A very sad day as Llandudno resign from Welsh Premier Women’s League

Llandudno Ladies have resigned from the Welsh Premier Women’s League.

Tudno were the last remaining North Wales club competing in the national league following the withdrawal of Rhyl before the start of the current campaign and Caernarfon Town a handful of games into last season.

Since the WPWL went fully national in 2012-13, there had always been at least one North Wales club involved.

In that first season, Caernarfon Town, Llandudno (then known as Llandudno Junction), Northop Hall and Wrexham were flying the northern flag.

Wrexham finished third – still the best-ever final position for a northern club in the WPWL – while Tudno, Hall and Caernarfon occupied the bottom three positions.

The following season, Northop Hall dropped out, leaving just the three ‘Gog’ representatives.

In 2014/15, Rhyl and Prestatyn entered the league, Caernarfon withdrew, while Llandudno Junction changed their name to solely Llandudno.

By 2015/16, Wrexham had pulled out of the league, leaving just Llandudno and Rhyl & Prestatyn.

It was the same two teams for 2016/17, Rhyl dropping Prestatyn from their name, then the following season Caernarfon Town were back.

However, a few matches into 2018/19, Caernarfon resigned and at the end of the campaign, Rhyl also called it a day.

That left the only North Wales ever-present, Llandudno, as our only member for this season.

The campaign began well with a 1-0 win at Briton Ferry Llansawel, but the serious ongoing problem of getting enough players available for long trips south came to a head with 10-0 and 17-0 losses at Cardiff City FC Women and Cardiff Met respectively.

Llandudno were sixth in the nine-team table before today’s news with a win, a draw and four defeats.

They had also reached the quarter-finals of the Welsh Cup where they were due to play Abergavenny at Maesdu Park on February 9.

Tudno’s finest hour came in 2015/16 when they made it to their first-ever Welsh Cup final, losing 5-2 to Cardiff City FC Women at Latham Park, Newtown.

The WPWL released the following statement this evening:

“Llandudno Ladies have this morning notified the league of their intention to withdraw from the Orchard Welsh Premier Women’s League.

“In a short statement, the club said: ‘With regret Llandudno Ladies will be withdrawing from the Welsh Premier Women’s League with immediate effect. This has been a very hard decision….we would like to thank all at the FAW, past and present, for all their work and help and all the clubs who made us so welcome over the years.’

The league added: “The club cited difficulties in recruiting and retaining players, an issue that the FAW and others have been working with the club to overcome, however no short-term solutions could be found to maintain the team’s position for this season.

“Therefore, Llandudno’s resignation request has been accepted and their playing record for the 2019/20 season will be expunged accordingly.

“The League will run as an eight-team division for the remainder of the season.”

More news and reaction to follow………..