Two sport twofer!

Last Saturday I managed my latest "twofer". It's always a special day when I get to go to two games and this time it was in two different sports - and neither of them was football!

About a week before, my brother, Dave, messaged me to ask if I had anything planned for Saturday as he had been offered some tickets for the Wales v Australia rugby international at the Principality Stadium (which I still call the Millennium Stadium). I didn't have any firm plans. Dave then decided to make a full day of it and asked if I fancied going to the ice hockey game that was due to start at 7pm. I thought that sounded like a great idea and the "two sport twofer" was on!

I suggested to Dave that he try and get to our house a bit early as rugby traffic can be a nightmare. He arrived late morning, we had lunch and then went to the Stadium. Because it was raining, we decided to go in early, and because the roof was closed and in rugby you can take your drink to your seat, we were able to sit in the dry and watch all the build up.

A friendly steward saw we were trying to take a selfie and offered to take our photo.

There was quite a pre-game show, with marching bands and large choirs performing just about every Welsh themed song you could imagine, from Yma o Hyd through to Sospan Bach, with The Green, Green Grass of Home, Delilah, and Cwm Rhondda along the way.

There was also a significant amount of pyro - the things that look like wheelie bins were actually massive flamethrowers. I didn't get too many photos as they all went off because I filmed a video of most of the display instead.

But you can see all the smoke in the air just as the teams lined up for kick off. A lot of this came from the fireworks that exploded in the roof beams. 

Our seats were near one of the try-lines. We had some good views of attacking line-outs. First for Australia...

...then for Wales, in the second half. 

Wales were winning for most of the match, but Australia came back into the game, Wales ran out of steam and eventually the Aussies won 39-34. The regular fans sitting around us weren't too happy and the consensus of the grumbling was that it was time Wales found a new coach.

Having been lulled into a false sense of dry security being sat in the stadium with the roof closed, going outside into the rain was a shock. We walked down the Taff Trail to the ice arena and got there with almost an hour until face-off between the Cardiff Devils and Coventry Blaze. 

Ice rinks aren't really the place to go to dry off after walking in the rain, but the cafe was warm. We had some food there and sort of semi-dried out. 

We were sat right behind one of the goals. The steward was very friendly, but this time Dave took the selfie without any help. 

We both noticed a very small player in the line up waiting to have their name called out during the introductory line ups. It turned out they were actually the game mascot rather than a member of the roster.

Speaking of mascots, we were next to the 'singing section' of fans. At one point the Devils mascot, Taz, was in the crowd banging a drum and leading the singing. Taz had a shirt with the number 666 on the back, which made me laugh. 

Previously, the Devils mascot was called Lucy Fur, but I think that joke was a bit too clever for most people so now it's Taz like a Tasmanian Devil. 

The game itself was low-scoring. Ot was 1-1 and the end of the first period and the next two periods were completely goalless, despite the Devils having a player advantage at least five or six times as a succession of Coventry players spent two-minute stints in the sin bin. 

As the game went into overtime I texted Cathy to say we might be later back than planned, but barely had I sent the text then Coventry scored the sudden death winner and the game was over. Only 16 seconds of overtime had been played. 

The Blaze players crowded over near where the away fans were cheering to celebrate the win.

The rain had just about stopped so we got home without getting much wetter. We even stopped off in a supermarket on the way home to buy some mince pies. We ate them while watching the World Cup highlights show to round off the sporting day. 

Football review: Barry Town United v The New Saints (Welsh Cup round 4) - Saturday 6 February 2016

Ah, the romance of the cup. Feeling the need for a break from university work and wanting to watch a football match combined to take me and my match-going compadre, Connor, to Jenner Park to watch Barry Town United take on the undisputed kingpins of Welsh domestic football, The New Saints.

The Welsh Cup is one of the oldest cup competitions in the world. Barry, in their previous incarnation before they were resurrected by fans from the grip of a megalomaniac owner and added United to their name, had won it six times previously. TNS had won it five times. But this wasn't a battle of equals. In fact, it was probably Barry's biggest game since coming back from the brink of extinction. All this history was summed up nicely in the souvenir programme produced for the game.

