Norse team Blood Bowl debut

Another game of Blood Bowl and another new team got an outing. Last month I built and painted my "Norse" team, who I'm calling the Ragnarockers. And last night I played my first game with them.

Bryan has also made some painting progress, with a very nice finish on the scales of his lizard-man team. He now needs to pick a uniform colour for them. 

The lizards quickly raced into a 2-0 lead as I got to grips with a team that is strangely unbalanced. In fact, but for a spoiling throw into nothing just before the end of the first half, the lizards could easily have scored more.

The lizards are a difficult opponent as they can move further than most other teams and their saurus characters have above average strength. They also had Roxy the kroxigor in their line up. I didn't have a Norse big guy to put up against Roxy - Norse teams can field "Yhetee" creatures, but that means buying a yhetee model. 

However the valkyries on the Norse team have a skill called Dauntless, which means they can go up as equals against players that are stronger than them. One of the valkyries was able to knock Roxy flat on her back at one point.

Meanwhile, the dice were busy betraying me whenever I rolled an agility test for the valkyries to try and pick up the ball. I lost count of how many fumbles they made but Bryan estimated it was 1 success in 7 attempts. 

One of the things that attracted me to the Norse team was the "beer boars", little piggies that can provide sustenance to players who have been knocked over. I thought these would feature as extra characters on the pitch but they take up a player space and I didn't feel they gave much advantage to the team. After going 2-0 down I replaced one of the beer boars with a lineman and that shored up the defence a bit. 

The Norse managed to score two downs in the second half to drag the scoreline back to 2-2. It felt like an undeserved draw. They did manage to injure some skinks and one of the saurus blockers. But they had a couple of players knocked out and one fatality - a berserker who will now be playing Blood Bowl in Valhalla!

 

A cautionary tale about not checking with experts

In my book of the month post about the autobiography of Billy Meredith, I included this picture of a Wales team for a fixture that my great uncle, Tommy Matthias, played in.

However, when I sent the link to blog post to Anthony, who I've recently met through a vintage soccer memorabilia group, he almost immediately told me that the player I thought was my great uncle was someone else.

Anthony also said the photo was mislabelled in the book, as it was taken at the Racecourse in Wrexham. The pub in the background is The Turf, which is still present right next to the stadium. 

In hindsight, I should have known something was off because Fred Keenor should have been in the line up and he had a very recognisable face. 

I'm not sure who the guy I circled was. Anthony said he hadn't seen that photo before (so at least it was something new for him!) but it most definitely isn't the line up for the game in the caption. 

All this is a cautionary tale - I could have checked with an expert before posting. Next time I will!

Book of the Month: Football Wizard - The Billy Meredith Story

This autobiography had been sat on my footie books bookshelf for a while so I have a sense of satisfaction to have finally read it. There's a personal family connection with Billy Meredith because he played for Wales alongside my Great Uncle Tommy Matthias either side of the First World War.

I knew that Billy and Tommy were both in the Wales team that beat England for the very first time, in a British Home Championship game at Highbury in 1920. What I didn't know, until this past week in fact, was that Billy played in Tommy's benefit game for a "Wrexham and Welsh XI" in 1922. (I found this out from Anthony, a new contact via a vintage sports collecting group, who specialises in Wrexham's history.)

Billy was a fascinating character at a time when football was emerging as the sport of the masses. There is a great scene-setting chapter explaining how coal miners in the Black Park Colliery in Chirk, where Billy worked as a young man, would leave the pits at the end of the shift and go straight to watch - or play - football without even washing the coal dust off. Billy lived in Chirk his whole life, commuting to Manchester to play and train when he became a professional footballer. 

His upbringing wasn't conducive to playing football for a living. His religious parents thought it was a silly pursuit. His dad apparently only ever attended one game where Billy was playing, and reportedly was unimpressed. Despite this, Billy soon made a name for himself at Chirk - they won the Welsh Cup in 1894. The next year he was playing for Manchester City, and soon helped them win promotion to the First Division and then their first FA Cup win.

