Llanrhaeadr: The small Mid Wales village punching above its weight
Arguably the sleepy Mid Wales village of Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant is most known as being the scene for parts of a film starring Hugh Grant and a great big waterfall.
The village is also steeped in footballing history in Mid Wales circles, but now their reach and name is threatening to go wider than the boundaries of Powys. The ‘Waterfallmen’ rose to the dizzy heights of the top two at one stage earlier in the season after taking on all comers.
Now they’re fifth, punching, as most people will agree well above their weight. The club is built on the foundations of committed local people both behind the scenes and on the turf.
In a league that is now, some would argue, the strongest in Wales, with the likes of Bangor, Rhyl, Prestatyn and Colwyn Bay, Llanrhaeadr are in unchartered territory. And they’re doing it not just on a shoestring budget, they’re doing it on no budget at all.
The former Huws Gray Alliance, now the Cymru North as it was coined in the summer, is a competitive league where clubs are constantly fighting in the same player pool with money playing a big part as it does in the Cymru Premier.
That isn’t a big old swipe at players moving for money, clubs are willing to pay big sums to get players to get back to that promised land of Welsh football.
Throw in Llanrhaeadr and you’ve got a plucky village side in amongst them, upsetting the apple cart.
I say plucky, that is probably not doing the side justice, they have a side littered with talent. Players that, if they were based elsewhere in Wales could command decent money for turning out on a Saturday afternoon.
They’ve got top players, but in a rare day and age where money dominates the professional game and parts of the semi-professional game, this outfit doesn’t seem to play to bulk their wallets out for a Saturday night.
A flurry of wins at the start of the season followed by a downturn in fortunes and you’d put it down to a bit of a fluke. But 11 games in and sitting fifth is far from a fluke.
Granted the ground and the pitch probably slightly plays to Llanrhaeadr’s advantage but so what. It comes to something when sides with decent budgets and well-known names are blaming trees and the state of the pitch for leaving the village empty-handed.
The ground has been coined the Theatre of Trees and there is certainly a good plot in the story that is unfolding at the moment.
