Welsh domestic football remains undefeated

Long shot (mainly due to how little engagement I get on here), but I'm looking for freelance writers with an interest, or specialism in, classical music. If you are one, or know one, please give me a shout.

Saw two monks walking past a pub on my way into work. So close to a joke and not even 9am

That scene of the Welsh BBC correspondent being the only person interviewing Caerphilly's new Plaid AM while the rest of the media interviewed Reform's loser in the background was far too on the nose.

Da iawn Caerphilly! As a marker of how Reform-dominated this by-election’s media coverage has been, yesterday was the first time I’d actually seen or heard Lindsay Whittle; I wish I could say the same for Llyr Powell.

This year's #LondonLiteratureFestival gets under way at the @southbankcentre.bsky.social this week. Ahead of the festival I was lucky enough to speak with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage about his hitherto secret love for Yorkshire musician Bill Nelson

column on robbie keane www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The BBC are accidentally running the subtitles to Mrs Marple over the Mercury Prize, and it’s rather wonderful. A few of lines could plausibly have been written by Jarvis.

I don’t even trust sparkling water from a bottle let alone straight from your kitchen tap

The Lightning Seeds' 'The Life of Riley' was playing in the sandwich shop at lunchtime, and so now my afternoon is spent daydreaming of Jeremy Goss volleys and Georgi Kinkladze skipping past Southampton defenders

In the latest edition of @alternativewales.bsky.social (out now) I’ve written about searching for ‘good soccer’ in the guise of Eduardo Galeano and finding it in a third-tier Welsh midfielder with massive calves.

“You’re hundreds of miles from home, you’re cold, you’re soaked through, you’ve lost two nil… you wouldn’t swap this for anything” It’s 10 years ago today that Wales qualified for Euro 2016 in a suitably Welsh way. And I wrote this report-come-mini-novella on the experience of it all…

‘The front two coaches of this train will terminate at Chester, the rear two coaches will travel on to Wrexham and Shrewsbury. This train is formed of two coaches.’ Love it when the likelihood of me reaching my destination depends on my ability to solve a riddle.

"Good evening... [glances at back of hand, only to be confronted by a blue inky smudge that extends up the length of the whole arm, and across most of the torso] ...err, everyone"

@ralphdavies.bsky.social Some really nice Brno related design here…

Shout to Avanti for advertising the merits of visiting Colwyn Bay… with a picture of Barmouth… a mere four and a half hours away by train.

An elected politician shouldn't be able to defect/change parties whilst in office. Either represent the party you were elected as a representative of, or stand down and be part of a by-election.

There’s a single Sheffield United fan in our mainly Doncaster Rovers supporting group chat. During their 5-0 loss at Ipswich he was picked out by the tv camera, looking very fed up, in a daft hat, in close up. Just as he was thinking his night couldn’t get any worse, a buzzing began in his pocket.

To be fair, if I was going to miss a nature target by any distance I’d want it to be this one nation.cymru/news/wales-o...

Read an interview with Suede this morning where they describe their latest record as 'vital'. I love that. Can you imagine having the confidence to describe something you've made or done as being vital?

For all you lovers of brilliant record titles, I give you Harry Secombe's Parisian concept piece – Comme Secombe Ça

Question to Zach Polanski at the leadership announcement: "Q: How can you take on Nigel Farage when your policy on immigration is so different?" Everything wrong with British politics and media summed up so succinctly in a single absolutely unhinged question.

@leonbarton.bsky.social Hi Leon, I wanted to get in touch with you about something Welsh football related. Thought I had an email for you, but can't find it. What's the best way to reach you?

Someone has painted a St George's cross on a roundabout a mile or so away from my house. I live in Conwy. Thick as mince.

A day of shame for the UK. A political party proposes mass deportations and the response from other political parties is not to condemn this as going further than even Mosley or the National Front.

Currently watching forty plus Port Vale fans sit about glumly to a soundtrack of ‘Boogie Wonderland’… it’s like a piece of performance art.

In pre-match pub in Burslem. A bloke just walked in wearing a t-shirt with a big Union Flag on it and the words ‘If this flag offends you I’ll help you pack’. As fucking moronic as that is, I do need to sort a bag for a trip to London in the week, so the temptation is to go and tell him it does

Live in London? Got plans tonight? If you answered ‘yes’ and then ‘no’, well now you do. Go see this.

@danielgraywriter.bsky.social @camsell59.bsky.social Bob Mortimer, the bloke in the facilities team at work whose randomly started wearing a ‘Boro shirt to work… your boys took a hell of a beating!

Overheard a great bit of old-school-South-East-London-blokes-in-their-50s chat between two fellas at the football yesterday… ‘But I always thought you were Little Tel’ ‘Nah’ ‘So are you Big Tel?’ ‘Nah, I’m Middle Tel’

There should be a word for that brief bit of worry and then relief you feel when you see your workplace on the news, and then see that it's a nice story... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I am fully committed to this cause

Question for anyone who's ever had their mobile phone stolen from them in the street whilst listening to music through airpods... Does the music get quieter as the thief runs/cycles away?

Back in Deptford this morning just as the market was clattering and bantering into existence. Fussed the Terry’s Discount Store shop cat. The Waiting Room was blasting out ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’. Solid early Wednesdaying. No notes.

I don't know what it says of me, or of the world in general, but for the last few days the only way I've been able to switch off at night is to watch an episode of the 1995 BBC documentary series The Death of Yugoslavia.

“LOTS OF LOVE AND SEXY KISSES” – players just don’t write columns like this anymore

For fans of misused idioms one of the guys at the next table to me in the coffee shop I'm working from keeps making reference to 'the gorilla in the room'.

I'm writing a book on Welsh football. I tried to write one two years ago, but abandoned it after I lost all confidence in the project, and myself tbh. So, putting this here in both an act of commitment for myself, and in the hope that some of you hold me to account to deliver this time.

I know you’re not following me for film insight, but I went to see The Ballad of Wallis Island this evening and I just need to tell someone that it’s a really wonderful thing, so here we are. Tim Key is both brilliantly Tim Key, but also offers a real depth that’s genuinely moving. Go and see it

This has made my day. @galloping-gourmet.bsky.social was watching a stream of Surrey vs Durham earlier today, and spotted someone in the crowd reading my article on Belle Vue in @wsc.co.uk issue 449

Watching Glastonbury coverage with my dad… Two songs into Charlie XCX: “Well, I think I’d be heading back to my tent”

It’s every parent’s nightmare, isn’t it? you check your child’s bulletproof backpack and find a picture book about gay penguins

Still a buzz seeing my name in @wsc.co.uk after all these years. In the latest issue (455) I’ve written about how weird (and ultimately rubbish) it is not being there for your hometown team’s big day. Available in shops & online now, with a free Euro 2025 wall chart included! They’re spoiling us.

For those on here who enjoy photos of football and people watching football... From Penmaenmawr to Poprad; a photographic round up of how I watched football, the season just gone. popularstandfanzine.com/2025/06/15/h...

“It’s what Soccer Aid is all about” says Jason Manford over footage of a celebrity chef scoring past the 51 year old host of Take Me Out… …nearby a UNICEF rep wonders why they bothered making all those films

Didn’t think I’d ever say this - especially a year ago - but think I’d like to be a little less entertained by a Wales team

Odd paragraph in a North Wales News piece about Reform, which suggests two independent councillors in South Wales joined the party having become 'disillusioned' ...disillusioned with their own independence?

The choice of image makes this read more like a threat than a promise