He was then involved in a scandal, when he was accused of trying to bribe the captain of Aston Villa to throw a match. His punishment was a lengthy ban from football. When he returned to playing, he was in the colours of Manchester United where he was part of the team that were League Champions for the first time in 1907 and then won the title again with them in 1911. In between those league titles was another FA Cup win. He also played in the first Charity Shield match, and was on the winning side.

Billy felt doubly hard done by with regards to the match-fixing scandal. Firstly, he felt he was unfairly treated due to being Welsh and that an English player wouldn't have been censured so severely. Secondly, he felt his club let him down badly and didn't have his back. Throughout his career he got into arguments with his clubs, often revolving around money. He was a big champion of the 'Player's Union' but this wasn't motivated by solidarity as much as feeling players weren't being paid enough when they were the reason people came to football matches. 

The author, John Harding, is pretty even-handed in how he writes about this. One can sense that Billy was a spiky fellow, with a focus on money that probably stemmed from his relatively poor upbringing. But there are several times when it seems like Billy let his pride guide him into rows that he could have avoided if he'd had a bit more nous.

But Billy was a superstar - as it evidenced by how he drew a crowd whenever he played in a testimonial, benefit or charity game. His was usually the name on the adverts for the game.  He tried his hand at endorsing products, set up a sporting goods store, and even appeared in a film playing a version of himself as a trainer and mentor to an aspiring footballer. Sadly, that film doesn't survive. He was regularly depicted in newspaper cartoons, which always included his trademark toothpick. 

Billy's professional career stretched over 30 years, although with a chunk of it lost to the First World War, when he played in several wartime league games. After the war he was back playing for Wales and for Manchester City and continued playing into the 1920s. 

If I was going to be critical of this book, it does rely a bit too much on reports in newspapers and magazines, particularly the Athletic News. This is a common problem faced by a lot of football writers; the story can just become a string of results and match summaries. The book could have done with a list of the honours that Billy won. It's also a bit annoying that some team photos have the players identified and some don't. I'm certain that one of the team photos includes my Great Uncle, but it's not confirmed in the book.

Tommy Matthias circled

Those are really quite minor quibbles. An updated version of this book has been published and some of those issues might have been dealt with. Overall this was a fascinating and enjoyable glimpse into the early days of soccer and I learned a lot from it. 

Football season 24-25 review, part 1

The three clubs I've taken an interest in this season have concluded their campaigns. How did they do?

Shrewsbury Town

The headline news is that Shrewsbury were relegated as the very bottom club in League One. But that doesn't really tell the whole story of a chaotic season. 

Suitably gloomy Shrewsbury game

Firstly, there were two managerial changes. Paul Hurst, who was only appointed in January 2024 was out the door by October. He was replaced by Gareth Ainsworth, who inspired an incredible win against big-spending Birmingham City. He also managed to get a win against Wrexham. But aside from that results were dismal. 

And then in March, out of nowhere, Ainsworth quit and was quickly installed as manager at Gillingham. It was a shock given how much he had been saying he liked Shrewsbury as a club and a place. 

There was a lot of fan rage and betrayal on social media. But also the feeling that, behind the scenes, the ongoing takeover saga with an unknown (and possibly phantom) interested party was influencing things. At some point it became obvious nothing was happening - which might be why Ainsworth walked - and since then Mike Harris, owner of TNS, has gone public that he wanted to buy the club but was rebuffed.

Shrewsbury had been the club with the longest continuous run in League One. Personally I did quite well in a relegation season - I saw seven games with 2 wins, 3 draws and only 2 defeats. But I'm also gutted because Cardiff City will be playing in League 1 next season and that would have been an incredibly easy "away day" for me.

Barry Town

Barry had a moderately successful season. They finished top of the lower half of the table meaning they qualified for the post-season play-off but then lost heavily in the first round of the play-offs. 

They shouldn't have been in the lower half of the table when the league split in January - but for some woeful decision-making by the FAW they would have been in sixth. There was mayhem at the end of phase 1 with fixtures moved at the last minute to make sure everyone finished the phase at the same time because Bala Town had a fixture backlog due to their planning ineptitude (scheduling games on Friday nights and then having to cancel them due to freezing conditions). 

