Summery season summary

I didn't go to any football matches in May, but this week I went to watch Cymru's women's team play Czechia in their final group game qualifier for the Women's World Cup. It was my final game of the season. Cymru won 3-1 to make sure I wrapped up my season on a high.

I feel like I had a good season, even though 47 matches is a few less than I've managed in recent seasons. Even with the slightly reduced number of games I completed four and a bit of the six goals I set myself for the season.

My 9 new grounds this season means I hit a new milestone of 150 football grounds. That was one of my season goals. 

My season's map of all the 27 grounds I went to has one significant outlier. 

Yep, it was my trip to Malaga. (Read my match report.) Going to a game in Spain with my friend, Jim, was another ambition for the season that I'm happy I ticked off.

Two of the other new grounds were watching Shrewsbury playing away, at Swindon and Oldham respectively. At the start of the season I listed six possible Shrewsbury away games to go to. Swindon was on the list, Oldham was not. I didn't make it to any of my other targets on the list, a mix of other commitments and crap scheduling. 

Shrewsbury had a pretty dire season, saved by a new manager bounce when Gavin Cowan came in as manager and won 5 games in a row. I didn't see any of those wins. In fact, I only saw one win in the six matches I went to.

Cardiff Draconians had a good season, finishing sixth in their first season in the second tier. Barry Town also did well, finishing third and winning the MG Cup. I couldn't go to the final because I was at a bucket list Thousand Yard Stare gig. I went to the Welsh Cup final though, and saw Caernarfon lift the trophy for the first time in their history. 

The Dracs helped me to another one of my season goals - ticking off all the grounds in the Cymru South. I managed that early in the season, with a trip to Carmarthen Town in August. My final domestic game of the season was a play off match for Poole Town - this took me up to 10 Poole Town games, which was another target for me this season.

One goal I missed was another game in Scotland. My trip up there at the end of October didn't work out football-wise, but I had the fantastic consolation of watching a rugby international at Murrayfield instead. 

I'm currently thinking up some new goals for next year during a brief break from football. (I'm boycotting the ghastly World Cup!) However, pre-season friendlies and the qualifying rounds for UEFA competitions start soon so I don't have long to wait. 

A drove of dragons

It's Appreciate a Dragon Day according to one of the calendars we have up. So here's a drove of dragons to celebrate.

Gradually I've gathered up quite a collection of pics of dragons. Like this selfie taken in the fanzone at the 2025 Welsh Cup Final.

Here he is in action at a Wales game.

Barry Town also have a dragon occasionally in attendance. 

Channeling Edvard Munch,
or having trouble with the costumes head?

There are lots of dragons on flags at football matches, of course.

Although sometimes other animals replace them.

There's a dragon on the flag on my Plaid Cymru membership card.

And in April last year, at the March for Independence in Barry, I got this fridge magnet from Rebel Dragon Designs, which combines the Welsh Dragon with the Rebel Alliance logo from Star Wars.

I like the way artists put their own spin on the Welsh dragon. The artist Revealist has created this "dragon in a bally" which can be seen in a few places around Cardiff. The best one is in Grangetown, though.

Meanwhile this print caught my eye at an art fair in Canton last year.

When the new Lego Shop opened in Cardiff in September they had a massive, very impressive, Lego dragon installed outside.

It feels like dragons are spottable any and everywhere!

And if you're very lucky, maybe you can grow your own pair of dragon wings!

Happy Appreciate a Dragon Day! I hope you enjoyed seeing this drove of dragons!

Pre-Christmas December round up

I've packed a lot in to December so far and thought I'd get in early with my review of the month, ahead of the Christmas shenanigans.

Cathy being Christmassy in Abergavenny!

The Christmassy feeling started with the Carol Service in Grange Gardens. Cardiff Council decorated the bandstand, the Salvation Army band provided the music, Richard the new vicar at St Paul's led the service, people from other local churches did readings, and my friend Sioned's daughter read a poem. 

One lovely aspect was all the songsheets were bilingual and people sang in Welsh and English, which really worked. It sounded lovely. We had about 200 people come along with lots of families. 

Another community event was the final Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year. I didn't find anything particularly exciting but I did pick up 3 bags of rubbish and an abandoned pressure cooker. 

In early December I met up with Sara and we celebrated our ten year friendaversary. We first had a proper conversation at an event in Cardiff University organised by Diabetes UK. She asked me "What do you do?" Ten years later and we met up in one of our old haunts for a coffee and reminisce.

