Mold Alexandra F.C.

Mold Alexandra F.C. is a football team, a founder member of the League of Wales, but now playing in the Cymru Alliance (level 2 of the Welsh football pyramid).

The club was founded in 1929.

The club colours are green and white.

History

Mold Alexandra Football Club was formed in 1929, growing out of the Mission Church team of the 1920s. The club wa founded as rivals to Mold Town and the story goes that the club’s rare suffix was chosen at the inaugural meeting when someone picked up a copy of the Alexandra Hymn Book. After a brief pre-war stay in the West Cheshire League, Alex returned to the Wrexham Area League in the 1940s, when the Alyn Park ground apparently had covered accommodation for 300-400 spectators. The club remained in the WAL for some forty-five years, winning the League Cup in 1950.

It was not until the 1980s, however, that the club started winning major trophies on a regular basis. Then, during a successful 1985-86 season, Mold Alexandra won the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) championship, the League Cup, the North East Wales Cup and the North Wales Coast Cup. The league title was retained in 1986-87, along with the North East Wales Cup. In 1989 they battled through to the semi-finals of the Welsh Intermediate Cup (losing to Aberystwyth Town) and their successes during the decade were enough for them to be invited into the newly formed Cymru Alliance in 1990 and thence the League of Wales in 1992.

Mold survived in the national competition for three years before being relegated on the last day of the 1994-95 season. The inaugural League of Wales season was not without its problems for the club, although they enjoyed several good results once the first traumatic months of the season were out of the way. Following relegation from the national league, Alex survived a further three years in the Cymru Alliance before dropping back into the Welsh National League in the summer of 1998.

Facing relegation as the bottom club in the Cymru Alliance at the end of the 1997-98 season, Alex first explored the idea of a merger with Mostyn F.C.. Eventually they rejected this idea and opted for relegation, expecting to be put back in the Wrexham Area League. However, with Chirk also relegated (third from bottom) and filling that spot, they were told that they should drop into the Welsh Alliance. Mold appealed to the FAW but in an unsatisfactory episode the vote went against them.

It was then that the club took a brave decision. Refusing to take up their place in the geographically spread Welsh Alliance, they chose to field one team in 1998-99, in the middle (First) division of the Wrexham Area League (level 4 in the pyramid), the place previously filled by their reserve side. To rub salt in the wounds, the FAW then ejected Alex from the 1998-99 Welsh Cup, after the first round draw had been made, because their level 4 status made them ineligible. The enforced exile at level 4 lasted just one season, as the Alex clinched promotion back to the Premier Division with a game to spare.

Thus Mold Alexandra were back where they believed they should have been twelve months earlier, rebuilding at level 3 in the pyramid. Following three successful seasons back in the Welsh National League, Alex won the championship of the Premier Division in the 2002-03 season, losing just one of their twenty eight league fixtures., thus they are now in the Cymru Alliance for the third time in their history.

In the summer of 2003 it was announced that their ground at Alyn Park, which has been rented from local company Synthite for a peppercorn rent for over 50 years. is to be redeveloped for housing. Synthite are proposing to buy a new site for the club which will be leased to the Alex for 25 years, and which will allow the club to build a stadium meeting the highest League of Wales standards.

Biggest victories and losses

• Biggest League of Wales win: 5-0 v. Llansantffraid in 1994.
• Biggest League of Wales defeat: 7-1 v. Bangor City in 1992.