Brecon Corries - Rich Field

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Ground Number: 1556

Saturday 23rd May 2026

Brecon Corries - Chepstow Town

Ardal South East 

BRECON CORRIES - A BRIEF HISTORY

BRECON CORRIES or BRECON CORINTHIANS to give them their full name, were established in 1946 following the end of the Second World War. Early on, they played a single season in the Mid Wales League (Southern Section), winning the title. In 1949, they joined the Welsh Football League, starting in Division 2 East. They were champions in 1955, winning promotion to Division 1. A 6th-place finish in 1964 was good enough for promotion to the Premier Division, but Brecon only lasted a single season before relegation. A couple more seasons were spent in Division 1 before, in 1967, the club resigned from the league and joined the Brecon and District League. Though they won no honours here, Brecon returned to the WFL in 1974. Starting in Division 2, they won promotion in 1980 after a 3rd-place finish. The club were Division 1 champions in 1082, winning promotion to the Premier Division, which was renamed the National Division in 1983 and Division 1 in 1992, following the founding of the Cymru Premier.

In its first season as a second-tier league, Brecon finished as runners-up behind Ton Pentre, but the second half of the 1990s proved cataclysmic as the club suffered four relegations in five seasons between 1996 & 2000 to find themselves in the South Wales Senior League Division Two. In 2002, Brecon won promotion to Division 1 after finishing as runners-up to Fairwater. Another relegation came in 2005, another promotion in 2011, this time as runners-up to Lisvane/Llanishen. The league changed its name to the South Wales Alliance in 2015. Brecon left for the Mid Wales South League in 2019, winning the title in their debut season. They moved to the Mid Wales Football League East Division, which they won in 2022. This earned them promotion to the Ardal South East, the third tier of Welsh Football, where they remain to this day.

 Local cup wins include the Mid Wales League Cup in 1948, the Welsh League Cup in 1963, 1982 & 1992, the J. Emrys Morgan Cup in 2022 and the Mid Wales Football League Play-off in 2022. Brecon, archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. Historically, it was the county town of Brecknockshire (Breconshire); although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of the County of Powys, it remains an important local centre. Brecon is the third-largest town in Powys, after Newtown and Ystradgynlais. It lies north of the Brecon Beacons mountain range, but is just within the Brecon Beacons National Park. It has a population of 8,250. The Welsh name, Aberhonddu, means "mouth of the Honddu". It is derived from the River Honddu, which meets the River Usk near the town centre, a short distance away from the River Tarell, which enters the Usk a few hundred metres upstream. The confluence of the River Honddu and the River Usk made for a valuable defensive position for the Norman castle, which overlooks the town, built by Bernard de Neufmarche in the late 11th century.

Brecon's town walls were constructed by Humphrey de Bohun after 1240.  The walls were built of cobble, with four gatehouses and were protected by ten semi-circular bastions.  In 1400, the Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr rose in rebellion against English rule, and in response, in 1404, 100 marks were spent by the royal government improving the fortifications to protect Brecon in the event of a Welsh attack. Brecon's walls were largely destroyed during the English Civil War. Today, only fragments survive, including some earthworks and parts of one of the gatehouses; these are protected as scheduled monuments. In 2010, the Town Council installed a plaque to the slave-trader Captain Thomas Phillips captain of the Hannibal slave ship. During the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, the plaque was removed and thrown into the River Usk.[citation needed][27] Following the protests, the Council passed two resolutions on 20 September 2020 to display the plaque in the local museum, Y Gaer, and to request that it be displayed as part of a suitable exhibit detailing the wider context, without being restored. It was also resolved unanimously that a working group is established to consider whether a new plaque, a new work of art, or a loaned artwork should be commissioned, and where any new piece should be located.

MY VISIT

For this Saturday, the game choices were dwindling, though there was still a long list of around sixty fixtures I could go to. Not many of them were great in terms of travel, though, so it was whittled down to a shortlist of four possibilities. Barnston, Cheam Park Rangers and a double of a game at Field AFC and Beeston St Anthony's were all considered. However, Brecon Corries had been suggested a few weeks ago, and I was all set to go to that until Daniel announced that he wanted £40 in petrol each from Colin & me, as none of the Essex lot fancied the trip to Wales. Plus, I'd have to drive up to ASDA, which would be another £2. I'd worked it out that if I drove, I'd only ask Colin for £31 if he came to my local bus stop. I really didn't fancy driving. Eventually, a compromise was reached. Daniel would take a shortcut and pick Colin up from home, and me up fairly locally and 'only' charge us £37 each. This worked for me; I figured that £6 extra was worth it for being able to have a few drinks and type up my blog on the way home. I had paid a premium to use public transport and also had a much longer journey for the same reason. The day out is important to me, more important than the football itself, at least on a Saturday.

It caused yet another PuffPuff controversy on Twitter after he demanded that his passengers pay for his petrol, pretty much. Barely a day goes by without him upsetting someone with his worldview on there. Personally, I work out my servicing costs for the year, divide them by the number of miles done that year, then add them to my costs so I can fairly compare them to public transport. For this year, it has been a good year for car costs, so only 4p a mile. I then work out each trip using the trip computer on my car, subtracting 10% from the MPG as it is woefully inaccurate. I'll then split the costs among everyone in the car. Normally, it's Colin who gets the belting deal, never having to drive because of his epilepsy. But I could never justify making my passengers pay more, and I reckon that it could cause problems with car insurance too. As well as the occasional airport runs and school runs that Daniel does for extra money, but each to their own.

