Head westwards down the M4 for 2 hours and follow the road as far west as is possible, and you will come to a stop, finally at the City of St.David’s.
I’ve been going on holiday here ever since I can remember, and is one of the best kept secrets in Wales. It pains me to have to share it with you.
for diners the U.K’s smallest city has it all, fine dining like the Cwtch Restraunt, to traditional local pubs, the Farmers Arms. Both popular haunts for locals and visitors alike.
The ancient cathedral, St David’s sit peacefully in the valley beneath the city, and the spire is just about visible for miles around. History speaks that the cathedral was built in this place so the pirates could not spot it from the sea.
The sea and the coast are an other attraction which draws visitors to the peninsula, from small fishing coves like Porthclais, to white sweeping beaches such as Whitesands, one of the best beaches in Britain.
For those who prefer activities than lounging in the sunshine on the peninsula, the coastal path offers escape. Around each corner is a breath taking view, either over bay to Scoma island, or further up the coast, overlooking Ramsey Island and Whitesands beach.
Twr Y Felin offers those slightly more adventurous an opportunity to quench their thirst for thrills. Theyand surfing, kayaking to coasteering i.e jumping off cliffs into the sea below.
Simply. St.Davids, small though it is offers something for every one, so enjoy browsing the galleries and crafts shops, sun your self on the beach, quench your thirst in the Grove and become an adrenalin junkie on the shores.
Carnetown Football Club are an up-and-coming team in the South Wales amateur leagues. But their rampant progression through the leagues has been halted.
The club was formed in 1997, and since then has grown from strength to strength, that is until now.
The Grovers Field
Carnetown’s home ground, Grovers Field has been the subject of repeat attacks from vandals since August, and the sustained damage is threatening the existence of this pitch both on the pitch and financially.The club is a central part of this community, now with it’s senior side now playing in the South Wales Amateur League and with its ‘B’ side, junior and mini teams playing in the Aberdare Valley Football League.
It’s easy to appreciate the hard work Neil Morgan and associates have put in when building this club up from nothing. But it seem he and others from this community are having to build this club up from the ground once again.
After looking the team up, and finding their Facebook group, I took the twenty minute drive up to Abercynon to see the damage for myself, and also to meet Neil Morgan Carnetown club secretary, and Gareth Morgan, another individual central to the teams growth over the past decade.
Here’s my interview with Neil Morgan, Carnetown football club’s club secretary:
The damage to the Grovers field is extensive. Sections of the ten to twelve foot high fencing, which should enclose the pitch has been ripped down, or completely removed. Adding insult to injury the railings which separate spectators from the action on the pitch has been damaged, particularly when, in order to play in Division One of the South Wales amateur league it is vital that the ground is enclosed. The facilities Carnetown did have in order to meet South Wales amateur league regulations, have been destroyed.
Damaged fencing at the Grovers field
The lack of fencing means that the pitch is accessible to anyone during the time games are not played. The gate which along with the fencing should keep the public, particularly dog walkers off the pitch, has been removed and stolen. Neil Morgan told me that, on several occasions, prior to matches the players have had to clear the pitch of rubbish and dogs mess to make the surface playable. Which is frustrating for Neil as he explained that games have had to be postponed because the state vandals have reduced this once immaculate ground.
The dugout in the grandstand has been demolished. The ruins rubble is scattered pitch side. The vandals have even attempted to rip the iron roofing of the structure, but this remains, for the time being at least.
Carnetown's ruined dugout
It’s particularly frustrating for the club as people have seen the vandals in ‘action’, but were unable to get descriptions as the assailants made off.
It would seem that not only the ground is being targeted. The clubs ‘home’ The Carne Hotel was recently the target of an attempted letterbox fire attack, only for a member of the public, once again, to scare the assailants away in time.One thing that Gareth and Neil stressed to me was the importance of getting the general public to keep their eyes and ears open, to prevent any more damage being done to the Grovers field.
The financial damage is also hurting this club, with the repairs bill expected to run into thousands of pounds. The club has previously repaired and replaced sections of fencing, but this has also been ripped down, which is why Neil Morgan is finding it hard to envisage an end o this cycle of vandalism.
Parts of the damaged spectator barriers.
They plan to counteract the vandalism by pulling together their squad of players and club members to rebuild what is left. Carnetown’s players will turn into handy men. Neil told me that every one is digging into their pockets to help pay for supplies, such as paint nad materials, and a ground maintenance day is being planned to to repair some of the damage, to give the pitch and the team a lift, during the season.
