Nice early Christmas present this morning as my much looked forward to NWC Anniversary shirt landed and suffice to say the Wrexham Club didnt let me down – it’s an absolute beauty !

2021 sees the Crusaders celebrate their tenth birthday as a North Wales based club and the new shirt honours the 179 players who have taken to the field in their colours, with the name and heritage number of each one sublimated in the main body shirt design along with the now familiar Welsh Dragon .

I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for the Cru’s shirt designs over the years and have a few tasty examples from years gone by stashed away .Apart from a very, very, very brave baby pink away design for last season,  they’ve managed to stick to the base colours of the red and green of Wales  or the black and yellow combo, a nod to the original Celtic Crusaders Club over the 10 years, with a simple style that you immediately recognise as ‘Cru’.

Crucially as well ,whether by luck or some clever  marketing, the main shirt sponsor logo (intially Glyndwr University, now Wrexham Lager ) has always unobtrusively blended with the rest of the shirt and has a link to the area, something that can’t be said for a lot of RL shirt designs . There are no cash convertor or Mecca Bingo moments here  !

Cru have announced that they in the main will be sticking with last year’s kits in an acknowledgement of the contribution of their  followers who purchased replica shirts and hardly saw their team play in them , so how much we’ll see the Anniversary shirt used in match action.  If this stays firmly as their 3rd kit  it will be a bit of a shame as quite frankly its a bit of a belter, though kudos for the Club for not fleecing their loyal support after a tough year .

Produced by 1895 Sports the replicas are a good thick material and double stitching on the seams, very much similar to the playing weight apart from thank the Lord are of a ‘proper RL fan fit  – none of this tapered rubbish here ! Another nice touch is the inclusion of the Clubs Wheelchair and PDRL Sections badge in the design – highlighting the fantastic work done by the Club in the Community away from League 1 .

You can buy the shirt here