The rain in Wales falls mainly on the pitches

Airbus UK P Bangor City P
Welsh Cup 4th Round
1/2/14

Today was a bad weather day for most of the WPL.

I went to Rhyl.

Rhyl 5 Port Talbot 2
Welsh Premier League
1/2/14

It would have been nice to have seen our PTT comrades last week but the game, this game, was postponed. We didn’t meet this week either because the PTT fans couldn’t make it, ho-hum. Eric turned up after the Colwyn Bay match had been postponed.

PTT scored thanks to the wind and a massive deflection. Rhyl couldn’t get anywhere against the wind. You can tell there’s a strong wind when goal kicks become corners.

The second half was a totally different experience for Rhyl; they scored 5 goals. Their second goal was rather good; the Rhyl left back slalomed past the 5 PTT players that blocked his path to goal before smashing it past the keeper. PTT could have set up an exciting finish when they made it 3-2 but Rhyl scored another couple. Carlos Roca, the ex-FC United player, played well on his debut.

It wasn’t all enjoyable  today, Eric and I were saddled with one of those characters that plagues semi-pro football, the gossiping know-it-all.  Eric and I normally moider as the match proceeds –  In the north-west Welsh dialect “moider” means “to pass the time by talking bollocks in an entertaining fashion” – so we knew there would be trouble ahead when we saw his distinctive gait approaching.

Obviously the gossiping know-it-all totally ruined the ambience with his extremely loud bluster and pointed questions about Bangor’s finances. His noise was quite embarrassing but Eric and I were too polite to tell him to fuck off.

 

Bangor City 0 Airbus UK Broughton 2

Welsh Cup 4th Round

4/2/14

Airbus agreed to switch the match, it rained, the pitch was heavy and we lost to a team with no fans. Why do these kind of clubs even bother?

 

Bangor City P Port Talbot P

Welsh Premier League

8/2/14

I should have realized that the match would be at risk from the week we’d just experienced.

1. I had been looking forward to today’s match since Monday’s announcement told us that the kick off was going to be 11:45. In fact I was a little too excited by this development as I’ve never been present at a match that kicked off in the morning before. There’s a long and boring story about the choice of kick off time that I won’t bore you with, let’s just call it “S4C’s desire to show Wales play rugby” to save time.

2. Weather, weather, weather was still everywhere. Unfortunately I caught some 24hr news channel reportage whilst I was in the bank yesterday. I saw a reporter whip an angry flood victim in to so much anger they demanded the head of the head of the Environment Agency. I’m not really sure that one of the UK’s senior civil servants was totally responsible for the rain and the budget cuts his Agency had suffered.

Later in the evening the BBC news featured a young lady that moan about needing to catch TWO replacement rail buses. YES THAT’S TWO RAIL REPLACEMENT BUSES. NOT ONE RAIL REPLACEMENT BUS OOOOOH NO, BUT TWO, YES TWO, RAIL REPLACEMENT BUSES. Another young woman moaned that her rail replacement bus had been 20 minutes late, YES, A WHOLE TWENTY MINUTES LATE…… The flood victims must have been seething with anger about the inconvenience that these people had to suffer.

The weather has also been causing havoc in Welsh football so I started to demand answers from the television; why aren’t WE receiving help? Why should WE suffer postponements in the 21st century? Don’t WE pay enough TAX as it is? The television sat there silently, I rested my case.

There was a time when The Day Today was a satire on the edge of believability.

3. The messiness of the WPL had been compounded. A league season shouldn’t be messy of course but a couple of details messed things up.

Firstly, only half of the scheduled second phase matches were due to take place today thanks to two other reasons; 1. Aberyswyth’s situation; Rhyl and Aber are unable to play league matches until this problem is settled. 2. Last week’s postponed Welsh Cup matches were being played today because they take precedence over league fixtures.

Secondly, today should have been the start of the second phase of league fixtures but it wasn’t. The final match of the first phase – Airbus versus Connah’s Quay – had been postponed several times since New Year’s Day and still had to be played.

We should respect scientific order in our society, the second phase should happen after the Top Six / Bottom Six split AT THE END OF THE FIRST PHASE especially as the FAW are at pains to demand a clear divide between the phases. That’s the FAW for you; scientific heresy is around every corner.

With this background it was no wonder that today became another bad weather day.

All my plans were buggered up;

Plan A; Bangor – off.

Plan B; FC United – off.

Plan C; Watch Prestatyn?????

Plan D; Watch the rugby??????????

