Yesterday was my first trip to Eugene Cross Park for as many as eight years.
I was a regular at Ebbw Vale before the advent of regional rugby in Wales, but the dawn of a new era in 2003 was a huge step backward for many Steelmen fans.
I have never supported the Rodney Parade-based Newport Gwent Dragons, the side which eventually emerged from the agreement between then-Premiership sides Newport and Ebbw.
Sale Sharks 19-29 London Welsh
Surely you’d have to have been the most optimistic of London Welsh fans to predict the Exiles would have two wins under their belts by the fourth weekend of the Premiership.
After an off-season which was dogged by the legal battle waged by Lyn Jones’s side simply to take their place in the top flight of English rugby, with a hastily-assembled squad lacking experience of top-level matches and with a move to their new home at Oxford’s Kassam Stadium, few held out much hope for Welsh.
“@londonwelshrfc: Full-time: Sale Sharks 19-29 London Welsh” fantastic win. Home and away you have to believe Welsh
— Scott Quinnell (@ScottQuinnell) September 21, 2012
And when the Exiles lost heavily at “home” to Leicester (38-13) and at Harlequins (40-3), it looked like it would be a long season with relegation the inevitable result.
But a thrilling 25-24 win over the Exeter Chiefs – another team who defied the gloomsters – on Sunday, thanks to a last-gasp try from Ed Jackson and conversion from Seb Jewell, earned the side their first Premiership triumph.
And tonight, Welsh have reached another milestone by picking up their first away win in the league, stunning the Sale Sharks (them of the glamorous Dwayne Peel-Danny Cipriani half-back pairing) at the Salford City Stadium.
sale losing at home now 9 26 to london welsh….. mother of flaming barnacles…
— Will Greenwood (@GreenwoodRugby) September 21, 2012
It was a bit hairy at times, as Sale threatened to come back from trailing 26-9 with just 21 minutes to go, but, thanks to first-half tries from captain Jon Mills and another for Jackson, Welsh had done enough.
Sensational.
Christine Ohuruogu won Great Britain’s only athletics gold at Beijing 2008 and was, at that stage, thought to be one of the hosts’ best chances of more glory in the stadium a short walk from where she grew up.
But the 400m runner suffered injury problems, and her chances of being the face of the Games swiftly evaporated following the continued success of Jess Ennis and Mo Farah.
In the 2011 World Athletics championships in Daegu, Ennis won silver in the heptathlon; Farah took home a gold (5,000m) and a silver (10,000m). But Ohuruogu was disqualified in her heat, an ignominious exit for the reigning Olympic champion.
In many ways, Ohuruogu became a forgotten face of London 2012.
But she produced a typical late burst to power to silver in a race won by the American Sanya Richards-Ross to get on the podium against the odds.
It was a brave, battling performance but one which – perhaps inevitably after her Beijing gold – she felt disappointed by. Her tears on the podium initially appeared to be those of joy at having won a medal at the home Games she once feared she would miss out on.
But she later revealed they were tears of disappointment, and that she was heartbroken not to have successfully defended her title.
With a silver and a bronze, judo was a surprise success at the Games for Great Britain.
For most people, the abiding memory of the British judokas’ performances will – rightly – be Gemma Gibbons whispering emotionally to the heavens “I love you, mum” following her semi-final triumph over France’s Audrey Tcheuméo.
But for some reason I was equally touched by Karina Bryant’s bronze medal in the +78kg division the very next day. She, too, had a difficult road to London 2012, suffering a neck injury last year and even being forced to raise money herself simply to be able to drive to training.
And her emotion after she sealed a win over Iryna Kindzerska of Ukraine was obvious. She described the bronze as like a gold to her – in many ways earning silver in a knockout competition like judo is more of a disappointment than bronze, because to do so you will have lost your final match.
But Bryant won hers, in front of a family she barely sees and a rapturous crowd at the ExCeL. It was a second successive day of raw emotion for Great Britain on the mat.
The final day of the 2012 Olympics was gloriously sunny. Hot, in fact – especially for the participants in the men’s marathon, the last athletics event of the Games.
Tsepo Ramonene looked particularly warm. I was watching from Westminster Embankment, and every lap the 21-year-old from Lesotho slipped further and further from the leaders.
Lesotho’s Tsepo Ramonene walks to save himself for one last push towards finish before he crosses the line – running – last in the men’s marathon at the London 2012 Olympics
He wasn’t last until the final lap, when Timor-Leste’s Augusto Soares went past him. By the time he came past my vantage point at the 25-mile mark, it was easy to see why he had slipped into 85th place – he was walking.
The marathon crowds were brilliant, packed in all along the route and cheering each runner as he went past: “Come on Andorra”; “Keep going, Mexico”; “Well done, Liechtenstein”.
This habit of referring to an athlete by their country, incidentally, caused a bit of a problem with Guor Marial, whose plain black kit was emblazoned simply with ‘IOA’ – Independent Olympic Athlete. Marial is from South Sudan, but the world’s newest country does not have a National Olympic Committee so he could not compete under their flag.
Marial finished 47th, half-way between the two British runners, 11 and a half minutes slower than Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich, who took gold.
He was still more than 35 minutes quicker than Ramonene, who looked totally exhausted as he strolled past the dispersing crowds, every other athlete having already finished.
But Ramonene finished. Twenty of the 105 competitors did not, and however slow he might have been, he made sure he completed the course. And his exploits also earned him one of the biggest cheers of the day as – with the crowd roaring him on – he picked up his walk into a run for one final flourish.
London 2012 gold medallists Jade Jones and Mark Colbourne will be among more than 40 Welsh stars parading on the steps of the Senedd this weekend.
The Welsh government is also encouraging Games Makers who took part in either the Olympic or Paralympic Games to wear their uniforms to the event on Friday evening.
Jones, from Flint, won Great Britain’s first ever Olympic gold in taekwondo, while Paralympic cyclist Colbourne, from Tredegar, picked up three medals, including gold in the C1 individual pursuit.
Other medallists who will be met by First Minister Carwyn Jones and Presiding Officer Rosemary Butler include Tom James (rowing, gold), Fred Evans (boxing, silver) and Aled Davies, who set off on a memorable lap of honour after winning gold in the F42 discus.
Josie Pearson, who broke the world record three times to win the F51/52/53 discus – Great Britain’s 10th and final Paralympic athletics gold – is also set to attend.
The evening is set to begin at 4.30pm with performers from Wales’s cultural Olympiad, including 19-year-old clarinet player Lloyd Coleman, Abergavenny Borough Brass Band and Ebbw Vale Male Choir, entertaining the crowds.
The public will be able to show their appreciation to the athletes from about 6pm.
You can follow the events on Twitter by following @WelshGovernment or watching the hashtag #2012cymruwales.
EDIT: Original mistakenly said it was being held on Saturday evening.
An Early Bath 