Services

HOLY Cross: Mass at 6pm on Saturday with Bishop Edwin.St Mary Magdalene: Mass at 11am with Bishop Edwin.St Michael’s: Morning service at 9.30am.St David’s: Morning service at 11am.Calfaria: Baptist Singing Festival at Llanrwst in the afternoon.Manod Orthodox: Third and Sixth Canonical Hours at 10am followed by the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom at 10.30am.

Bowydd: Rev Pryderi Lloyd Jones, 10am.Bethesda: Tecwyn Jones, 10am.

Sports

ON Saturday, Blaenau Amateurs FC were 2-1 winners at Prestatyn Sports, with Terry Hughes and Iwan Jones their scorers, but the Reserves were unable to raise a team for their match at Llandudno Junction. The first team have two matches this week, the first home to Nantlle Vale on Thursday evening with a 6.30pm kick-off and then away to Pentraeth on Saturday. Bro Ffestiniog XV were beaten 18-15 in stoppage time at Colwyn Bay, which means the Bay are champions of the WRU Division 2 North League. The local bowling club are among the early North Wales League A leaders after their third successive win beating Min y Don, Old Colwyn by 9-3 thanks to wins from Martin and Barry J Hughes, Dylan Vaughan, Stephen and Ken Jones, Aled Owen and Mike Burgoyne. This Saturday they are away at Beaumaris A.

Advice

A REPRESENTATIVE of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau will be at the library on Mondays between 10am and 1pm; no appointments are needed.

Chamber

IN HER annual report, Clare Britton, chair of the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, stated it has been a busy year, with many successes and the odd failure.The latter being that despite a lot of work done by herself and secretary, Diane Lee, they failed in a funding bid to the Cist - Voluntary Development Fund. On the bright side, together with a little financial help from Gwynedd and town councils, the Chamber has produced a new Blaenau town leaflet, which has been well received and will be distributed when she attends many shows and exhibitions around the UK with the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways. With the town council, the Chamber met the Gwynedd Council’s Highways Department and they agreed to change one of the local car parks into a short-stay one with free early and late parking to encourage shopping visits. The Chamber was delighted when Conwy Council agreed to run the Conway Valley Sunday bus service through to Blaenau Ffestiniog once again. She is currently working on a mailshot to local villages to promote some of the shops which would draw people to the high street from just outside the town and hopefully encourage them to look at further shopping opportunities once there.

Gallery

THE Maenofferen Gallery hosts an archive project created in partner-ship with the Gwynedd Community Arts Unit and the Archives Services and which involves the work of Reginald Hallward, Rhian Haf and Morgan Griffith until 1 June. Admission is free during the library’s opening hours.

Clwb Cerdded

TAITH nesaf aelodau Clwb Cerdded Ffestiniog fydd dydd Sul yma yn ardal Llwyngwril gyda John. Gofynnir ir aelodau i fod ger Ty Gorsaf am 9yb; mae esgidiau cryf, dillad addas a phecyn o fwyd yn hanfodol i’r daith.

Moelwyn Fell Race

A TOTAL of nearly 90 runners set off for the annual Moelwyn Fell Race on Saturday, once again organised by the Blaenau Amateurs football club.The overall winner was Gareth Hughes of Llanberis, who is a member of both the Eryri Harriers and the Mercia Fell Runners clubs in a time of 1:21:17, with Alan Jones the best local male runner in 1:40:31 and Carla Lauder was the first local female winner in 2:23:39.

Merched

NOS Fawrth diwethaf a hithau yn noson arbennig o braf bu i aelodau Clwb Merched Nos Fawrth fynd i giniawa yn Mhlas Tanybwlch, gan fwynhau y golygfeudd gwych o ddyffryn Maentwrog a natur ar ei orau, gan ddiolch i staff Tanybwlch am yr arlwy ar gwasanaeth cyfeillgar. Cynhelir cyfarfod nesaf y Clwb yn y Ganolfan ar yr 26ain y mis.

Siop Siarad

THE April meeting of Siop Siarad the local area group for Welsh learners will be held at 11am at the Bro Ffestiniog Archaeology

SocietyTHE society met recently to hear a talk by Steffan ab Owain on Tipyn o Hyn a Llall (A bit of this and that).In an extremely interesting slide presentation, Steffan introduced those present to a variety of local artefacts he had discovered over the years. The first mentioned was a stone in Cwm Cynfal known as Carreg Saethau – the Arrow Stone which has runic or ogam marks cut into it and are usually found near churches and are believed to be hone stones.Whilst on the subject of stones he showed slides of stone mason marks which were unique to individual masons as a way of identifying that they did the stone-work. Similar marks were used by carpenters to show who built wooden structures.Weigh stones were also included in the slide show and were used to measure goods during buying or selling before the later introduction of iron and brass weights. Their weight was marked in either roman or Arabic (present day) numbering.A Challenge Stone - Carreg Orches – was used for strength competitions and usually were about 30kg in weight. Lighter stones were used by women but these events were rarer than the men’s.Smaller findings included lead rings (some found to be iron) likely to have been used as weights in home weaving machines and small millstones for hand grinding seed, normally oats or wheat, in the home.Society chairman Bill Jones offered the audience’s thanks to Steffan and to Bryn Jones, who provided the instant translation facility.The next meeting will be this Thursday, 21 April, at the Ganolfan Day Centre, Blaenau Ffestiniog, when Rhys Mwyn will give a bilingual talk on ‘Castles – Who built them and Why?’The society’s AGM will be held prior to the talk, with matters starting at 7.30pm prompt. Tea and coffee will be available from 7pm.