Welsh rarebit

I am not sure what overcame me last weekend, but on Thursday evening I found myself in Newport, Gwent,  as part of a golf party. I guess the need for a few rounds overcame the lifelong aversion to Wales and all things Welsh, family members and long term friends excluded.

So there we were, twelve of us, staying at the Celtic Manor resort, preparing to contest the Dai Pedro golf championship on the greens of the Montgomerie and Roman Road courses, before sliding back into England to finish the contest at the Players Club near Bristol.

Things started off fairly sensibly the first evening, with a few gallons of Brains SA and a nosh in a Beefeater restaurant, followed by a trip into the centre of Newport to visit a Lloyds Bar. This one used to be the Queens Hotel and was probably a magnificent place in its day. On a Thursday night in Newport, it was virtually empty , and a fairly soulless place. Still there was golf in the morning so the hangover damage was limited.

Friday dawned bright and clear so we wandered onto the first tee wanting to see just what the  courses had to offer. It soon became apparent that  the drainage systems were just not up to the job of clearing the amount of water which had fallen recently, and that was strange, as Celtic Manor commands a position high on the hills overlooking the town. Sadly that had an effect on the day, and the scoring was high as a result. Still there was always the night in Cardiff to look forward to!!!

Cardiff has re-invented itself recently with pedestrian areas, restaurants and new plush bars, and this did seem to attract a fine selection of ladies out onto the street. There were very few fights, with limited ,but spectacular, examples of projectile vomiting remain the stand out memories, it put the Welsh lads to shame.

After more golf on Saturday, we donned our fancy dress attire to hit the town in. This year it was Pub Signs' and followed on from our previous attempts at famous Englishmen, and countries of the World. My effort as The Kings Arms was not very well received so I was forced to be a duplicate of the Blue Blazer, a famous drinking establishment in Edinburgh.  Given Newport is the most common place name in the British Isles, I was disappointed nobody went as the Red lion, the most popular pub name.

The evening was highlighted by the twelve of us taking over a gourmet curry house and turning it into a typical Saturday night East End tandoori. The clientele and owners all took it in good spirits and a boozy time was had by all.

Now back to Celtic Manor. It was the venue of the 2010 Ryder Cup, which people may remember  ran over into the Monday due to the terrible weather on Sunday. UK and Ireland triumphed there as they did recently at Medina in Illinois. It was played on the 2010 course which we did not play this year as it was considerably more expensive and lay at the bottom of the valley.

Celtic Manor has aspirations to be the Turnberry of  Wales but from our experience, it has little hope of being able to emulate that venue. The courses are well laid  out although very similar to those found in Portugal and Spain. The weather is a major inhibitor and the surrounding area does not offer too much of a distraction. Still, you need to try these places to find out whether they are worth a repeat visit. It is really a glorified municipal pay and play, so I won't be putting this one on my returns list. 

Oh, yes, I came third and The Count  and I won the pairs competition, the third year running he has won, each time with a different partner, and it went down to the last putt on the last green on the last day.