User:Craig1010richards

Llysfaen Ladies Lionesses F.C the first ever Ladies recreational football team in North Wales ,

Llysfaen Ladies Lionesses was started by coach Craig Richards who at the time ran Llysfaen Junior football clubs new under 9s team, Richards had joined the club in the May of 2017 to assist coach Jon Andrews who was at the time running Llysfaen junior under 7s team. That team had 4 players in the squad when Jon took over and struggled to get enough players to finish the season, He managed not just to finish the season with just enough players but helped grow the club from a club with 2 teams to 5 teams the season after. Richards assisted till the end of the season and took over the new under 9s in a very tough season, The team did not win a league game and many of the players had never played before ,Richards tried to better his skills as a coach and sat FAW Leaders and FAW C certificates in the space of 6 months along with First Aid and Safeguarding courses. As Richards was at a match watching he heard a Mother of one of the young players shouting at her son to do something, The child tried to do as his Mother had said and he made a mistake to which the Mother said 'I told you'. Richards went home and observed the club, He noticed most of the kids at the club had been brought there by their Mothers, Richards found a local tournament and used Facebook to challenge Mothers and Fathers to join in a social experiment offering free coaching to Mums who joined. Richards held 3 training sessions the first being in a car park in Colwyn Bay with 3 Ladies ( It was held in February and not knowing if the numbers of participants was good or bad Richards picked a location he thought had enough lighting from the street lights around the car park and they had no funds to hire a place) The 2nd and third sessions where done in Abergele along side the under 9s training session.

Cwpan yn Bobl (Welsh peoples cup) was held in Llandudno F.C. ground. The ladies had the clubs Orange shirt which had to also be used for the men's competition as well. At the ground only Llysfaen turned up and it looked like a Win as no one else had entered the competition till the Ref spoke to Coach Craig. It was soon apparent that 2 teams had entered the event the Llysfaen Lionesses and Llandudno Ladies of the Welsh Ladies National Premier League. Llandudno won easy (11-1 Rach Taylor scoring for the Lionesses) but the Story was not over for the Lionesses.14 Dads and Males coaches went and made 2 teams finishing 7th and 6th in the 7 team event while the Mum's team managed to get 6 to play in the 5 a side tournament.

The following weeks saw Ladies turn up at Richards under 9s sessions and taking part with the Children ,Week 1 had 5 Ladies turn up, Week 2 had 6 Ladies turn up 6 And Week 3 had 8 Ladies turn up. Once the Junior went back to Llysfaen for summer training beginning of April the Ladies had 12 and had to have their own session, After weeks of struggling to do the 2 teams at the same time so he got in help Coaches Richards Turner, Gareth Dentith and Jonny Smith all joined the club to help out.

The Lionesses first official match was against Rhyl Hearts Delta a Girls under 16s team. The Lionesses managed 12 players on the day in an 11 a side match they finished the game playing with all 12 players on the pitch while Rhyl won 16-0. The Ladies then played Bethel in a 8 a side match and lost 11-0. From this point on the History gets very sketchy the club knows Games had been played but not a clue of results scores scorers or opponents. The lionesses played Stafford at Mochdre in a 3-0 loss in a 7 a side match and also played a 1st v 2nds match ending 0-0. The Lionesses did take part in the Inspire league in Cheshire but no records where ever passed on to the club about this.A huge mix up in results and games not being mentioned to the club and a frustration from the Ladies and some other events lead to the squad of 22 leaving 19 left to play for Mochdre Lionesses a club formed from the previous named club at Llysfaen.

6 months went by before club Chairperson left coach Craig Richards a message, Richards had left Llysfaen Juniors and Joined Colwyn Bay Academy but left for personal reasons in the December.The Message the chair left was about a new Ladies team again in Llysfaen. Richards agreed in principal on the agreement that if it was not getting the numbers early on he would leave to do something else.

April 12th 2018 Richards started the New Llysfaen Ladies Lionesses having 14 Ladies join He quickly appointed Mike Bodden as his new Assistant manager Mikes first coaching role. The first game for the newly formed club was Away to another new team Eglwysbach Queen Bees. This was a very good game for both teams and Llysfaen won 2-4 with a Hat trick for Rach Taylor and a goal from Hayley Gibson. Their second game was against Penrhyn bay panthers at home a game lost by 3-10 Rach Taylor with 2 and Hayley Gibson with 1, Penrhyn Bay went on to finish 2nd over all in the inspire league and the highest placed North Wales team giving them the unofficial title of North Wales Champions. A few months without a game passed and then Llysfaen played Penrhyn Bay in November the last match of the year 2018 and it was a good one Llysfaen had 3 players injured and 3 who had never played before and managed a 5-5 draw with the best team in North Wales with goals from Hayley Gibson 2 Sophie Heap 2 and Ali Evans. The first game of 2019 was DragonHearts F.C. (Rhyl/Prestatyn based) In the new kit they had bought thanks to a football card sponsor the 1st ever sponsor of the Llysfaen Ladies Lionesses was Hair By Tracey in Llandudno, unfortunately they lost 3-1 Hayley Gibson scoring.This was a warm up game for the FA Peoples Cup.

