Stone Gods @ Cardiff Barfly 27/03/09

What a blinding set from the Stone Gods last night - they really deseve better than playing in the basement of a Cardiff pub.

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Nonetheless, a great sound and good fun.

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Click My You Tube Site for some vids.

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Pontypridd away tomorrow

A tough one for Ebbw tomorrow, but let's hope for a good display and an upset.

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Not always the happiest ground for us, except when we tonked Newport in '98, but good luck to the lads.

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I can't make it, hope others will shout for me.

Stone Gods tonight

Stone Gods tonight at Cardiff's Barfly. Should be good!

More Glamorgan news, and goodbye to Geoff Holmes

A good win over Western Province B by Glamorgan in a 2 dayer, and a final one day match today I understand.

Congratulations to Peter Walker on his election by a majority of 3-1 as the new club President. He says he'll be no 'yes man' to Paul Russell which I think is a good thing.

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Sad news of the week is the death of Geoff Holmes at the ridiculously young age of 50. He was in a meeting, had a headache (don't we all get that), but then after leaving suffered a brian hemorrhage and died. Dreadful news.

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He took a wonderful 5 wickets for 2 runs in Ebbw Vale once for Glam versus Derbyshire, and the 'grass bank' roared him on. I remember it well as I was operating the small scoreboard down by the rugby stand. RIP fella.

Holland?

After two encouraging wins, Glamorgan's pre-season tour of South Africa came back down to earth with a 2 wicket loss to minor counties standard Holland.

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Rather disappointingly we failed to defend 267 after 50s from Rees, JD and Wright.

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Report here and scorecard here.

Y&T for Cardiff

The splendid Y&T [wiki] celebrate 35 years in the business by rolling into the UK in the Autumn to support their forthcoming album.

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And with The Point's passing, they will play at The Globe in Roath on Bonfire Night, November 5th - just got to be done.

Surrey Cricket TV and Radio

Like them or not, Surrey are one of the most advanced counties in terms of using the 'net to inform their fans.

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With the season around the corner, the brilliant Surrey Cricket TV provides highlights of every day's play, including their current pre season tour in Dubai, and Surrey Radio provides ball by ball coverage of all games, both headed up by a decent bloke called Mark Church.

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Now all we need is Glamorgan to do the same - I am available.

Forthcoming gigs

I'm not planning on my Easter wedding and subsequent marriage affecting my gig going.

This Friday it's the wonderful Stone Gods (darker and better than The Darkness) at the Barfly (Heaven's Basement are also there in a few weeks), Saxon on MayDay at Bristol Academy, and UFO at the same venue in June. The Sunday at Download is looking pretty tasty too with loads of 'old school', plus of course the masters, Deep Purple, at Hammersmith in November.

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Also, we can expect the Dio fronted Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, to be round again supporting their new album.

Good stuff!

England's women

Congratulations to England's women on winning the Cricket World Cup overnight, a magnificent achievement and a welcome boost to the female game in this country.

Perhaps they can teach the fellas a thing or two about playing the white ball game?

Lineout ball

As followers of Ebbw Vale will know from this season, if you can't win your own lineout ball, you face an uphill battle to win the game.

And so it was with Wales yesterday. Despite snatching it once with a late drop goal and nearly snatching it late with a penalty (why didn't Henson take it?), Wales lost to a superior Ireland side who deserved their Grand Slam - and outside of our lot, I'd prefer to see our Celtic cousins win rather than anyone else.

Busy

Just busy.

And Ebbw are not playing until next week.

But Glamorgan have had 2 morale boosting wins out in South Africa.

UFO tour

UFO (wiki), one of the great hard rock acts of the last 40 years, have a new album out soon "The Visitor", and of course there'll be an accompanying tour.

Looks like it's Bristol Academy on Sunday 21st June - sadly no Wales date, shame on you boys after 600 of us stood knee deep in the Chepstow Castle mud the summer before last.

Never mind, I'll be there.

Llanelli 35 Ebbw Vale 13

As expected, another defeat, but not the 50 points that I thought.

It's come to a stage when we can talk about a 30 points defeat as an improved performance, but it really was that bad last Saturday.

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I still think we need one more win to be safe, and the best chance of that is Pooler at home on April 11th.

Llanelli away

A tough one on Tuesday night - Llanelli away.

One thing is certain. Unless there's marked improvement on Saturday's shambles at Ebbw Vale, then this will be another defeat.

I hope I'm wrong, but last Saturday didn't fill me with much hope for the rest of the season.

Nonetheless, if you read the supporters' forum, we should be having a discussion about the loyalties of supporters and how we should do more for the club, rather than speaking our minds about the dross that was served up on Saturday.

From what I could see, some players have already made up their mind about their loyalties, and are 'working their notice' at Ebbw Vale. I'm not convinced about our coaching set up either. It's March and we can't even secure our own lineout ball, and our second and third phase possession involves hookers and props as first receivers.

I could go on, but I really can't accept that Ebbw Vale's sole role is as a development club for young players. That's a 1 way ticket to Division One East, playing in front of crowds of 120.

Ebbw Vale 3 Llandovery 27

A desperate afternoon at Eugene Cross Park with a display that brought back memories of the dark years of the early 90s.

We've got big problems, and need a complete shake up before next season whether we stay in this division or not, and that ain't guaranteed yet.

In 35 years as an Ebbw Vale supporter, this was about as low as it's got.

Llandovery home Saturday

I think it's going too far to describe this one as a 'must win', but it's probably fair to describe it as a 'if we don't win this, we got problems' type of game.

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Llandovery nearly always prove to be a headache for us, but we did win up there earlier in the season and Pontypool won there last week. A defeat at home to the Drovers would send the shivers through the club.

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Clearly we got problems, despite an improved display last week. Rumours of financial difficulty and of players having signed for lower division clubs already for next season are pretty destablising - those who hold the purse strings and have the power really do need to get a grip.

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A bit of this spirit and fight in the club like this guy used to give wouldn't go amiss.

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My Stag Do...

It's not often that I drift too far from the subjects of rugby, cricket or music on here, but I would like to say a big thank you to those splendid gentlemen who took time out of their busy lives to join me on my Stag Party last weekend in the surprisingly salubrious surroundings of Butlin's Minehead for their '80s Madness' weekend (it certainly beat Pontins Prestatyn).

A good time was had by all with plenty of beer, 3 rugby internationals, live bands, and of course all the cheesy 80s pop (how did we do it all?). In fact it couldn't have gone much better (okay I did have to miss a home Ebbw game).

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For the record, I saw Then Jerico, Aswad, Bad Manners, Keith Harris (complete with swearing monkey and duck) and Alexander O'Neill. In addition, I saw tributes to Madness, Abba, Simple Minds, Blondie, The Specials, Madonna and U2.

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I can't believe that it's been and gone - time seems to be going quicker all the time. And the big day is fast approaching.

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Thanks again guys. There should be a pic or two soon.