Bloodbowl match report - 26 August 2015

Bromfield Street Berserkers 2 v 0 Grangetown Greenskinz

All set up and ready to play!

The Berserkers returned to winning ways despite a much-changed side following their recent draw at the Atlantic Waaaaarghf Megadome. Having dispensed with most of their multi-racial roster, including the two dwarf blockers and elf catchers, and needing to replaced deceased legendary blitzer, Jimmy Tectonic, the line up was very different. Skaven linerat Hoolie MacRatt was retained, although he had a disappointing game and ended up seriously injured after a minimal amount of time on the pitch.

Blocker Lex Kevlar was moved to blitzer, while brothers Stan and Callum Van Branahan and Kyle Salvvo were promoted from the line and kitted out as blockers. Three new lineman were added as well, alongside new catcher Felix ‘Find the Space’ Pace. Chaz Tastak, returning to the Berserkers line-up after a long hiatus filled the other catcher role. 

This was the first game played under the new XP rules that modify player characteristics. Boghash Foulbreath, the Greenskinz blitzer, made his XP advantage felt in a number of hefty challenges on Berserkers players, although his aggressive approach didn’t result in many victories considering the advantage he was carrying.

The Greenskinz had possession from the off and there were several rounds of blocks in the middle of the park before eventually a pass was attempted. It was successfully caught but the Berserker tackle went in, clobbering the receiver. A long pass forward to Chaz Tastak came off and his subsequent sprint for the line, including two extra yards, saw the Berserkers go one up.

The attrition had worn down the Berserkers in a game where eventually 10 of the starting 11 were carried off with some sort of injury requiring treatment. None of the debutants were having a particularly good game and the step up to blocker didn’t seem to suit any of the former linemen, with little success in the grapple. Salvvo scored particularly badly with only 2 successful blocks from 13. The failure was shared by most of the team, with several players recording no success in blocks at all and at one point both blitzers were carried off stunned in quick succession.

From the restart the Greenskinz opted for a different tack, bunching around their thrower. With their catchers clear, an attempted pass forward was spilled. The long range throw downfield from the Berserkers was also dropped, but the Greeskinz return attempted pass was also unsuccessful. With the Berserkers now back in possession, a Long Bomb was hurled with accuracy by man of the match replacement thrower Giles McGiles to the waiting debutant, Felix Pace, who had fended off two heroic tackle attempts from desperate Greenskinz players.  It was the final play of the game and gave the Berserkers their largest win for several games.

The final score of 2-0 was enhanced for the Berserkers as they had also seriously injured two Greenskinz players while sustaining only the one serious injury of their own. This means two players from the orc team will be temporarily down on various characteristics in the next match. However, Berserker linemen Chovne Carambeau and debutant Thorstein Vandal have been penalised for a terrible tackling record that will see their Agility scores permanently reduced.

Team line-up & stats

Blitzers: Halo, Kevlar

Blockers: Hurricane, S Van Branahan, C Van Branahan, Salvvo

Throwers: deMenthe, McGiles (reserve)

Catcher: Tastak, Pace

Starting Linemen: Carambeau, Bosch

Reserve Linemen: Vandal, Cordite, Zang, MacRatt

Scorers: Tastak, Pace

Man of the Match: McGiles

Ragna Griffiths - a tribute

My Grandma passed away earlier this month. I was asked to give a tribute at her funeral. Below is the text of my tribute. But first a pic...

Me and my Grandma, about 10 years ago on
one of the rare occasions she visited Cardiff.

In the novel Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland one of the characters says this: “...you spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Rules change along the way. The first things to go are those things you thought were eternal.”

That idea has come home to me in these past few days because in a sense, Grandma, like Granddad before her, was one of those pillars in my life that was always there. Something, which as a child, I assumed would be eternal, and then as an adult I came to realise would not be.

It would be a mistake to think that my Grandma spent a larger part of her life being old. In her heart she wasn’t. She didn’t dress like an old lady. She was interested in the world and the future, even though she often talked to us about the past.

Our relationship changed as I grew up and learned more about who my Grandma was. I know she was embarrassed that my Granddad had commandeered an army truck as her wedding day transport – as there was nothing else that could get through the snow.

I thought that story was romantic – my Granddad risking serious trouble by borrowing a vehicle and its driver – to make sure he married his beloved bride. That’s a great story, but my Grandma didn’t think a huge truck was the proper delivery vehicle for a bride on her wedding day.

