Lovell's Athletic Memorabilia

Articles

The following first appeared in The Exile, the match day programme of Newport County, and was written by Ade Williams.

LOVELL’S ATHLETIC

“Newport’s other team”

For 51 years, Newport County shared the title of
“Newport’s senior football team” with another club;
an outfit that began its proud life as an ordinary
works’ team, but progressed to enjoy a somewhat
illustrious non league life. Despite their spending
much of that tenure in the shadow of the Ironsides,
plucky Lovell’s Athletic had even
dared to outshine and outdo their
league neighbours on occasions.

The “Toffeemen” from the Lovell’s
confectionary factory in Newport were
formed six years after County, in
1918, around the time WW1 was
coming to an end. Housed at the
cramped Rexville ground, a charming
little venue that boasted a 10,000
capacity, the club immediately set its
own lofty standards by becoming a
highly successful amateur side,
winning the Western Lge in 1923/4,
before setting a new record with an
impressive trio of Welsh Amateur Cup triumphs in
1925/6, 1926/7 and 1927/8.

The success of County’s unofficial nursery side
continued unabated into the 1930s when Lovell’s
defied the depression by racking up more
silverware; the Welsh League was won in seasons
1931/2, 1937/8 and 1938/9,
prompting elevation to the higher
Southern League. The Western
Lge Championship of 1938/9 was
also added to the creaking cabinet
at Rexville, as Lovell’s outgrew
their amateur status and became a
semi-pro outfit. The outbreak of
WW2 in 1939 had curtailed
County’s being as the military took
over Somerton Park ensuring
NCAFC would cease to exist for 5
long years. Senior football in
Newport would stubbornly
continue however, and Lovell’s
quite admirably flew the flag for the
town during those most testing of
times; a period when the little works’ team
captured public imagination by fielding many top
guest and ex-County players, as well as rubbing
shoulders with football’s elite. Among Lovell’s
plethora of wartime conquests was the inaugural
notching of the Southern Lge in 1939/0, before
near-invincibility followed with the Toffeemen
becoming champions of the Football League West
in 1942/3 and 1943/4, thrashing the likes of
Swansea 9-0, Bristol City 6-0, and Cardiff City 8-4!
Lovell’s also finished runners-up in the Northern
Championship to Liverpool, a position that saw
them topping many established big League sides
[a staggering 52 clubs competed!]. The following
year saw a third place finish, with only Liverpool
and Stoke City getting the better of the Rexville
club in front of regular 5-figure crowds. As the war
came to an end, so did Lovell’s amazing period as
a force, and the team would revert back
to being a works’ side once more.

Not that success-mad Lovell’s understood
this idea of demotion; they blissfully
continued where they had left off by
winning the Welsh Lge for 3 successive
seasons [1945/6, 1946/7 & 1947/8], as
well as landing the prestigious Welsh Cup
for the first time in 1947/8; something that
took County all of 68 painful years to
achieve! The incessant trophy haul did
ease up a little in the 1950s, as Lovell’s
settled back into life as a respected
Southern Lge club, although the Welsh
Amateur Cup was won again in 1953/4,
and a Welsh Cup Final was narrowly lost to Cardiff
City at Somerton Park in 1958/9.

That same
season, dwindling crowds of just a couple of
hundred at Rexville had forced the Toffeemen to
resign from the Southern Lge and rejoin the Welsh
Lge once more, and within just ten more years, the
gritty little works’ club would sadly be no more.

Lovell’s Athletic eventually resigned from
the Welsh Lge and folded in 1969, with
“crowds” at Rexville down to a pitiful
20/30 hardy souls; the doughty little club
deserved so much more than a fate that
proved to be a cruel preview to a
shocking scenario; one that would
account for the town’s main football club
as well within just 20 years. The Newport
public hadn’t allowed just one great club
to wither and die, the apparent apathy
and love of Rugby had allowed it to
unforgivably happen twice!

Lovell’s in their famous red, blue and
white, may be long gone, but “our other
team” will never be forgotten; alongside those
countless triumphs and cups, they will also forever
be remembered by County fans as the club that
provided us with legends like John “Polly”
Rowland, Keith Pring and Roddy Jones.

RIP Lovell’s Athletic!