Found the ground no problem, those big old floodlights of the Rugby club being a dead giveaway. Met Beefy at the gate. He was a man on a mission, local fish and chips his quest. Paid my £8 to enter the historic St Helen’s ground and with instructions from the Chip Hunter found Kimmy just below the player’s balcony.

With a broad Cheshire cat grin on her face I thought, “blimey she celebrated well after last night’s win” but this was not true. The reason for the grin was that her favourite player had given her one of his shirts (not used or at least washed we decided). Iceman you are all heart and that was a very generous thing to do. The grin never left her face all day.

With the success of his F&C mission Beefy returned. Local product very agreeable I was informed though they had to be scoffed a bit sharpish as it started to rain.

The ground staff being fully trained in Welsh weather conditions always leave a man on the covers tractor, wicket covered in no time at all. An investigation of the bar facilities took place to find Worthington the only bitter! Ah well a day on the wagon or Guinness? Guinness, please .The rainy stuff kept coming and going as did the covers for most of the day. On one occasion Scottie and Iceman had not even left the field and the covers were coming off, the umpires back down the steps and Compo “keep raining” and crew out of the dressing room.

The wind was also very keen across the open stands and outfield. This provided one of those comedy incidents you had to be there to see, the type you never have a camera handy for. The bin being quite full by this time decided to discharge a poly chip plate, straight onto the head of the guy sat next to the bin. Not much of a hat and not enough to keep the rain of he removed it as casually as he could in front of about thirty people, most of who were nearly wetting themselves with laughter, and placed it back in the bin. As I say you had to be there to fully appreciate it but the story bears relating.

Rain brought an early end to the days play so it was hotels for everyone time. Mine being on the front was 5 mins away, others had a longer walk or indeed even a bus or taxi ride to theirs. Due to the late finish the night before, the travelling and a busy day I decided on the 24 hour Tesco option for a meal rather than troop back into town .I brought enough stocks to keep me going should the weather turn nasty and prevent a food hunt in future evenings. Evening meal prepared in my room on the third floor of the hotel watching the night fall and the Mumbles lighthouse go about the work it has done every night for hundreds of years.

Lights out soon after my meal , one very tired Teddy.

Wet,wet,wet.
 
Heavy overnight rain meant no start till after an early lunch on the Friday of the game.  Early breakfast at the hotel 7am – 8am meant I had time to head up to town on the mission to find an inflatable sheep that my daughter had set me. Easy I thought, sheep, big Welsh City must be able to find one. Not that simple it seems, the shops I tried were out of stock, either that or it is still an under the counter thing and they wouldn’t sell one to an Englishman! Ah well try again later in my stay I thought.

Up to the ground to find covers on, Kimmy gone home and Beefy debating whether to get his train in the afternoon , stay on or go home and come back again, watching Championship games can get you like that at times. A few beers and a look at the Test. There were a fair few Middlesex supporters about the St Helen’s ground. It was rumoured that this would be the last cc fixture at this ground where history was made by Sir Garfield Sobers against Malcolm Nash. This would be a shame but as South Wales cricket is Cardiff centric (according to the Swansea locals)  and Sofia needs paying for I would not be surprised if it were true.

Chris Broad’s day at the Test, Glammies at St Helen’s.  Beefy went at 3pm via the cab the lass behind the bar had given him a number for . I sat watching both games with some of the members of Glamorgan, highly knowledgeable about the game, warm and friendly to be with as ever they brightened a rather dreary afternoon.  One even, on hearing I was down for all four days, gave me a couple of his complimentary tickets for the remaining two days. An act of kindness he wouldn’t even take a beer for. Play lasted till the close, the overnight rains being all we got today, what do forecasters know? Very little it seems.

The Sheep hunt and the walking involved in that meant a local pub meal and then to bed. The hunt for the elusive inflatable would wait for another day. Mind you I need to find one my new mobile with internet having arrived at home will not get set up without one arriving home with me.
 
 
Sinking Saturday.

I woke early on Saturday in my seafront hotel. Although it has the main dual carriageway heading out to the Gower Peninsula it is a very pleasing place to stay with good glazing little or no traffic noise gets in and the views are superb. Mumbles and the Gower to the right, Swansea and Port Talbot to the left , although an industrial area there is a strange beauty about a steelworks under lights at night with it’s chimney flares and all.

What a day’s cricket this turned into. The fans really couldn’t decide between them which side would chuck it away, both had tried at various points to do this. The wicket had been turning from day one and today was to be no different. Shaggy and TSO bowled Glam out for 135 leaving us wanting the small matter of 190. 190 on a raving Bunsen with Croft in the opposition was not going to be easy. As the match scorecard shows they fell 23 runs short of their target.

The highlight of my day today was meeting Kevin Hand of BBC Radio London in one of his trips out of the box (I hope he had turned the mike off as the pa at St Helen’s is awfully loud). You tend to put faces to voices when you listen online and I was most surprised to find out what a young man our Kevin in fact is.

Game over adjourn to the Cricketers next to the ground for a beer and a look at some of the photos on the walls of the old ground in her heyday. It will be a really shame if it were to disappear from the calendar totally.

Walked back to my hotel to find it had been invaded by celebrating students all getting ready for a night on the razz in Swansea. Decided that as they would all be back at about 3am when the clubs closed and sleep would no longer be an option then that I would get an early night.

Spot the Match reporter?
 
You should be able to guess by now who your match reporter for day four was going to be, yep, me with no access to the net while away it was decided I do day 4 and post in when I got home with an overall summery of the Welsh week. Good job I took lots of notes about things that happened during the week because a report on day four can be summed up in one sentence cricket wise, there wasn’t one!

Overall though my host in Cardiff was very happy with the win in the cc, he had said we could have the P40 one so long as they won the cc game, very generous I thought.

Cardiff was its usual self, friendly, clean and a great time. Swansea I was surprised by. A major City and a port with no inflatable sheep! You got to be kidding. The hotel was well worth the £25 a night and even had a little “action” on Sunday morning Robert the owner told me.  The Police were called to “evict” three of our student guests for chucking stuff out of the windows and setting off a fire extinguisher.  The students chose to leave before the Constabulary arrived (probably got previous). Thing is I must have slept through all this! OK I heard people coming in late but not the rest of it.
 

On the cricket I along with many others enjoyed a low scoring game where spin was the key and batsmen’s skills tested in playing it, though mostly with little or no success. Yes the result did not go our way, I did not find my sheep and will be made to pay for it you can guarantee but a super holiday and listening on the portable radio to England win the Ashes can’t be too bad a way to spend a week can it?

Would I do it again? Tomorrow, if I could.

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