HOLI HOLI DAY!

 

Yaaaay! Off to Sunny Prague with this crew. Meeting DCLH out there on Monday. 

Sad that H&O couldn't make it this time, but we will remedy that soon. Watch this space.

As you can see, I was holding out for a Nero....

In the bowels of brizzleport

First on the bus!

@ pragueport

CWRW'R WYTHNOS PUM DEG NAW

 

RETURN OF THE TED....

Delighted to finally get to ride with my two old (as in "known a long time", NOT "old") pals this week. 

After our Book Club Meeting #32, we decided to go on a little run to Pontardulais & back for coffee & a pie @ The Motley Pie company

This allowed me to reprise my time as "SuperTed" the wonder cyclist. Long story short, I had previously owned a similar kit, bought for my projected Cycle Around The World plan, inspired partly by David's Cycle to Greece epic. 

My eye took a fancy to the Team Z Peugeot TDF Kit from 1998, and I bought a replica to wear on this Journey. (Greg LeMond went on to win the tour in it in 1990). I then turned up @ David's after a training ride, and was promptly pillaried, & christened "SuperTed". Serves me right for thinking I could get away with style in front of mates like mine....

So, on my recent return to cycling, I hunted down a copy of said kit, in which I still think I look rather dashing!

Funnily enough, David's Greek odyssey was similarly reprised by Himself, & written up in his weighty tome, Cycle-ride to Istanbul an antidote to being grown-up (available via link, or all good booksellers)

The run was fab - following the old train lines , now converted to cycle & pedestrian paths, along the valleys of this area. 

This resulted in one very happy SuperTed, and has inspired me to go and sign up for more rides locally with the CTC in the area. Watch tis space for runs!

Couldn't close the post without a sign off from the OG Himself:-

"Spotty-type cosmic dust!"

25 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN

Congratulations Dylan Christopher Lewis Howell on travelling 14,600 million miles around the Sun. 

May you travel tens of thousands of million miles more!

EL GRUPO LIBROS #32 (PROBABLY)

Tuesday marked the 32nd (ish) meeting of our book club. Started in 2005, and sometime including our mate Nick Browne, it amazes me that we still trundle on. If we guess an average of 3.5 books, that makes over 110 books read!

(And 3 published, 1 contributed to by members :-))

This session's choices were:-

Chris :- Glorious exploits - ferdia lennon

David: Trees -Percival Everett 

Rob : Pagans - James Alistair Henry

All 3 were deemed good reads!

Next on the Menu are:-

Chris :- the tigers wife
David:- night swimmers
Rob:- shadowplay

WHERE HAVE ALL THE 5'S GONE?

Not long ago, a "Premium Lager"  was at least 5% ABV, sometimes more. Now, as the Corporate beancounters in the Mega Brewing Corporations try to squeeze more & more profit out of their feifs, this is no longer the case. 

I was suprised to find out that Stella Artois or "Wifebeater" as it has been called is now down to 4.6%. What is now called 1664 Biere - they seem to have dropped the Kronenbourg - is likewise diminished. Even my old fave, Grolsch, is now cut to 4% 

Also, more & more Lagers are brewed in the UK under license

From Google AI:-

Actually, the vast majority of popular "continental" lagers sold in the UK are not brewed in their countries of origin. Instead, roughly 85% to 90% of these foreign-branded mainstream lagers are brewed right here in the UK under license by major multinational conglomerates to cut transport costs and avoid high import duties.

Bastards!

There are some notable exceptions though:-

Conversely, true imports that are still brewed abroad and shipped into the UK include select batches of Pilsner Urquell, Budweiser Budvar, and bottled variants of Estrella Dam

I started putting together a spreadsheet of this, (yes, I know), then had the bright idea of gettig AI to do it for me. What took me an hour, took AI 5 seconds....

