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Ronnie Beynon – Bluebirds’ backroom boy
Ronnie Beynon is very much a backroom boy at the Bridge Meadow Stadium but that is the way that he likes it since he can get on with his role of bringing on the young talent to keep the Bluebirds flying high in the Welsh Premier League.
His official title is ‘Youth Development Officer’ and he also works 14 hours a week looking after the lads as Senior Coach in the Pembrokeshire College Football Academy but Ronnie does a myriad other things which include cutting the second team pitch, marking it, putting out the corner flags and nets for matches and driving the youngsters to venues all over South Wales.
College Coach
His coaching sessions for the college are three hours each on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons and in those sessions they look at all aspects of the game, including general fitness and tactics, ball skills and nutrition. Away matches are played as far afield as Gorseinon, Brecon, Swansea, Neath, Pencoed and Carmarthen and last season his college team just missed out on the play-offs by coming third in their section. They have some excellent new recruits in Nick Squire, Tommy Taylor, Ollie Evans and Sam North to play alongside the more experienced Chris Bryce, Sean Phillips, Steffan Williams, Luke Robinson, Christian palmer and Robert Shipton. They might be allowed to enter the national Colleges Football League Western Division Premier League and although this will mean even more travel to venues like Bridgewater and Taunton, Ronnie and Co are really up for the challenge!
Optimistic young Bluebirds
Haverfordwest County Youth have started a new campaign at the Bridge Meadow with renewed optimism after a transitional period last year when they had such a young side. The campaign before had seen them win the McWhirter Cup and they came fourth in the league and they are looking to do just as well in this new season with Christian Speake, Craig George, Nick Squire, Morgan Whittaker, Andrew John being joined by Brett John, Chris Darlington and Robert Morgans, as soon as this talented youngster is 16 in October. Ross Grey has joined from Carmarthen Town and they started off the season in style with a convincing win over Solva.
Solva boy
Ronnie started his footballing career at Solva after coming to the county in the services at Brawdy and after a season playing he took over the club’s under 11s and then the first team where Nobby Howells exerted such a good influence. The kids who passed through his hands at Solva included Simon ‘Digger’ Davies, Gareth Thomas, Andrew Richards and Ben Jones – and from there he moved in 2001 to Haverfordwest County to work alongside Derek Roberts with the under 17 squad.
They went through a whole season without losing a match and their reward was a tour to Denmark to compete in the Copenhagen Classic.
Sven Goran lookalike
The football was of the highest standard but there were also more light-hearted moments to savour, not least when they were bedded down in a school dormitory and next door was an under 12 team from Toxteth, who were lively, to say the least. One of the youngsters bumped into Ronnie in a corridor and told the rest of the lads that he had just seen Sven Goran Erikson – and that was how Ronnie was known for the rest of the tournament!
Copenhagen slip-up
Ronnie had a hairy moment when he and Derek went out for a kebab one evening and they decided to take a short cut back to the accommodation. Ronnie slipped through a hedge, down a bank that appeared from nowhere in front of him and then over a low wall down another slope.
Derek, when he stopped laughing, said that it was like watching a top surf rider but Ronnie was just delighted that he was in one piece and still had his kebab safely in his hand!
In the seven years since he started his involvement there has been a significant shift in the sense that at the start there were teams at under 17 and under 19 levels whilst now there are over 200 youngsters signed on for the Bluebirds, with teams playing at every age category as Frankie Bryce, Angie Nicholls, Mark Hicks and Jamie Jenkins do such great work along with youngsters like Nitai Dury, Chris Bryce and Tom Bevan who have taken up coaching early. Then there’s the excellent junior section in which Trevor Morgans is totally immersed, amongst others who give so freely of their time.
Still going strong
The current first team squad includes Jack Christopher, Nick Woodrow, Simon Gilderdale, Bobby Briers and Craig George, all of whom passed through Ronnie’s hands and he is confident that some of his current crop of young players will also serve Derek Brazil well at first team level one day.
And Ronnie is more than happy to stay involved at the Bridge Meadow despite having three heart attacks and being able to remain cheerful because he has always been well supported by his family. He also sings the praises of the gang at the Bridge Meadow Stadium and it seems that the appreciation is mutual since chairman Rob Summons told us that Ronnie Beynon is very much part of the furniture there and does a cracking job in his role as youth development officer.
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