Rick O’Shea Unveiled as Hall of Fame Guest Speaker

Posted on January 25, 2015 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Rick O'SheaNeath Rugby Supporters Club are pleased to announce that the guest speaker for their Hall of Fame celebration night will be Rick O’Shea. Rick will be well known to rugby fans and is a familiar face on BBC’s Scrum V programmes.

Rick will oversee an evening in which five more Neath RFC greats will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The celebration evening will take place on Friday May 15th at 7:30 pm at the Neath RFC Clubhouse. Tickets go on sale to Neath Rugby Supporters Club members at the Llanelli game on Saturday 7th February. They will then go on general sale to non-members from the 7th March. Tickets cost £7.50 for members and £12.50 for non-members.

Nominations are still being sought for entries into the Hall of Fame. To nominate your hero, simply e-mail your choice(s) to info@neathrugbysupporters.com, message us via Twitter or Facebook or come and see us at any game. Closing date for nominations is 16th March 2015.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hall of Fame 2015 launched

Posted on January 13, 2015 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Hall of FameNeath Rugby Supporters Club are today proud to launch the 2015 Hall of Fame.

Following the success of the inaugural event last year, Neath Rugby Supporters Club are today proud to launch the 2015 Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame will recognise and honour individuals synonymous with Neath RFC – the legendary figures who have shown exceptional commitment and contribution to the club. This year’s inductees will follow in the footsteps of Brian Williams, Brian Thomas, Dai Morris, Steve Powell and Shane Williams who were the first to be honoured in 2014.

So who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame? Well, that is where you come in.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be asking supporters to nominate any individual who you feel will be worthy of inclusion in the Hall of Fame. They can be a player, a coach, an administrator or volunteer. Basically, any person who has shown a remarkable loyalty and commitment to Wales’ oldest rugby club.

We’ll then form a small panel of Neath Rugby Supporters Club members, who will whittle all the nominations down to a final five. These five will then be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a special celebration evening at the clubhouse on Friday 15th May.

There’ll be no shortage of candidates spread across the decades. The likes of Rees Stephens, Courtney Meredith, Paul Thorburn, Kevin Phillips, Gareth Llewellyn or maybe Adam Jones are all likely to feature in people’s thinking, but anyone who has made an outstanding contribution to Neath RFC can be nominated.

How to nominate
You can make your nomination in a number of ways:
On this website – Leave a comment under this article
On twitter – Tweet us @neathsupporters using #allblackslegends
On Facebook – Visit us on Facebook and leave a comment on the Hall of Fame thread
E-mail – Send your nomination to info@neathrugbysupporters.com
In person – Visit our table in the clubhouse on match days and fill in the nomination form.

You can nominate as many individuals as you like and closing date for nominations is Monday 16 March

Shortlisting
Once all the nominations are in, we’ll ask four or five Neath Rugby Supporters Club members to get together to discuss the nominations and whittle them down to the final five. These five will then become the latest members of the Hall of Fame.

If you’d like to help in whittling down the nominees then please e-mail us on info@neathrugbysupporters.com. We’ll be doing this on Friday 20th March, after our penultimate home match of the season against Newport.

Hall of Fame Evening
The final five individuals will be officially inducted into Neath Rugby Supporters Club’s Hall of Fame at a special celebration evening at at the clubhouse on Friday 15th May 2015.

So get nominating now to honour your heroes.

Posted in Hall of Fame | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Supporters Bus to Llandovery

Posted on January 5, 2015 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Neath Rugby Supporters ClubThe supporters bus to Llandovery on 31 January has one place remaining.  The bus will leave the Gnoll at 12:30, returning from Llandovery approximately 30 minutes after the final whistle.

Cost is £8 for supporters club members and £10 for non-members.  To book your seat, please come and see us in the clubhouse at Saturday’s game with RGC. First come, first served.

Can those who’ve already put their name down for the bus (or the one to Ebbw Vale on 24 January) please ensure that they pay for their seat at Saturday’s game.  If money is not received by then, their seats will be made available for others.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bedwas at the Gnoll

Posted on January 2, 2015 by neathrugbysupportersclub

012Bedwas are this weekend’s visitors to the Gnoll with the team looking to get 2015 off to a winning start.  It was a mixed festive period for Neath.  A defeat at home to Bridgend was followed up with a hard fought win at Aberavon.

Special tribute must be paid to all those who played against Aberavon.  The conditions were appalling with driving wind and rain, but the players ground out a win that spoke volumes for their determination.