I also met up with my friend Heather for lunch at The Grange. Heather also worked with me in the Wales Diabetes Network and has since retired from the NHS. But she hasn't managed to escape lunch dates with me!

This month, Bryan and I foresook a game of Blood Bowl and instead unboxed his season 3 box set. In real world sport, I have made it to four football matches already in December, including...

...seeing my friend Ben play for Caldicot Town for the first time this season.

...watching Barry Town win the league cup semi-final up at Cambrian United.

...watching Cardiff Met with Steve, which was our first game together in months.

...and watching Cardiff Draconians away at Newport City. The Dracs imploded and finished the game with only 9 men.

I had a slightly quieter month, politically. But I was out every Thursday morning talking to commuters at different train stations. We have now been to all 12 stations in the constituency on the west side of the River Taff! This month we ticked off these:

I have a feeling campaigning activity will pick up in the New Year! 

After Christmas I'll be blogging my round ups of the year. 2025 has been a busy one so there is plenty to write about. That might take me most of January too!

Bank holiday sports fest

It was quite the bank holiday sports fest for me. Four sporting fixtures. Three away trips for teams I support. Two university teams. And one railway museum as an added bonus. 

The weekend began on Friday night with...

Pontypridd United v Cardiff Draconians

Dracs ready in red

The Dracs have a bingo card this season. Play like a herd of deer in the headlights for the first 20 minutes. Give away at least one avoidable goal. Goalkeeper Harry Johnson will do one crazy thing that has me biting my knuckle and muttering "Oh, Harry, what are you doing". Someone on the bench gets a yellow card. Then finish the game strongly playing like a team that deserves to be at this level. On Friday they ticked all the Dracs Bingo boxes. And some.

I went to games at Pontypridd United a few times when they were on an upwards trajectory and made it into the Cymru Premier Leaguer. However, it feels like they are declining now. Their temporary stand behind the goal got repossessed a little while ago. The pagoda they used to put up at the entrance has been replaced by a table and a cash box. The bar area in the university building isn't being used any more. Their supporters seemed outnumbered by a noisy Dracs away following.

The home team took the lead after a player controlled the ball on the ground with his arm then scooped the ball forward with his leg. A team mate got the goalward side of the last man and went down in the box. It was a penalty, but the Dracs fans who saw the handball were incensed by this turn of events. Unfortunately the ref didn't appreciate the abuse and from then on on proceeded to dish out yellow cards to Dracs players for offences that went unpunished when emulated by Ponty players resulting in more angry comments from the sidelines. 

By the end of the first half, the Dracs had learned the Ponty defence were commanding in the air, but couldn't play on the floor. After the break a lovely passing move brought the Dracs level and then a drilled pass sent a Dracs forward through. Despite an attempted drag back by the defender, the Dracs scored to make it 2-1. Then the ref got involved again. Two quick yellow cards dished out, we think, for sarcasm saw one of the Dracs wingers sent off. A midfielder picked up a second yellow card for a dive with less than ten minutes of normal time to go. He admitted it was a dive as he walked to the dressing room in front of the Dracs fans.

Down to 9 men, the Dracs dug in. Long clearances into empty space in the channels kept the Ponty goalie busy scampering across the pitch to wallop the ball back. Harry the goalie had been booked in the first half after dashing out of his area and colliding with a player - that was his bingo card moment. But in additional time he pulled off two awesome match-winning saves - a block on the goal-line he dropped down to and a reflex save to tip a shot over the bar.

The win gives the Dracs their first points of the season and they moved up to 11th in the table. Their game on Monday has been moved and its cup action next weekend. But this was a massively important win and hopefully it will get their season going.

The next day, I set off down the M4 to watch...

Swindon Town v Shrewsbury Town

Before we got to the match, Paul, Paul and I went to STEAM, the GWR museum. It was an interesting museum with a well-ordered set of interactive exhibits and some big gleaming static green and black GWR locos. Highlights included being able to walk underneath a loco and some of the odder items like a Scammell tractor and a Wickham trolley made to look like a little car. 

After lunch we headed to the County Ground for the battle of the STFCs. Both teams have rather fallen from grace and are slumming it in the basement division now. The County Ground is too big for the current level of support and one end was empty.

After conceding four goals in both their previous league away games, I thought there was a good chance Salop would be on the end of another battering. After 5 minutes Swindon passed the ball around the Salop players like they were cones on a training exercise and scored, and I wondered how bad it could get. But after that, Salop forced some chances, Swindon sat deeper and deeper content with making breakaway attacks when they could.

