Stebonheath Park - History

History

Stebonheath Park has been used as a football ground since 1920. It almost hosted League football in the 1930s but the club lost out coming second in the vote. At the time the ground had a large wooden grandstand, a covered end terrace and a large bank on the south side, and it could easily have been developed into a Third Division ground. The stand was subsequently demolished and the ground re-shaped to allow the building of an adjacent by-pass road.

Stebonheath Park was home to the Wales national rugby league team in the 1930's. Here Wales where crowned European Champions, after defeating England 17–9, on 10 November 1938. The Great Frank Whitcombe made his debut for Wales in this game.

The stadium has been owned by Llanelli Town Council since 1977. The council undertook major redevelopmemts of the stadium which included floodlighting, a new 700 seater main stand, new terracing, a function room social club as well as all-weather training facilities for the athletics club. In July 2008, a new open seated stand was built on existing terracing along one side of the ground with about 300 seats.

Around the pitch is a narrow 400 metre running track with four lanes on each straight. It is the narrowest 400m track in the United Kingdom.

On 28 February 2006 the stadium hosted an international match between Wales Under-21s and Northern Ireland Under-21s, with the Northern Irish side winning 1-0.

Local junior football finals are held at the stadium. The Welsh Cup final has been staged at the stadium including the 2002-03 season final between Barry Town and Cwmbran Town as well as the 2004-05 final between Total Network Solutions and Carmarthen Town. On 6 May 2007 Stebonheath Park staged the 120th Welsh Cup final between Carmarthen Town and Afan Lido.

On 31 October 2008 the stadium hosted a Victory Shield match between Wales under-16 and England under-16 which was shown live on Sky Sports.

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