Snow was a common problem in the Faroes where Grandma grew up and also a frequent occurrence in Bryn Celyn in Southsea where they moved in 1958. There was also thick snow on the ground when Grandma flew out to visit our family in the Gambia – she left the airport here in six feet of snow, well wrapped up against the cold.

I remember going with my Mum and Dad (and Dave) to pick Grandma up from Banjul airport, where she was actively shedding layers of clothing in the heat of the African night. She couldn’t believe Dave and I were wearing jumpers, as she was so hot. We had adjusted to the African temperatures. It was chilly. She told Mum off for trying to parboil us.

I only found out last year how upset Grandma had been that Mum and Dad were taking her grandsons away to Africa. It’s testament to her faith that she accepted that Mum and Dad felt called to Africa, although she really didn’t want us to go.

She got enough exposure to her grandsons when we came back from the Gambia in 1983 and we lived with her and Granddad for nine months. There were a few issues, like the time I fell out of the top bunk bed, or the time David mistook the airing cupboard on the landing for the toilet when he needed a midnight wee. But Grandma never held those mis-steps against us.

As I said earlier, Grandma had an active faith. A couple of years after our family had moved from Bryn Celyn to Shrewsbury, we went one Sunday to a special service where both Grandma and Granddad were baptised. That made a real impression on me.

A few years later, when I was baptised, she gave me a Bible concordance and wrote the verse John 13. 34-35 in it: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That remains a watchword for me in my faith; it’s the only token to assess how well we are living out our call as disciples.

Last year, on one occasion when we visited, Grandma talked about how she imagined dying. She said it would be like being on a boat and pulling in to harbour, and those who had gone before would be waiting to welcome you on the quayside. Grandma said she was looking forward to meeting her mother for the first time, as she’d died shortly after Grandma was born. And of course, seeing Elwyn again.

Just over two weeks ago I got a phone call from David and he said I really had to decide whether to travel up from Cardiff that night or not say goodbye. Three hours later we were in Wrexham.

Grandma was very poorly and struggling to breathe. I’m not sure how aware she was that we were there, but I kissed her forehead and held her hand and after a short while I said, “Omma, it’s time to get on the boat.”

And a few minutes later, she did.

It won’t have been a turbulent crossing, which is just as well, as for a Scandinavian, Grandma used to get remarkably sea-sick. It won’t have been a long crossing. Somewhere nearby, yet so far away, a boat has docked, next to a thronged quayside of people waiting to welcome her home. I hope it is everything that she imagined.

Well done England - Women's World Cup 2015 review

I watched more of the Women's World Cup than I expected to, mainly because England did better than expected. I started the tournament wanting Germany to win (as with the men's tournament last year), but England gradually won me round. (And of course, they have a Welsh manager so really their success is success for Wales too.) So, when England beat Germany for the first time in 20 attempts to win the third place play-off, I felt pretty happy.


I'll pretty much watch any football (as my season review for 2014-2015 shows), but this wasn't watching football for the sake of it. There was some good stuff being played and most of the time without the gamesmanship and injury-feigning that bedevils the men's international game.

I have some criticisms though. For one thing, the use of astroturf seriously damaged the aesthetic. Balls bounced oddly, or not at all, or fair flew across the surface at untrappable speeds. Clouds of black rubber bits were kicked up by the players. They were awful surfaces and didn't help enhance the image of the women's side of the game.

There were some duff referees as well. This happens in the men's tournaments as well because they want to include refs from all the FIFA federations. But, frankly, there is a world of difference between refereeing in a top European league and reffing in Oceania or central Asia. Some of the refereeing teams were out of their depth here, and this was possibly exacerbated by the use of female refereeing teams only. As with football, women's officiating is some steps behind the men's game, so the inequity between countries with professional leagues and countries that barely have a competition is even more marked in the women's game.

Finally, broadcasting-wise, it was great having mainly female pundits and anchors. But why they needed to ship male commentators (including the incredibly annoying Jonathan Pearce) out to Canada is beyond me. It could be argued that putting it's regular commentators on duty showed the BBC's commitment to treating the women;s game equally. But it felt like the BBC lacked faith in its audience. We'll watch women play football, but we won't listen to women talk about it. One thing I do hope is that the BBC will now use some of the very talented and knowledgeable women players from the world cup studios on shows like Match of the Day. They were so much better than the usual rent-a-gobs.

