Anglesey is independently represented in the Island Games

Island Games

The Island Games are an international multi-sports event organized by the International Island Games Association.- History :The Island Games began in 1985 as the Inter-Island Games, as part of the Isle of Man International Year of Sport, and were intended to be a one-off sporting celebration only...

 (under its Welsh name Ynys Môn). The team finished joint 17th in the 2009 Games

2009 Island Games

The XIII Island Games were held in Åland, Finland, June 27-July 4, 2009. For the 13th edition of the Games, 25 teams competed in 15 different sports.-Participating Countries:24 islands competed in the 2009 Island Games...

 hosted by Åland, winning medals in gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

, sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

 and shooting

Shooting

Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...

.

Anglesey made an unsuccessful bid to host the 2009 games, led by Ynys Môn MP Albert Owen

Albert Owen

Albert Owen is a Welsh Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament for Ynys Môn. He took the seat in the 2001 election from Plaid Cymru with a margin of exactly eight hundred votes and retained the seat with an increased majority of approximately twelve hundred votes in the 2005 election. In...

. The island expected to benefit from more than £3m of spending if it had hosted the event. However, Anglesey currently lacks two facilities necessary for a successful bid, a six-lane competition swimming pool and an athletics track.

Anglesey Hunt

The Anglesey Hunt, formed in 1757, was the second oldest fox hunting

Fox hunting

Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...

 association in Wales (the oldest being the Tivyside Hunt in Cardiganshire).

Cricket

The Beaumaris Cricket Club was formed in 1858. Clubs at Holyhead

Holyhead

Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....

, Amlwch

Amlwch

Amlwch is the most northerly town in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. The town has no beach, but it has impressive coastal cliffs. Tourism is an important element of the local economy. At one time it...

, and Llangefni

Llangefni

Llangefni is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the population of Llangefni was 4,662 people and it is the second largest settlement on the island...

 were formed within the following decade, but it wasn't until the 1880s that the sport became popular outside of the upper classes.

Football

Several precursors to association football were highly popular in Anglesey. They had few rules, and were quite violent. Rhys Cox, at the turn of the 18th century, described a game in Llandrygan as ending with "[n]umbers of players […] left here and there on the road, some having limbs broken in the struggle, others severely injured, and some carried on biers to be buried in the churchyard nearest to where they had been mortally injured.". William Bulkeley, in his April 1734 diary, records that the violence of such games left no hard feelings, with both sides parting "as good friends as they came, after they had spend half an hour together cherishing their spirits with a cup of ale […] having finished Easter Holydays innocently and merrily".

Association football arrived on the island in the 1870s. It was initially met with resistance, given its perceived (by the islanders) associations with drunkenness and rowdiness, and the lower classes. One critic dismissed it as "unchristian practice". The Anglesey League, comprising teams from Amlwch, Beaumaris, Holyhead, Menai Bridge

Menai Bridge

Menai Bridge is a small town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas Telford...

, Llandegfan

Llandegfan

Llandegfan is a village on the south of Anglesey, North Wales.The original village Hen Llandegfan was on the ancient way from the crossing of the Menai Strait at Porthaethwy via Pentraeth to Beaumaris...

, and Llangefni, was, however, formed in the 1895–1896 football season.

The Ynys Môn

Anglesey football team

The Ynys Môn football team represents the island of Anglesey at the biannual Island Games. Ynys Môn is not a member of FIFA or UEFA, it is an island county within Wales and plays under the auspices of the Football Association of Wales, the governing body for football in Wales.-Results:*Largest win...

 football team represents the island of Anglesey at the biannual Island Games, winning Gold in 1999.

Llangefni Town

Llangefni Town F.C.

Llangefni Town are a football team based in Llangefni on Anglesey. In the 2011-12 season they will play in the Cymru Alliance. They competed for a single season in the Welsh Premier League in the 2007-08 season.-History:...

 are reigning Cymru Alliance

Cymru Alliance

The Huws Gray Alliance is a football league and forms the second level of the Welsh football league system in north and central Wales....

 champions, only failing promotion due to the restructuring of the Welsh Premier League. Similarly, Holyhead Hotspur and Llanfairpwll

Llanfairpwll F.C.

Llanfairpwll F.C. are a football team based in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, near Bangor, that plays in the Cymru Alliance League .-Club history:...

 were relegated despite finishing outside the usual relegation zone at the end of the 2009-10 season.

Athletics

Every September the Anglesey Festival of Running takes place. There is a marathon, half-marathon, 10 km and 5 km race, as well as children's contests. Their slogan is Run the Island

Motorsport

The Anglesey Circuit

Anglesey Circuit

The Anglesey Circuit, or Trac Môn in Welsh is a motor racing circuit located in Aberffraw, Anglesey, Wales. It plays host to a variety of motorsport events, including rallycross...

 (Welsh: Trac Môn) is a fully licensed MSA and ACU championship racing circuit, it opened in 1997.

Rugby

Llangefni RFC

Llangefni RFC

Llangefni Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from the town of Llangefni, on the island of Anglesey, North Wales. Llangefni RFC is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Scarlets.-History:...

 is the island's highest competing team in the WRU Division One North.

Llangoed

Llangoed

Llangoed is a small village and community just north of Beaumaris, on the Isle of Anglesey or Ynys Môn, at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL58...

 hosts an annual rugby sevens

Rugby sevens

Rugby sevens, also known as seven-a-side or VIIs, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Rugby sevens is administered by the International Rugby Board , the body responsible for rugby union worldwide...

contest. Touring sides have included Manhattan RFC.

Sailing

The Menai Staits also hold the Menai Straits Regatta, with the opening hosts being The Royal Anglesey Yacht Club.

Swimming

Anglesey is Wales's largest island, separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait. The Straits host two annual open-water swimming contests; the Menai Strait Swim from Foel to Caernarfon (1 mile), and the Pier to Pier Open Water Swim, between Beaumaris and Bangor piers.