Cefn Druids: Team's distant fan club return after Covid

A group of friends who became fans of a Welsh football team as a joke while at university two decades ago are going to their first match in three years.

In 2002, the group of students at Exeter University began supporting Cefn Druids AFC, 230 miles (370km) away.

They called themselves "Druids 'til I die", and have made an annual pilgrimage to north Wales since.

Founding member Alex Morrison said the group started following the club after watching a football results show on TV.

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"We saw this team that just caught our eye... Cefn Druids, and I'm pretty sure they lost 6-0," said Alex.

"It just started a conversation amongst us, we thought let's be the Cefn Druids Supporters' Club of Exeter University."

The group are travelling to Cefn Mawr in Wrexham county to watch the Druids for the first time since 2019, after the Covid pandemic interrupted their tradition.

At least one member of the group has been to a Druids match every year since 2001

After deciding to set up the fan club, Alex wrote a letter to the club and got a pile of scarves, shirts and club badges in return, as well as an invitation to go and watch a game.

"And so that basically just kind of called our bluff. So we thought 'right, we've done this, they've this sent us all of this stuff. We'd better actually go to this place'.

'Baffled' welcome

"So we kind of got out the A-Z and tried to work out where it was."

It resulted in 15 of them piling into a minibus and making the five-hour journey to what was then Cefn Druids' ground at Plas Kynaston.

They received a warm, if not "baffled", welcome from the club and local fans, and enjoyed it so much they were immediately hooked.

Alex said supporting a team in south Wales would have been more practical

Alex said it would have been more practical to support a club in south Wales, but the journey and the post-match beers were always part of the fun.

And as they graduated from university and scattered across the country and even around the world, they made a pact that they would come to watch their team at least once a year.

Until Covid - a cohort of the "Druids til I die" gang has made it to a game every year, even following their team to Lithuania when they reached the Europa League.

"One year one of our friends came back from New Zealand to come (to a game), so it's just such a fixture. Our lives have completely moved on, but we always go to this one thing."

The group travelled to Lithuania to support the Druids in the Europa League

About 10 members will make the trip to the Cefn Mawr to watch the Druids take on Penrhyncoch in the Cymru North - the Welsh second tier.

The numbers go up and down, said Alex, because of life events like children being born, or important work commitments, but he said the group is now about 20 strong.

Two of the members, including Alex, have been on every trip.

"Twenty-one years in, I think this will be our 19th game. So, I guess we'll we'll make a really big deal of it next year for our 20th," he said.

"Hopefully, we'll get as far maybe 50? We'll keep going as long as we're standing".

Alex said the group will keep going as long as it has members still standing

A Cefn Druids club spokesman said: "We were all pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from a group of lads from Exeter asking to be Druids' new fans all those years ago and immediately invited them up for a match!"

"Ever since then, it's been brilliant to host them each year. Their story shows the beauty of football in bringing people together and we are proud to play a part in it.

"We are hoping for a positive result on Saturday when they come to The Rock and have made sure to have the bar open early!"