News	Newport Harriers News

Possible merger is off

Recently, discussions have been taking place between Newport Harriers AC and Torfaen AC regarding a possible merger of the two South Wales clubs. This has been prompted by the poor showing of both clubs in the Welsh leagues and the desire to reach national league standard for the men's competition. Newport Ladies have been competing at that level for a couple of years. This idea has reared it's head several time over the years with little progress being made due to the parochial feelings of the members of each club, however, as the membership changes these feelings have lessened and a serious approach was made last year.

Unlike Westbury and Yate whose competition setups were ideally suited for a link up, Newport and Torfaen compete in much the same leagues around the country, often against each other. Before any merger could be progressed it was necessary to discuss with the various organising bodies to find out what would be the outcome of the merger in terms of team placings within the leagues. Most of the leagues were actually quite accommodating, however one of Newport's primary competitions was anything but this, in fact it was felt that our presence in their competition was somewhat resented. We were informed that we would have to effectively re-apply to the league and start from the lowest division despite us being in the top echelon, with no guarantee of gaining re-admission at all.

It was this problem that effectively scuppered the possibility of a merger between the two clubs, the way forward now is therefore less clear. Rumors of mergers with Lliswerry are just that - rumors.