666

Stayed at the Celtic Manor Resort the other night. Not the Celtic Manor Hotel mind you, but “resort” which translates as “hotel with golf courses”. Janesey’s doing a newspaper review so we had to go and sample its delights.

Fairs fair, it’s a tidy place. To call it vast wouldn’t be too extreme. It’s got 2 golf courses, a pool, a huge Jacuzzi, umpteen saunas and steam rooms, an enormous gym and a beauty salon thingie.

One quirk: while following the room numbers trying to find ours I noticed that there appeared to be a gap in the numbering. And sure enough, they decided that there shouldn’t be a room number 666. So the nearest you can get is 668, the neighbour of the beast.


Back on the home front, a new garden fence is in the process of being built. It’s a good 10 yards long & 6 feet high, but the snag is the perilous drop on the far side of the fence down to the street below. I almost came a-cropper on several occasions, clinging on the bramble-covered hillside whilst Janesey hoots with laughter.

Been back in Ebbw a few times lately. My old house, #22, is between lettings & means time to check it cover & generally give it a tidy-up. Should be let again tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

Rugby Notes

All the home nations lost last weekend. England were drubbed by the Aussies 43-18 (Mike Catt conceded: “We were hammered”) and Wales by the Pumas 45-27. Take off the 2 tries by Wales in the last 2 minutes and you get a better picture of the game. I couldn’t get excited enough to watch the Scots go down to the Boks 29-15.

The best performance of the weekend was Ireland’s battle against New Zealand. The Kiwis were given a real fright before eventually winning out 27-17. O’Driscoll was outstanding and led from the front as always, and the pack followed up Munster’s heroics last month with a massive performance. They should turn over Australia this coming weekend.

Cricket Notes

Oh dear. Glamorgan 56 all out v Northants. Not 20/20 knockabout, but proper County Championship stuff. Crofty top scored with 10. Hope that Brendan McCullum, the New Zealand keeper signed as cover for Mark Cosgrove, has packed his bat – it’ll be needed.

England are struggling against Sri Lanka in the 1-day series. They are 2-0 down in the series. I was lucky enough to be in front of a TV when Kevin Pietersen started crashing the ball about on Tuesday afternoon. 73 off 76 balls. Don’t know where England would be without him right now.

Their bowling has been pretty abysmal – Mahmood and Plunkett played well below average, whilst for Sri Lanka Vaas, Malinga and of course Murali bowled well.

Srinath Jayasuriya knows hoe to play this game. 122 and 3 wickets on Tuesday.

One bright spot – Jamie Dalrymple looks a useful all-rounder for the future.

The Haddocks won big yesterday. Helped by some of the worst fielding known to man we rattled up 147-4 of 18 overs. Coxy looked good for a 50 but holed out on the boundary for 44 to the one guy who could actually catch. The 404s never really challenged and despite some generous bowling they were never in it. We ran out 30 run winners. Yours truly didn’t play – are you starting to see a pattern developing?