In fact the whole squad of players and coaches must be praised for the way they have played this season.  Whilst results have not always gone our way, the fact that they continue to put in competitive performances despite the club’s off field problems is a testament to their character and commitment.

On to more positive news, and the supporters club will shortly be announcing details of the 2015 Hall of Fame.  Last year’s event was a huge success which culminated in an unforgettable night at Neath Cricket Club.  Brian Williams, Brian Thomas, Dai Morris, Steve Powell and Shane Williams were the first inductees but now it is time for other legends to join them.  Get your thinking caps on and details about how you can nominate your heroes will be announced shortly.

Don’t forget that the supporters club’s merchandise is still available.  Available exclusively to supporters club members, items are available for ordering from our table in the clubhouse at today’s game.  We have items of clothing such as hoodies, polo shirts, t-shirts and hats as well as items such as mugs and pens.

Enjoy the game and remember to listen out for who is chosen as the Supporters Club Man of the Match.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Neath Rugby Supporters Club Make Donation to Team

Posted on December 19, 2014 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Projector presentationFollowing discussions with the team management, a projector has been purchased. The projector will help the squad with their pre-match analysis and enable video footage of games to be beamed from a laptop on to the dressing room wall.

The projector has been bought with funds raised as a result of the recent Neath v New Zealand 25th Anniversary event held at the clubhouse.

A spokesman for Neath Rugby Supporters Club said “The main reason for our existence is to raise funds that can help the Neath rugby team in any practical way. We discussed with the team management what we could do to help, and they asked if we could purchase them a projector. They said it will greatly assist them in reviewing previous games and analysing future opponents. We were only too happy to help.”

The spokesman continued “The projector was bought with funds raised as a result of the Neath v New Zealand 25th Anniversary celebrations held back in October. The evening was a great success and we want to thank everyone who attended. It is as a result of their support of the evening that we are now able to help the team in a practical way”

“It’s been another traumatic week off the field for Neath RFC, but amidst the turmoil the fans’ support of the team is unquestionable. The players are doing a fantastic job in continuing to play and turn in excellent performances despite the off field issues and hopefully this gift to them will help them improve even more,” added the spokesman.

The projector will be presented at the Bridgend game on Saturday.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Neath Rugby Club 1988/89

Posted on November 25, 2014 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Local historian Bernard Lewis is in the process of writing a book on Neath’s legendary 1988/89 season.  He is hoping to get it published next year.

Here, Bernard asks for help in persuading publishers to release the book.  He needs fans who would buy the book to visit his website and leave a comment.  The more comments from fans intending to buy the book, the more likely it is that it will get published.

“Can I risk boring you with an update on the above?

Back in 2012 I was well into writing what I hope will become a book on Neath’s record-breaking 1988/89 season (the one BEFORE the All Blacks visit!) I pended that because I was commissioned to write ‘Swansea in the Great War’ and that was published in October 2014 (factual books do take time to get into print!) More on the Great War Swansea book here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swansea-Great-Y … 1783032944

So, I’ve now dusted off my work on Neath rugby and hope to finish it in early 2015 and then try and find a publisher. I’ve actually completed the writing up to the eve of the 1989 cup final so most of it is there but it needs the final couple of chapters plus a lot of checking and polishing. If I can get a publisher on board I would hope (can’t guarantee) that the book would be out for Christmas 2015…

If all else fails my fall-back would be Kindle publishing…

More on me here: https://bernardlewisauthor.wordpress.com/

It might help me persuade a publisher that the book is a ‘runner’ if fans of Neath, old and new, got in touch with me via my website to register their interest.

At present I need to finish the writing and then polish it all up. I think it’ll be about 70,000 words with images provided by Mrs Giddings, widow of Jim, who took the photographs for the programmes etc.

It’ll be a very brief, potted history of the club (Mike Price is the main man on that, of course) just to lead the reader in and then some 1988/89 pre-season stuff and then an account of every game during the season – detailed descriptions reworded by me from the press of the day to give a detailed flavour of how each game unfolded with scorers, teams etc. I’ve had contributions from Paul Thorburn, Adrian and Graham Davies, Gareth Llewellyn, Allan Benjamin, Dai Shaw and Alan Roper etc. Just to get some flavour…

It also covers the work of the committee(from the minutes) and other non-match stuff. How Neath’s internationals fared at the national level in 1988/89. And a rounding up…

Ideally at this stage I simply need people to try and spread the word to others and for those other people to contact me via my author blog to just express an interest in the book. No obligation to buy, of course. The more names I can get by January 2015 the more likely I am to be able to attract a publisher.

