Happy birthday Emma. Six years old on Thursday. Hope you get lots of pink presents!
Another bank holiday eh? This one was a pretty lazy affair. Ventured out on Sunday though. Went to the Primate Sanctuary near Abercrave (http://www.cefn-yr-erw.co.uk/). It used to be an extended farm with rare breeds, but has taken over the monkeys from Penscynor Wildlife Park when it closed down something like 10 years ago. As a result the place is a hotch-potch of ducks and chimps, pigs and lemurs.
There’s lots of development work going on, and they are doing sterling work in rescuing abandoned chimps and other primates from closed-down circuses and zoos. A good cause and well worth £5 for a visit.
Picnicked at Craig-y-nos Country Park (www.breconbeacons.org/visit_the_park/craigynoscp). A great place for walking and picnicking in 40 acres of national park, all of it seemingly on the riverbank. Some beautiful scenery too. See pic.
Rugby Notes
Just heard that Clive Burgess passed away this week, aged just 55. One of the best players I ever saw and truly a local hero. He won just 9 caps for Wales (4 in 1977, 2 in 1981 and 3 in 1982) and scored his only international try on his debut against Ireland in 1977. Not one to ingratiate himself with the establishment, he spent three years in the international wilderness before being called back to the Welsh team and promptly being named man of the series in the 1981.
Ebbw performed well on Saturday and saw off a useful but ultimately less determined Cross Keys side at Pandy Park. After going 5-0 down “early doors” & Ebbw trying to score tries from 100 yards metres out, we settled down & climbed back into the game. Four tries in all in a 35-10 win. Cleaver & Bowd in the back row were immense. The backs ran Keys ragged, and both wings bagged tries.
If Player of the Year is even close I’ll want an official enquiry. Craig Cleaver has been man of the match so many times this year that nobody else should even be close in the voting.
Two games left – this Friday at home to Llandovery and then next Tuesday home (or in my case away) to Pontypridd.
The final placings may turn out to be academic as the WRU have said that the ground criteria will be taken into consideration when deciding who is related. Apparently we pass these criteria. But let’s assume everybody else does as well. In that case it’s 2 down & the 3rd from bottom gets a play-off game with the top of division 1, Bonymaen.
OK, bear with me here as I go through the permutations. With just one win we get up to 31 points, which is higher than Pontypool can get to with their last two games. If the win is over Llandovery then we will also leapfrog over them since that’s their last game. 31 points is the maximum that Carmarthen and Maesteg can get with their two games left, but only one of them can since they have yet to play each other. We also hold a try count advantage over Carmarthen and Maesteg of 14 and 5 respectively.
We should be safe if we win on Friday, but I wouldn’t put it past Maesteg to somehow come up with 20 tries in their last game at home to Aberavon and pip us at the post. The message is this – win them both!
Cricket Notes
Watched Glamorgan during a couple of lunch breaks last week. Not off to a great start. As Eye-Jay said, it’s either block it or smash it. There were very few attempts to work the ball around and rotate the strike, even when they had lefty and righty batting together.
They won their first C&G Trophy outing against Ireland yesterday in front of a god natured bank holiday crowd – I couldn’t be tempted. The new Aussie import Mark Cosgrove seems a bit handy: 75 off 57 balls just 24 hours after getting off the plane.
TV Notes
Syed is gone. Hurrah! How did that egotistic salesman survive into the last 5 on The Apprentice? It doesn’t really say a lot for the ones who fell before him, does it? Badger looked shaky for the first time though.
Season Two of Lost starts tonight on Channel 4 and E4. Id love to tell you the plot, but it would take forever. Suffice to say there are more red herrings than you can shake a stick at.