I thought about Plan C and the possibility of offering support to local semi-pro football. Then I thought about the seven quid that it would cost to see Neil Gibson. Plan C????? “”Nah, Fuck ’em”.

Plan D was the only choice. When I was youngster with a rugby loving dad watching Wales play in the five nations was great even though Wales were crap. When I consider Welsh rugby now I can’t shake the uber-Cymro divvies in daffodil balaclavas that suddenly remember they’re uber-Cymros. I gave Plan D a swerve.

I dusted off Plan X; A trip to Poundland & Tesco.

When I got home from Plan X I gave Plan D twenty minutes. I logged on to twitter to find that the fans of Welsh rugby are exactly like the fans of TMF; when the imposter of disaster comes into view twitter is filled with a charming mixture of vitriol and self-pity. Needless to say I switched over to ITV4

Bangor City P Airbus UK P

Welsh Premier League

14/2/14

Another bad weather day, which was just as well as I wasn’t going to this match anyway due to Valentine’s Day commitments.

Chorley P FC United P

Northern Premier League

15/2/14

It’s my own fault, I was excited by the prospect of visiting Chorley. I’d even looked up a walking route from the station on Goggle Maps. Ergo, they called it off at 10 am.

The weather’s wont forced me to consider a back up plan. I was going to need something if I was on my way to Manchester and the FC match was called off. Rochdale’s match began to look promising.

Needless to say Chroley called the match of after a 10am pitch inspection. Bugger. I was still at home when I found out about FC postponement so yesterday’s “promising” became this morning’s “couldn’t be arsed”.

I might have still gone if my new 9-11 am Saturday morning ritual – “The twitter postponement search” – hadn’t  brought me down again, with another raft of postponements. This tweet summed up the general mood;

@CollinsWFM In Wales today, it’s not so much a question of which games are off, but which are definitely on. Welsh Lg on 3G at both Cambrian & Lliswerry

Nothing was on, at least nothing I could be arsed with, Wolves? Telford? Crewe? Bollocks to it all. I’m not getting my trainers wet for you lot.

Newtown P Bangor City P
Welsh Premier League
21/2/14

This one may be new record for me, A game called off with 5 days notice;

“Due to the fact that Holywell v Newtown’s re-scheduled Welsh Cup match will now be played on Saturday afternoon – Friday’s scheduled Corbett Sports WPL match (21/2/14) between Bangor City and Newtown at the Book People Stadium has been postponed.”

I don’t know why I’m getting angry about this, I know the asinine rules say that postponed Welsh Cup take precedence over league matches.

If only Newtown could play their Welsh Cup match on a Tuesday. Oh but you’re not allowed to play Welsh Cup matches in midweek, because Welsh Cup matches need to take precedence for a Saturday.

But what’s that you say, earlier this month Bangor played a Welsh Cup match on a Tuesday to help fixture congestion. You’re joking!!……………………oh, you weren’t joking were you?

The rain in Port falls mainly all the year round.

Porthmadog FC 2 Bangor City 3

Loosemore’s League Cup

The mist enveloped everything, it was all we could see. Strange lights passed us. Were we in the the nth dimension? 

No, it was the road to Porthmadog and the mist wasn’t mist, it was horizontal rain. We made it through the rivers, we made it across the precariously shiny tarmac. The inside of the car felt like a cave. It was one of those days that makes your bones feel damp. It was just the kind of day to watch football in one of the rainiest regions in Britain.

The short journey from the clubhouse to cover wasn’t short enough so now I was literally wet as well as psychologically. The first half was easy; 2-0 up after half an hour. It could have been more as well. The referee made some inexplicable decisions but we were winning so it didn’t matter, like.

Whilst in the club shop at half time I had to share space with two blokes who seemed to be unnaturally excited that they sold programmes: “Fucking Hell, look at that!! United!!” This felt very strange indeed; their attire (Grown-Up Scally) convinced one that neither of them were “readers”

The second half was boring. We scored again and that was that. Some time later I finally noticed what the two really loud people nearby  were shouting; irritating slogans that they’d learnt from Soccer AM. It was the scallies from the shop. Porth scored and the scallies roared. Two minutes later Porth scored again so they renewed their barrage. Unfortunately for us they took themselves down to the end Porth were attacking, their magnatism was sure to pull the ball in. It didn’t work and we won, hurrah!!

While we’re on the subject of fans, where were the Rhyl fans today? A little bit of rain and they don’t turn up, bloody glory hunters.