Baseball Notes

OK, it was a great attempt to stage the big comeback, but the Boston Red Sox fell at the last hurdle, losing Game 7 of the ALCS. That means that the Tampa Bay Rays will play in the World Series, starting on Wednesday, against the Philadelphia Phillies, who convincingly beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Interesting fact that may interest only me… I’ve seen games at the home ballparks of all four of these teams. Admittedly, the Philadelphia game was in the old Veterans Stadium, which was demolished in 2004 when the Phillies moved to Citizens Bank Park.

As for the best of 7 World Series, live on NASN and five, I’ll take the Phillies, well rested and with a better bullpen. Plenty of preview stuff here.

Travel Notes

On the way to Tresaith, there’s a village in Ceredigion called Beulah.

It's now my ambition to buy a house there and call it Ferris. The address would then be…

Ferris, Beulah

Rugby Notes II

Some former coaching staff of Ebbw Vale in the news…

Paul Pook (pictured), former strength and conditioning coach has been appointed to that role for Ireland. He joins Declan Kidney’s staff on a three year contract.

Alex Codling, former coach has joined Cardiff as coach this week. Alex left Ebbw Vale a couple of years ago to be coach of London Welsh and to take up a teaching job in London.

Rugby Notes

Another good win for Ebbw at the weekend, beating Llandovery 15-9. I wasn’t there, but by all accounts (here and here).

Good defence and opportunistic attack won the day.

Scorers: Tries for James Lewis (his third in two games) and Dai Langdon, and a penalty and a conversion for Aaron Bramwell.

Team: Andrew McLaughlan, Ieuan Coombes, Kristian Owen (c), Aaron Bramwell, James Lewis; Andrew Williams, Llyr Lane; Anthony Lott, Richard Wilkes, Marc Jones; Gavin Lucas, Jonathan Griffiths; Jamie Ringer, Rhys Jenkins, James Thomas.
Subs: Chris Thomas, Gareth Jones, Nick Eaves, Simon Pengelly, Ieuan Evans, Dai Langdon, Shaun Powell.

Next Saturday will be a big test. Ebbw host Neath, 2:30 kick off.

Rugby Notes

Terrific win for Ebbw Vale at Cardiff last Saturday. 26-25 tells the story of the nail-biting end, but not of the way the game see-sawed. We completely dominated the first half and were 16-0 up at half time. Then the early part of the second half was all Cardiff and we shipped 25 points in 25 minutes. A late interception try and touchline conversion got the lead back for Ebbw, and a backs-to-the-wall resistance for the last 10 minutes ensured a well-earned victory.

Special mention needs to go to the pack who took the game to Cardiff. On the face of it the influence of “consultant” Lyn Jones has started to show through. Whilst they made too many mistakes, they didn’t wilt under the second-half pressure and seemed to start to believe in themselves.

Reports on the game can be found on the Ebbw Vale RFC website here and here, and on Wales Online (the Western Mail in other words).

My Man of the Match: Number 8 James Thomas, who had a storming game, and was all over the paddock until being substituted with an injury late on. The Western Mail and RS agree with me on this one.

Scorers: Two tries from wing James Lewis, and 16 points from the boot of Aaron Bramwell.

Team: Andrew McLaughlan, James Lewis, Kristian Owen (capt.), Aaron Bramwell, Andrew Bevan; Dai Langdon, Llyr Lane; Anthony Lott, Richard Wilkes, Marc Jones; Gavin Lucas, Jonathan Griffiths; Ciaron Ruddock, Simon Pengelly, James Thomas.
Subs: Chris Thomas, Gareth Jones, Craig Jones, Rhys Jenkins, Ieuan Evans, Andrew Williams, Shaun Powell.

Next Saturday Ebbw Vale play at Llandovery, 2:30 kick off. I won’t be there; I’ll be down Tresaith.

Ava's Diary

Had my health check-up yesterday. Got a clean bill of health. I’m now a full 18 lbs and I’m 2 foot 1 inch tall.

My first two teeth have started to show. They are the bottom ones, and I’m told that I’ll have 20 coming through over the next year or so. Plenty more drooling to come, then.

I’m sitting up on my own, and I can stand up – provided I’ve got something or someone to cling on to.

I’ve just discovered a great TV programme. It’s called In the Night Garden
In the Night Garden, and its on BBC cbeebies. When it’s on I squeak at the TV and flap my arms up and down. And I like Mr Tumble from Something Special, a programme that teaches sign language.

Travel Notes II

The thing about going to London is that it could be any big city in Europe, black cabs and red buses apart. I did not meet a soul born within the sound of Bow Bells. Hotel check-in Turkey, the restaurant waiter from Estonia and most of the people in the street weren’t speaking English.

Oh, there was one English guy. He was relieving himself against the window of Borders at 8pm. Classy guy. A trip to London nowadays is definitely more of a chore than something to enjoy.

Travel Notes

Had to spend a night in London last week. Stayed at the Copthorne Hotel at Chelsea FC. Nice, but nothing too special. PIcked it because of a special deal through Travel Zoo, a really useful website which emails you with details of special deals for hotels and holidays.

Anyway, the plus point was to have a night’s sleep without interruption from little Ava. Except that the fire alarm went off at 4:46am! The hotel’s story was that someone was smoking in a non-smoking room. At that time of the night?

The future of nursey rhymes

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
The structure of the wall was incorrect,
So he won a grand with Claims Direct.

It's Raining, It's Pouring.
Oh shit, it's Global Warming.

Mary had a little lamb,
it ran into a pylon.
10,000 volts went up its arse
and turned its wool to nylon.

Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie
kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play
he kissed them too cause he was gay.

Jack and Jill Went up the hill
and planned to do some kissing.
Jack made a pass and grabbed her ass;
Now two of his teeth are missing.

Ava's Diary

There are lots of photos up on dad’s Flickr page.

Now I’m almost 9 months old, I can sit up unaided, but tend to keel over after a while. I’ve been trying to stand up, usually by rolling forward onto all-fours with my bum in the air. As for crawling, I don’t really see the point – everyone brings we whatever I want!

I missed a week in crèche when we all had a week down at the caravan in Tresaith. We had great weather and I went to Aberystwyth, Llanerchaeron gardens, Cardigan and Newport. No, the proper one in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Rugby Notes

I’m waaay behind with my postings on Ebbw Vale rugby this season. Of course, I’m sure you are all following the action via the official website and the supporters forum.

OK, to catch up…

Back on 13 September Ava and I travelled to Bridgend to see us lose to Bridgend 19-33.

The following Saturday Ava attended her first ever home game and saw Ebbw beat Pontypridd 13-3. Well actually she was sleeping in my arms when we scored the decisive try, so I couldn’t shout and had to make to with jigging up and down the touchline.

I missed the game at Cross Keys as we were all sunning ourselves down in Tresaith. Ebbw won a close one 19-17.

Which brings us up to yesterday. Ebbw hosted Newport in front of the S4C cameras and in rainstorm. Ava stayed at home and had to make do with watching on TV.

The desperate conditions meant that there was a dearth of running rugby. After losing the first half into the teeth of the rain just 0-3 hopes were high for the second half. But the next 20 minutes were poor; Ebbw’s dismal lineout performance was the main difference between the sides. Following the loss to injury of Rhys Williams, Ebbw had just one lineout option, and Newport knew it. Haemorrhaging possession to an experienced Townie side meant that Ebbw had no chance, and in the end 3-9 wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

The whole game will be available to watch again for the next month on S4C’s website.

The game marked the end of Will Thomas’ playing career and his final game as coach of Ebbw Vale as he moves to become Academy coach for the Dragons. Good luck for the future.

In an exciting move ex-Ospreys coach Lyn Jones has been appointed. He was in the stands yesterday and hopefully will bring his experience to bear on our inexperienced squad.

Baseball Notes

So the baseball regular season is over, and now the small matter of the playoffs and the World Series is all that’s left.

I finished second in my fantasy baseball league. No small feat when you consider what a dearth of talent I managed to have to swing their bats for me this season.

The offence has been carried on the shoulders of Milwaukee’s 3B Ryan Braun (37 HRs and 100 RBIs) and Philadelphia’s SS Jimmy Rollins (43 steals) kept me in the hunt.

Pitching was led by standout Giant Tim Lincecum who got me 18 wins and Cincinnati’s Edinson Volquez who got me 13. My decision to trade-up for the Cubs’ Kerry Woods was paid back handsomely with 34 saves.

Back in the real world, there’s a one-off game tonight to decide the final place in the playoffs, between the Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins. The winner goes on to play the Tampa Bay Rays. The other AL series is the now familiar Boston Red Sox vs. the Los Angeles Angels.

As for the NL, the match-ups are all set. It’s the Milwaukee Brewers vs. the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the Chicago Cubs. It all starts on Wednesday, and its on NASN and five.

My prediction, for what its worth is for the Rays, Red Sox, Brewers and Cubs to win through.

Travel Notes

Apologies for the patchier than usual service on this blog this week; Cath and I and Ava have been sunning ourselves in Tresaith. Had a week off and managed to pick a great one, weather-wise. Wall to wall sunshine in west Wales is something of a surprise, especially in September.

Photos and general blogging to follow when I have a chance to get a bit more organised.

In other travel news, hope that the family down in Midsomer Norton enjoy their trip to Kenya (I guess sunshine is pretty much guaranteed there).

Blog Notes

The Roberts family have another blogger. Not content with the ramblings of Robo’s blog – or perhaps because of it – Neil’s brother Dai has started his own. Good luck with Thoughts of an Introvert. And good luck with your run in today’s Swansea 10k – it looks like being a warm one.

Ava’s diary

Had a fab weekend staying with Nanna and Grandpa.

We played lots of games, Nanna sung Perry Como songs to me, and Gramps wanted to cwtch me all day. We went down to the lake to feed the ducks, or so I’m told – I slept the whole time.

I am learning to stand up. I need to hold on the sofa and I’m a bit wobbly, but I’m getting there. I can sit up on my own now, but haven’t really found any need for crawling: I just shout and somebody fetches me whatever I want!

I’m loving the crèche. I’m everyone favourite, probably because I’m the smallest and cutest! I’m into eating lots of different things. Pretty much anything that isn’t nailed down will go in my mouth.

Foods? Well, weetabix and toast for breakfast, and fish fingers and beans for lunch are my favourites, but I get to try lots of new flavours every day. Mam and dad say I eat better than they do.

There are lots of pics of me on my dad’s Flickr site.