The FAW cited "sporting integrity" as a reason to change the fixtures. After accommodating Bala by moving everyone else's games, there was further monkey business when Bala had their game called off while they were losing, only to win their rearranged game, which was played after everyone else's games. The result was allowed to stand by an FAW committee. So much for sporting integrity. Bala lost most of their games in a miserable phase 2 and then lost their play off game to a very late goal. I have zero sympathy.

The other big talking point for Barry towards the end of the season was really quite sad. One of the players was imprisoned for selling drugs - the club, and fans, only found out about it on the day he was sentenced. It was a nasty shock and suddenly scheduling shenanigans didn't feel so important. 

Cardiff Draconians

And some good news to finish - a promotion! The Dracs are Ardal South West champions and will be playing in the second tier of the Welsh system next season, although not at their home ground because it doesn't meet tier 2 licensing requirements. 

The Dracs didn't lose a league game until January (away at Swansea University; a game I went to) but they did exit the various cups quite early on. That enabled them to concentrate on the league, to use the old cliche. I was at the game where they clinched the championship - away at Morriston - and even made it into the official celebratory photo. I also saw them lift the trophy in their last game of the season. 

I enjoy watching the Dracs. Not just because my friend Scott's son plays for them. The people involved are doing it for the love of football. It's been really heartening to see the club do well this season and the old boys on the committee walking round with massive grins on their faces. 

I've got a couple more games on the calendar before I officially call time on my season. Look out for the next part of my football round up soon.

Europhilex

My first stamp show of 2025 and it was a big one. Europhilex at the NEC. I visited yesterday (Friday 9th May).

Given this was a large international exhibition, I was expecting a bit more from it. There was a large number of competitive presentations, including some great thematic exhibits. But overall, the hall wasn't full and there were fewer dealers than I was expecting. Unlike previous international exhibitions there didn't seem to be much presence from postal agencies from other countries either. 

My favourite display was an excellent analysis of diabetes, with a huge amount of material related to the history and science around it. 

The main reason I went to Europhilex was because the British Thematic Association were holding a meeting. This included a presentation about postcards from North Borneo followed by an opportunity for members to show some of their stamps. 

I took some bits from my collection of the Statue of Liberty on stamps. There was a real mix of other topics ranging from puffins to mistakes on stamps (like depicting Christopher Columbus holding a telescope, which hadn't been invented when he set sail).

I didn't buy much, but I did find a stamp featuring my favourite baseball player, Tony Gwynn. As it was Tony's birthday, I had to buy it!

I also got something for Cathy...

The Lighter Side of Star Wars

Happy Star Wars Day. I started the celebrations early this year, by collecting the free build of baby Grogu (not Baby Yoda!) from the Lego Store. I had to queue but was entertained by members of the Saber Guild and the Rebel Legion - people who clearly love Star Wars.

I've been thinking recently about the many send ups and spoofs of Star Wars that I've enjoyed over the years. This was prompted by seeing the  Star Wars episodes of Phineas and Ferb as part of our watch through of the show on Disney Plus. I hadn't seen them before this year and they have quickly become some of my favourite Star Wars homages. 

What makes Phineas and Ferb different, to say, the Family Guy retelling of Star Wars, is that instead of the main characters in the TV show assuming the roles of key characters in the films, they set Phineas and Ferb along with their friends and associates in roles around the original story. So Phineas and Ferb live on the next farm to Luke Skywalker, they meet Isabella the star ship captain in the same cantina where Ben and Luke meet Han Solo and Chewbacca, Perry the Platypus is a rebel agent and so on. In this version of the story, Phineas and Ferb are returning the Death Star plans that R2-D2 accidentally dropped in their landspeeder. 

There were several funny knowing gags in the film. Darth Doofenschmirtz 'flushing' after going to the bathroom setting off the trash compactor is one that made me chuckle. The jump scare Tusken Raider made me laugh out loud. A discussion over who started shooting in the cantina prompted knowing nods. There are also some great songs, full of nerd-level jokes. 

