Reflecting on 2021 - allowed back to football

In lieu of going to a football game on Boxing Day, here's a review of 2021 from a soccer perspective.

I didn't attend any football matches in the 2020-21 season, meaning it was the first season in over a quarter of a century where I didn't attend a single game. I missed out on my annual trip to see Shrewsbury play Bristol Rovers in Bristol, and then Rovers got relegated so Shrewsbury won't be playing them this season. At the end of the season I blogged about how it didn't really feel like it had happened. 

Just about the only football that I had in the spring!

In the summer of 2021, the delayed European Championships were held. They were still called Euro 2020. Originally I was going to go to some games - in the before times. But then had opted for a refund. I had to console myself with watching on TV, collecting the stickers and completing the wallchart that accompanied an issue of When Saturday Comes. It was the first time I had ever completed a wallchart for an international tournament. A small achievement. 

Just before England fluffed their chance

England had a glorious chance to win the competition - helped by playing most of their games at home in Wembley. Other countries (cough*Wales*cough) had to schlep all over Europe with fans unable to travel to support them. Despite all the advantages they were afforded, England were beaten by Italy in the final, which was made more memorable by ugly violent scenes as ticketless louts kicked their way into the ground.

But in July, a new season kicked off. I went to see Barry play a friendly in Bristol (so I have seen one game in Bristol this year!) and then the games started to rack up. I went to 11 games in August -  a new record for games in a month. 

I watched Barry play away games in Aberystwyth, Cefn just outside Wrexham, and Flint, where I think I might have seen a picture of my paternal grandad on the clubhouse wall. I also saw several Grange Albion games, in one of the local leagues, watched Poole Town three times with my friend Steve, and went with my brother and nephew to watch Shrewsbury earn a creditable draw at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday. 

For many clubs in Wales, the season had started earlier than normal - a precaution in case restrictions came back into place in the winter. That has proven to be prescient as just before Christmas the Welsh Government mandated a ban on spectators at sporting events. The FAW responded by putting the top three tiers of Welsh football on hiatus until January. I had reached 31 games for the season just before the spectator ban came in, which neatly took me to a total of exactly 400 games recorded on the Futbology App.

At this point it is impossible to know when the restrictions on supporters will be lifted and when I will be checking in at matches on Futbology in the New Year. Shrewsbury have a big game in January 2022 - a third round tie at Anfield. However, I feel it's unlikely I will go given the current infection rates. It may not even take place when scheduled, because covid is causing a lot of postponements at all levels of football at the moment.

And, it's not as if I'm missing out. I have seen Shrewsbury play at Anfield not too long ago. This time when the teams meet there will be no replays, so if Liverpool aren't as lucky as they were last time, with the own goals and dodgy VAR decisions, it could be memorable. 

Holiday on Pen Llyn - fourth and final post

This is just a final round up post of things from our holiday on the Lleyn Peninsular. We had deliberately timed it to be away during the European Championships, because I like holidays where we do stuff during the day then go home and watch football in the evenings. It worked well with mealtimes.

We took my European Championships wallchart with us!

I filled it in studiously. The asterisks are games we watched. The day Switzerland got a last gasp equaliser against France then beat them on penalties was an exciting day.

In Criccieth we saw one of the installations by the Football Association of Wales honouring members of the Wales squad.

But away from football we enjoyed the beaches...

...and scenic cliff walks.

And we followed instructions and didn't fall headlong into the sea.

We visited Nant Gwerthyn, which is closely linked to the revival of the Welsh language in the mid-20th century.

Siaradais i Gymraeg yn siopia a bwytau. Prynias i llyfr yna yn siop llyfrau Gymraeg yn Pwllheli. (I spoke Welsh in shops and cafes. I bought this book in the Welsh bookshop in Pwllheli.)

The book is 'Wales on Stamps of the World', and, yes, it's in Welsh. I found I understood more of it than I expected. It has inspired me to consider a new philately project.

In Porthmadog we called into the Purple Moose Brewery shop. Cathy found a friend who matched her hair!

The village we stayed in had a field with horses in. Something tells me this horse knows he's a good-looking horse.

We also had a pair of seagulls who clearly had learned to beg for food from people staying in the cottage. They were quite happy to walk up to the patio doors and peck for attention.

And if you tried to ignore them, they would seek a bit of height to try and eyeball you again.

But we are resistant to the charms of seagulls, even though these seemed slightly less obnoxious, and a good deal cleaner, than Cardiff's sky-rats. We ignored them and eventually they gave up and flew off.

Our week seemed to be over very quickly, which is the sign of a good holiday!

June 2021 - End of Month review

This monthly report is slightly later than usual because I was on holiday on the cusp of June and July, and there has been some football on!

In terms of another sport, I've already blogged about buying a copy of Blood Bowl: Second Season Edition. I actually bought that at the very end of April, but a couple of weeks later I responded to the siren lure of Firestorm Games, went in and bought another new team. It's the Necormantic Horror team complete with werewolves, zombies, wights and golems. Now I just need to find the time to glue and paint them.

Early on in the month, Cathy spotted some Lego on sale on Facebook. In the crate we found a selection of charming Fabuland figures, that the company produced in the early 80s. 

I have told the story a few times about the first time I visited Cathy's house and she showed me her collection of Fabuland sets still in their original boxes. That was one of the ways I knew she was the one! It's nice to add some new figures and I particularly liked the walrus boat captain!

I've already blogged about the Grangetown Zoo, which was slightly different this year and very enjoyable again. The following weekend I went back to where Anna Palamar created her mural on the side of Bruton's Bakery on Clare Road and took a photo of the finished artwork.

We are still living in the middle of a pandemic. I was invited back to the Bayside Vaccination Centre in the old Toys 'R' Us building and had my second dose. No side effects this time!

They should have called it Jabs R Us

But even though there is a pandemic, and new variants of covid hitting the headlines, we made it to our first trip to the cinema since March 2020. It was a free preview of In The Heights at the Odeon. It's always a bit weird going there because it's the cinema I used to work in, back when it was operated by UCI. My job there actually began in June 2001, so that was 20 years ago this month!.

There are plans to knock down that cinema along with the rest of the Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village (as it was originally known) to build a new concert arena. So I did wonder if In The Heights will be the last film I see there before the bulldozers move in. (Read my film review here.)

And then of course, along came the European Championships. I have been collecting the football stickers again this year, after giving the World Cup ones in 2018 a miss.

My catchphrase after each game I've watched has been "To the wallchart!"

This is the first international tournament since my Dad died unexpectedly in March 2019, and it has stirred up some feelings of grief and loss again. My Dad loved World Cups and European Championships and I know he would have been ringing me after every Wales, England or Scotland game to dissect the game and discuss the results. I have really missed that.

But the wallchart has been a helpful distraction from that post-game void which Dad would have filled.  I have often put wallcharts up and then forgotten about them. So this year I was quite pleased with myself that I managed to get out of the group stages and fill in all the gaps in the round of 16.

And that took us up virtually to the end of the month, when we went on holiday! I will be posting about some of our holiday experiences in the next few days!