Ancient Welsh sport revived as village teams eye the Olympics
A little-known native Welsh sport which has produced wallball world champions in years gone by has been brought back from the brink of extinction by villagers. Lucy John reports
IF YOU ask any Welsh person what sport best represents their identity, they will probably say rugby without hesitation.
However, there is one lesser-known international sport native to Wales that was once considered an integral expression of Welsh culture.
Welsh wallball – otherwise known as handball or pêl-law – pre-dates rugby, with evidence of it being played in the Middle Ages.
The sport rose to prominence in the 15th century, with the first purposebuilt courts constructed across the country in the 18th century.
The three-wall open-backed courts were often built by pub owners to attract trade. It gained the game popularity as a spectator sport, attracting large and excited crowds.
Popularity continued in workingclass communities throughout the 19th century, and was enjoyed by Irish migrants who played the game.
Although the sport saw a wide decline throughout Wales, the village of Nelson, near Caerphilly, continued to compete internationally.
Local man and Welsh Champion Lee Davies secured the World Champion title as recently as 1997.
Although the Nelson court became disused around 2000, when the former Welsh Handball Association stationed there wound up, a group of former players have now made it their mission to revive the sport with dreams of competing in the Olympics.
In August 2022, the Welsh Wallball Association was started in Nelson, where the UK’s last remaining outdoor court is situated.
Now in March 2023, the association has 40 members including a children’s league and women’s league.
Chairman Robert Dicks said the group is changing the history of wallball and making it once again accessible for people living in the south Wales valleys.
He said: “The handball court in Nelson has been there since 1853 and it’s been dormant since 2000 because we couldn’t get access to the balls.
“The game is still played worldwide and a few local ex-players have brought it back to Nelson from the brink of existence.
“We all went to primary school together and are really close. We represented Wales at a schoolboy level in Ireland and Lee Davies was our World Champion.
“Kerry Wilde, Kevin Dicks and Lee are some of the original members of the original Nelson Handball Association, and they are all still involved today.
“The reason we have decided to do this now is because The UK Wallball and UK Wallball World Wide are trying to get the sport into the Olympics in 2028. Currently we are about 17 countries short.”
Robert said the league has been active since summer 2022, with its number of members quadrupling to 40 since it started. “We are getting people active who haven’t quite got the fitness for football or rugby, as well as kids who live in deprived areas throughout the Valleys,” he said. “You don’t even have to be part of the league to enjoy a game, balls are available to anyone at the nearby Royal Oak pub for a small deposit.”
The rules of wallball are similar to squash, except you use the flat palm of your hand to serve the ball. It’s played to a point system of 21 and can be played one against one or two against two. The server needs to hit the wall with the ball, which is allowed one bounce.
The ball then needs to bounce back within the court markings. If it lands outside the markings, it’s a point to the opposition.
The same is repeated by players until there is a winner.
Skilled players may return a “kill shot” on the return serve, which is when the ball is hit so low that it rolls off the wall and makes it impossible for the opposition to hit back.
Since August, the new Nelson league has already entered a number of international tournaments, such as the European Championships, which took place in Belgium in October 2022. It saw Wales play against 25 different countries, including Israel, Argentina and the US.
The team also travelled to Holland earlier this year to compete, where they secured a few wins. They finished second in one of the groups and narrowly missed qualifying for the quarter-finals after being beaten on a points deficit.
In February, the group travelled to London for the European 1-Wall Tour, which Robert said brought them “unbelievable” success.
He said: “We took all the kids with us to this tournament – 10 local Nelson children. They won all their games, which was unbelievable.
“Most of the adults won their games too, it really put Wales on the map; it was like a fairy-tale.”
What stood out most to Robert, though, was that the international competitions did not recognise Wales as a country.
However, he said entering the tournaments has put Wales back on the map as a serious wallball contender.
Robert said: “What we found was that the other teams didn’t recognise the Welsh flag, they thought Wales was part of England.
“Luckily we had a friend living in Holland from Nelson who drove two hours to the tournament to bring us two Welsh flags.
“When we showed them our flag they thought it was amazing and they are desperate to visit Wales.
“We built strong relationships along the way and they all want to come to Nelson and they all want to come this August to play us.”
He explained that the team had received phenomenal support from locals, as well as fans from further afield, with 900 people following its Facebook page already.
Robert said it is everyone’s “dream” for a championship to come home to Nelson. He said he hopes the village can produce more world and European champions, as it did in years gone by.
However, one thing holding the team back is funding. Currently, the association is funded by the kindness of the community, but more is needed to build its capacity.
He said: “Local businesses and the local Women’s Institute are contributing to vital balls and equipment. They give us about £100 every couple of months, which is vital for the child members. It means we can cater for any child in the south Wales valleys to have the opportunity to play wallball in Nelson.
“We also opened and built an indoor court in Trelewis Community Centre ourselves. We needed to raise £1,000 to make that happen and couldn’t have done it without the [financial] contribution of a local man called Wyndham Stokes.
“We are very grateful to him and are looking to name the court after him. It means we can play wallball throughout the winter and in poor weather.
“We receive no funding from Caerphilly council, however, they will hopefully be resurfacing the court soon, which means we may be able to get some other countries over to compete here in August.”