I think it was one of the best, and most enjoyable, retellings of Star Wars, and I'm delighted to have discovered it. It was much better than some of the Lego Star Wars shorts that have been made more recently. Those seemed to have been written for kids rather than old fans like me. 

I've already mentioned the Family Guy trilogy of special episodes. I'm not a fan of Family Guy but they had some clever bits. Half the jokes relate to the Family Guy characters so I felt I was missing some of the humour. It's been years since I watched them, though, and I don't really feel any desire to watch them again. 

When I watched the Family Guy Star Wars, I  was making a direct comparison with the Robot Chicken Star Wars series that came out around the same time. Robot Chicken was a lot funnier; a series of short sketches and gags that jumped around the Star Wars universe, sending up particular scenes from the movies and exploring what was happening off-screen. 

The most widely shared Robot Chicken sketch is probably 'Darth Calls the Emperor', showing the phone call that Vader makes to tell the Emperor that the Death Star has been blown up. "What the hell is an aluminum falcon?!?" still makes me laugh despite seeing it numerous times. Other favourite bits include Admiral Ackbar on a game show, the tragic story of Ponda Baba's ruined career as an architect, Max Rebo's greatest hits album, and Admiral Ackbar (again) out for brunch with Mon Mothma. 

Robot Chicken came out before the Disney sequels and TV series and I'd love to see the team have a go at mocking the Disney era. There would be ample material in just The Mandalorian.

But the grandaddy spoof of them all is the film, Spaceballs. Written and directed by Mel Brooks, it's an older film now, but it still checks out. It's very loosely based on Star Wars, sending up the look of the franchise and its impact more than anything else. The main villain wears an outsized black helmet and is known as Lord Dark Helmet. The wise old master of the Schwartz is a small green character (played by Brooks walking on his knees) called Yogurt. There is a whole sequence making fun of merchandising and how the name of the film gets slapped onto everything - then later in the film characters are using Spaceballs-branded merchandise. Lord Dark Helmet plays with Spaceballs action figures at one point.

My brother and I watched Spaceballs multiple times when we were kids. Recently we introduced by eldest niece and nephew to it as well. They found it hilarious too - a real test of how well made it is considering it's a spoof movie. It helps that the special effects were done by the same people who made Star Wars, with George Lucas's blessing. 

I've said before that the escapism of Star Wars, with its simple good v evil plotting, really helped me when I was a child and adjusting to a very big life change. One reason why some of the newer Disney Star Wars projects leave me cold is they deliberately pursue ambiguity, with characters being morally grey and storylines exploring more complicated approaches to the old good guys versus bad guys trope. (Even if, from a certain point of view, that has always been there.)

Star Wars, to me, was always meant to be a bit simple and silly, and I think that's why I enjoy watching silly spoofs of it. My dad would often sum up a film by saying 'It's not to be taken too seriously'. He was right, and the comedy versions of Star Wars help me do that. 

April adventures - a look back at the month

April on The Knap!

April started out with our week in Buckinghamshire, which included a visit to Legoland on my birthday, a nostalgic trip to Bekonscot Model Village, meeting a tapir called Nev, and watching Shrewsbury Town battle to a 0-0 draw at Wycombe Wanderers. It was a full week and we took a lot of selfies!

We were then back home, and I was back at work, for a week. But soon we were setting off on another trip. Cathy had her annual appointment with the lipodystrophy specialists in Cambridge. Then we headed to Manchester to watch a comedy set by Nate Bargatze. 

Nate is an American comedian who we have watched on Netflix. I don't have any pictures because there were strict restrictions on using phones during the gig. We both enjoyed it - his sequence about the family WhatsApp chat veering into everyone going crazy was very funny indeed. He had two support comedians. One had some good jokes about how fishing is now a high school sport and that means there are high school fishing coaches. The other bombed badly, trying material about Megan Markle, which nobody laughed at, mainly because nobody really cares about the Royal Family. It was a shame because he started strongly with his horror at finding out about black pudding when he was served breakfast in his hotel. 

I had a few days off when I got back to Cardiff in the run up to Easter Weekend. I used the time to catch up with some lovely people like Sian, Connor (who was in town Easter weekend), and one of my godsons and his mum. 