That pattern continued in the second half until Shrewsbury got a deserved goal on 87 minutes. It looked like they might pick up their second point of the season but 7 minutes of added time proved too long for them. The defenders backed off Swindon sub Billy Bodin, inviting him to shoot. He shot. He scored. Absolute limbs in the home end behind the goal he scored in. Despondency around me in the away section.

Overall, both teams were poor really. Both struggled to retain possession and neither were good enough to capitalise on gaining possession. It's hard to tell whether Salop have improved from their previous hammerings in terms of performance. However, it was yet another defeat and right now the result is all that matters.

Despite the result, I enjoyed the apple rolling challenge at half time.

On Sunday I switched out sports and companions and went to...

Cardiff Devils v Concordia Stingers

Every time. I go and watch Ice hockey I think I should go and watch ice hockey more often. This was my first time in the Vindico Arena since an international game about 18 months ago, and my first Devils game for almost 3 years when I did a "two sport twofer" with my brother, Dave. Best of all, Cathy felt well enough to come with me and was able to stay for the full game.

This was an intriguing match up. Concordia is a University in Montreal who have also played against Nottingham Panthers on a short UK tour this month. They have a lovely maroon and dark yellow kit combination. Sadly there was no visitors merch on sale but I did go a bit daft in the Devils club shop and bought six pin badges!

The Devils spent most of the first quarter peppering the visitor's goal but couldn't get the puck past the Stingers massive goalie, who I think had the surname Vrbitec. I'm not sure how tall he is and he's not on Concordia's roster to check, but he towered over his team mates. He was excellent at stopping shots and, for a big man, dropped down fast to block any low attempts. After sustained Devils pressure, Stingers scored against the run of play and led 0-1 at the end of the first period.

Things got spicy in the second period leading to lots of power plays. At one point the Stingers were two players up due to Devils players being sin binned after trying to squash the netminder, all other attempts to score having failed. Eventually the Devils did find a (legal) way through to equalise but the announcer had barely listed the assist and pre-assist before Concordia scored again. It was 1-2 at the end of the second period.

Devils started the third period a man down and Stingers quickly made it 1-3. A fightback saw an excellently worked goal for the Devils. Cardiff took their netminder off for the last 2 minutes to try and force a tying score, but again the giant in the Stingers goal proved more than a match for a frenetic series of shots. The goalie was given man of the match by the sponsor to much applause from the crowd none of whom seemed to begrudge the visitors their win.

I love the atmosphere at ice hockey, the pantomime around it. And I really laughed at how the mascot was put to work helping clear up after "chuck a puck" in the second break.

Mascots have to earn their keep these days

After chilling in the ice house on the Sunday evening, on the hottest every August bank holiday Monday in Wales I went to my fourth and final sports event of the weekend:

Cardiff Metropolitan v Barry Town

Cardiff Met have a new logo that includes the year 1957. But I suspect they are fabricating a history they don't have. 1957 doesn't link to any known football team of the many institutions that feed into their history. Before the game I spoke to Dave Collins, the editor of Welsh Football magazine, about it and even he didn't know why they have settled on that year. It could possibly be linked to one of the precursor clubs that formed Inter Cardiff whose place in the League of Wales was taken over by UWIC before they rebranded as Cardiff Metropolitan. Anyway, they have a mural with their new badge and the year on it. 

There might be more change coming as the Met are apparently going to drop "university" from their name as well. I'm not sure what that means for their long-term outlook. Their relationship with the wider university has worked quite well for them for several seasons and this looked like the weakest, and also the shortest, Met team than I have seen in a while. 

Paul, Paul, Val and me

Cyncoed Campus looks different in the sunshine. I'm used to November mizzle and darkness not blazing almost 30 degree heat. Fortunately there was a brisk breeze blowing across the pitch to keep us slightly cool in the corrugated iron stand. But the first half was dismal and I'm convinced the heat and the cross-wind were factors in the dismality.

Welsh football's other Ryan Reynolds

Whatever the Met coach said at half time worked because the team came out fizzing, forced some good chances and scored a well worked goal. Barry had nothing in reply until a desperate roll of the dice with a centre back coming on as a makeshift centre forward. This changed the impetus of the game and two minutes into stoppage time Barry forced an equaliser. They even had a couple of chances to nick all three points but couldn't convert any of them.

The draw meant that of the three football teams I supported this weekend, one won, one lost and one drew. It all feels very balanced.