It is not known exactly when the rugby football matches between Llandovery College and Christ College, Brecon started, but we do know that in those early encounters masters and boys made up both teams. The first match in which only boys played was on Saturday, November 29th 1879, at Builth Wells, the Llandovery team having been driven there by C.P. Lewis in an enlarged wagonette. Since then, with one exception (a match in Swansea in 1911) the matches have always been played alternately in Brecon and Llandovery. Large crowds attend the game, and it has been described as the ‘Welsh Varsity match’. It is certainly one of the oldest fixtures between schools.
Until the 1960s exeats and half-term at the College were of a few hours’ duration, and boarders slept in school every night of the term from start to finish. The ‘Brecon’ match was traditionally played at the end of November, and the celebrations that ensued involved various frolics such as pillow fights and midnight feasts in dormitories.
Of the first 118 matches to have been played, Llandovery have won 80 , Christ College 28, with ten draws. The biggest win has been the 56-0 defeat of Brecon in 1916, when a certain Noël Everard Evans scored seven tries. Between 1925 and 1957 Brecon failed to record a single win, and they have only won once since 1989.
Llandovery’s 1st XV pitch, Tredegar Close, usually abbreviated to ‘Tredegar’, was acquired in 1909 through the generosity of Viscount Tredegar, a College Trustee, and the business acumen of the then Warden, Canon William Poole-Hughes.
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