Rhondda Royals were established in June 2006 and were the vision of Elroy Duckitt of Cape Town, South Africa ( sadly Elroy returned home in July 2009)
In our first season 2006/2007 the Royals entered the United Churches League South Wales Cup. We surprised all the established teams by winning our champions league style group and progressing to the quarter finals where we lost in extra time to Parklands Church Swansea in an epic game at the Cage.
We also entered the National Churches Cup which is a competition for churches from across the whole of England and Wales. We enjoyed an amazing cup run eventually losing to the cup winners St.Albans Romans away in a brutal semi final.
The Royals were born and it was an incredible start when you consider that 7 of our starting 11 throughout that inaugural season were under 17.
We had the bug and in the 2007/2008 season entered the United Churches League South Wales in division 2.
Rhondda Royals Sept 2007
At same time due to the numbers training we formed a further team Real Rhondda who joined the Royals in Division 2.
The Royals finished the 2007/2008 season winning the division 2 title and only losing one game in the league. We got through to the UCL Cup Final where we played division 1 champions Glenwood from Cardiff in the final in May 2008 at the Afon Lido FC ground, Port Talbot. We drew 1 v 1 at end of extra time and then lost on the dreaded penalties. We were consoled by fact we were promoted to Division 1 as champions.
2008/2009 was our first season in Division 1where we finished runners up in the league 2 points behind eventual winners Emmanuel Cardiff. Still it was a great start to our life in Division 1 as we only lost 1 game all season and were unbeaten at home all year.
We had another thrilling cup run and travelled to Southgate on The Gower to play Lifepoint in the semi final. We won a really tough game against a strong team 5 v 3 in extra time.
We then had the excitement of discovering that the 2008/2009 UCL Cup Final was going to be played at Ninian Park. It was one of the last ever games to be played there. Cup final took place on 21 May 2009 and was a repeat of previous years final against Glenwood. The whole build up was awesome we had won the toss to be in the home changing room. Game went like a dream and we won 5 v 0 with a Chris Bullock hat trick, Jarad Williams 1 and our captain Elroy Duckitt 1 on his last ever game for Royals before returning home. The cup was ours. The party went on long long into Cardiff’s night. Incredible memories.
Up for the cup!
2009/10 Season has been hit by the poor weather but we are doing well so far being currently unbeaten in the league (20th March 2010).
