Undy AFC - Our Club History
Undy A.F.C. was formed in 1947 by Joe Champion, Lambert Bird, Harry Hodges and others. The changing facilities were in Undy Church Hall, using a tin bath for washing. During the period between 1947 and 1962 the Argus Shield was won three times. Unfortunately in 1962 the club was disbanded, due to lack of support.
1970 saw a reformation, the driving force behind this, amongst others, were John King, Percy Pope,Malcolm Pope, our president Mr J Smith, and the tote organiser Bob Scrivens, the tote keeping the club on a firm financial setting for more than 10 years
From 1970 to 1981 Undy Football Club operated without any team managers, a selection committee picked the teams every week. The first manager taken on by the club, in 1981 was Dave Segal During the mideighties Undy United F C took over the management of the Playing Fields from Undy Playing Fields Association, changing our name from Undy United to Undy A F C
In 1992, the football club poured its first pint of beer in its new clubhouse, by obtaining its licence to sell alcohol. 1996 saw the project to extend the clubhouse, providing us with new changing facilities, and more recently in 2005 the development of our new pitch Our colours changed during this period to the Red that the whole club wears today
Having gained entry to the Gwent County League, the Gwent County Motors Cup was won in 2004, and with a continual improvement of our first team, we became an established Gwent County Division one side, before beginning to set our sights on a place in the Welsh League
In 2010/2011, under the management team of Mark Crook and Jason Davies, we fulfilled our ambition by being crowned Division one Champions and gaining promotion into the Welsh Football League Our time in The Welsh League has been a successful one, with us winning the Third Division in our first season, and gaining promotion to Division two
In 2015/16, now under the management of Laurence Owen, with Crook as Director of football, we achieved our objective, and gained promotion to the top tier of Welsh League football
Our stay in the Cymru South division came to an end after relegation in the 2021/22 season. We finished the 2022/23 season in the Ardal South East league in third position, just five points behind Abertillery Bluebirds AFC
First Team Honours:
Gwent County League Division One: 2010–11, Welsh Football League Division Three: 2011–12
Gareth Cullimore, James Barnes and Dan Jarman, all in action during the 2022/23 season.
Blaenavon Blues were formed in 1947 by Ernest Pugh. During the early years the club competed in the Pontypool and District League. From 1959-60 the club were very successful, winning the Langdon Cup on three consecutive occasions in 1960, 1961 & 1962, the Benevolent Cup in 1960, 1961 & 1963, the E.I. Peake Cup in 1960, as well as the League Championship in 1961, 1962 & 1967.
In 1968 the club were accepted into the Gwent Senior League and the Welsh Football League, finishing 12th in Division Two of the Welsh League In 1969 they appointed their first coach in Bert Sharland, the Blues played their home games at the Recreation ground and at Garn-y-Erw, while their usual ground of the Co-Op Field underwent some improvements.
In 1970 they appointed their first professional manager in Mel Davies, with his best finish coming in 1971-72 in 7th place in Division Two
For 1972-73 season former Manchester United Busby Babe, Ken Morgans arrived at the club, but after finishing in 8th place he was gone. In 1973 Tony Leighton was appointed manager and it proved a successful period in the club’s history, with the Blues winning the Welsh League Division Two title in 1974-75, with 28 wins out of 34 games
In the early 1980’s John Coles was appointed manager, and in season 1983-84, the club won promotion in third place in Welsh League Division One, behind Pontlottyn and Newport County. The club then spent three seasons in the Premier Division, with a best finish of 7th place in 1985-86.
In the late 1980s Paul Young took over as manager after relegation in 1986-87 back to Division One. It was a difficult time for the club when they dropped their second team due to low player numbers. Young was subsequently replaced by Della Cheedy, and despite just missing out on promotion in 1989-90 in 4th place, in 1991 the club took the decision to pull out of the Welsh Football League
The club won the Gwent Central League title in 1993, but failed in the play-off to return to the Gwent County League. They won it again 1997 and this time won promotion to the Gwent County League
In 2003 and 2004 under the management of Mike Hall and Rob Browning, the club won back-to-back promotions to take their place in the Gwent County League Division One. In 2005 saw the Blues narrowly failed to win promotion to the Welsh League after finishing runners up in the Gwent County League Division One
In 2011, the Blues left their home ground of many years at the Co-Op Field or a new ground on the other side of the town called the Memorial Ground. In 2014 the Blues again narrowly missed out on promotion to the Welsh League when they finished third behind runners up Panteg, who joined the Welsh League that season.
2020 saw the Blues finish runners up behind Abertillery Excelsiors on the ‘points per game’ ruling after the season was cut short by the Covid pandemic to miss out again. However, 2021-22 the Blues completed their Gwent Premier League campaign unbeaten to finish runners up to Lliswerry, gaining promotion to the Ardal Southern League, also winning the Gwent FA Senior Cup for the first time
O u r V i s i t o r s - B l a e n a v o n B l u e s A F C
Memorial Park - the home of Blaenavon Blues AFC
T h e C a u s e w a y A d W a l l Want to be a Sp , e-mail jasonnd08@outlook.com
Memberofthe Seneddfor NewportEast UNDY BUILDING & TIMBER SUPPLIES WEST END FARM, UNDY, CALDICOT, NP26 3EN TELEPHONE 01633 880504
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From the Archives - Picture Gallery
Ardal South East - Saturday 25th March 2023
2022 2019
Undy AFC 1 v 2 Blaenavon Blues AFC
Pictures by Jason Anderson
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