Happy birthday to CPD Y Fali icon Marc Wilson
When you have the nickname “Mr Valley” bestowed upon you in relation to your loyalty to a village football team, then it is pretty obvious there’s something special in your character.
And few would disagree that Marc Wilson, who celebrates his 35th birthday today, is more than worthy of the aforementioned title.
Born on December 7, 1987, Marc Anthony William Wilson is most renowned for his service to the Anglesey village club, known over the years as Valley Juniors, Valley Athletic, Valley and, its current name, CPD Y Fali.
Marc started playing football when he was about 10, representing Bodedern at junior level. In senior football, he firstly played four years with Valley where he won the North Gwynedd and Anglesey Sunday League Division One title in 2006-07.
Valley joined the Saturday football Anglesey League in 2007-08, but folded in 2009.
From there, Marc went to Llanfairpwll, where he played for two years.
In the same spell, Barry Rowlands got a Valley team back up and running in the Sunday League. Marc turned out for Llanfair on a Saturday and occasional Sundays with Valley.
After a year at Llangefni Town, Marc rejoined Valley (now Athletic) in 2013-14.
When Rowlands stepped down at the end of that season for an adventure in Australia, Marc switched to Holyhead Hotspur Reserves for a year.
In that 2014-15 campaign, Valley Athletic won a treble, including a first Anglesey League crown, under the leadership of Adam Archer.
Archer left the club ahead of 2015-16 and Marc took over at Valley alongside Dan Jones.
Things looked grim at first with only a handful of players on the books, but Wilson and Jones soon turned the tables, attaining some good league positions.
The highpoint came in 2016-17 when Valley landed the Elias Cup, beating Anglesey League champions Holyhead Town in the final on penalties.
Marc scored in the shootout to make his final game as player-manager a very memorable one.
He remained a player at Valley for the next two years before having a spell with newly-formed Ogwen Tigers in the shortened, Covid-affected 2019-20 season. It was during his time with the Bethesda club that he scored one of his best goals, a remarkable effort from the left-wing.
With the 2020-21 campaign completely wiped out by the pandemic, Marc split last season between CPD Gaerwen and CPD Y Fali. He played a part in a truly memorable 3-2 win for a struggling Gaerwen against Pwllheli.
This term has seen him be a regular once more with his beloved Fali.
Born in the Welsh capital, Marc is a Cardiff City supporter, his favourite all-time Bluebird being Andy Legg.
A winger who has always scored his share of goals, Marc has lived on Anglesey for a number of years.
Very much a family man, Marc has a beautiful young son Beni, and is very close to his parents and brother Jamie.
Sport also runs in the family as teenage artistic gymnast Poppy Grace Stickler, of Cardiff, who was fifth in the women’s all-round final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, is a cousin to Marc.
Maybe the asymmetric bars might be beyond Marc at this stage of his sporting life, but he still has plenty to give on the football field. CPD Y Fali is lucky to have him around, as are all of us who know him well.
Happy birthday to a true gentleman.