Laura Bassett is my favourite England player at the moment - in both the men and women's games. In the match against France she got elbowed in the face, got up and carried on, developing a black eye as the game progressed. She was very focussed, almost frighteningly serious during matches, so it was lovely seeing her smiling with her third place medal, especially after she had conceded the last-gasp own goal in the semi-final to gift Japan the victory. Anyone who can go out and play straight after that deserves a medal and she got one.

Lucy Bronze's goal that won the game against Norway was my favourite goals in all the games I saw. Not just because it was England, but because it was a 'worldie'. You don't see many worldies at World Cups, so this was a genuine rarity.



So that was the FIFA World Cup for 2015. We had one last year too. I can get used to this. What's happening next Summer?

1000 Lives - a work retrospective

Today was my last day at 1000 Lives Improvement. It's been five years and it was definitely time to move on. However, it's hard to say goodbye to people you have worked with and grown to care about. As Cathy pointed out, five years is the same length of time I was at secondary school. It's longer than my niece has been alive! So, it is a significant chunk of time.

Anyway, here are some high points...

Count me in
This was a big campaign shortly after I started to maintain the momentum of the 1000 Lives Campaign in the new 1000 Lives Plus programme. This photo is notable for my mini-sideburns and the blue jacket that I wore a lot to work events.

The STOP Campaign
This was the first time we really built comms into a clinical change programme. The mascots were fun to develop, especially the catheter (first time round it looked really rude). STOP won a CIPR Pride Award - I wrote a report on it if you want to know more.

Champions for Health
Another big campaign, this time looking at improving the health of NHS staff and encourage them to become advocates for healthier lifestyles. I took part in the pilot. (Blue jacket in the photo!)

World Sepsis Day
One day I will blog about the car journey I had with Terence Canning, the Welsh ambassador for the UK Sepsis Trust. On that journey we coined a phrase that has appeared on numerous awareness-raising materials and has even been borrowed by other organisations. I had the poster on my wall by my desk at work as a reminder that good writing is often short writing.

We also interviewed Terence for one of the videos we shot for World Sepsis Day.

The International Forum - London
Probably one of my favourite weeks at 1000 Lives was manning the NHS Wales at the IHI International Forum in London in 2013, with my lovely friend Kelly. Almost unbelievably, having spent 15 hours a day in each other's company we ended the week better friends than when we started. On the way down we decided our names weren't Welsh enough so we adopted the names Iolo and Myfanwy. Little did we know those names would stick.

At the end of the week we posed by the London Bus they had in the main auditorium. You can see how tired we were.

Dr Olivia
Towards the end of last year I spent nearly six weeks working on placement in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. What with a Daily Mail hate campaign against NHS Wales, rumours about ebola, and a grisly incident involving a possible patient, it was a chance to experience the deep end of NHS comms.

We also got to film Dr Olivia's Guide to A&E - Is it really an emergency? I'm not sure how many videos I produced while at 1000 Lives. It's well over 100. This is one of my favourites.



Publications
In the past five years I've written six annual newspapers (plus three others) and 14 white papers. These are the latest ones.

Legacy

I've left these on my desk to intimidate my replacement. 3 gold awards in 2 years is a pretty good return. (As the person who wrote the entries as well, I felt doubly satisfied with the wins!)

So, those are just some highlights. There were many more. It's been a good five years.

Ignite Cardiff - 40 Letters and More (or what I didn't give up for Lent)

I've never been very good at giving things up for Lent. This year I decided to do something positive and wrote a letter to a different person every day. (Cathy did as well.)

Ignite Cardiff is a fabulous regular event which anyone can apply to speak at. I pitched the idea about speaking about the Lent Letters project and got accepted. I was first up on the night and you can watch my talk here - it's about five minutes long.


After the talk I had loads of very positive comments about it and several people said they were thinking of writing letters to people. So far two people have tweeted me to say they actually have done it, which is really lovely.

I asked Sim_n how many he planned to do and he said 7. This next chap went a stage further.

I think that's a really cool bit of art there.

One of the things many people commented on was how cool it was to get a hand-written letter through the post. Hopefully a few more people will have that pleasure soon.

(Not all post is fab post. Check out the barmiest junk mail I've ever received.)

Chewing gum - cinnamon flavours put to the test

I like trying different types of chewing gum, For a while I've thought about doing a blog dedicated just to chewing gum, but that seems a bit sad. I'm not sure it's any less sad blogging about it on this blog, but anyway...

