I felt the knife in my hand.....

I am not a great admirer of the Welsh and their attitude to rugby, English rugby in particular, so one would think i would be delighted to hear that the Rugby Football union are trying to ban the singing of Delilah at the National Stadium, but I am not.

Is this Woke going mad? Already this week Black Boy Lane, in Tottenham, was renamed without any consultation with the residents of the street, or the neighbourhood surrounding it. The consensus is that had such a study been conducted there would have been an over riding swell of opinion to keep the name. It is and was part of the history of the area, and that history cannot be changed or eradicated by the removal of something a right wing London councillor thinks might upset somebody.

The history of why the street is so named is more important than erasing the name from public view.

So more on Delilah. I have been known to lead the singing of the song on the bus from Richmond to Twickenham many times, my last public rendition was at my mate Stu's 70th birthday just before Christmas, and I  have a sneaky feeling that I will get to sing it again, maybe with Welsh supporters at Twickenham.

They are a fickle bunch, rugby supporters, and the last thing they like is somebody telling them what they can and can't sing at rugby matches. You pay upwards of £130 per ticket and reserve the right to sing. 

The RFU tentatively tried to stop the crowd singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, a nergo spiritualist song, it was still sung, so they went quiet on their objection. They will probably try to get it banned now on the back of the ridiculous Welsh decision.

I would back my house on Delilah being sung by the crowd in Cardiff on Saturday, probably when the teams run onto the pitch. Sometimes you need to pick your battles more carefully.

Fields of Green

 Today the BBC web-site had interviews with Danny Care (England) and Sam Warburton (Wales) in which they ranked the Six Nations stadia. Their order was:

1.  Cardiff
2. Twickenham
3. Murrayfield
4. Paris
5. Dublin and
   
6. Rome

That is fascinating and from a players point of view they see little of the 'weekend experience' where we have often commented that the game is often the low point of the celebrations. My choice would be this:

1. Dublin
2. Rome
3. Twickenham
4. Paris
5. Murrayfield
6. Cardiff

Almost a reverse order. Interesting.

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.