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The Ynys (Yr Ynys) is an historic mixed sports venue in Aberdare, Wales. The ground is notable as the venue of the first ever international match in Rugby League history, and was also home to the professional rugby league club Aberdare RLFC as well as English Football League members Aberdare Athletic F.C.

Today the Ynys hosts the Aberdare Rugby Union Club, Aberdare Cricket team and Aberdare Valley AAC, as well as the Sobell Leisure Centre and the Ron Jones Athletics Stadium.

Name
The Welsh word Ynys (cognate with the Irish language innis), is commonly translated as island. However, it can also mean a flood plain, peninsula or river meadow. It is a common toponym in the South Wales Valleys, denoting a flat area of land along the banks of a river. As such, a number of places named Ynys were found around the modern playing fields.

Early history
Aberdare was described as "very remarkable" for its traditions of Taplasau Hâf (summer games), rhedegfeydi (races) and gwrolgampau (manly sports) as early as 1853. Although it is unknown when the Ynys was first used for sport, a number of special areas had been set aside by the townsfolk for these games since at least the 1640s, with the three most prominent being at Ton-glwyd-fawr (also known in English as "The Ton" in Cwmdare), Tontypel in Cefnpennar and most notably, "a small ynys on the shore of Cynon". However, the text explicitly names this "Ynys" as Glan-rhyd-y-gored near Llwycoed Mill, someway up river from the modern playing fields.

1875-1908
By 1875, The Ynys was under the supervision of the Abernant ironmaster, Richard Fothergill who contiued to use the land as a place for fêtes and athletic tournaments. As Fothergill was leasing the grounds to local societies, the area continued to be set aside and remained largely undeveloped, despite the rapid growth of Aberdare and the Ynys' situation as flat open land between the town's two main railways stations. In August 1875, the Ynys hosted the first of an annual athletic tournament which would also include equestrian events and a brass band competition. These events were sponsored by the town's hostilaries and attracted crowds of up to 10,000.

1908-1930
The ground was opened in 1893 as the home of Aberdare Town, who later became Aberdare Athletic. On 1 January 1908 the Athletic Ground the venue of the first rugby league international involving a team from outside the British Isles when Wales played New Zealand as part of the 1907–08 tour, with Wales winning 9–8. The match attracted approximately 15,000 fans

By 1920 the ground was still quite basic, with a narrow grandstand on the southern touchline and a cycle track around the pitch. With Aberdare attempting to gain entry to the Football League, the stand was rebuilt, the cycle track removed, and banking installed at each end of the pitch. The following year saw the ground's record attendance of 22,584 set for a schoolboy international between Wales and England on 14 May. In the same year Aberdare were elected to the Football League, and the first League match was played at the ground on 27 August 1921, with Aberdare and Portsmouth drawing 0–0 in front of 9,722 spectators. In 1927 Aberdare were voted out of the Football League.

1930s-1960s
The first Greyhound racing meeting at the Ynys took place on December 26th 1931. By 1959, the stadium had an Inside Sumner hare installed at a cost of £1400.