Brewery Field
Encyclopedia
Brewery Field is a 8,000 capacity sports stadium in Bridgend
Bridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 1,100 of which is seated capacity. It is the home ground of the Welsh Principality Premiership
Welsh Premier Division
The Welsh Premier Division is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union for the 1990–91 season.-Competition history:...

 rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team Bridgend Ravens and Welsh Football League Division One side Bridgend Town FC.

Bridgend RFC

Bridgend Ravens moved to The Brewery Field in 1920 after their former home Quarella Ground was acquired for building purposes. The club's first stay at the Brewery Field ended in the 1928/29 season, when the ground was purchased by a Greyhound Racing Syndicate. They returned in 1935 only to go into exile yet again in May 1949 after being evicted after a rugby league team had signed up to take the lease of the ground, but eventually returned in 1957 with the ground in a poor state of repair. Most of the outside fencing was laid to the ground, essential servies including water, heating, lighting and drainage were wrecked and needed to be completely re-installed. Other repairs and building work took place over several months and just in time for the 1957/8 season and the club have remained there ever since.

Bridgend Town FC

Bridgend Town FC moved to the Brewery Field in 2009 after the consortium that the club was part of, purchased the ground. The club had been without a home since leaving Coychurch Road in 2007 to make way for a supermarket development. They had ground-shared with Porthcawl Town F.C.
Porthcawl Town F.C.
Porthcawl Town Athletic F.C. is a Welsh football club. They currently play in the Welsh Football League Division Three.In 2010, Portcawl Town merged with Porthcawl Athletic, both of whom shared Locks Lane, and as of 2010-11 they will be known as Porthcawl Town Athletic.-External links:*...

 until 2008 and then moved to the University of Glamorgan playing fields in Treforest Industrial Estate. The club played their first game at the Brewery Field in September 2009, when they beat Aberaman Athletic 1-0.

Celtic Warriors

Celtic Warriors
Celtic Warriors
The Celtic Warriors were a regional rugby union team from Wales, who played in the Celtic League and Heineken Cup between 2003 and 2004.-History:The Warriors were one of the five original regions of the Welsh Regional Rugby Era...

 played most of their home matches at the ground in their only season in 2003/4. The team was formed during the advert of regional rugby at the top level of rugby union in Wales and was the partnership of Bridgend RFC and Pontypridd RFC
Pontypridd RFC
Pontypridd Rugby Football Club, known as Ponty, are a rugby union team from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, currently playing in the British and Irish Cup, Principality Premiership, and are the current SWALEC Cup champions....

. The ground hosted all but 3 of the club's home games. A then capacity-crowd of 10,000 saw the team host London Wasps
London Wasps
London Wasps is an English professional rugby union team. The men's first team, which forms London Wasps, was derived from Wasps Football Club who were formed in 1867 at the now defunct Eton and Middlesex Tavern in North London, at the turn of professionalism in 1999...

 in the Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...

 competition. The club was culled after just one season due to financial difficulties by the Welsh Rugby Union, neither Bridgend or Pontypridd had any sort of ownership of the region at the time of closure.

Bridgend Blue Bulls RLFC

Rugby league team Bridgend Blue Bulls
Bridgend Blue Bulls
Bridgend Blue Bulls RLFC are a rugby league side based in Porthcawl, Wales. They play in the Welsh Premier of the Rugby League Conference. They are the most successful amateur rugby league team in Wales, having won the Welsh Premier a record five times, as well as winning the Harry Jepson Trophy...

 played at the ground in 2005, winning all their home games, including the RLC Welsh Grand Final 56-16 against Torfaen Tigers
Torfaen Tigers
Torfaen Tigers are a rugby league team based in Pontypool, Monmouthshire. They play in the Welsh Premier division of the Rugby League Conference.-History:...

. The ground also hosted the Harry Jepson Cup final, which the club reached and ran out 60-10 winners over Leeds Akkies
Leeds Akkies
Leeds Akkies are a rugby league team based in The Old Modernians Sports Club, Cookridge Lane, Leeds, LS16 7ND, West Yorkshire. They play in the Yorkshire Regional division of the Rugby League Conference, their A side plays in the Yorkshire & Humber Merit League.-History:Leeds Akademiks were founded...