When quizzed whether a local benefactor was willing to help, Mr Morgan said that he was even resorting to door knocking and flyer distribution in a bid to attract funds from the local community. But as of yet there’s no local millionaire who can stump up the cash.
The Morgan’s are urging people who see anything around the ground or the hotel to ring their nearest police station or on Neil Morgan’s number which I can give to you through this blog should you need it.
There are more photos I took of the Grovers field on flickr page.
So far I’ve tried to give you readers some advice about what to do and where to go in Cardiff and surrounding. So far many of my suggestions have entailed a bar and a pint glass..so I thought…why not a expand a little and tell you about some more of my favorite watering holes.
The Maenllwyd The Maen Llwyd.Firstly, you'll need a car to get here. But it's well worth it. Set on the hill above Cardiff in Rudry this pub is one of the best in South Wales.Sitting in the shadow of Rudry Mountain this pub is a popular for walkers and ramblers.The inside is typical of a country pub, making it cosy and warm in the winter months. But it's best feature is it's terrace area which is a good suntrap in the summer time. It serves great food and more importantly great beer so I highly suggest paying the Maenllwyd a visit.The Butchers
I’ve talked a lot in other posts about city center bars in Cardiff, but this is one of the best on a night out. It’s location is perfect if you frequent Vodka Revolutions or Clwb Ifor Bach, ‘Welsh Club.’ As the name suggests it’s an Irish Pub and when Celtic are on Sky, it’s full of Celtic supporters.
The Ivor Davies.
In terms of character, it doesn’t match up to the other pubs I’ve mentioned. It’s forte is match days. When Cardiff are playing, it’s full before kick of with city fans eagerly discussing who Jones will pick up top, or if the money’s there to buy players in January. All this fevered discussion over, Weatherspoon’s fast selection of well priced drinks. If your a football nut, come here on a match day.
It starts here. Johnston Press, the U.K’s second largest publisher had launched a trial to put paywalls on 6 of it’s titles, predominantly local papers such as the Whitby Gazette and the Southern Reporter.
The God Murdoch for a while now has been preaching that the only way forward for print journalism is to erect paywalls on it’s internet content, and with news breaking that next year he too will follow the example led by Johnston PLC does this signal a change, and too that the guru Murdoch has lost the plot?
With advertising plummeting many deem it the only option to keep companies like Newscorp afloat. But is it all bad news for the humble reader surfing the net for his or her news fix?
I predict not. The power and authority of bloggers continues to grow. Is it not possible that the newsreader who is unwilling to pay for internet news can turn to the blogger? It far-fetched, but if the papers were to collapse, what is to stop the reporters who already generate a huge amount of blog content turning to freelance blogging?
Simply I believe that the advent of paywalls will only see a greater increase in traffic to bloggers, with their authority and expertise becoming greater.
On Friday the BBC announced that Alex Gubbay, current interactive sports news editor for the BBC would become the first Social Media Editor in the corporations history. Here’s the link for those who want to read a bit more about it.
This announcement follows the New York times appointing their first social media editor back in May 2009.
Speaking to Mercedez Bunz from the Guardian Gubbay outlined that his new role would improve journalism in the BBC by inviting user generated content to become an integral part of general newsgathering from day-to-day. By inviting users to contribute to online journalism and also by penetrating the BBC’s news into social media services highlights the growth and influence that social media is now having on news in general.
The simple fact that global brands like the New York times and the BBC are acknowledging the importance of social media indicates that other companies will soon follow suit, and that the use of social media and news gathering is progressing quickly.
One thing up and coming journalists are being told is that print is dead because of blogging, the citizen journalist.
BUT! Here at CJS we’ve been told differently!
Joanne Geary of The Times believes than unpaid bloggers are there to help. And I must say I agree.
Her success is built upon her ingenuity, one facet of which was to create a network of bloggers to discover new and breaking local news. Simply, bloggers can also offer an expertize journalists can’t, vice versa.
We were told prior to the lecture, that she was young in relation to her status in the journalistic sphere, and this is simply testiment to her bravery you could say. I admire her, for when she was pushing I.T in the noses of the dinosaurs in her newsroom, she ignored the ‘it won’t work’ exuse.
This week Rory Cellan-Jones, THE technology correspondent for the BBC came to talk to us about social networking and journalism.
A matter of years ago, the technology was minimal, and in particular that he himself had no prior interest in the wide word of tech-not dissimilar to myself. His interest grew as the ‘revolution’ / ‘evolution’ took off in the late nineties and early naughties. Rory is an example to us all because he’s a journalist who embraces change, not an old dinosaur who is happy with a typewriter and telegraph.
