The competition now known as the FAW (Amateur) Trophy has a long and distinguished history. Launched over 130 years ago, in 1890, in its original guise it was the first strictly amateur football competition in the world, (the English FA didn’t introduce their Amateur Cup competition for another three years).
The new cup was named the Football Association of Wales Junior Cup (the word ‘Junior’ had no age connotation, but was used in the same sense as Scottish Junior football played by adults). Thomas E. Thomas, the Chirk schoolmaster who taught Billy Meredith and became the FAW President in 1890, conceived the idea with the aim of providing competitive football, and national honours, for clubs and players not likely to progress far in the Welsh Cup, which had grown in prestige since its creation over a decade earlier.
The competition has undergone several name-changes in its 130 year history. It was re-branded early on as the Welsh Amateur Cup, and in the 1970s when amateur status was abolished, it became known as the Welsh Intermediate Cup. Most recently, in 1993, that name gave way to the more upbeat ‘FAW Trophy’.
For the first 23 seasons of the cup, no south Wales team was victorious. Aberaman were the first southern finalists, in 1913, but Cardiff Corinthians were the first southern winners, when they defeated Holywell United a year later.
Cardiff Corinthians are also the club with the most wins (six, the earliest 1914 and the most recent in 1985).
Back-to-back wins have been achieved on multiple occasions but only Lovell’s Athletic achieved three consecutive wins (1926, 1927 and 1928).
Nine of the twelve current JD Cymru Premier clubs have won the competition at some time during its history.
[For a full, illustrated history of the competition, see the second issue of Welsh Football XTRA, published digitally in January 2021 on the MatchDay digital app, and now available in print form direct from the publishers.