Heard today that ‘Swansea in the Great War’ has sold 640 copies in the first month; so its not JK Rowling figures but a local history publisher will want to at least think that it can shift 400+ copies to have a chance of making the sums add up. So the more advance interest for ‘Neath! Neath! Neath! Neath Rugby club’s Record Breaking 1988/89 Season’ the better…

Bernard Lewis

Posted in News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Neath v Carmarthen Quins

Posted on November 13, 2014 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Pontypridd A (1)We finally got our first win of the season last time out against Cross Keys, and what a performance it was.  Hopefully we’ll get more of the same tomorrow’s game against Carmarthen Quins.

Firstly, congratulations to Jamie Davies who won the Neath Rugby Supporters Club Man of the Match award following the win against Cross Keys.  He capped a fine game with two well taken tries.  We’ll be making a Man of the Match presentation after each home game this season and if any member would like to choose one, then please let us know.

We should also mention Luke Price at this point. Our promising outside half suffered a nasty leg injury in that game and naturally we wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Don’t forget that with Christmas approaching we have some items of merchandise available.  We have hoodies, polo shirts, hats, mugs etc all available for ordering.  These items are exclusively available to supporters club members only.

We are also still taking memberships for the 2014/15 season.  It costs just £10 with all profits we make going back into helping the team.  Come and see us in the clubhouse at the game to join up.

Don’t forget you can keep up with all the news and events by visiting our website www.neathrugbysupporters.com or by following us on Twitter @neathsupporters or Facebook.

Enjoy the game.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What a Great Night

Posted on October 25, 2014 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Low Cost VansWhat a night last night. Thanks to everyone who came and for everyone’s kind comments.

There are a lot of people to thank for making the night a success.

Obviously a huge thanks to Warren Gatland.  He spoke about his time playing for New Zealand and answered questions from the fans.  There were some potentially tricky questions on the back of the Wales squad announcement this week, but to his credit he answered them all with a refreshing honesty.

We must also thank the Neath players coaches and back room staff from that memorable day for coming.  It was great to see them all and see them enjoying the game.  It was the first time some of them had actually watched the game.

We also thank Keith, Tracey and the team in the clubhouse.  They couldn’t have been more helpful in the run up to the event and they all worked flat out on the evening, particularly the girls in the kitchen who worked non-stop in serving 190 portions of faggots and peas.

Thanks also to Rod from Low Cost Vans for his kind sponsorship of the evening.

And finally thanks to our volunteers who helped us out on the night – Simon for manning the door, Paula for selling the raffle tickets and Mike Price for giving us the historical background to the day.

You can see some pictures from the night here (courtesy of the South Wales Evening Post)

Posted in Event | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Bus to Bridgend – Book your seat now

Posted on October 14, 2014 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Pontypridd A (1)Update – Unfortunately due to low numbers the bus has been cancelled.  If you had booked on please contact us to arrange a refund.

Neath Rugby Supporters Club are putting on transport to the forthcoming friendly against Bridgend.

The match will take place on Saturday 25th October.  The bus will leave the clubhouse at 1:00pm and will leave the Brewery Field immediately after the game.

Tickets cost £6 for supporters club members and £8 for non-members.  Spaces are limited and the bus will only run if there is sufficient interest so please book your space as soon as possible.

To secure your seat please call 07943 567994 or e-mail info@neathrugbysupporters.com

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Neath v New Zealand Evening – SOLD OUT

Posted on October 2, 2014 by neathrugbysupportersclub

Low Cost VansThe Neath v New Zealand 25th Anniversary night has now officially sold out.

We initially announced the sell out last Saturday, but we were then able to secure the clubhouse’s large function room.  But now, all the tickets for this room have also gone.
Thanks to everyone who has bought a ticket.  The response has been amazing.  It promises to be a great night, celebrating one of the biggest days in Neath history.

If you have reserved a ticket, but have not yet paid we’d appreciate it if you could pay as soon as possible.  You can do this be seeking out Len at the Llanelli game at Parc y Scarlets tomorrow night or at the Will Thomas Question and Answer session next Wednesday.

Once again, we’d like to thank Low Cost Vans for their support of this evening.

Posted in Event, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment