Ebbw go top!

OK, joint top with all the other teams who have played one, won one. Saturday saw a very encouraging win at the Brewery Field, 16-7. Good travelling support; it sounded like a home game. A couple of dropped try-scoring passes in the first half kept it to 6-0 before a Bridgend breakaway led to a penalty try for a high tackle at the corner flag & a 6-7 half-time deficit.

Second half could have seen us loose our heads after a running battle between new winger Craig Jones (who looked lively throughout) & his opposite number, but regrouped well & got two good tries to wrap it up. The picture shows Neil Edwards soaring to take another clean line-out. There’s lots of chat and comments on the game on the Ebbw Vale fan forum.

Scorers: tries for Bryan Shelbourne & Matthew Griffiths, 2 penalties for Shelbourne.

Highlight: DNG falling over on the terrace whilst celebrating an Ebbw try. Hope the ankle’s OK.

Lowlight: Worryingly, there were a few injuries. New lock Craig Blunsden, hooker Matthew Williams (Chunky) and ex-captain Kristian Owen all went off in the first half. Hopefully none of the injuries were too serious.

Personal high spot: It’s now become a tradition that after the first penalty of the season to Ebbw, I give the shout "All the time, ref!" I thoroughly milked the round of applause too.

With losses for last year’s top teams Newport and Neath (our opponents the next two weeks) as well as Pontypridd and Cardiff it was a very good opening week of the Principality Premiership.

In other but less important rugby news, South Africa beat New Zealand. Well, it was NZ IIs, but you can only beat the team in front of you. The Boks won 21-20 in a good close game, New Zealand’s first defeat in 13 games. The last game of the Tri Nations is this coming Saturday when South Africa takes on Australia.

Local shooting of the week

A man in Golivon apparently took exception to neighbours making lots of noise with their motorbike, so he shot and injured them both before turning the shotgun on himself. He’s dead, the others are in hospital. So much for a quiet Sunday in sleepy Monmouthshire. The story is here.

Sad, bizarre but rather inevitable news of the week

Steve Irwin - the Crocodile Hunter – died on the weekend. Apparently he was killed by a StingRay. He was 44. There’s a report here.

This week’s sign of the apocalypse

I was sitting in a café in Pontypridd market on Saturday morning taking my morning constitutional coffee, when I spied a mix of old and new. Across the other side of the café was an older gentleman, complete with flat cap and thick glasses. But in complete contrast to this setting, he had a flashing Bluetooth earpiece. It looked more out of place than lipstick on a pig.

TV Notes

The Apprentice USA is back. Donald Trump runs the rule over another bunch of business wannabees. Each week The Donald utters the immortal words “You’re Fired!” Unmissable stuff. It’s on two nights a week at the midnight hour on BBC2.

The Sopranos is back for its last ever series, on E4. As usual, full of action and swearing in a Noo Joysey accent. Now that The West Wing has gone, it’s the best thing on TV.

Some new dictionary definitions?

Abdicate (v.) - to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
Balderdash (n.) - a rapidly receding hairline.
Coffee (n.) - the person upon whom one coughs.
Esplanade (v.) - to attempt an explanation while drunk.
Flabbergasted (adj.) - appalled over how much weight you have gained.
Frisbeetarianism (n.) - The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
Lymph (v.) - to walk with a lisp.
Negligent (adj.) - describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
Oyster (n.) - a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
Rectitude (n.) - the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
Testicle (n.) - a humorous question in an exam.
Willy-nilly (adj.) - impotent.