AI:-

Name	Original ABV	Current ABV	Brewery Location (UK)	Ownership
Carling	4.00%	3.40%	Burton-upon-Trent, England	Molson Coors Beverage Company
Madri Excepcional	4.60%	4.60%	Burton-upon-Trent, England	Molson Coors Beverage Company
Foster's	4.00%	3.40%	Manchester, England	Heineken UK
Sol	4.20%	3.40%	Tadcaster, England	Heineken UK
Birra Moretti	4.60%	4.60%	Manchester & Tadcaster, England	Heineken UK
Stella Artois	5.20%	4.60%	Samlesbury & Magor, UK	Anheuser-Busch InBev
Carlsberg Pilsner	3.80%	3.40%	Northampton, England	Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company
Grolsch Premium Pilsner	5.00%	3.40%	Burton-upon-Trent, England	Asahi UK
Tennent's Lager	4.00%	4.00%	Glasgow, Scotland	C&C Group

My effort:- 

(red means good, or brewed @ original site)

Mine is much better, of course.

The decline of the Premium Lager
nom	OG	now	sometimes	owner on can	actual owner	brewed
Efes	5	5		Anadolu Efes	24% Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.	Sunrise Beverages in UK
Budweiser Budvar	5	5		Budweiser Budvar	state owned	České Budějovice (Budweis) Czech Republic
Peroni Nastro Azzurro	5.1	5			Asahi Breweries	Mostly Italy
Pilsner Urquell	4.4	4.4		Pilsner Urquell	Asahi Breweries	Plzeň (Pilsen), Czech Republic
Grolsch	5	4		Grolsch	Asahi Breweries	Enschede, the Netherlands
San Miguel	5.4	5		San Miguel	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.	ABInbev Samlesbury and Magor
Stella Artois	5.2	4.6	4.8	interbrew International B.V.	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.	ABInbev Samlesbury and Magor
Budweiser yank	5	4.5	4.8	interbrew International B.V.	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.	ABInbev Samlesbury and Magor
Corona Extra	5	4.5		interbrew International B.V.	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.	ABInbev Samlesbury and Magor
Beck's	4.8	4	4.5	interbrew International B.V.	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.	ABInbev Samlesbury and Magor
Desperados	5.9	5.9		Heineken	Heineken	manchester
Heineken OG	5	5		Heineken	Heineken	manchester
Birra Moretti	5	4.6		Birra Moretti	Heineken	manchester
Birra Moretti sal di mare	4.8	4.8		Birra Moretti	Heineken	manchester
Cruzcampo	4.4	4.4		Cruzcampo	Heineken	manchester
Amstel	4.1	3.4		Amstel	Heineken	manchester
Foster's	3.7	3.4		Foster's	Heineken	manchester
Mahou	5.1	4.8		Mahou	Mahou san miguel	heinekin Mcr
Kronenbourg/1664 Bière	5.5	4.6	5	was Heinekin til 01.06.26	CarlsbergMarstonsBritvicC	Carlsberg Northampton
Carlsberg	3.8	3.4			CarlsbergMarstonsBritvicC	Carlsberg Northampton
Estrella Damm	4.6	4.6		S.A. Damm	S.A. Damm Barca	bedford
Madri Excepcional	4.6	4.6		Madri Excepcional	molson coors	Burton-upon-Trent
Coors Light	4.2	3.4	4	Coors Light	molson coors	Burton-upon-Trent
Cobra					molson coors	Burton-upon-Trent

STEP RIGHT UP

 Calls today for a new interim WRU board. 

From my mate, Jiffy

He photobombed me

And from Hayley Parsons, founder of Go Compare

and one of Wales’s most successful entrepreneurs, has called for the entire board of the Welsh Rugby Union to resign, accusing its leadership of “complete madness” and “total insanity."

I haven't been asked yet, but perhaps they have been ringing my moribund landline....

Did I give Jiffy my mobi? 

HOW THE WRU DESTROYED RYGBI CYMRU

 A great video exposing a shameful story.

If you don't have time to watch the full 30 mins, Here's an AI summary of the main points:-

“How the Welsh Rugby Union destroyed its own National Team | A Squidge Rugby Deep Dive” by Squidge Rugby, published 13 April 2026. The central argument is that Wales’ collapse from being world No. 1 in 2019 to an 18-match losing streak was primarily a systemic failure of Welsh rugby administration and investment, rather than simply a failure of coaches or players.

