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Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School

Sporting Activities

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Soccer 1st XI 1905–06

Rugby First XV, 1925-26

Back Row : Arthur Williams, Owen Evans, David Arthur Davies (vice capt.), James Brinley Jones, Dan Davies, T. Brinley Reynolds,
Shadrach C. Lewis, Philip Basil Jones (secretary)
Middle Row : A. Jones, Fred Jones, Trevor M. Williams (capt.), Mr. J. Edwards (staff member, later became an M.P.), E. Thomas
Front Row : W. Oxenham, William. J. Bowen, Gwilym. S. Jones

Soccer was the main winter game for boys from 1896 until the arrival of Mr E J Excell in 1922. Mr Excell changed the winter game to Rugby Union and the oval-ball game remains the chosen sport to the present day. An extensive soccer report can be seen in The Aberdarian, of December 1905 where some of the boys in the photograph are mentioned; another soccer report appears in the December 1910 edition. We have been told that Mr John Battenbo (Maths Dept) and Mr Dyfrig Davies (Welsh Dept) briefly reintroduced soccer in the early 1970s, but as far as we know the school soccer team did not continue after both of these staff moved on from the school in the mid-70s.