at home a decline
Pontypool and it’s so sad that it’s emptying down there.
“The club was the town. You have only to look at the town and there’s nothing here. The crowds the rugby club used to bring when I was a youngster was massive, you would sit on the bank watching the game. That was Pontypool, not Iceland or Farm Foods, they all came down to watch Pontypool.”
Fellow fan Michael Hughes, 48, said he believed Pontypool rugby club was the very essence of the town.
He said: “I have heard about the vandalism for a long time, sharp objects being put into the ground and people defecating in the stands. It shows a lack of respect but they have nothing to do in Pontypool once the town shuts its doors and there’s no security at the rugby club.
“If the club moves it will kill the town. Pontypool is Pontypool due to the rugby club. If you mention Pontypool to anyone who knows rugby in both hemispheres, they will no doubt have heard of the Pontypool Front Row.
“I watched my heroes on that pitch and saw them play Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. I was there. You don’t get that buzz any more. They have got the promotion pushing through and hopefully the fans will stand together and maybe some resolve between the council and the owners will get Pontypool going again.”
Mervyn Jenkins, 67, who has supported Pontypool since he was five years old, believes the club should have made the move to a new ground in the 1970s and thinks they should now take the opportunity to move.
He said: “Everybody used to come into town and use the pubs, but now they don’t because there’s nowhere for them to go. If the council don’t agree to what they want, they should move, definitely. You can’t go on being dictated to by the council, especially if they get promoted next season.”
Apart from the cultural and historical impact of the club moving, traders have also expressed concern about the economical impact on Pontypool town centre should the move happen.
Wayne Randell, of Randell’s butchers in Pontypool Indoor Market, said: “I think the club is very important to the town and they have done so well in the last few years. It’s a sad fact they have to go out of the town for the reasons they have... The town is getting worse. I wouldn’t say the town is dying but it’s hit a level and has levelled out again. We’re not going through a good patch at the moment due to the weather.”
Joanne Lloyd, of The Iron Duke Wetherspoons pub, said: “We would be quiet on a Saturday night if the rugby club moved because a lot of the supporters come here because they don’t have a rugby club. The away teams come in here and some of the players come in as well.
“The rugby club means a lot to us, Pontypool is one of the iconic places of rugby. Our pub is named after Bobby Windsor and the Scrum Half pub, that was considered as a Pontypool rugby pub. A lot of people know the town because of the rugby club and I’d like to see the council do as much as they can to keep the club here.”