TheCSA

Nov 20th 2004 is where it all began for the Central, South West and Wales Celtic Supporters Association. David Turnbull the Chairman for the Swindon Shamrock Celtic Supporters Club had long spoken about the need for the Celtic fans in these parts of England to form their own Assoc and have their own voice as it was felt from his discussions with many other CSC's in the region that the various other Supporters groups manly based in Scotland just didn't serve the needs of the Celtic Supporters Clubs in these parts. So on that day in November representitves from many CSC's we're invited to the Tap & Barrel pub in Swindon which is home to the Swindon Shamrock to see if they could take it on the next step towards forming an Assoc. Birmingham No2 CSC, Bristol CSC, The newley founded Oxon Shamrock CSC & of course the resident Swindon Shamrock CSC were all present at the meeting and all were in agreement that each CSC would be infavour of setting up and supporting an Assoc of their own.

Another meeting was arranged for the 16th Jan 2005, this time at the Jewellers Arms in Birmingham and four new CSC's had added their weight to the cause with the Cheltenham CSC, South Wales CSC and the Wolverhampton Shamrock CSC. Soon the ideas of what each CSC would like to see from the Assoc came flooding in and the mood was that at last we had a voice of our own.

The meetings were coming thick and fast as there was a need to keep the momentum up and get things sorted out and after a meeting at the Irish Oak in Cheltenham, a meeting at the Forresters Arms in Bristol saw the bulk of the committee voted in.

An agreement was reached with the Ticket Office at Celtic Park whereby our Assoc can now obtain tickets for away games which was one of the gripes of Celtic Fans down south and now we are finding that we're no longer the poor relations in the Celtic Family. Our thanks go to the ticket office for their help in this dept

We also managed to work with the Celtic View towards getting our own section in the View whereby our CSC's can post their message under the Assoc banner which in turn will help any Celts in the area not attached to a CSC find out where their nearest club is. The View have been very supportive of the Assoc and again thanks must go towards them for all their efforts.

2005 also saw the 1st ever Assoc 5-a-side competition which was hosted by the South Wales CSC and took place in Cardiff. The 1st winners of the competition was the Bristol CSC who beat Swindon CSC 4-2 in the final with 2 goals in the last 2 mins. The following year and with the sad news that THE GREATEST EVER CELT - Jimmy 'Jinky' Johnstone -had passed away the Assoc decided to honour this legend by re-naming their 5-a-side tournament the Jimmy Johnstone memorial Cup. A new Cup was purchased and the competition in 2006 was hosted by the Swindon Shamrock CSC. Again Bristol were the finalists but this time they narrowly lost out to the Wolverhampton Shamrock CSC by 4 goals to 3.

As with all things the Assoc continues to grow and now we have our very own Assoc web-site which we hope you'll enjoy looking at. Our first Full Season as an Assoc has finished and I'd like to pay tribute to the CSC's who were the very 1st members of the Central South West and Wales Celtic Supporters Association....Birmingham No2 CSC, Bristol CSC, Cheltenham CSC, Oxon Shamrock CSC, South Wales CSC, Swindon Shamrock CSC, Wolverhampton Shamrock CSC.

Hail Hail