Why isn't cinnamon gum popular in the UK? Cinnamon candy, generally, is an American thing. I love Hot Tamales made by the Mike and Ike people, Just Born. I discovered those sweets on our California road trip and have eaten pounds of the stuff over the years.

But cinnamon doesn't seem to work as a candy flavour in the UK. A few years ago Wrigley launched a cinnamon flavour called 'Fire' in it's Extra range. But that was discontinued fairly quickly and it's been a long time since it was generally available.

Here are three types that are available.

The Wrigley's Big Red is an American import. It's pricey and it's full sugar. The Pur gum is one I found in a vegan shop a couple of weeks ago. It's tasty and sugar-free, but the flavour disappears quite quickly. The Chicza one is a bit hippyish as well. I bought it at the Eden Project and it claims to be made using traditional Mayan ingredients. Because they are all-natural it's one of the few chewing gums that's biodegradable.

The Pur gum comes in a 'pill packet' meaning you pop out a caplet when you want to chew it. This has an advantage of meaning the gum doesn't go off when you open the packet. I reckon a good 20 per cent of normal chewing gum gets discovered, slightly soft, at the bottom of bags or in pockets and gets binned, so this is a good solution.

The Chicza stuff is a bit weird. It's very soft, meaning it feels like it's gone off a bit already. It's part of a range that includes mint and also lime for a tangy change.

And finally, for something completely different, how about coffee flavoured gum? This comes from Turkey, I think. Someone gave it to me a while ago for a laugh. The pellets are an attractive black and it comes in a box that looks a bit like a cigarette pack.

It tastes OK, actually. Like mild coffee or coffee cake.

So, there you go. The first blog post specifically about chewing gum. There may be more in future. (There's also a reference to some vaguely blasphemous gum in this blog post. Enjoy.)

A collection of Shrewsbury scarves

I've recently had an article published on the When Saturday Comes website sticking up for half-and-half scarves, with a bit of history of the ones I own. Here are some photos and additional comments.

Half-and-half scarves, if you don't know, commemorate games between clubs. They often feature the date of the game. Here are the four I own. Two are from the same game.

You'll notice the Arsenal one circumvents copyright issues.

I have some other scarves too. A vintage one from before the move to the new stadium, one that was for sale at the Wembley play-off against Bristol Rovers, and the 125-year anniversary scarf.

The Wembley one is a nice memento of a pretty horrible game.

Generally in life you only need one scarf. But these are more than that. They are a record of fandom. With the demise of the much-maligned 'Clippy' the Lion from the club badge, there are new scarves being produced for the forthcoming season. I probably will end up buying one.

Five Quotes from Life after God by Douglas Coupland

I have discovered Douglas Coupland’s novels in the last few years. Life after God is both like and unlike his novels. Here are five bits from it that really spoke to me.

“Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound... And then sometimes I think the people to feel saddest for are people who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or became numb to the sensation of wonder – people who closed the doors that lead us into the secret world – or who had the doors closed for them by time and neglect and decisions made in times of weakness.”

“And then I felt sad because I realized that once people are broken in certain ways, they can’t ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it’s already happened.”

“...humans are the only animal to feel the pain of sorrow that has been stretched out through linear time ...our curse as humans is that we are trapped in time – our curse is that we are forced to interpret life as a sequence of events – a story – and when we can’t figure out what our particular story is we feel lost somehow. “Dogs only have a present tense in their lives,” ... Humans have to endure everything in life in agonizingly endless clock time – every single second of it. Not only this, but we have to remember having endured our entire lives as well.”

“I think that death is not just dying. I think death is a loss that can never be found again, words that can never be taken back, damage that can never be made whole. It is a denial of any possible future giving of love.”

“...we are living creatures – we have religious impulses – we must – and yet into what cracks do these impulses flow in a world without religion?”

(I’ve typed these up without permission. I would recommend you buy and read the book and all Douglas Coupland’s other books.)

My football season review for 2014-15

The dust has settled on another football season for most clubs. Admittedly there’s another round of matches to go in the Premier League and, of course, the final of the FA Cup, but I don’t think I’ll be going to any more games this year, so I’m calling it over.

It’s been a good season for me. I went to the most matches in a season since I was a teenager in 1994-95. It was a good season for Shrewsbury Town too, as they got promoted as runners-up of League 2. I saw them get presented with the trophy on the last day of the league season. The last game I saw was a cup final that ended in a penalty shoot-out; exciting and awful in equal measure.

