The First XV travelled to St Davids in the second leg for the Willington Slate trophy, with the Saints holding a five-point advantage after their narrow win back in September. The Slate is played for annually over two legs in memory of ex-player and professional fisherman Gareth Willington and his son Daniel, who perished in a tragic accident at sea off the St Davids coast in April 2016. The weather was beautifully sunny, with a strong, cold wind and the ground was very firm after weeks without any real rain. Prior to the match St Davids held an inauguration ceremony for a new electronic scoreboard in memory of recently deceased Patron and stalwart John James. The day was also graced by the attendance of Sir Gerald Davies and his wife and Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan.
The game was played at a constant high tempo and proved a very competitive, exciting encounter, just like the previous match. Both sides played open rugby and the lead changed hands throughout the whole game. Saints scored two tries to the visitor’s one in the first half to hold a four point lead at the break. At the start of the second half Pembroke went ahead with a penalty, which was short lived as Saints also kicked a penalty soon after. Then quick tries from both sides brought the scores level at 24-24, with the visitors gaining in confidence and looking like they might snatch the victory. However, with minutes to go, a brilliant solo effort from the Saints full back Morgan Griffiths, saw him swerve and evade tacklers as he covered forty metres to score the match clinching score to the delight of home supporters.
After the match there was the usual fundraising, via an auction and Raffle, for the RNLI and Fisherman’s Mission, which is standard when these teams play each other for the Slate; over £1500 was raised and donated to the local St Davids RNLI Station and the Fishermans Mission in Milford Haven, who still support Daniel’s three young children.
Left picture: Young Oscar Willington (nephew to Gareth) proudly presents the Slate trophy to the St Davids skipper as they retained the trophy.
Right picture: St David’s Alex and Pembroke’s ex-Chairman Darrell Willington receive a unique signed shirt from Sir Gerald Davies, who donated this for auction; the shirt raised £1,000 to be donated to the usual chosen charities, ie. the local RNLI and the Fishermans Mission.
The high-flying Panthers played Morriston at home last Sunday in their penultimate League fixture. The Panthers scored six tries to their opponents three to win a thrilling game by 38-21 in glorious spring weather, which cements them at the top of the West Wales table on equal points with the West Swansea Hawks.
The U17s played H’West at home in the Mike Fry Cup last Saturday, in a one-sided game the visitors proved too strong and the game finished early.
The U15s hosted Bedlinog on Sunday afternoon; the match was a very intense and exciting one with the lead changing hands multiple times. The home side scored some memorable tries, but the visitors eventually ran out winners. The U7/8, 9 and 10s groups were all at festivals and performed really well. The U13s will represent the club at County Junior Finals day, whilst the boys playing for the County U11s squad have reached the Welsh Final in Newport after beating Ceredigion.
Upcoming end of season fixtures include, First XV away to Neyland this Saturday, Panthers home to Tondu on Sunday April 27, Youth away in Crymych April 12 and Aberystwyth home April 26.
A new innovation kicked off at the club last Friday, with the first opportunity for members and guests to participate in the weekly walking/running section outing. People of all ages and abilities are very welcome to come along at 6.15pm every Friday April, May, June for exercise, good company and a drink; then in June, July, August the very popular social rugby sessions return at the same starting time. April 9 sees the club’s new Pool team in their local Final.
May 14th sees the club holding a BBQ fundraiser at the Cresselly Arms, starting at 5pm.
Prior to the game, the teams and all supporters attended a short dedication ceremony, where the new electronic scoreboard was unveiled in memory of ex club Patron and stalwart John James, who sadly passed away in the months before..