Couple show their love for Wales by creating ‘Y Crys Mawr Coch’

A former trained seamstress at Laura Ashley has put her design skills to good use by creating  the biggest Wales shirt you have ever seen.

Lynne Humphreys-McCrickett, who lives in Minllyn, Dinas Mawddwy wanted to make a big statement when it came to showing her support for Wales at Euro 2020 – and she’s certainly achieved that by draping a giant shirt over the front of her house.

Dubbed ‘Y Crys Mawr Coch’ (The Big Red Shirt), the eye-popping jersey, which measures a staggering 8m x 5m approximately, was made not only because Lynne is a huge Wales football fan, but also because there were no fanzones local to her, so she wanted to get into the spirit of the Euros by creating her own.

Laura Ashley

“I made it myself with my husband, who is a Scot,” says Lynne. “I’m a pattern cutter by trade  for the clothing industry, but also a qualified seamstress, who trained at Laura Ashley in Carno , and studied at the London College of Fashion. I worked in London for over 20 years before I returned home to Wales in 2015.”

However, this is not the first time Lynne has made a giant Wales shirt – she turned her skills to good use with her first XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL production in 2016.

“We live in a predominantly rugby area, so when Wales made it to the semi-final in 2016, and we had a moany conversation with our neighbour Ruth about the lack of any fan zones in our locality we thought we will create our own, with a giant shirt.”

Both Lynne, 50, and her husband, John MCCrickett, 54, are massive football fans. They both support Celtic and met at the Wimbledon Celtic supporters club in London.

“When we came up with the idea for ‘Y Crys Mawr Coch’, we don’t think our neighbours realised what we had in mind,” she laughs.

“So when Wales qualified again there was no doubt in remaking the shirt with the new kit colours. It took two days to make the original and a day to do the alterations for the new colours. nThe challenge was getting it put back up again on Saturday before 2pm. Hopefully we will be enjoying it up to the semi-finals and beyond.”

As for what her neighbours think of the giant shirt?

“Half of them are English, but they’ve all been supportive. Our neighbour opposite are English, Ade and Holly – when they open their curtains this is what they see,” she laughs. “But they love it.”

As for Lynne’s Scottish husband.

“I’ve promised my husband that if Scotland make it to the semi-finals we will make a Scottish one!”