I’m going to go through the games on an individual basis, but here are some overall stats:

Season: 2014-15

Total games: 13

Most goals in a game: 9

Least goals in a game: 0 (twice)

Total goals seen: 37 (not including a penalty shoot-out)

Number of football grounds visited: 8 (4 of which I’d never visited before)

Shrewsbury Town v Newport County                    

20/09/2014, Skybet League 2

Shrewsbury had been on a great run of form, winning all 4 home league games before Newport visited. I can’t remember much about the game, except it was pretty dire. Newport set up to defend and Shrewsbury couldn’t break them down. It was not an auspicious start to my season.  Result: 0-0

Shrewsbury Town v Cheltenham Town

11/10/2014, Skybet League 2

The problem with writing this up so long after the event is it’s hard to remember what happened. Fortunately I made some notes at the time: “All the goals came in the second half and Cheltenham scored first. There was a rainbow over the opposite stand at one point. It poured down just before kick-off, all during the cheerleaders’ routine, then stopped when they’d finished. God must hate cheerleaders!” (I’m glad I’d made a note. I’d forgotten about the cheerleaders.) Result: 3-1

Paulton Rovers v Poole Town

25/10/2014, Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division

Close to the action at Paulton Rovers

My friend Steve has followed Poole Town – the Mighty Dolphins – for many years and invited me to the depths of Somerset to see them play. I was glad I went as it turned out to be an eventful game. Poole were challenging near the top of the table, but were soon 2-0 down. They pulled it back to 2-2 before conceding a third to trail 3-2 at half-time. I then stood in the slowest-moving tea queue in the history of civilised snack-bar patronage. We swapped ends at half time to stand behind the Paulton goal. We were so close to the action, several Dolphins fans engaged the goalkeeper in humorous comments. But the play was at the other end to start with and soon Paulton were 4-2 up. Poole fought back, getting a goal and then getting a very dodgy penalty, which they converted for 4-4. With two minutes to go, Poole finally went in front, to prove the fans who were singing “We’re going to win 5-4” right. Result: 4-5

Shrewsbury Town v Chelsea

28/10/2014, Capital One Cup (League Cup) round 3

The view from the South Stand as Shrewsbury and Chelsea line up

This was my first Tuesday night Shrewsbury game since they moved into their new stadium in 2007, and it was the first time I’d been in the South Stand behind the goal. It was the place to be as well, as Shrewsbury’s Andy Mangan scored an equaliser in the second half right in front of us. The goal prompted Jose Mourinho to send on some of his first-teamers. For a brief few minutes it really felt like Shrewsbury could have the eventual Premier League Champions. But Chelsea got a second goal and killed the game to avoid an embarrassing reverse. One Chelsea player, apparently the Egyptian captain, struck the worst mishit shot I’ve ever seen. From the left hand corner of the area, it eventually went out for a throw in on the right hand side further away from the goal than the player was when he hit it. World Cup winner Andre Schurrle also played for Chelsea, one of his few games before he got transferred back to the continent. It was a great game, but unfortunately the road south through Shropshire was closed for roadworks, meaning I had a detour through nether Mordor (as I call it) in the dark. I was thoroughly knackered when I got home. Result: 1-2

Shrewsbury Town v Wycombe Wanderers

28/12/2014, Skybet League 2

Both teams shake hands. Horrible away kit!

Exactly two months after the Chelsea game, I was back in the Greenhous Meadow for this game on the Sunday between Christmas and Easter. This was a real top of the table clash, but it wasn’t a great game. Wycombe were wearing a horrible change strip that faded from yellow to orange (the photo doesn’t do it justice). My Mum commented that “It looks like they are melting ice lollies.” Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg was the man in the middle. He seemed pernickety, although he didn’t really have a lot to do. Town got the ball in the net twice, but both efforts were ruled out for offside or a foul in the build-up. It was definitely a case of missed opportunities and my second 0-0 of the season. I was beginning to think I was a jinx. Result: 0-0

Newport County v Shrewsbury Town

31/01/2015, Skybet League 2

The closest ‘away’ game of the season, ten minutes on the train and a fifteen minute walk on a sunny January day. Newport share their ground, Rodney Parade, with the rugby club and the pitch looked like a rugby pitch. One end of the ground is completely open to the elements and a keen wind blew through it. The game wasn’t much better than the pitch, settled by a single goal when Shrewsbury's Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro shimmied past two defenders and beat the goalkeeper at the near post. It surprised everybody, including, it seemed, him. Result: 0-1