Just £2. Bargain.

It was a cold night and the weather had been bad all day. There was a break in the rain as the teams came out to line up. The sky really was that blue #nofilter.

Just before kick off

TNS were 1-0 up soon after kick-off. But Barry equalised a minute later and after fifteen minutes were in the lead with a lovely header from a set piece.

Then some weather happened.

Stereotypical Welsh weather

TNS seemed to specialise in low passes across the box and tapped in two more to make it 3-2 at the break. This led to a chorus of "You only score shit goals" from the small singing section in the block along from us. Their other songs of note were an a capella version of 'I've got a fire in my heart for you' by the Super Furry Animals and 'God gave Barry Town to you' as alternate lyrics to a well-known Kiss tune.

Half time and we scrummed into the clubhouse along with several hundred other people. Sgorio were in there as the game was live on S4C. (Making this the second game in a row broadcast live on the Welsh language channel.) They were very professionally carrying on with the punditry as a mass of humanity shuffled past towards the bar.

Sgorio pundits talking pêl-droed

The draw for the next round was going to happen after the game. There was a large fishbowl ready for the occasion.

Ready for the draw

The Welsh Cup itself, meanwhile, was safely out of reach, if not out of sight, behind the bar.

Welsh Cup

We managed to get a cup of coffee and Conn even made it to the restroom during half time. We made our way back outside just as the players were arriving back on the field and the kids half-time kickabout was finishing.

Back for half time

TNS scored two more in the second half to finish as comfortable 5-2 winners. Their fourth goal was pretty good. They had more chances, and Barry could have got at least one back if their finishing had been better. All in all, it was quite a good game, played more on the floor than you'd think, lots of pass-and-move link-up play and played at pace. A good advert for Welsh football and a very enjoyable evening out.

Unrelenting rain

As an indicator of how this summer has been apocalyptically wet, especially in the last few weeks, this story says it all. A colleague of mine was asked by his daughter, in that serious way five year olds ask questions:

“Is God trying to flood the world again?”

What can you say to that, given that all the evidence seems to point to it? I’m not sure that blaming the nonstop rain on climate change, or just the vagaries of nature, is any reassurance at all. I’m tempted to start building an ark in our back yard, just in case.

I was expecting the weather to break at the end of last week and us to be enjoying gorgeous sunshine by now. After all, the kids did go back to school at the end of last week. I thought that was how it worked - the kids go back into school and the rain stops, so they have to sit through their boring lessons wistfully gazing out of the window at the nice sunny weather. Or maybe that only ever happened when I was at school?

But the return of school hasn’t worked its magic, and we seem to be stuck in an unending grey rainscape, which may last all winter too. As this is going to be my first winter in three years au naturelle, with no drugs to lighten my mood, I’m going to investigate ways of staving off SAD. Maybe a therapeutic trip to sunnier climes is called for. I wonder if you can get one on the NHS?

Changeable weather

Off to a course for the day today in Bristol, with my colleagues Matt and Ruth. We ate lunch on the grass on the Cathedral Green in lovely sunshine.

When we were waiting for our train home the rain was beating down on the station roof so hard we could barely hear each other speak. When a train pulled into the station the rain sleeted off it so violently it was redirected more than six feet under the platform roof, soaking the poor punters who were waiting there. Fortunately we were far enough away to stay dry and when our train came the rain had eased a bit.

Learning to live in Cardiff

In Sunday's Cardiff Devils match programme there was an interview with Mike Prpich (and yes I have spelt that right). I liked this quote about adjusting to life here after leaving his native Saskatchewan:

"I do like that it's not bitterly cold like it is back home, and I can deal with the rain."

Yes, indeed, it's a great place to be. As long as you can deal with the rain.

Why do you need a new ground?

Maybe this news item from Shrewsburytown.com will shed some light on it...

There was heavy rain in Shrewsbury yesterday and a lot of fans have been ringing to see how the pitch is.

Several inches of rain fell yesterday and this morning the pitch was covered in water, as well as a few ducks and a swan.

That's top quality sports journalism, that is. Not just ducks, but a swan too.