At the end of the month I spent a very sunny Saturday in Barry joining the March for Independence, which I have already blogged about. It was a great way to round out the month. 

However, it hasn't all been adventures and annibyniaeth. I had some less than great medical news. After almost ten years in recovery from my type 2 diabetes, I had my annual health check and found my blood glucose levels are too high. It's no coincidence that my weight has gone up in the last couple of years as well. So, I'm making some changes to get back on the road to recovery. 

Blood test ouchie!

Football-wise I went to eight matches this month - well, technically, seven and a half because one of them I only managed to get there at half time. The first game was in High Wycombe, as I've already mentioned. The day we drove back to Cardiff we got back in time for me to get up to Treherbert to watch them host Cardiff Draconians. Paul was already at the game when I arrived, Matt came over as well, and then I saw Scott standing a dozen yards away. Cue a series of matchday selfies!

Paul and I also went to the Welsh Blood Service Southern Cup Final, which was switched from Briton Ferry to Cambrian United on the afternoon of the game due to a horrendous downpour. Lee Trundle was playing for one of the teams and opened the scoring with a cracking goal - he's the same age as me and I find it inspiring that he is still playing football, and winning trophies. It gives me hope!

I also saw Barry's final league game of the season, a rollicking thumping of Briton Ferry. I didn't go to Barry's post-season play-off game because it clashed with the Independence March, so I missed their heavy defeat in Caernarfon which was their actual last game of the season. 

And on a final note, it's been a decent month for Blood Bowl. I took some teams and some paints on holiday at the start of the month, played a game with my new wood elf team on my Mega Saturday, and have also built and painted another new team - the Norsemen complete with their 'beer boars', who are mega cute. 

I decided to paint them orange and I think the colour scheme works quite well. I haven't completely decided on a name, but I'm tempted to call them Ragna's Rockers, partly in tribute to my Viking grandma, Ragna. I'm sure she would be thrilled!

I went to the AUOB March for Independence in Barry

Back in 2020 I joined Yes Cymru, the independent movement for an Independent Wales. I'm still a member although the organisation has been through the mill and lost its edge a bit. However, I had yet to join in a March for Independence, so when I heard one was being organised for Barry I knew this was my chance to go along and take part. 

My friends Sara and Leanne have been to a few of these marches, with their kids, and they took me under their wing for the day.  We started out in the Indy Market looking at the various Annibyniaeth swag produced by a few different organisations. There were stalls from Plaid Cymru and the Green Party of Wales, as well as some social actions groups, the Felin Drafod think tank, face-painting for the kids, Barry Round Table selling hot dogs and burgers, other food vans and so on. 

I ended up buying a t-shirt and a cap and collecting lots of free stickers and a couple of badges. I also got given a Flemish flag by one of the members of the Flemish independence movement. There was a sizeable group of them there in an overall crowd that was estimated (by the police) at 5,000-7,000 people. 

After marching in a loop of Barry town centre, led by a large dragon puppet operated by someone inside it, we gathered in King Square for some short speeches. It got a bit warm on the march as the weather had turned surprisingly sunny (and I had a child on my shoulders for some of it!)

It being 'All Under One Banner' there were speeches from a couple of the political parties who were represented. But my favourite speaker was Anna Arque i Solsona, an independence campaigner from Catalonia. 

Anna made the point that there are millions of people in the regions across Europe that are seeking greater autonomy and independence, it's not just a few people in Cymru seeking annibyniaeth. I was also impressed by how willing she was to have a go at saying a few sentences in Cymraeg. There was also a video shown with people from independence movements across Europe - from Sardinia to the different regions in Spain to South Tyrol and one or two I wasn't able to place geographically - and I found that very inspiring. 

I've had several conversations with people over the past few years and the big question I get asked is 'Can Wales really survive on it's own'. But the way things are going in the UK, I'm not sure Wales can survive in the status quo. A couple of speakers referred to the UK as a failed state, and although that might be overstating it, it definitely feels like a failing state. The challenge is to generate enough hope that change can come and it will be change for the better.