Snelling Sevens

The Snelling Sevens (also known as the Snelling Seven-a-Side Trophy and originally known as the Welsh Seven-a-Side Tournament) was an annual Welsh Rugby Union sevens competition that ran from 1954 until 1995.

The tournament was inaugurated in 1954 and the trophy presented by the Chairman of Newport Athletic Club, Reg Snelling, after whom the competition is named. The competition took place over a single day, and was originally a straightforward knockout tournament between 16 teams, with the initial draw taking place prior to the match day. The teams invited were the premier South Wales teams, but occasionally if a team was on tour at the time clubs were invited from other areas, including English teams such as Leicester and Bath. Ebbw Vale won the tournament in 1958. The squad included G Powell, M Williams, F Matthews, R Morgan, D Ackerman, D Barrett, R Evans, K Cameron, J Pugh. 1967 saw the introduction of the Bill Everson Award for the Man of the Tournament Trophy. In 1979, the competition changed format from a purely knockout tournament to a pool system with four groups of four teams followed by knockout rounds.

Despite the competition's popularity from the 1950s to the 1970s, crowds diminished from 50,000 at its peak to around 5,000 by the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1995, the competition was renamed as the "Worthington Sevens", but it was decided that, due to the congested timetables of the clubs involved, the tournament should cease to be held. The trophy was awarded permanently to Newport as the most successful club in the competition's history.

Finals
SeasonWinnersLosing FinalistsScoreVenueEverson Award
1954 Newport Ebbw Vale 6–0 Newport Athletic Club
1955 Cardiff Newport 8–3 Rodney Parade
1956 Newport Penarth 5–3 St Helens
1957 Newport Abertillery 11–8 St Helens
1958 Ebbw Vale Newport 10–5 Cardiff Arms Park
1959 Newport Pontypool 6–3 Rodney Parade
1960 Llanelli Penarth 14–10 Cardiff Arms Park
1961 Newport Pontypool 8–3 Cardiff Arms Park
1962 Newport Neath 19–3 St Helens
1963 Newport Bridgend 8–0 Cardiff Arms Park
1964 Neath Cardiff 10–5 Cardiff Arms Park
1965 Newport Newbridge 9–8 St Helens
1966 Cardiff Newport 23–20 Cardiff Arms Park
1967 Newport Cardiff 21–15 Cardiff Arms Park David Watkins
1968 Bridgend Pontypool 13–10 Cardiff Arms Park J.J. Williams
1969 Cardiff Llanelli 17–13 Cardiff Arms Park Barry John
1970 Neath Ebbw Vale 18–8 Cardiff Arms Park David Parker
1971 Llanelli Newport 31–10 Cardiff Arms Park John Thomas
1972 Cardiff Bridgend 15–4 Cardiff Arms Park John Davies
1973 Llanelli Newbridge 52–6 Cardiff Arms Park Roy Bergiers
1974 Bridgend Swansea 30–14 Cardiff Arms Park Vivian Jenkins
1975 Bridgend Cardiff 32–12 Cardiff Arms Park Stuart Lane
1976 Cardiff Newport 18–8 Cardiff Arms Park Chris Camilleri
1977 Cardiff Newport 24–16 Cardiff Arms Park John Churchill
1978 Bridgend Cardiff 38–16 Cardiff Arms Park Gareth Powell Williams
1979 Llanelli Ebbw Vale 26–16 Cardiff Arms Park Peter Morgan
1980 Bridgend Newport 24–16 Cardiff Arms Park Gary Pierce
1981 Cardiff Leicester 20–6 Cardiff Arms Park Gwynfor Williams
1982 Swansea Ebbw Vale 44–6 Cardiff Arms Park Jeff Herdman
1983 Cardiff Abertillery 44–6 Rodney Parade Adrian Parry
1984 Cardiff Newport 30–12 Rodney Parade Mark Ring
1985 Newport Glamorgan Wanderers 43–0 Rodney Parade Steve Pill
1986 Glamorgan Wanderers Cardiff 30–6 Rodney Parade Nick Ward
1987 Bridgend Newport 34–12 Rodney Parade Aled Williams
1988 Llanelli South Wales Police 40–4 Rodney Parade Jonathan Davies
1989 Swansea Bridgend 22–16 Rodney Parade Mark Titley
1990 Newbridge Bridgend 20–14 Rodney Parade David Rees
1991 Swansea Bridgend 20–18 Rodney Parade Chris Bradshaw
1992 Newbridge Swansea 28–24 Cardiff Arms Park David Manley
1993 South Wales Police Pontypridd 24–14 Cardiff Arms Park Richie Collins
1994 Bath Cardiff 42–5 Cardiff Arms Park Audley Lumsden
1995 Swansea Bridgend 29–28 Cardiff Arms Park Robert Howley

Winners
Club Winners Last win Runners-up
1Newport1019859
2Cardiff919846
3Bridgend619876
4Llanelli519881
5Swansea419952
6Newbridge219922
Neath219701
8Glamorgan Wanderers119861
South Wales Police119931
Ebbw Vale119583
11Bath119940
gollark: OW IT BURNS MY EYES
gollark: Hmm. I may need to temporarily disable the disk-key-related features.
gollark: There is actually now the potatOS *update* signing key, which is stored on my laptop and encrypted.
gollark: It stores the key, some items, an emergency melon generator, that sort of thing.
gollark: The key is stored in some of my backup archives and Site Null on Switchcraft.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.