People's Voice

Amazing results in the Blaenau Gwent by-elections last week.

Trish Law, Peter’s widow, beat out Councillor John Hopkins for the AM seat, despite having no political experience at all. She said all the right things though, about voting with whoever can give the people of Blaenau Gwent what they need: the oft-delayed rail link, better healthcare and job prospects.

Probably the bigger surprise was Dai Davies winning the MP job over Labour smoothie Owen Smith. Dai was a convenor in the works and Peter Law’s agent last year. His acceptance speech included the line “you underestimate the people of Blaenau Gwent at your peril.”

Indeed. At a time of so-called "disengagement" with politics, the citizens of Ebbw Vale and the rest of Blaenau Gwent decided to buck the trend.

This all started when Peter Law left Labour in protest last year over the party's use of all-women shortlists to pick its parliamentary candidate for last year’s general election. He stood as an independent and became the MP, as well as representing it in the assembly.

I used to regularly bump into him doing the shopping in Tescos in Ebbw Vale, and discussed the dearth of representation in the Assembly of people from Bleanau Gwent. He reckoned that out of over 5,000 people working in the Assembly there were just 5 from the area, including us two. No wonder Blaenau Gwent is so often forgotten in policy making discussions.

Cricket Notes

Great game of pyjama cricket on Friday evening. The 20/20 competition drew a huge crowd to see Glammy play Somerset.

After a measured start, Somerset piled into the Glamorgan bowling, with Justin Langer getting 76no and Cameron White 52 off 32 balls. Crofty was dispatched into the Taff on a couple of occasions. Mark Wallace missed a couple of chances behind the stumps before taking two stumpings late on. Some loose bowling at the death saw the total edge up to 185.

In reply, Richard Grant went off like a train. His 51 off 26 balls & Brendan McCallum’s 20 off 10 balls put Glammy at 81 off 6 overs. (Richard Johnson went for 27 in one over!) Easy, right? Not when you factor in the usual collapse. Batter after batter decided to try to crash every ball they saw and some blinding catches in the deep reduced Glammy to 136-7 off 15 overs. Mark Wallace and Crofty stepped up and almost got them home. Both got out in the last two overs, and so it comes down to the last pair in, Andrew Davies and Dean Cosker to get 1 off the last ball to win.

After a lengthy discussion, Somerset brings the entire field in except for third man and long leg. Must mean a short ball is due. Yep. A bouncer comes down and the hook is top-edged down to third man. Richard Johnson running round makes a full-length dive but spills the ball. Glamorgan win.

Interesting fact that may interest only me: The sponsors Brains award a crate of beer to anyone in the crowd who catches a six. In the first half all the chances were put down (you couldn’t call the ones off Crofty into the river chances though). However, as the crowd got more “tired and emotional” in the second half three catches were held. Clearly beer cricket is the way forward.

Next home game is against Warwickshire under lights on Wednesday (Sky are covering it), summer storms permitting. (http://www.glamorgancricket.com/)

England’s dismal run culminated in another loss to Sri Lanka, who take the series 5-0.

Soccer Notes

That’s what happens when you pin the entire hopes of a country on an immature jerk.

Travel Notes

Told today that there are 50 more units (train speak for trains) on order for the Valleys Lines. Not before time either. The carriages are no fun when they are packed to the rafters for the commute home on a hot summer’s day.