Wrexham AFC's new café serving up cream teas and Hollywood glamour

A Welsh cake cream tea (left) at the Centenary Club, where visitors can also see the Welshpool costume worn by Paul Mullin in Deadpool
-Credit: (Image: Mark Williams/North Wales Live)


People of a certain vintage will remember the Centenary as the old Cotton Club, which was popular amongst the locals in the 90s due to its house music nights at the weekend. The Centenary Club has now opened its doors for the more sedate affair of cream teas and cakes.

The café is situated at the Stok Cae Ras along Mold Road in Wrexham and is the official match-day bar for home games. Wrexham AFC recently announced that their sports bar is now open every Monday to Thursday from 10am to 2pm. They are also hoping to entice a few customers by offering a little bit of Hollywood glamour to go with the cakes and tea.

You can also visit the sports bar to see the exclusive Welshpool statue, the suit donned by striker Paul Mullin in the Deadpool and Wolverine film. The film has just recently broken all kinds of box office records in the cinema, so I expect there will be a lot of interest from all over the world.

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"Super" Paul Mullin surprised Wrexham fans in the film by sporting the Welshpool costume draped in the national flag. He was dressed as a Welsh version of Ryan Reynolds' character, Deadpool. The Hollywood blockbuster also starred Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

The blink and you will miss it scenes were a brilliant promotion for the North Wales football club from co-owner Ryan Reynolds who with Rob McElhenney bought the club back in 2020. The Welshpool suit is being kept behind a glass box but fans are allowed to have their photograph taken with it. I can imagine it being very popular with the many overseas fans who visit the club shop for merchandise.

The Centenary Club at Wrexham AFC
The Centenary Club at Wrexham AFC -Credit:Mark Williams/North Wales

The Centenary Club has a sports bar theme with many televisions showing live sport in the background. It has a large open space with a mixture of booth seating and some posher tables with white tablecloths and red napkins.

There is Wrexham memorabilia, such as framed classic football shirts and old collectable football programmes on the walls. The Wrexham FC emblem is everywhere, etched on the glass in the windows and even on the toilet doors.

We were served by a pleasant young lady with an American accent. She informed us that she was a student from California and that she was enjoying her part time job in the racecourse.

Chocolate fudge cake at Wrexham AFC's Centenary Club
Chocolate fudge cake at Wrexham AFC's Centenary Club -Credit:Mark Williams/North Wales

We ordered the Welsh cake cream tea and also took advantage of a chocolate fudge cake which looked very tempting on the counter. We went to see the star attraction and of course took pictures of the dynamic Welshpool statue, which was kicking a Wrexham Fc football as we waited for our drinks to arrive.

The coffees were served in a white tea cup with a separate milk jug. The Welsh cakes arrived with a portion of cream and a dallop of jam. These patriotic cakes were actually shown on the “Welcome to Wrexham” documentary series as the proud new owners took cooking lessons on how to bake them.

These Welsh cakes didn’t taste homemade but they were still traditionally crumbly with a melt in your mouth texture. They were packed full of sweet currants and all things nice and spice.

The chocolate fudge cake is always a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and this version was certainly not a disappointing goalless draw. The cake had a layer of shiny fudge cream on the top and the sponge was both claggy and packed full of a delicious decadent chocolate flavour.

We noticed a steady trickle of customers all coming inside to see the statue, including visitors from as far as Australia and Canada. Just another normal day in the famous old ground these days.

A cup of coffee at Wrexham AFC's Centenary Club
A cup of coffee at Wrexham AFC's Centenary Club -Credit:Mark Williams/North Wales

The new owners of Wrexham AFC have probably done more to put Wrexham and Wales on the map than anyone else I can think of. The club shop is always packed with football tourists, so it seems a no brainer to me to offer them some cakes and beverages whilst they are there.

The Welshpool statue may be the star of the show here but a nice bit of a cake and tea won’t go amiss either.