Caerau (Ely) AFC v Carmarthen Town                     

07/02/2015, Welsh Cup round 4

My friend Steve mentioned that Kieran, a lad we both know, played for Caerau Ely in the South Wales League and we could go and see him sometime. Then I saw they were playing Carmarthen Town of the Welsh Premier League in the fourth round of the Welsh Cup – the furthest Caerau Ely had ever progressed in the competition. So we decided to go. Kieran wasn’t playing as he was recovering from an injury. (He was on the bench though). The game was pretty even and Caerau probably had the better chances in normal time. But it finished 0-0 after ninety minutes and went to extra time. Carmarthen scored a minute into extra time then got a penalty, with Caerau’s central defender getting a red card as well. The penalty was converted and Carmarthen scored twice more before the midway point of extra time, to win by a flattering four goal margin. Result: 0-4 (aet)

Queens Park Rangers v Everton

22/03/2015, Premier League

One of the QPR mascots

Along with Poole Town, Steve is also a lifelong fan of QPR, so he invited me to go see them. This was the second game of the season that I went to on a Sunday. QPR were desperate for points near the bottom of the league and played like it. Everton led with a goal out of nowhere in the first half. QPR equalised in the second half and were pushing on to get a second when Everton hit them on the break and Aaron Lennon scored the eventual winner for them. This was the first time I remember seeing a ref using the ‘vanishing spray’ at free kicks, and also those moving electronic advertising hoardings around three edges of the ground – they don’t bother putting them on the side where the TV cameras are as they wouldn’t show on TV. Coming back the M4 was blocked by an accident, so we turned off and moseyed through Berkshire, meaning I saw Windsor Castle close up for the first time. Result: 1-2

Wales U21 v Bulgaria U21            

31/03/2015, UEFA U21 Championship Qualifier

Bulgaria turn to face east during the anthem

A young lad called Dom Smith who has come through the ranks at Shrewsbury was called up to the Wales Under-21 squad for this game, so I hoped he would get a game. It was at Cardiff City Stadium, within walking distance of home, so I went along. Dom made his debut, coming on as a substitute after one of the starting centre backs was concussed in a challenge. Bulgaria scored while the guy was prone on the halfway line, but by then they were 3-0 down so in the end it didn’t matter. Bad sportsmanship, though. Result: 3-1

Shrewsbury Town v Exeter City

11/04/2015, Skybet League 2

Steve hadn’t been to the Greenhous Meadow, although he had seen QPR play at the old Gay Meadow a couple of times. With Shrewsbury doing quite well in the league, I hoped this would be a game worth going to. I was not disappointed. I have never seen Shrewsbury play this well. They dominated their opponents, who were not a bad side. Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro got two goals, but the best goal of the game was right at the end, a thunderbolt from the edge of the area from Tyrone Barnett. There was also a funny moment when a load of rubbish escaped from the wheelie bins in the corner between the stands and blew on the pitch, prompting a chorus of "What a load of rubbish!" from the fans. A steward ran on to pick up the cardboard and plastic, which kept blowing away from him, prompting a chant of "You don't know what you;re doing!" Fair play, he laughed as well. Result: 4-0         

Cheltenham Town v Shrewsbury Town

25/04/2015, Skybet League 2

The Cheltenham mascot chats
 to a Town fan before the game

Cheltenham were staring relegation out of the league in the face for this game, while Shrewsbury needed to win to guarantee promotion. The game was decided by a farcical first-half goal credited to Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro, although it bounced off a defender and into the goal. Cheltenham really pushed to get something back and Shrewsbury’s Swiss goalie Jayson Leutweiler (playing on his birthday) made some tremendous saves, including a double save in the second half. It was Shrewsbury’s 23rd clean sheet of the season – a record for them. The away end was a sell-out but the seat next to my brother, Dave, was free, mysteriously, so we spent the second half cheering the lads on together. At the final whistle loads of Shrewsbury fans ran on the pitch to celebrate. I didn’t, as I felt that was disrespectful to Cheltenham.  Result: 0-1            

