LILYWHITES PROGRAMME OF THE WEEK with MARK JONES

In fairness, Rhyl were dragged screaming and kicking against their will into the LoW after a proud stint in English football but if detractors thought it was the 'beginning of the end' it is equally fair to say that a new chapter of success has been written since 1994 with European football and long awaited Welsh Cup triumphs to savour.

Whatever the politics, Rhyl's first home game in the new league sadly didn't have a programme worthy of the occasion. This 28-page effort was a mish mash of pages collated in the wrong order, spelling errors eg 'sponsered by' (on the front cover no less), out-of-synch folding and a stultifying quiz which veered from the sublime to the ridiculous - try this anagram for size (rearrange to make a the name of a LoW club and then its ground name); Cob gin tray - Ford 'Ra! 'Ra! 'Ra!....ok, it's Bangor City and Farrar Road but where do the apostrophes and exclamation marks fit into Farrar Road? Lame.

In mitigation, if my memory serves me right, there were horrendous printing problems encountered in the run up to this game and this issue was put together at the eleventh hour but it's still a poor souvenir of a famous (or infamous) date in the Lilywhites history.

The Rhyl team that day contained a few names that would go down in Belle Vue folklore, Mark 'Fez' Fairhurst in goal, skipper Chris Espley at the heart of defence, Lee Congerton, son of BV legend Dave, Tiny Millington, who's still baffling defences in the Clwyd League with Rhuddlan Town, Tony Livens, Adie Jones, later to become manager of Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and now Llangefni, plus local hero Timmy Steele on the bench that afternoon.

Incidentally, Rhyl lost this game 6-3 and, 13 years on, Ton Pentre are still a thorn in the Lilywhites' side, knocking them out of the Welsh Cup by 1-0 earlier this season.