Sport in Anglesey
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Anglesey is independently represented in the Island Games (under its Welsh name Ynys Môn). The team finished joint 17th in the 2009 Games hosted by Åland,[1] winning medals in gymnastics, sailing and shooting.[2]
Anglesey made an unsuccessful bid to host the 2009 games, led by Ynys Môn MP Albert Owen. The island expected to benefit from more than £3m of spending if it had hosted the event. However, Anglesey currently lacks two facilities necessary for a successful bid, a six-lane competition swimming pool and an athletics track.[3]
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[edit] Sporting events on the island
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[edit] Anglesey Hunt
The Anglesey Hunt, formed in 1757, was the second oldest fox hunting association in Wales (the oldest being the Tivyside Hunt in Cardiganshire).[4]
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[edit] Cricket
The Beaumaris Cricket Club was formed in 1858. Clubs at Holyhead, Amlwch, and Llangefni were formed within the following decade, but it wasn't until the 1880s that the sport became popular outside of the upper classes.[5]
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[edit] Football
Several precursors to association football were highly popular in Anglesey. They had few rules, and were quite violent. Rhys Cox, at the turn of the 18th century, described a game in Llandrygan as ending with "[n]umbers of players […] left here and there on the road, some having limbs broken in the struggle, others severely injured, and some carried on biers to be buried in the churchyard nearest to where they had been mortally injured.". William Bulkeley, in his April 1734 diary, records that the violence of such games left no hard feelings, with both sides parting "as good friends as they came, after they had spend half an hour together cherishing their spirits with a cup of ale […] having finished Easter Holydays innocently and merrily".[6]
Association football arrived on the island in the 1870s. It was initially met with resistance, given its perceived (by the islanders) associations with drunkenness and rowdiness, and the lower classes. One critic dismissed it as "unchristian practice". The Anglesey League, comprising teams from Amlwch, Beaumaris, Holyhead, Menai Bridge, Llandegfan, and Llangefni, was, however, formed in the 1895–1896 football season.[5]
The Ynys Môn football team represents the island of Anglesey at the biannual Island Games, winning Gold in 1999.
Llangefni Town are reigning Cymru Alliance champions, only failing promotion due to the restructuring of the Welsh Premier League. Similarly, Holyhead Hotspur and Llanfairpwll were relegated despite finishing outside the usual relegation zone at the end of the 2009-10 season.
[edit] Athletics
Every September the Anglesey Festival of Running takes place. There is a marathon, half-marathon, 10 km and 5 km race, as well as children's contests. Their slogan is Run the Island
[edit] Climbing
Anglesey has some of Britain's most challenging cligg and crag climbs
[edit] Motorsport
The Anglesey Circuit (Welsh: Trac Môn) is a fully licensed MSA and ACU championship racing circuit, it opened in 1997.
[edit] Rugby
Llangefni RFC is the island's highest competing team in the WRU Division One North.
Llangoed hosts an annual rugby sevens contest. Touring sides have included Manhattan RFC.
[edit] Sailing
The Menai Staits also hold the Menai Straits Regatta, with the opening hosts being The Royal Anglesey Yacht Club.
[edit] Swimming
Anglesey is Wales's largest island, separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait. The Straits host two annual open-water swimming contests; the Menai Strait Swim from Foel to Caernarfon (1 mile), and the Pier to Pier Open Water Swim, between Beaumaris and Garth Pier, Bangor.
[edit] References
- ^ "NatWest Island Games XIII - Medal Table". http://www.alandresults2009.com/medal.aspx. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
- ^ "NatWest Island Games XIII - Ynys Môn Medal Winners". http://www.alandresults2009.com/medal.aspx?IslandID=22. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
- ^ Clark, Rhodri. "Out of the running for island ‘Olympics’". Western Mail. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/08/02/out-of-the-running-for-island-olympics-91466-21452392/. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
- ^ Emma Lile (2005). "Fox Hunting (Wales)". In Tony Collins, John Martin, and Wray Vamplew. Encyclopedia of traditional British rural sports. Sports reference series. Routledge. pp. 125. ISBN 978-0-415-35224-6.
- ^ a b David A. Pretty (2005). Anglesey: the concise history. Histories of Wales. 1. University of Wales Press. pp. 111.
- ^ Emma Lile (2005). "Football (Wales)". In Tony Collins, John Martin, and Wray Vamplew. Encyclopedia of traditional British rural sports. Sports reference series. Routledge. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-0-415-35224-6.
[edit] Further reading
- G. E. Evans (1924). "Cock-Fighting in Anglesey". Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society: 85.
- J. B. Cowell (1990). "Anglesey Cricket in the Nineteenth Century". Anglesey Antiquarian Society and Field Club Transactions: 84–94.
- S. F. Lloyd (1954). "The Anglesey Hunt 1757–1838". Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society: 74–87).
- S. F. Lloyd (1956). "The Anglesey Hunt 1839–1955". Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society: 29–45).
- S. F. Lloyd (1957). The Anglesey Hunt 1757–1957. Caernarfon: Gwenlyn Evans.
- William Bulkeley (1931). "The Diary of William Bulkeley of Brynddu, Angelsey". Anglesey Antiquarian Society and Field Club Transactions: 22–92.
