 0-30 win in rugby and a 0-10 win in netball. Lastly, St Therese played Eastern in a rearranged game and won both their games in netball and rugby, achieving a 30-5 win in rugby and a 10-0 win in netball. That makes an unbeaten start for St Therese Primary School.
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Some excellent rugby and netball were played this week, with a lot of schools becoming very competitive in their results. Central had tight games with Awel Y Mor in both games, with Central eventually winning rugby 3515 and netball 9-6. Coed Hirwaun travelled to Cymmer and won 1-10 in netball and 10-40 in rugby. St Therese remain unbeaten in both rugby and netball beating Baglan 40-10 in rugby and 12 -2 in netball. St Therese next fixture is against Central
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which will be a very good game. Tywyn also remain unbeaten and have one game in hand. Tywyn played Groes and won 0-30 in rugby and 0-10 in netball. Tywyn have also managed to not have a single point scored against them in both rugby and netball. After three games, that is an excellent statistic. Groes, Baglan and Cymmer Federation show signs of improving each week which is excellent. After the 4th round, Coed Hirwaun sit at the top of the rugby table unbeaten. Whilst Awel Y Mor top the netball table on points difference. The Wizards League is certainly heating up nicely this season.
The top of both the rugby and netball leagues tell a similar story with the same schools battling it out at the top. St Therese and Tywyn remain unbeaten beating Central [10-4] and Baglan [11 -1] respectively. Similarly, Tywyn and Coed Hirwaun are unbeaten at the top of the rugby league beating Baglan [30-0] and Groes [30-0] respectively. St Joes recorded their first win of the season against Cymmer Fed [15-45] which was a very good game. Cymmer played some very good rugby. Cymmer, Baglan and Eastern are yet to find their first win, however, the improvements in the all of the teams performances are positive. Similar story with netball with Traethmelyn and Groes still waiting for a win which will come soon. Sandfields won both of
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the games against Traethmelyn winning 10-25 in rugby and 1-11 in netball. Please follow @AberavonRDO on Twitter and Facebook for updates #WizardsLeague
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
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Cwmafan as Tywyn until this point had not conceded a try. Baglan travelled 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 travelled to St Joes to play Baglan and Coed Hirwaun won 25-5 in rugby and drew 33 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!!!
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
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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.
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
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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].
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 2020 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.
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The Wizards League is certainly getting exciting as it draws to an end. With two more fixture rounds to play and some rearranged games to go in, the top of the table clashes are certainly close. In rugby Tywyn move clear ahead of close rivals Coed Hirwaun and Central, however, Cwmafan who are also unbeaten could be tipped to win the title in the closing stages. Cwmafan beat Tywyn earlier in the league, that game could be the difference. Equally, the bottom of the league is just as exciting, the bottom four teams met this week which provided some special games. Netball is set to be down to one game and that is St Therese V Tywyn, both schools unbeaten so far with Blaenbaglan very close. A slip up by either team could be challenged by Blaenbaglan. Games this week were again at high standards. The feature game was Tywyn V Traethmelyn in rugby with
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Tywyn just beating Traethmelyn 10-5, a huge effort by Traethmelyn who looked very competitive. Cymer recorded their first wins of the season beating Groes 10-5 and Baglan 20-0. Three newly added teams to the league who have all shown great gains in skill and confidence. Cymer netball have yet to record their first win of the season, although the new kit shows their intent in the league. Ones to watch. Awel Y Mor and Baglan remain competitive in netball along with Central. Next fixtures on 27th March.