. The club didn't remain at the ground beyond the 2005 season and are now based at Porthcawl RFC
Porthcawl RFC
Porthcawl Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team based in Porthcawl, Wales. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Ospreys....

.

Celtic Crusaders RLFC

Crusaders played their first four seasons of their existense at the ground, to which they had ownership of, between 2006-2009. The team played in the lower leagues of professional rugby league during their first few years, before they were given a franchise to operate in Super League
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...

, the elite rugby league competition in Europe, for 2009-11 season. They played their first Super League home game at the stadium on February 21, 2009 against Hull. The Crusaders won their first Super League game at Brewery Field on 13 June 2009 with a shock win against the Wigan Warriors
Wigan Warriors
Wigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011....

. They have now left the Brewery Field and now play at The Racecourse Ground in Wrexham
Wrexham
Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...

. It was also the headquarters of Wales Rugby League
Wales Rugby League
Wales Rugby League is the national governing body for rugby league football in Wales.In 1907 The Welsh Northern Rugby Football Union was formed in Wrexham, but the English Northern Rugby Football Union refused it affiliation as they wanted the body located in the south of Wales and the Welsh body...

 and home of the Wales national rugby league team
Wales national rugby league team
The Wales national rugby league team represent Wales in international rugby league football matches. Currently the team is seventh in the RLIF World Rankings. The team were run under the auspices of the Rugby Football League, but an independent body, Wales Rugby League, now runs the team from...

, but they have since re-located.

Ownership

The ground changed ownership in 2009. Before this change the long-term lease was owned by the Crusaders and the Bridgend Ravens had to rent the ground from the Crusaders throughout the winter. Now it is owned by a consortium of the Bridgend Ravens and Bridgend Town FC. After four seasons, the club made the decision to re-locate, initially a controversial move to Rodney Parade, Newport was set in motion, however, due to ownership changes the club was sent on a different path and now play at The Racecourse Ground in Wrexham
Wrexham
Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...

.

In July 2010, a story was published that many misunderstood to mean Bridgend Ravens had sole ownership of the famous ground. In fact the story was only reporting that Bridgend Ravens had finally purchased their half of the lease for the Brewery Field from Bridgend Town having not been financially able to at the original transfer of ownership. The ground remains in 50/50 ownership between Bridgend Ravens and Bridgend Town Football Club.

Other uses

The stadium held a Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...

 concert in 2006, which was organised by the Celtic Crusaders and was seen as a huge success with over 15,000 in attendance.

2010 saw the ground host all of Wales national women's rugby union team home matches in the 2010 Women's Six Nations Championship
2010 Women's Six Nations Championship
The 2010 Women's Six Nations Championship, also known as the 2010 RBS Women's 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between six European rugby union...

.

The 2010 Welsh Women's Cup
Welsh Women's Cup
The FA of Wales Women's Challenge Cup, better known as the Welsh Women's Cup is the national women's football cup competition for Wales. It is run by the Football Association of Wales....

 final between Cardiff City L.F.C.
Cardiff City L.F.C.
Cardiff City Ladies Football Club is a Welsh women's football club currently playing at the third level in England. The club was founded in 1975 as Llanedeyrn L.F.C. after a local charity match. They play at Cardiff International Sports Stadium, Cardiff....

 and UWIC Ladies was played on the ground.

International football arrived at the ground for the first time in October 2010, with the venue hosting two games from the 2011 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship qualification
2011 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship qualification
The qualifying round of the 2011 UEFA U-19 Championship was the first of two qualifying rounds for the finals tournament of the 2011 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship...

, with Wales hosting their group. The first game was played on 22 October, when Turkey U19s recorded a 5-1 victory over Kazakhstan U19s. The second game at the venue will be between Kazakhstan U19s and Wales U19s on 25 October ended in a 1-1 draw.

The Ospreys rugby union team played their LV Cup home game at the Brewery Field versus Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...

 achieving a record crowd for them in that competition of 6,632 on a very wet and windy Friday night. The Ospreys will also play another LV Cup tie at the ground in 2011 against London Wasps
London Wasps
London Wasps is an English professional rugby union team. The men's first team, which forms London Wasps, was derived from Wasps Football Club who were formed in 1867 at the now defunct Eton and Middlesex Tavern in North London, at the turn of professionalism in 1999...

.

External links

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