Page 7 - GRFC_News_Summer_15

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OFFICE PROJECT HAS GENEROUS SUPPORT
Over the years the Malthouse has quietly been developed and during the winter months the growing need of a permanent office within the club saw a group of volunteers start to sort the storage area out upstairs.
Rediscovering some of the early dusty pictures which have been stored away was a great delight to Pete Rowson who is the club archivist. Mike Eckley was also delighted to find early handwritten minutes which were keenly read through in order to include some material for the much anticipated book on the first 50 years of the Club’s history.
Amongst other gems unearthed, were David Knapp’s personal records of past Youth fixtures and match statistics from his time as youth coach. Some early heavy cotton First and Second XV shirts were discovered. A plan was hatched to auction these off on the Xmas Roosters Day - Beau Herdman and James Evans took the gavel to an exited crowd of past and present players with Lyndsey Rees and Neil Morris being chief models on the
night squeezing into their respective half back shirts. As the auction progressed, bidding became feverish and the first number 7 shirt was knocked down to Rob Stephens at 100 pounds - there was speculation that he had put on that amount of weight since he last wore it!
The final shirt of the evening was the First XV Number 10 shirt - it passed the £200 mark and was bought and immediately presented back to the club by local footballer Gareth Davies who said he was “very grateful for the support from Gwernyfed when he was making his way into professional football and was happy to give something back to the club.” This shirt and an Athletic shirt will be framed and displayed in the Clubhouse.
A total of £950 was raised for the 18 shirts and together with a generous donation of building materials from Jason Jenkins, the Builders Merchants in Brecon and match funding from the WRU the plans have been
finalised and hopefully, before the season starts the office will be functioning to help with the everyday running of our ever expanding club.
A NEW BADGE FOR THE NEXT 50
Since I produced the first match programme back in 2009, I have been trying to get the club ‘on brand’ and the club’s 50th Anniversary really gave me the opportunity to nail it down, once and for all.
I have to admit that since I drew up the last badge (which appeared on the clubs shirts up to the end of last season) I have never really been happy with it and I have spent many hours on the laptop in front of the telly in the evenings trying to bring the badge into the 21st Century in terms of design.
It wasn’t until Will Skymre loaned me the original club badge to use on the cover of the 50th Anniversary book (available in November!) that I really made some progress. I noticed that on the original badge - the two cockerels faced each other whereas the third was facing one way, yet looking the other!
I have tried to follow the original content yet add in a modern twist - providing a badge that will sit comfortably on the modern style rugby shirts and apparel that we see around the club today. The badge also lends itself well for modern day use on the internet on our website, Facebook and Twitter feeds. Canterbury have done a top job in converting the badge to stitches and I very much look forward to seeing the new kit being sported around the clubhouse this season and for many years to come! Neil Morris.
SUMMER 2015