On Cardiff City, American Football In Wales, and The South Wales Valleys....As You Do.

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As I'm writing this the biggest sporting news is that Cardiff City have won promotion to the Premier League after four years. This time they'll be managed by Neil Warnock (author of The Gaffer which I've discussed in this blog and is a good read)..

More than Swansea City it'll be very easy for me to go and watch them play West Ham. I've done it before. All I need to do is to pretend to be a Bluebird and look dejected when West ham win whilst keeping a monk-like silence so no one will suspect that inside I'll be happy as Larry...whoever he was.

Aside from that though I genuinely wish them well (along with Swansea City, Newport and Leyton Orient). I suspect for Cardiff City next season. A dull but stable season will suit most people fine.

But whilst they were getting promotion I was watching a different sport. American Football in fact from the British National Football League. The Welsh team, the South Wales Warriors were playing and I kid you not The Jurassic Coast Raptors from Dorset. Arguably the most stupid name in American Football history.

I like American football, with it's combination of violence and chess and as it was free to watch and wife/daughter didn't have anything better to counter it with I decided to go to Llanharan Rugby Club where the game was being held by myself (they don't like the sport).

As I took my spot the Welsh team were doing their pre match training. There was eventually a fair crowd for this game, given that the players were mainly doing this for the love of the sport and not for multi-million pound contracts. Still rules are rules. A bearded man with a clipboard asked a player whether he had a Warrior strip. Given that the player was wearing the strip he was not impressed.

Next the coach introduced the team to the team to wops and cheers from the team.

The Green Army

After that he told the players he expected a high score from them. He needn't have worried as it soon became clear that this game was going to get one sided as once the Warriors scored a touchdown they soon scored another one."They're not pushing" was a comment I heard one of the Warrior players make on their opponents. And it was true. I'd put more effort in opening a Jam jar than the Raptors did on the pitch.

After touchdown two

In all honesty the Raptors were an awful team. I could only recall one significant drive they had. And they didn't score from that.

After the third touchdown you knew it was going to be the sort of victory where the opposition had neither the energy, talent or resolve to beat the Warriors.

Half time. Time for food. A Hot Dog and a Pepsi. Wouldn't have been more American at that moment unless singing a Country and Western tune.

After I had the hot dog I was reading one of the two books I'd borrowed from the library. It was this:

Matthew Quick - The Good Luck Of Right Now

Regular readers will know I didn't like the last book of his I read. I won't chat about this properly until I've finished but so far so good.

The Warriors Half Time Warm-Up

Soon after the second half started the Welsh side scored again. I'd lost count by this time.

And then they scored again. and again. Come the last quarter I knew I was going to leave early. Why? Because you could tell that the Warriors Jurassic performance had like their Dinosaur namesake rolled over and died. There was a sort of surrender in their performance which meant it was pointless to stay on. And I left with about five minutes remaining.

"The game's not over" said the offensive coach to his men as I was walking passed them. Trust me it was over a long while before that.

I decided to drive around the South Wales Valleys before I went home. It was a spur of the moment thing. So I didn't stop until I reached somewhere near Treherbert. Still the views were stunning. Here they are.











And let me repeat. If my wife dies before me I'm moving to Treorchy. No matter what my wife or her Cardiff friends and family think. And this is the reason why. Let's face it. If I didn't tell you where I was you'd think France or Tuscany.

Until the next time.