President - R. B. Miller (Connah's Quay Harbour Master)
Captain - Thos Jones
Vice Captain - James Sephton
Treasurer - Mr Hulley
Secretary - Benjamin Hughes (of Cable Street)

The appointments were not unexpected and a vote of thanks was made from the floor for the preparatory work that had been done by these persons. Then Benjamin Hughes announced that the first ever competitive match (as opposed to the Mancot friendly of earlier in the year) would be an away fixture on 13th September 1890 at Chester Olympic. Many travelled to this very first match and were not disappointed when the club came away with a creditable 2 - 2 draw.

Later in the month another Literary Institute Sporting Festival was held to raise funds for the newly formed club. This time it was held in Mr Foulkes' field with the Denbighshire Hussars Band returning to provide music for entertainment and dancing. So successful was the first event that it became for many years a regular annual fixture in the club calendar.

The next season saw the Quay again playing in Chester. One match was against Chester Reserves at their (then) Faulkner Street (Hoole) ground. They lost the fixture 3 - 0 and the Chester Chronicle reported that:

"The match was played in a deluge and *two spectators witnessed the game."

(*Editor's note: LoW recorded attendance 220 ... )

One feature of these early days was the Easter Festival when Liverpool sides would visit Connah's Quay and draw large crowds - for example in 1893 and 1895 Liverpool Sterling were the visitors, winning on each occasion. 1893 also saw the club in its first cup competition, eliminating Hawarden 6 - 0 in the first round of the Welsh Junior Cup. One particular account from 1894 places the club with some certainty at the Halfway Ground. Connah's Quay were now members of the Denbighshire League and playing against the Police Athletic. The report tells us that:

"Playing down the slope in the first half the home team scored two goals and the ref allowed an offside goal in the second half giving Connah's Quay a 3 - 0 victory."

And so the infamous "Halfway Ground slope" first rose to notoriety! But cup and league success was proving elusive. The management's inexperience was beginning to tell and the club was soon in serious financial difficulties. Matters culminated in a special meeting at Mr Edwards' Sail Room in Chapel Street where it was revealed that the club had but four pounds and five shillings in the bank.

Facing financial ruin the meeting agreed unanimously to wind up the club and then create a new one with different officers and to seek fresh league and cup competitions in which to compete. As such, the meeting elected the young W. H. Lloyd of Top-Y-Fron Farm as its president. This proved to be a wise and inspirational choice as 'Lloyd The Fron' became a devoted servant to Connah's Quay football, giving the cause all his energies and financial backing.

Lloyd The Fron

If anyone deserves a special mention during this early history of Connah's Quay football, it is surely W. H. Lloyd, the newly appointed (1895) president of the second football club. When he was appointed at the special meeting in Mr Edwards' sail room he was only 23 years of age.

At his majority (21st birthday) in 1893 he had inherited a sizeable fortune from his mother's estate and immediately became involved in a number of Connah's Quay developments. It was in 1893 that a group of musicians, under the leadership of their conductor John Griffiths, broke away from the Denbighshire Hussars Band and set about establishing the first Connah's Quay Brass Band. It was only through through the generosity of W. H. Lloyd that the fledgeling band was able to secure a full set of instruments and survive its early days.

Again, on the 20th November 1891 "twenty gentlemen met at the Hare and Hounds for the purpose of forming a Masonic Lodge in Connah's Quay". It was officially consecrated as St. Mark's Lodge No. 2423 in August 1892. By 1896 W. H. Lloyd was a member organising their first annual ball at St. Mark's Schoolroom, with dancing until 4 a.m. with Massa's Band from Chester.

It was, of course, in 1896 during W. H. Lloyd's first full year as president of the new club that the Summers family established the Hawarden Bridge Iron Works and the vicar of St. Mark's Connah's Quay recorded in his diary:

"A great number of strangers have come into the neighbourhood and there is extensive house building both here and in Shotton."

With this demand in new homes W. H. Lloyd extended his interests with a new brick works and clay pit in Connah's Quay. Also, as a staunch Conservative he sponsored a number of Primrose League (Young Conservatives) fetes at his home in Top-Y-Fron.

Football though was his greatest love and again in 1896, in the first year of his presidency, Connah's Quay won the Yerbugh Cup. This was a charity cup named after the M.P. for the City of Chester, a Mr. Yerbugh. The win was doubly remarkable. It was Connah's Quay's first ever trophy and it was the first time the cup had left the walled city.

On their return home on Saturday night, the team and club party were met at Connah's Quay station by a large crowd and the Connah's Quay Brass Band. A procession followed, up and back down the High Street, led by W. H. Lloyd prominently displaying the cup. A few weeks later a celebration supper was held at the Half Way House with who else but W. H. Lloyd in the chair.

Following upon this in 1897 he paid for the whole team to visit Liverpool to see Everton play Bolton Wanderers.

In 1899 a large curious crowd gathered at St. John's schoolroom to hear W. H. Lloyd's gramophone exhibition.

"This was the first time the wonderful talking machine had been seen and heard in Connah's Quay."

There was no end to his enthusiasm for the game. Again in 1899, still only 28 years old, he was also appointed as President of the Chester and District Football Association. It was during the winter of this year that a 'frolicsome' hurricane destroyed the stand and enclosure of the Chester City Football Club. The ground was in a then exposed position in Hoole and the club was uninsured. It now faced certain closure as its financial position had been somewhat perilous before the catastrophic storm.

So it was that at the 1900 A. G. M. of the district Association everyone lamented the loss of the senior Chester club. A new new ground was needed and the finance to buy and equip it. W. H. Lloyd, as President then promised that if a suitable field be found, he would guarantee the cash.

So, not only did W. H. Lloyd revive football in Connah's Quay, he played a decisive part in its development in Chester by saving the senior club from possible oblivion.

For all of his social successes and triumphs, Lloyd was a financial failure in business. The brickworks in particular was running at a loss and its chimneys and kilns had yet to be paid for. The entire works was eventually made over to Mr Reney, who had built them, in payment for his work and materials. W. H. Lloyd's brick works became Reney's, and for a number of years Reney's pit was flooded, a favourite fishing pool. In the 1960's it was finally filled in and levelled to form the Connah's Quay Navy Club football pitch.

W. H. Lloyd "The Fron" finally had a fitting memorial, a football pitch in the middle of a built up area, played upon by the youngsters of the area every day.

Note: There is a Mr Lloyd, a club director, depicted in the team photograph at the top of this page, half kneeling at the left of the photo in the front row. He looks an elderly figure - could this be Lloyd The Fron himself? The spirit of altruism and benevolence which characterise thise era are now sadly absent as the club's directors scratch around for a return on their 'investment' in the combination television tower, excecutive banquetting suite and reception area, itself largely financed by the sale of the Half Way Ground and now an albatross around the neck of the club, anchoring it to the 'dead hand on the wheel' that is Deeside College plc.