Tatran Cementáreň Ladce

Ladce is a small village in the Ilava district of the Trenčín region, built up around Považská cementáreň, the cement works that has employed much of the place for generations. The village's football club grew directly out of that factory floor.

It was founded in 1930 as Športový klub cementárne Ladce, on the initiative of Julius Bergmann, a technical employee at the plant, and the works' name has stayed attached to the club ever since — it plays today as Tatran Cementáreň Ladce.

The strongest spell came later, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the side played under the name Červená hviezda Ladce and was filled out by soldier-footballers stationed in the area, lifting it well above its usual level. Results followed: the club won the district league in 1973/74 and moved up to the First Division, then finished fourth in the regional I.B Division in 1993/94.

Matches are played at Futbalové ihrisko Ladce, on Hviezdoslavova street, where new changing rooms went up in 2000 and a 180-seat stand followed in 2004, built with support from the cement works and the municipality. The ground's capacity today is put at 500.

Since 1998 the club has staged the Memoriál Pavla Petríka, a veterans' tournament named for a player who died. A handful of players have gone on from Ladce into senior football elsewhere — František Petrík by way of Odeva Trenčín and Tatran Prešov to Slovan Bratislava, Milan Vrlák to Slavia Prague. The first team now sits in the fifth tier, North group, of the West Slovak Football Union (ZsFZ), as of the 2014/15 season.

The player still remembered from that 1960s side is Ladislav Pavlovič, who came through Ladce before going on to play for Tatran Prešov and the national team.