From our game in Gloucestershire, I drove Colin & I home. Gloucester Services was extremely tempting as it was a farm shop, but it was a tight call for Colin to get his bus home. Despite some slow drivers, we made up time on the way, and I dropped him off and got home well before 8. I came home, uploaded my blog and sorted my photos. Three pints of cider were consumed as I watched YouTube and tried to send myself to sleep. I got off around 10.30 ahead of another busy Sunday at work. I had played hard over the weekend, so a bit of hard work was no bad thing. Monday was fairly similar, but despite my usual Tuesday off work, there was no midweek football that I fancied. We were in the dying embers of the football season, but I was hoping that I'd have a few more Saturdays yet. I briefly considered Upper Hale v Farnborough North End, but decided against it when kickoff was put back to 7 PM. If it had been step 7, I wouldn't have minded, but it was further down the pyramid. I still walked to town and back, getting some shopping and having a relaxed day. The rest of the week was work. I did my research on the club on Thursday and was feeling like a pint or two. However, I decided to wait until Friday to make that reward taste all the better. I spotted a parody article in Viz which had a dead ringer for PuffPuff in it, much to the amusement of Twitter.

It had been a busy week at work, but not unpleasant. I came home on Friday, slung my clothes in the wash, had a shower, got dressed and had a pizza for lunch within 90 minutes before heading out for a walk. Four miles into Wycombe, first stop the fruit stall for a big bag of clementines for £2. A pint at Spoons for a penny less was made all the more pleasant by sitting out the front and watching the world go by. Then to Poundland for some batteries and a can of Irn Bru before a pint of Old Rosie in the old faithful, The Rose and Crown, tipped the scales from stone cold sober to merriment. Lidl was next up, where I got a bottle of rum and some fresh lemonade, amongst other things. Some rum went into the lemonade for the walk home, where I had a final pint of cider before bed. I woke at 6 and got bathed and ready. Leaving at 7.40, I realised I'd forgotten breakfast so stopped at the Asda petrol station for a meal deal of Hoi Sin Duck wrap (in the absence of Brie, bacon and chill chutney sarnie), energy drink and cake bar.

 

From there, I walked across the road just as my lift was pulling up. I was allocated the Kenilworth Road seat with little leg room behind Daniel. It was still fairly comfortable though. It was a convivial journey and good to catch up with Chelmsford-born hoppers Daniel and Jake. It was a reasonable journey; the families, not my favourite type of people ahead of work tomorrow, were out on force and caused congestion near the M4/M5 junction. The pleasant-looking town of Crickhowell was also slow going. We were at the Welsh Venison Centre Farm shop at 11.05. It was very good, I got a Venison sausage roll, a chocolate brownie and three ciders for about £23. I had the chilled Gold Medal cider (a retry) and the Venison Sausage roll in the sunshine amidst lovely views. My only quibble was that it was not based in Barry in tribute to the 1990s Southampton and Newcastle midfielder. But it was a great place to pick up some random Welsh produce that's not available back home. It was then 15 minutes drive to the town. Despite being less than 15 minutes walk to the ground from the ground, our esteemed driver said it was too far to walk. We headed to the pleasant Wetherspoons, The George Hotel. As I was full, I just had a pint of Black Dragon for £3.34; the others had soft drinks and food. The other half was ordered, with me still not hungry. One meal was not enough for our driver as he helped Jake finish his. Jake had indeed had a cocktail with Malibu, but it looked like Fanta. From there, the very pleasant town saw us bump into a fellow Wycombe fan and have Welsh Rarebit at the Country Kitchen. This was superb and the best I've had. A disappointing half of Tiny Rebel cherry beer was had at the Brecon tap, but at least I got a load of cider to take away.

 

Brecon Corries were 13th in the table but had suffered a 15-point deduction due to a player registration issue. Insanity that it happens in the digital age and with the otherwise excellent Cymru Football app, but there you go. They'd won 14, drawn 5 and lost 11. They were on a good run but had lost 3-1 to Abertillery Bluebirds last time out. Chepstow Town, an equally lovely town, had won 8, drawn 11 and lost 11. They were on a good run too and had beaten Croesyliog 3-1 last time out. It was Chepstow that made all the early running, but it was Brecon that took the lead on 20 minutes, Jay Hughes with a low shot. Jamie Williams got the second on 37 minutes from close range. It was quite an achievement as apparently half of their players were away on a stag do. This fact showed in the second half as Chepstow roared into a three-goal lead, playing some good stuff, though the usually reliable Cymru Football App did not register. Two sending offs made Brecon's job that bit harder around ten minutes from time. The score remained unchanged. Brecon probably deserved a share of the spoils, but it was not to be. We had an hour of crap roads before we got on the M4 towards home. Time dragged, but I was home well before 8 for a final drink before bed.

 

THE GROUND 

RICH'S FIELD is a pleasant venue. Just the one stand, but this has bags of character. Basic soft drinks and snacks are available from a hut. The rest of the ground is open standing, set in a lovely area. Parking is plentiful, and the town is around 15 minutes walk away.