The Wizards League is very much down to the last games. Cwmafan are ahead of Tywyn by one point with a game in hand. Cwmafan beat Cymer Federations and Blaenbaglan in rugby. Tywyn have two games left to play and Cwmafan have three. Traethmelyn have done very season currently sitting third in the league. Mixed result from games have left positions 3 to 8 very tight which shows that the league has been very competitive this season. Netball is still all to play for and looks down to one game, Tywyn V St Therese. This game is yet to
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be organised, but will be announced soon. Other than playing each other, both schools still have one more game each to play. Blaenbaglan have been outstanding this season remaining competitive throughout, only losing to the top two teams. Again, the middle of the table is very tight which shows great development in both sports. New entrants in Cymer Federations and Groes have improved dramatically from the start of the season. There is one round of fixtures left to play on April 10th and some rearranged fixtures to go in. All to play for.
been very interesting, Coed Hirwaun enjoyed a great season also finishing 4th. New entrants Cymer Federations and Groes have shown great improvement throughout the season and showing great developments by picking up some well earned wins. In netball, it was a great season all round with Tywyn and St Therese battling it out at the end of the season for the title of the netball league. It ended 101 to Tywyn, with St Therese suffering a The Wizards League has come to an end for injury blow to their centre 5 minutes into its fourth year. Cwmafan Junior school have the game. Nevertheless, Tywyn were victomanaged to take the Wizards League title rious and retained the Wizards League for off Tywyn Primary School who have held the the fourth year running. Blaenbaglan have title for three years. Cwmafan have been a had had an excellent season finishing third consistent threat to Tywyn for four years and only losing three games. An excellent and their 20-0 win against Tywyn just after season. Cwmafan finished fourth due to Christmas proved to be crucial. Cwmafan points scored as they had only lost three have been deserved winners as they also games also. Awel Y Mor, Sandfields and hold the best defensive record in the WizCentral remained very competitive with ards League also. This season the Wizards each other in the middle of the table, creLeague sure has been competitive with ating a very interesting season. Cymer and Traethmelyn enjoying a fine season racking Groes finished at the bottom of the table up the best points scored in the Wizards but showed enormous signs of improveLeague. Between 4th and 8th place has ment throughout and with it being their
first year in the league, next year they will be ready. An excellent season all round for both rugby and netball. The Wizards League is becoming a very competitive league with standards improving each year. It is a credit to the children, teachers and parents involved that have created a safe and happy environment for the children to compete in. Competitive sport is very important to children as winning and losing can teach everybody so many values. Creating an environment for the children for competitive sports is essential, however, the control of competitive attitude must be nurtured and controlled, this is done through teachers and parents. A positive attitude towards sport, winning and losing should be adhered to at all time. Our sponsors are the key drivers that make this program available. A big thanks must go to Education Staffing Solutions, Baglan Bay Powerstation, Costain and Pump Supplies for sponsoring the program. Lastly, Aberavon RFC thank you for making the Wizards League special. Till next year.
On Wednesday 21st May, Aberavon RFC held there annual CUP rugby and netball cup competition at Dyffryn Comprehensive School. The weather was absolutely amazin g and the sport was even better. The rugby turned out to be a great spectacle with great skill and determination fro m all on show. The group stages ended with Tywyn, Cwmafan, Blaenbaglan and Central winning the group stages. New comers Bryn Primary school were exceptional on the day being their first competition for a couple of years. They were a pleasure to watch and it is hopeful that they will join the Wizards League next academic year. Groes, Eastern and Baglan were also terrific on the day. The bottom two teams of
each group entered the plate which led to a Semi-Final of Groes V Central A and Bryn V Eastern. Eastern and Groes made the final with Eastern winning at the end. Third place was taken by Central. The CUP QuarterFinals saw Cwmafan take on Traethmelyn with Cwmafan winning that fixture. Tywyn took on Coed Hirwaun B and won. Blaenbaglan beat St Therese and Central B took on Cymer Federations with Cymer winning that game. The SemiFinals saw Cwmafan V Cymer and Tywyn V Blaenbaglan. Each game was an exceptional game with the two games remaining very tight until the end. Cwmafan went through along with Tywyn to make the CUP Final which turned out to be an epic battle of two
teams that would not back down. The game was 0-0 right the way through and went into extra time. Cwmafan finally broke the Tywyn defence to score the sudden death winning try. Cwmafan winning the double. A BIG thanks must go to Dyffryn Comprehensive School for facilitating the event, also the Dyffryn pupils who helped out on the day. All of the referees and umpires were fantastic. Warburtons came down and fed all of the referees and some teachers which was great. Ridgways coaches, who provided the logistics for the event were superb and patie nt. Lastly, ESS who sponsored the event should be thanked as the event would not be possible without them.