His career shows technology is evolving at a mighty rate. Dr Claire Wardle touched upon this in her lecture, by showing us the amount of detailed search engines exists and continue to be superseded by others it’s only a matter of time untill Twitter and Facebook are both superseded. For example, will Plaxo take off?
For Rory, blogging and social networking is a chance to converse with his audience, sharing and discovering information on his ‘patch.’ This is a lesson I must adopt myself. By referring to times when people have disagreed with his reporting, they’ve been able to do so using social technology, especially Twitter to express these, Rory highlights how rewarding interacting with the audience is. Simply, he show’s that you must invite the audience to converse for your own journalism o develop. His success and popularity is down to his expertise in embracing social technology.
A websites success surely depends on its interactivity and it’s general appearance. Worlds best Websites judging criteria put a lot of emphasis 20% in fact on a website’s aesthetics. As important as it is to have an “effective use of leading edge technologies” as WBW believes, Daniel Meadows, digital story teller extraordinaire has proven less in indeed more.
Hi technique of using images within videos is fascinating and a medium which is attractive on a website especially. What strikes me is that a sequence of pictures with a narrative, like Daniel’s can also portray a story in ways a film does, at times more effectively. Daniel Meadows taught volunteers in small communities how to use digital story telling technology to tell THEIR stories as part of a scheme he worked in with the BBC. On their own, Mr X’s story is interesting if you’re like me, naturally inquisitive, but coupled with pictures and a narrative Mr.X’s story comes to life.
This lecture made me want to explore more examples of this medium. Here are some I found whilst trawling the internet, and also some examples I found on T.V aswell.
When watching them, I like to consider how the story stands individually, but then is enhanced by the magic of digital story telling.
The simplicity of Noah.K who took a picture of himself every day for six years and then put them in a short film is what makes it powerful.
More copycats have also followed suit:
This is on Soccer AM weekly (Our man in a Caf) and use images to run in parallel, rather crudely but makes the sketch more entertaining. Click the link, skip past the advert and enjoy.
This weeks task is to blog about blogging, as Tim Hart, aka timwellspent put it, does this just make us another Joe Blogs? He hasn’t copyrighted the statement so I’ve shotgunned.
I’ve blogged before about my incapability to get into the routine of blogging, for those who care, it’s getting easier. Our guest speaker this week, Adam Tinworth is the polar opposite of myself. He is Mr Blog and has been since the internet took off. As you would expect he had many interesting things to tell us. How important it is that bloggers provide for their community other than trying to create their community for example. I concur with this whole heartedly.
I understand and agree with Adam being considered an authority on blogging, but I could not help but get the impression that he was stressing the need for blogging to be purely informational and factual rather than being a source for some opinion. The notion of sharing information but not voice an opinion. I know as journalists we have to remain impartial but surely we need a respite and a little rant sometime?
Currently I’m writing for two blogs, sportcymru and this one walesbythewelsh and I like to think that there is informational content on both. But somewhere I’d ike a little bit of a rant. I think that there is a place for blogging and voicing and opinion. Look at newspapers. You have the news and then opinion. Why can’t blogs be as such?
Somewhere along the line I think that because blogs are seen as a space where amateur or free-lance journalist to share their content, most of the time at no or little cost, we have begun to take ourselves a little bit too seriously. We can have some fun with blogs, they dont have to be professional all the time do they?
I’m not naive enough to think that there are only a few blogs out there where Tom, Dick and Katie have rants, but why should we look down our mouses at them? Is it not as interesting to read someones opinion on current affairs? I think some where along the line we have become too caught up in finding and sharing sources for blog, than we have in explaining WHY we think this link, post or video is interesting, not in terms of the story but to us personally.
For me thus far blogging is still a chore, but why can’t I just rant? Next week I’ll try and link things into the post I promise Glyn, but for this week take this as my stand, my stand for the rant.
Just for links sake heres a video I’m putting up because I like it, thus I wanted to share it with you. Plus let’s hope it’s inspiration for Wales v the All Blacks! You’ll understand this pointless link after reading.
Met Cardiffs Tom Heaton earlier @adden would says he's a top professional 3 days ago
We also have Wales manager Chris Coleman and #SwanseaCity midfielder Leon Britton 3 days ago
#CardiffCity keeper Tom Heaton is live in studio with @robphillipshere with manager Malky Mackay also making an appearance on the programme! 3 days ago
