RECORDS show that football has been played in Prestatyn since the early 1890s with games being played on an undeveloped field on Marine Road (although various other pitches around the town were also used), Prestatyn Thursdays being one of the most successful sides in those very distant days.

Hard statistics are few and far between for the start of the 20th century but it would appear that those early teams played a series of friendly and local cup games due to the lack of an organised local league. However, in 1904/05 we know that Prestatyn took the plunge and entered a team in the Flintshire Amateur League, a strong competition with its base in the industrial heartlands of Deeside as evidenced by the names of competing clubs like Flint United Alkali Chemicals and Buckley Engineers.

Unbeknown at the time, a few of these clubs were to cross swords with the Seasiders right through the next century. No table exists for season 1903/04 but in the following campaign the latest table available shows Prestatyn finishing as runners-up to Mold Alyn Wanderers in Division One while the bottom three comprised Flint Town United, Holywell United (now Town) and Rhyl Reserves!

There is some evidence to show a Prestatyn side spent some time in the then powerful Chester and District League but for 1905/06 the club competed in Division Two of the North Wales Coast League, ending as runners-up to Rhyl Victoria.

But after this successful campaign it seems Prestatyn had seemingly dropped out of existence between 1907 and 1910, playing only sporadic friendlies and entering cup tournaments on occasion.

The Prestatyn Weekly of January 18th 1908 confirms that the club's home games were played at the Marine Grounds on Marine Road (most probably the field adjacent to the present fire station) and carried a match report of a 3-0 defeat at Dyserth for Prestatyn Rovers. The account tells how Rovers were outclassed overall in a game played on a "dangerous pitch" and adds "the visiting forwards were found guilty of squandering chances and were delinquent in that respect". Harsh stuff from the press box there!

The following week's paper (January 26th) also carries a match report for a game between Prestatyn United and Dyserth at the Marine Grounds and here arises confusion. No other mention of Prestatyn Rovers is made in any edition of the paper but United crops up a few times more so it seems the account of Rovers defeat at Dyserth was actually a misprint and the team at that time were known as Prestatyn United.

This fact is substantiated by the team given for that Dyserth match on January 18th; O Jones, W Jones, S Williams, H Hughes, S Bennett, Claus, Llew Hughes, S Ellis. J Thomas, F Coward and J Roberts. For the report of the game at Prestatyn a week later, several of these names crop up again and indeed Llew Hughes scored twice in the 3-2 defeat so it is a fair assumption that United was the correct name and for the purpose of record, we will refer to them as that for the remainder of this feature.

There was not much to shout about in season 1908/09 either. The opening fixture in mid-September saw them visiting Dyserth where they were soundly beaten 5-2 with the Prestatyn Weekly gloomily reporting that "Prestatyn had not yet settled down to their game and need much practice if they are to uphold their reputation."

Despite a thorough search of the newspapers, there is no mention of the team playing again until December 12th 1908 when the Thursdays old rivals, Rhyl St Anne's, were hammered 9-1. A few names from previous matches and a couple of the Thursdays team cropped up on the teamsheet: W Jones, T Brooks, S Williams, W Ellis, A Jones, J Parry, Llew Hughes, A Coward, S Bennett, S Pape and R Pritchard.

The talented young Coward bagged four that day with Bennett, Brooks, Jones, Pritchard and Pape netting the rest but by now Prestatyn United were in trouble, playing just friendlies meant long spells between matches and public support was waning resulting in a slightly mournful piece in the Weekly.

"It is to be regretted that so little interest is taken in the management of the club for the team that played on Saturday could stand up to any junior team on the coast and not be worsted.  If more fixtures were arranged. a committee appointed to select players and some minor difficulties seen to the success of the club could be assured."

The Thursdays however were by far the more successful in the early Edwardian era. They took their name from the fact that the church still held sway over Britain in the early 20th century and any sort of recreation or sporting activity on the Sabbath was frowned upon.

As most communities in the UK - Prestatyn included - still had a half day closing tradition, midweek football leagues sprung up which allowed men to take part on their afternoon off leaving Sundays free for worship.