Services

BETHESDA - Rev Robert W Griffith; 10 am; Calfaria - Rev Iwan Llewelyn Jones, afternoon; Manod Orthodox Church - Third and Sixth Canonical Hours at 10am and the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom at 10.30am; St David’s - Morning service at 11am; St Michael;s - Morning service at 9.30am; St Mary Magdalene - Mass at 11am with Bishop Edwin; Holy Cross - Mass at 6pm on Saturday with Bishop Edwin.

Sports

BLAENAU Amateurs FC are out of the Take Stock Van Hire League Cup after their close 4-3 second round home defeat by Llanllyfni and their scorers were Geraint Edwards (2) and Julian Jeffrey. The Reserves are also out of their Craig Bragdy Pools Cup after their 7-1 defeat at Llanberis This Saturday the first team are at Meliden and the Reserves will be home to Llandyrnog Res. The Bro Ffestiniog XV side resume their WRU Division 2 campaign with an away match at Flint this Saturday.

Rhoddion

CAFWYD rhoddion o £720 er cof am y diweddar Jean Lloyd Jones o Neuadd Lwyd, Cae Clyd, Manod i’w rannu rhwng yr Ambiwlans Awyr a’r Heart Foundation.

Diamond wedding

CELEBRATING their diamond anniversary last week were Stan and Maureen Roberts of Oxford Street.

Gallery

THE Maenofferen Gallery hosts a selection of paintings by Peter McNally until 26 February. Free admission.

Railway

DUE TO the December flooding, severe damage was done to the Blaenau Ffestiniog’s Vale of Conwy railway line to Llandudno Junction, which has resulted in over 100 locations on the track needing repairing. Work is now being carried out and Network Rail has stated that they are on schedule to reopen the line by the end of this month and in the meantime a bus replacement service has been used to ferry passengers to and from both towns.

Advice

ON MONDAYS between 10am and 1pm a representative of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau is at the library; no appointments are needed.

Clwb Merched

GWR gwadd Clwb Merched Nos Fawrth oedd Ken Robinson o Minffordd yn tywys yr aelodau ar fordaith ar y SS Florence Cooke, llong stêm a gariodd bowdr o waith Cooke’s yn Penrhyndeudraeth am flynyddoedd o amgylch Prydain ac ynysoedd y Sianel. Roedd yn hanes diddorol drost ben o anturiaethau y llong a’r chriw. Gwesteion y te oedd Margaret ac Elen ac enillwyd y raffl gan Joan, rhoddedig gan Margaret.

Eisteddfod

AT THE recent Trawsfynydd Eisteddfod, sisters Awel and Lowri, the daughters of Glyn and Wenna Francis Jones of Wynne Road won the Cerdd Dant duet They also came second in the open duet competition and, with their friend Mari, the daughter of Ieuan and Mari Roberts, of Manod Road. They also won the first prize in the Vocal Ensemble (Cymdeithas Eisteddfodau Cymru).

Bro Ffestiniog

THE February meeting of the Cymdeithas Bro Ffestiniog’s English section was well attended, with some 43 members and visitors present. The reason for such interest was that the lecture was on ‘The Big Tunnel’ - the one taking the railway from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Roman Bridge - with guest local speaker Stephen ap Owen, who was introduced by Phil Southern. His interesting talk included many old slides of the Crimea area as the construction of the tunnel started late 1873 and was completed six years later. A total work-force of over 1,000 navvies were involved and much of the work was done using hand tools and three shafts were dug with a depth of 450 feet. During the construction 12 workers were killed and the completed tunnel is roughly two miles 352 yards in length and the Blaenau Ffestiniog’s Railway station was then opened in 1881 The evening ended with the guest answering many questions on the subject and he was thanked by Neil Richards for a most interesting and educating lecture The guest speaker at the 10 March meeting will be Geraint Williams from Talsarnau who will give a talk on Birds of Prey in Gwynedd.

Camera

IAN O’NEILL was the judge for the Camera Club’s Maldwyn Williams competition, where members had to submit a set of three images, namely landscape, sport and people. The winner was Rory Trappe with John Gareth Roberts and John Powell Jones joint second. Life in Blaenau was the subject of the club’s latest competition, with Helen Kelly awarding the first and joint third prizes to John Powell Jones and in the second and joint places was Rory Trappe.