Shrewsbury Town v Plymouth Argyle

02/05/2015, Skybet League 2

This was meant to be the promotion party, but Shrewsbury were a goal down after two minutes and just never seemed likely to get back into it. Plymouth needed to win to get into the play-offs. If Shrewsbury had won and Burton Albion had lost, then Shrewsbury would have been champions. This time round I had the spare seat in a sell-out stadium next to me, so Dave joined me for the second half. It's strange how these things work out. As we heard news that Burton were trailing, it looked like Shrewsbury were throwing away the title. But in the end Burton won 3-2 and Town's result was moot. Shrewsbury got presented with the runner’s up trophy instead. It was not a great way to end the season, with the heaviest home defeat of the year, but it was a good season over all, with Town amassing a record number of points. Result: 0-2

Caerau (Ely) AFC v Taff's Well FC              

15/05/2015, South Wales League Cup Final          

My friend Kieran did get to play in this game, held at Jenner Park in Barry, a ground I’d never been to before. Caerau had three very good chances in the first half, but somehow didn’t score. They got as close as hitting the inside of the post. Taff’s Well led 1-0 at half time having hit Caerau on the break with a very good cross finding a man in the box to strike home. Caerau equalised late in the second half to force extra time, by which time there were a lot of very tired players out there, particularly as both sides had been reduced to ten men. Extra time played out and it went to penalties. Caerau scored their first three, while Taff’s Well missed two of their first three. Leading 3-1, Caerau had the opportunity to win the cup for the first time in their history. They were already league champions. This would be a historic double. But it was not to be. They missed their next three penalties, including the first one in ‘sudden death’, and it was Taff’s Well who took home the trophy. It was the third time they had won it in four seasons. A penalty shoot-out was a very exciting way to end the last game of the season. Result: 1-1 (aet), Taff’s Well won 4-3 on penalties.

The day after Star Wars Day: The Revenge of the 5th

I said this a bit on Twitter, but I’ve been reflecting on why Star Wars means so much to me. A lot of it comes down to this: Return of the Jedi was the first film I saw in the cinema after my family came back to this country from Africa.

I didn’t really understand what was going on. I hadn’t seen the first two movies. I knew there were goodies and baddies and I liked the Ewoks beating the Stormtroopers and Jabba the Hutt was disgusting and the fight over the Sarlacc was dangerous and Luke Skywalker was brave and things exploded and spaceships were cool, especially the Millennium Falcon.

And for two hours I forgot that I had left the warm and known environment of Africa behind and been made to come back to this cold, unfriendly place that people said was my home, but wasn’t really.

As a young teenager I saw Empire Strikes Back for the first time and loved it. We taped it off the telly at Christmas and watched it so often we almost wore out the tape. I still remember where the advert breaks were in that recorded copy. (It was a big Christmas premiere for ITV.) I know most of the dialogue off by heart. It edged out Jedi as my favourite film of the trilogy.

It’s kind of fashionable to beat up on Star Wars and the people who love it. They aren’t the coolest films out there. There are clear plot holes and unlikely coincidences and for some reason Stormtroopers can’t shoot straight and their armour doesn’t work against arrows. Yeah, all those things. And I will line up with anyone else to pour scorn on the prequels, although The Phantom Menace probably gets more vitriol than it deserves whereas the third one should be coated in lead and sunk in a very deep hole somewhere.

And, yes, the trilogy is good for jokes and pastiche. I’ve always loved Spaceballs. I really love the Robot Chicken feature length Star Wars episodes. But you can tell Robot Chicken is done with love and affection for the films, not to poke spitefully at the people who love them. (Even if we are all depicted as weedy nerds by the Chickeners.)

I think the reason May the Fourth has taken off in just a few years from geek joke to major Twitter event is down to the attachment people have for the films.  The original trilogy holds such emotional importance for me I turn to them when I’m poorly or feeling low. Return of the Jedi was my first comfort film; the first movie to transport me away from a difficult situation that I was struggling to adjust to. It helped a confused and, I realise now, grieving, little boy to believe the world could be a place where good triumphed in the darkest of circumstances, where evil could be defeated, where heroism would be rewarded, where little people held the fate of the universe in the balance, even if the big people had guns and scout-walkers and speeder-bikes.

Even now I get a lump in my throat when I watch the scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where Luke throws away his lightsaber and tells the Emperor that he won’t turn to the dark side because he is a Jedi. Like his father before him.

Faced with that choice I wanted to be as brave as Luke Skywalker. I wanted to be a Jedi.

I still do.