Tumble RFC and the Great Mountain Colliery

The rugby club of a Carmarthenshire village that did not exist before the pit did: Tumble RFC was formed by colliers in 1897, ten years after the Great Mountain Colliery was sunk, and has sent three players to the British and Irish Lions.

The mining history in this record

Before the Great Mountain Colliery was established in 1887, Tumble was an inn, a few farms and some scattered houses; the village took its name from the inn. The colliery brought the people, and with them the want of a sporting club. After some months in which a group of miners led by Orphie Evans and his brother George practised and encouraged others to take up the game, a club was formed at a meeting in the Bryn Stores reading room in 1897. It was founded to give recreation to the men of the Great Mountain Colliery and the other mines and farms around.

The first team walked the two miles to Pontyberem for their first match and won it by a try to nil, playing in blue and gold quarters. The colours changed more than once — black and green stripes, then all white — before the black and white hoops were adopted in 1920-21 and gave the club the name it still carries, the Magpies, Y Piod in Welsh.

People

Orphie Evans, who led the miners practising before the club was formed and was its first captain in 1897, and his brother George; Ken Jones, Gareth Davies and Dwayne Peel, Tumble players who went on to the British and Irish Lions; Archie Skym, the Tumble, Cardiff and Wales prop.

Legacy today

Tumble became the most successful club of the old West Wales Rugby Union, winning its first West Wales Challenge Cup in 1933-34 and taking four in a row in a golden spell in the 1980s, with three league titles alongside them. In March 1947 a Cardiff side with five Welsh internationals in it, Bleddyn Williams among them, came to play the Magpies at the Welfare Park. Three players who began at Tumble went on to the British and Irish Lions: Ken Jones, Gareth Davies and Dwayne Peel. The colliery closed long ago; the club is still there.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Tumble RFC was established in 1897 to give recreation to workers from the Great Mountain Colliery and other mines and farms in the area. (documented fact) ^1,2
• Before the Great Mountain Colliery was established in 1887 the village was no more than an inn, from which it took its name, and a few scattered houses and farms. (documented fact) ^1,2
• The club was formed at a meeting in the Bryn Stores reading room in 1897, after a group of miners led by Orphie Evans and his brother George had spent months practising and recruiting. (documented fact) ¹
• The first team walked the two miles to Pontyberem for the club's first game in 1897, wearing blue and gold quarters, and won by a try to nil. (documented fact) ¹
• The black and white hoops were adopted in 1920-21 and gave the club its nickname, the Magpies or Y Piod. (documented fact) ^1,2
• Tumble won its first West Wales Challenge Cup in 1933-34 and four in succession in the 1980s with three league titles, and Ken Jones, Gareth Davies and Dwayne Peel all went on to the British and Irish Lions. (documented fact) ²

Mines

• Great Mountain Colliery — Carmarthenshire
  Tumble RFC was formed in 1897 to give recreation to the workers of this colliery.

Regions

Carmarthenshire

Related Culture records

• The Tumble riots, 1893
  The same village and the same colliery four years earlier: the club was formed in 1897, within living memory of the strike and the riots of 1893.

Sources

1. (secondary) Tumble RFC — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Your Club Your Lions: Tumble RFC — The British and Irish Lions

Record created: 19 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026