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Konica Minolta Cup Semi-Final
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Aberavon |
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Pontypridd |
Cardiff Arms Park
Saturday April 26th 2008, Kickoff 5:30pm
Show your true colours and come
and support Aberavon in their Konica Minolta Cup Semi-Final match
against Pontypridd at Cardiff Arms Park
on Saturday April 26th, 2008. The Wizards will be making their
fourteenth appearance in the
semi-finals and will be bidding to reach the grand final for the third
time in their history.
Ticket prices for the game are as follows:
£10.00 - Adults (stand or field)
£5.00 - Senior Citizens/Under 16's
Tickets are available from the club shop on Monday (April 21st) and
Tuesday (April 22nd) from 10am to 2pm. On Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday (April 23rd - 25th) the club will be selling tickets from the
middle part of the town centre, again 10am to 2pm. Cash or cheque only please.
Why not show your support by wearing the blood and black of the
Wizards - For replica jerseys etc, the club shop will be open on
Monday and Tuesday this week.
*** An update - The club shop will be open from 11am until
12.45pm on Saturday April 26th to sell tickets ***
To book your seat on the Supporters Bus for the game please contact
Jeff Preece (Email: jeff.preece@aberavonwizards.co.uk
Tel: 07967-426-231) or Dennis Morgan (Email:
dennis.morgan@aberavonwizards.co.uk). The Bus will leave the
clubhouse at 1pm on Semi-Final day and will return back to the
Aberavon clubhouse straight after the game.
For those wishing to travel up by train, train times from Port Talbot Parkway to
Cardiff Central are 12:13, 12:48, 13:13, 13:36, 13:48, 14:13,
14:48, 15:13, 15:36, 15:48, 16:13 and 16:48. Journey time is approximately
35 minutes. Return train times are 19:38, 19:44, 20:00, 20:40,
21:07, 21:38, 22:09, 22:45, 22:58 and 23:51. N.B. These times are correct at time of writing but please confirm by checking
National Rail Enquiries online.
The Semi-Final with Pontypridd
represents the eighth time that the sides will have met in the
competition, with the Wizards leading the series by 4 wins to 3.
In the other semi-final, Neath will face Glamorgan Wanderers at the
Talbot Athletic Ground on Sunday April 27th, kick off 5:05pm.
The match will be the third time that Aberavon and Pontypridd have
met in the semi-finals.
In 1975 the Wizards met Ponty at Cardiff Arms Park, narrowly winning
10 - 9 in the Schweppes Cup. This set up an Aberavon v Llanelli
final for the second successive year with the Scarlets beating the
Wizards 15 - 6 at the National Stadium, after also winning 12 - 10
the season before.
Four years later Pontypridd knocked out Aberavon 6 - 3 at the
Brewery Field while in 2005 Ponty won 33 - 13, again at the Brewery
Field.
In that last semi-final clash between the sides the Wizards led 3 -
0 after half hour but missed chances proved costly as Ponty scored
11 points late in the half to give them the lead at half time.
Things went from bad to worse for Aberavon when they were reduced to
14 men after centre Darren Ryan was red carded early in the second
half. This prompted Ponty to score 15 points in the next ten minutes
and left the Wizards a mountain to climb. However, Aberavon showed
alot of character in the final 20 minutes as they came back and
scored 2 tries of their own via Daran Griffiths and Richard Morris.
The Aberavon Team that day was: Liam Gadd; Richard Carter (rep Paul
Bamsey), Darren Ryan, David Hawkins, Daran Griffiths; Jamie Davies,
Daniel Hawkins (rep Adrian Williams); Mike Harris (rep Lloyd
Howell), Chris Wells (rep James M Jones), Paul Breeze, Dafydd Owen (capt)
(rep Paul Morgan), Andrew Fisher (rep Chris Kinsey), Ian Moore,
Richard Morris, Steve Phillips.
As well as the three previous semi-final clashes between the sides,
Aberavon and Pontypridd have met on four other occasions in the cup,
all in the earlier rounds. In 1981-82 Aberavon met Pontypridd at
Sardis Road and won 25 - 10 before going on to make the semi-finals.
Two years later the sides met at the Talbot Athletic Ground where
the Wizards ran out 18 - 3 winners. Once again Aberavon made it to
the semis. In 1987-88, Aberavon won 18 - 7 at Sardis Road to make it
to the semi finals yet again. In 1993-94 Pontypridd ran out 29 - 0
winners at Sardis Road in the Swalec Cup.
In this years cup, Aberavon have defeated Tredegar ( 29
- 24), Llandovery ( 22
- 7), Cardiff ( 30 - 23)
and Ebbw Vale ( 32 - 22)
while Pontypridd have beaten Ammanford (48 - 6), Llanelli (22 - 12),
Blackwood (28 - 7) and Bridgend (41 - 11).
The referee for Saturday's game is Phil Fear, aided by touch judges
Matthew Aplin, Leighton Hodges and Viv Williams.
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