The new secondary schools program got underway this week which is sponsored by Costain. Hard work has gone in by the secondary schools teachers to get teams on the field to feature is this league format. Glanfields played St Joes in
the opening game with a strong looking game by the Year 7’s finishing 15-15 and the Year 8’s Glanfields team won 17-7. Dyffryn played Cymer Afan and the scores there were [Y7] 56-7 and [Y8] 5915, both wins going to Dyffryn.
The 2nd round of team won 50-7 fixtures in the sec- against St Joes. Cymondary schools have mer played Glandbeen completed and fields [Sandfields and saw some close Glanafan]. The Year games. The year 7 7 game ended 0-54 game between to Glandfields, whilst Dyffryn and St Joes the Year 8 game ended at 22-27 to ended closer with Dyffryn, which was Glandfields winning an epic game. How10-26. Excellent ever, Dyffryn Year 8 games so far.
The secondary schools Wizards League has completed its first phase of competition with all schools playing against each other at least once. St Joes beat Cymmer 0-54 [Y7], whilst a bye was given in the Y8 game resulting in Cymmer taking the game 30-0. Glanfields and Dyffryn [Y7] was a great game to watch. Glanfields were leading 36-5 until 10 minutes left of time, where they battled back to 36-22. In Y8 Dyffryn were the victors winning the game 1422. There has been some very strong games on show this term with some exceptional players featuring in each game. Prospects are very high for the town in terms of rugby, all that need to happen is for the schools and the pupils to keep playing consistently. The teachers have worked extremely hard to arrange games and get the game played. Without the efforts of the teachers, this would not go ahead. Teachers are vital.
Unfortunately Cymmer Afan have had to pull out of the league due to facing difficulties of the size of their school and not being able to compete due to lack of number. Cymmer have shown great character in the opening games and Gavin Groves the teacher at Cymmer has worked tirelessly to put teams on the pitch. The show must go on. What has happened in terms of the league, all games against Cymmer have been VOID. Therefore, all point scored for and against have been deducted. This week only St Joes and Glandfields featured. The year 7 game was a game of two half's with Glandfields leading 0-10 at the interval and St Joes scoring 19 points to win the game 19-10. A great to watch with some good players on show. The year 8 game was won by visitors Glanfields, they took victory winning 10-24 against St Joes. There is a bit of a break now until next fixtures, they are: Dyffryn V St Joes and Dyffryn V Glandfields, both to be played at the Plough.
There was an excellent fixture in Dyffryn V Glanfields this week at Taibach RFC, with Dyffryn eventually winning 29-26. The game was full of big tackles, skills and plenty of try’s. A very good indication that secondary schools rugby is getting better. The Y7 league is very close at the moment as Dyffryn need to play St Joes in the remaining fixture. If St Joes wish to become Y7 champions they must beat Dyffryn by 16 points. This game will be played in January 2014. The Y8 game between Dyffryn and Glandfields was very much one sided with Dyffryn winning 56-5. Dyffyrn’s Y8 team have been far to strong this season obtaining an undefeated record. However, there is still one more match to play and that is also against St Joes. St Joes have not won a game in this seasons campaign yet, but they could cause an upset. Regardless, the Y8 league title looks set to go to Dyffryn. Once these fixtures have been played, there will be a 10 and 7 aside competitions held at Aberavon RFC in the 2014 end of the season. This will give schools an opportunity to field two teams in the competition for an opportunity to win both competitions.
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.