FA PEOPLES CUP Llysfaen took 2 team to the BBC FA PEOPLES CUP event in Chester the teams had been split at a managers meeting and to maximize the Ladies game time the Lionesses and Stars. Both teams played Northop Girls Red, Crossway, Upton, Northop girls blue. The more experienced Lionesses lost 3-1 to Northop blue, 1-0 to Northop red,1-0 to Upton and 1-0 to Crossway who scored in the last 10 seconds of the match. The Stars lost Northop Blue 5-0, Northop Red 7-0, Upton 4-0 Crossway 2-0 and again 2 goals in the last 30 seconds. The last group game was Lionesses v Stars for pride unfortunately the Stars picked up 2 injuries and could only field 4 players and lost the match 5-0, Goals by Jodie Jones,Amy Conwy Williams and Hayley Gibson hat trick (also missed penalty)

Richards had revealed afterwards the Lionesses team should of really taken part in the event in the Liverpool qualifiers as they had an over 35 competition, still a fantastic effort to get 2 teams there and get very close in a lot of games.

The next game was in Colwyn Bay as they then took on the Bees again 10 months after their first encounter and Llysfaen again won this time 5-2 with goals from Amy Conwy Williams ,Alannah Dunne ,Hayley Gibson 2 and Ali Evans. They played Penrhyn Bay for a 3rd time and this time beat the best team in the area 4-1 with goals from Hayley Gibson 2, Alannah Dunne and Seren Rogers. Games came quickly with a 2-2 draw with DragonHearts was followed by a 9-3 win over Henllan with Alannah Dune scoring 6, Then a shock Loss to the Queen Bees 4-1 before a huge end of season push saw the team then Beat Henllan away 6-4 with Alannah Dune again getting 5 and a 5-1 win away at the Queen Bees. The top scorer ended up being Alannah Dunne with 20 goals in a season.

DragonHearts Tournament The Ladies went to the DragoHearts Charity tournament. After a fantastic 1-1 draw with eventual winners NFA llysfaen lost to Wirral 1-0 and Queen Bees 3-0 before beating Crewe Diamonds 1-0 and drawing with Crewe Sapphires 1-1 and another Loss to DragonHearts 2-0 on a very hot day. The team missed out on the knock out stages finishing joint 5th out of 7.

2019/20 season. Coach Craig Richards then took it on himself to organize something 6 clubs had asked for a league. Richards had been contacted by 2 new teams LLanfairfechan Town Ladies and Pentre Ladies from Abergele. Richards decided to name the new League the NORTH WALES LADIES RECREATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.

Next up for Llysfaen was a trip to Llanfairfechan and a 9v9 game it was a good game but Llysfaen only just managed 9 players and missed a few players because of holidays. The game was good and competitive and Llysfean went 1-0 down when goal keeper Jodi Walker Haywood saved a Penalty only for the backspin of the ball to beat her as it came out of the air off the original save. it was 2-0 soon after due to a mix up in defense. in the 2nd 20 Llysfaen Played much better getting a goal back and scoring their 50th ever goal when Emma Fisher shot in from a Rach Taylor pass. but Llanfair came back strong in the final 3rd to win 5-1. 3 weeks later the return fixture and Llanfair again took a 2-0 lead but this time 2 goals in the last 1 minute of the first 20 minutes got them the lead and they scored again 1 minute into the 2nd 20 but Llysfaen came back strong 2 Alannah Dunne goals and Hayley Gibson hitting the bar as it was constant Llysfaen Pressure .3-2 after 2/3. The last 20 saw Llanfair score from a corner 2 minutes in and Llysfaen just could not score. Next up away at Penrhyn Bay before a round robin tournament at Kinmel Bay and the start of the new league

Appearances Jodie Jones 14 Goals Alannah Dunne 22 Hayley Gibson 13 Rach Taylor 4 Ali Evans 3 Sophie Heap 2 Lottie Conwy Williams 1 Seren Rogers 1 Amy Conwy Williams 2 Gemma 1 Jemma 1 Emma Fisher 1 Jodie Jones 1

Tournement Goals Hayley Gibson 6. Jodie Jones 1 Amy Conwy Williams 1

First Goal Rach Taylor First Hat trick Rach Taylor First Double Hat trick Alannah Dunne 50th Goal Emma Fisher Most Goals in a season Alannah Dunne 20