The main points

1. Wales didn't suddenly become bad at rugby
   • Squidge starts from the dramatic contrast: Wales were ranked No. 1 in the world in August 2019, yet just a few years later they had suffered an unprecedented run of defeats.
   • His argument is that the talent didn't disappear overnight. The environment around the players deteriorated.
2. The WRU repeatedly made short-term financial decisions
   • A major theme is austerity and cost-cutting.
   • Instead of treating the professional game as the engine that produces the national team, the WRU increasingly tried to reduce expenditure.
   • This particularly affected the Welsh regions, which are crucial for developing and retaining international-quality players.
3. The regional system was allowed to deteriorate
   • Squidge argues that Wales has never properly solved the fundamental question of how its four professional regions should work.
   • There have repeatedly been proposals to reduce the number of regions or restructure them, creating years of uncertainty.
   • Earlier proposals to cut a region were already controversial because Wales would have had a substantially smaller professional player pool than comparable nations such as Ireland and New Zealand.
4. The WRU's governance is a huge part of the problem
   • The video is particularly critical of leadership, governance and institutional culture.
   • Decisions were often made by people with competing interests, while accountability was weak.
   • This is consistent with criticism from within Welsh rugby that governance problems and poor leadership allowed problems to become entrenched.
5. The national team was effectively being asked to compensate for problems underneath it
   • Coaches and players became the visible targets when results went badly.
   • But Squidge's point is that changing the head coach doesn't fix a broken pathway.
   • If there aren't enough well-funded professional teams, good coaching environments, competitive matches and opportunities for young players, the national team eventually suffers.
6. Wales fell behind other nations financially
   • One particularly important comparison is with Ireland and Scotland.
   • Wales' professional teams were operating with significantly less funding than their major competitors. At one point, Welsh professional funding was being reduced while Ireland was investing dramatically more in its professional system.
   • Squidge sees this as a false economy: saving money in the short term ultimately makes the national team less competitive and therefore damages the WRU's most valuable asset.
7. The WRU's relationship with supporters has deteriorated
   • This isn't just about wins and losses.
   • Welsh rugby has historically been deeply connected to Welsh identity and community. Sport has played an unusually important role in expressing Welsh national identity.
   • Squidge's broader argument is that the WRU has increasingly treated rugby as a financial/product-management problem rather than understanding the emotional and cultural reasons people care about it.
8. The 2019 success masked underlying problems
   • This is probably one of the video's most important ideas.
   • Wales reaching No. 1 and having sustained success under Warren Gatland created the impression that the underlying system was healthy.
   • In reality, some structural problems were already there.
   • Once the exceptional generation of players began to age or retire, those weaknesses became impossible to hide.

The overall argument

I'd boil Squidge's thesis down to:

Wales didn't lose its rugby ability; it lost the system that produced and sustained its rugby ability.

He sees the collapse as the result of years of underinvestment + poor governance + instability in the professional regions + short-term financial thinking + failure to develop a coherent long-term strategy.

And importantly, he isn't arguing that every decision was malicious or that every individual involved was incompetent. His argument is more that the WRU became an organisation incapable of making the long-term, coordinated decisions required to sustain a world-class national team.

What I think is the most important takeaway

The video is really less about Warren Gatland, individual players or one bad Six Nations campaign, and more about the pipeline:

Grassroots → academies → professional regions → player development → Wales

Squidge's contention is that the WRU weakened multiple links in that chain and then became surprised when the national team eventually collapsed.

That also explains why simply saying “get a better coach” isn't enough. A better coach can improve a team, but they can't manufacture dozens of high-quality professional players if the domestic system isn't producing them.

There is also a very current dimension to this: the debate over whether Wales should have two, three or four professional regions is still ongoing in 2026, with critics arguing that the WRU has focused too narrowly on the number of regions rather than asking what structure actually produces players and sustainable professional rugby.