History
The Formative Years
The club played for a few seasons in the Ammanford and District League back in the 50s but weren’t particularly successful. The idea of forming a football club in the Llandybie/Blaenau /Caerbryn area was initially floated in early 1978 by Malcolm Oxenham and taken up by Rob Culley, both of whom played for Porthyrhyd at the time.
Permission was granted from Caerbryn Welfare to use the old Caerbryn playing field, which, it was understood, had been restored as a playing field, following opencast mining operations in the area. Permission was also granted to share Blaenau RFC’s dressing rooms and clubhouse and a committee was formed with Roy Williams as Chairman. Roy and his family were responsible for putting the club on a sound financial footing and he was a key member for several seasons. Another key member, Mal Gallanders, was recruited as goalkeeper. Mal had played for Neath in the Welsh League in his younger days but had not played since suffering a bad ankle break. For the next 13 seasons he would be one of the lynch pins of the club, as keeper for firsts and seconds, secretary, fixture sec, treasurer and groundsman. The first ever game took place at the start of the 78/79 season, and ended in a 3-3 home draw against Gowerton, with Keith ‘Scottie’ Bowen scoring a hat trick. As the season progressed however, it became evident that the playing field hadn’t been restored as such and that the baffle embankment at the back of Caerbryn Terrace had merely been flattened and seeded. The end came when a Ponthenri player sustained a bad wound from a piece of slag which had worked its way to the surface. The remainder of the season was played by kind permission of Ammanford United on Ammanford Rec. and hiring the old Cathan field in Garnswllt.The 80's
After two seasons the club had an appreciable contingent of players from Llandeilo and it it was perhaps inevitable that they would form their own football team. This duly happened in the 80/81 season, but Caerbryn still managed to finish 4th as they had in their first two seasons. Following the loss of further players after that season like Wyn Jones, who had stayed to alleviate the effect of losing so many players to Llandeilo, the club endured a hard time, but just about managed to survive.
Clive Rees came to the club as manager in 83/84 and galvanised the club. Unfortunately, owing to a reorganisation of the league, the club was demoted to a new third division, but managed to spring back at the first attempt in 84/85. During Clive’s reign, promotion to the First Division still eluded the club, but a second team was formed, and for one season there was a third team in the Neath and District. There were also Mond Cup victories over Ammanford Athletic (twice) and Waterloo. The Second team was eventually promoted to the top Reserve Division and was arguably, playing at a similar level to the First Team. In the post Culley- Gallanders era, from 1992 onwards, Mal Brown, Cyril Holt, Les Thomas and the Barnes brothers were responsible for the erection of dressing rooms alongside the field.Recent History
Additional drainage measures were undertaken by the Barnes brothers as unfortunately, the soil used in the original construction of the pitch, was from the Opencast site, and was of a substandard nature, despite having sand mixed in. After finishing 3rd and 4th in the preceding seasons, promotion to the First Division was finally achieved in 2011/12. This status was maintained until 2016/17 when relegation was suffered after the loss of half the playing squad to local rivals Llandeilo. However the club managed to bounce back to the First Division again the following season 17/18 thanks to a top 4 finish and a league re-structure. This success was short lived with the club then falling back down to the Second Division following a season of struggle in the 18/19 season.
The 19/20 season was another of re-building for the club, with a young playing squad and fielding two teams every week a struggle. Though the young squad are still developing they were able to make it through to the 3rd Round of the West Wales Cup for the first time since the glory years. A bye in the first round followed by a penalty shootout victory over FC Nedd of the Neath & District League led to a meeting with Coed Darcy of the Swansea League. The game ended in an entertaining 6-4 defeat, but the team gave a great account of themselves against a strong opposition. Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus and the pandemic that followed the 19/20 season came to an early conclusion, with the season being a successful one on the pitch with a top 5 finish on the cards. Due to the pandemic the 20/21 season led to grassroots football not only in the Carmarthenshire Division but worldwide being put on hold.