During the 18th and 19th centuries the local people of Kenfig and district engaged in a very strenuous pastime called Bando or Bandy.

The game of Bando had organised rules including an agreed number of players, a fixed area of play and teams differentiated by coloured jerseys, it was played on Margam Sands between the river mouth and Sker Rocks - the pitch extending a distance of approximately 2 miles.

Bando was played with curved ash sticks and balls of stuffed leather and was similar to the modern game of hockey where the teams used clubs to strike the ball towards a goal.

The name is derived from the curved ash sticks or bandies that were used to strike a ball in a game best described as a crude form of hockey. The ball was made form stuffed leather which was made by local shoemakers in the Kenfig area. Matches between rival teams of up to 30 players on each side were fast and furious and often lasted for hours at a time with gambling on the result and matches well-patronised by local brewers.

The Ash sticks may have been made in nearby Pyle and North Cornelly ('Llwyn-on' in Broadlands Estate, North Cornelly translated into English means 'Ash Grove').

3000 people were reported to have turned out to watch a match between Margam and Newton-Nottage on this date (The Game was Won by Margam) - Both the Angel Inn and Prince of Wales Inn catered for the thirsty spectators by carting barrels of ale down to the beaches.

Bando was to remain a popular sport in the area until the 1870's when it declined in favour of Rugby Football.

The Margam team was celebrated in 'The Margam Bando Boys' - a song written by Thomas Bleddyn Jones of Aberavon in 1859. This was also the year in which the Margam Volunteer Rifle Corps was formed.

All the Margam Bando Boys followed their team captain Theodore Talbot into the Volunteers - this probably explains why the badge design of this organisation incorporates two crossed bandies.