Holywell Town - Halkyn Road

Holywell Town FC

Halkyn Road

Holywell

Flintshire

CH8 7TZ

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Ground Number: 1330

Saturday 10th August 2024
Holywell Town 0-12 The New Saints

FAW Reserve League North East

HOLYWELL TOWN FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club is one of the oldest clubs in Wales, having been established back in 1880. Playing just friendlies at first, they joined the North Wales Coast League as founder members in 1893. Spells in the Chester & District League and the  Flintshire League followed before returning to the North Wales Coast League which they won in 1914. It was around this time that name changes occurred, firstly Holywell United and then Holywell Victoria. From 1921 - 1929, the club competed in the Welsh National League (North) under the name of Holywell Arcadians.

Following the end of the Second World War, the club adopted its current name of Holywell Town and moved to its present home. They competed in the West Cheshire League for a couple of seasons before returning to the Welsh National League (North). They won the league in 1953 and remained there until 1966 when they were relegated to local football. They progressed through the Clwyd League system and would join the Cymru Alliance in 1990 as founder members. They were also founder members of the new League Of Wales, today the Cymru Premier in 1992. Six out of the next seven seasons were spent here, they finished 5th in 1995, a club record. From 1999 until 2006 they were back in the Cymru Alliance before going down to the Welsh Alliance. They finally won the title and promotion in 2015. Four seasons were spent in the Cymru Alliance before relegation to the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) in 2019. They spent a single season here before the pandemic struck. As they were leading the league at the time, they were promoted to the Cymru North once football returned.

The best Welsh Cup run came during the 2013/14 season. Starting in the Qualifying Round 2 they beat Llannerch-y-medd 8-1, Penrhyncoch 3-0, Penycae 3-0, won 3-1 at Llandrindod Wells, beat Newtown 3-2 and Porthmadog 3-2. Their run finally came to an end in the semi-finals as they lost 3-1 to Aberystwyth Town. Local cup wins include the Welsh Amateur Cup/FAW Trophy twice, the North Wales Coast Amateur Cup four times, the North Wales Coast Challenge Cup in 1987, the North Wales Coast FA Junior Challenge Cup in 1977, two Alves Cups, the Waterfall Cup in 1947 and the President Cup in 1987. League Cup wins include the Clwyd League Cup in 1988, the Clwyd League Auxiliary Cup in 1993 and the Cymru Alliance League Cup in 1998. In recent years, they've won the Cookson Cup in 2014, the Mawddach Challenge Cup in 2015 and the North East Wales FA Challenge Cup in 2023.

The record attendance came in 1962 for a Welsh Cup game against Swansea Town (later City) when 3,000 turned up. Holywell is located in Flintshire and has a population of just under 9,000. The name Holywell is literally holy + well in reference to St Winefride's Well, which is situated in the town. Similarly, its Welsh name, Treffynnon, is a compound of tre "town" + ffynnon "well", meaning "town of [the] well". From the 18th century, the town grew around the lead mining and cotton milling industries. The water supply from the mountains above the town, which flows continually and at a constant temperature, supplies the well and powered many factories in the Greenfield Valley. In addition to lead and cotton, copper production was of great importance. Holywell Town station, at the head of the steeply-climbing LNWR branch from Holywell Junction, opened in 1912 and finally closed in 1957. Now, the nearest station is Shotton and a bus is required to get to the town. Famous people from the town include footballers Mike England, Barry Horne and Gareth Jelleyman.

MY VISIT

The chance of a bonus game came about when I checked the excellent Cymru Football app. It threw up just one possibility, the 11 am kickoff in the FAW Reserve League North East between Holywell Town & The New Saints. The club was unresponsive on Twitter when I pressed them for further info. That's a real bugbear of mine, robotic and ignorant club Twitter accounts. Even if they didn't know or the game wasn't going ahead, bad news is better than no news. It would be a 30-mile detour co,pared to going straight to Wrexham and should the game go ahead, I'd have to tick Wetherspoons in Wrexham another time. I made a final decision on Thursday, deciding to take the plunge unless I heard the game was off. The ground looked a cracker. I based my decision on what would disappoint me most. The wasted 30 miles would pale into insignificance at the thought of missing a golden opportunity to visit a ground that was a 400-mile journey on its own. I researched the club history on Thursday evening, it was far lengthier and more complicated than I'd thought.

From our game at Flint Mountain, we headed back to Runcorn and our hotel. We dumped our bags, headed to the Ferry Boat Wetherspoons, and had a few drinks. It was a good example of a Spoons and did Black Dragon, one of the better ciders they offer. A couple of pints and a cocktail later, it was back to the room for one more can whilst I typed my blog. Getting to sleep at 1 am was comfortable and I got an OK night's sleep despite Colin keep waking me up as I was snoring. I got up at 8 and got ready. We needed petrol and food, so a stop at ASDA in Runcorn was planned. This proved useful but the rain didn't. We then drove to Holywell Town and were relieved to see it was on. We went in, paying £3 for the privilege. There was a small crowd of 18 there, including Manchester City fan and groundhopper Tony.

Holywell Town were in poor form and had lost the opening game 6-0 at Flint Mountain. The New Saints had also lost their opener, a 5-4 thriller against Gresford Athletic. TNS started on the front foot. Holywell did not help themselves though. A defender backheeled a corner into his own net after 8 minutes, though the goal was given to a visiting player. Luka Graham was not so lucky when he scored another own goal a couple of minutes later. It was 3-0 on 13 minutes, this time J Davies-Sewell became the first TNS player to put the ball on the net but it was an error by the keeper who had failed to gather the ball. The glovesman produced a great save to prevent a goal and another visiting goal was ruled out for offside before they hit the post. Humphries scored a 4th on 40 minutes whilst a corner was deflected home by Clayton for 5-0 on 42 minutes. The goal of the game so far came a minute later, Blayney curling home from the edge of the area for 6-0.

THE GROUND

HALKYN ROAD is a pleasant venue to watch a game at. The car park is spacious and it is not too far from town. The car is also nice and does a good selection of food. The ground itself has two main areas of cover. The obligatory metal seated stand behind one goal holding 200ish and the brick-built stand along the side, holding slightly less but being more attractive. There are also a couple of smaller areas of cover, otherwise the ground is open to the elements.