Brecon Week 2025

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN… IT’S BRECON WEEK!

Referred to by many as the Welsh Varsity Match, the legendary Brecon Day is nearly upon us. This Saturday, 18th October, Llandovery College will once again face our historic rivals Christ College, Brecon, in a fiercely contested rugby and hockey showdown steeped in pride, tradition, and school spirit. Dating back to 1879, this fixture is believed to be the oldest rugby schoolboy match in England and Wales—a rivalry as iconic as the Boat Race, with its own extraordinary mythology. Central to the Llandovery mythology is the tale of the Brecon Monkey. As the story goes, the first Warden of Llandovery College once kept a beloved pet monkey. Tragically, a gang of mischievous Christ College pupils is said to have kidnapped this simian companion, laid him to rest, and buried him somewhere on their grounds. In a bold act of retaliation, the brave Llandoverians exhumed the monkey and returned him to Llandovery, where he now rests peacefully, enshrined in a glass cabinet in our entrance hall. Since that fateful day, the monkey has been the fiercely guarded mascot of Llandovery College. Each year, on the Monday of Brecon Week, the monkey is removed from its case and entrusted to the Captain of the 1st XV, who keeps him close at all times, day and night, until the final whistle blows on Saturday.