What a beautiful day………………

Well it might well have been, but by the time darkness fell, the rains had also fallen, and with just half an hour to go before the early kick off, the FAW Premier Cup match against Barry Town was called off. The pitch was apparently OK, according to those who saw it, with the ball bouncing away merrily; the rain had eased, in fact for a long period, had stopped altogether. However, the referee took a decision more usually associated with whether to hang out the washing on a dodgy day, and decided that he'd give it a miss due to likely weather conditions up ahead.

Nothing to be done about it now, we just wait for the next rearranged date, and hope that the 48 hour forecast from Lundy and Scilly is to the referee's liking.

Park Life

Games being called off were not a regular occurrence in the Swansea Sunday League days of the late 70s and early 80s. Having been a founding member of the now defunct Pentredwr Rovers team from Llansamlet and Winch Wen, I am convinced that it would have taken nothing short of a volcanic eruption from Kilvey Hill to have a game called off, and then only likely if the referees 's car was in danger from the molten lava stream. Weather conditions never ever came into it. Rain, hail, wind, ice, flood, it didn't matter, for whatever reason, we just had to play.

Being blessed with footballing outfield skills that few other players would want, I found myself in goal. Did I have goalkeeping skills? Well I was fairly tall at 6' 3'', so crosses shouldn't be a problem. I could dive – always a plus with the defence in those days who saw it as a great effort to save no matter what, and I could kick a fair distance, again popular with the solid North Bank centre halves I had in front of me. The downside – I was less than eleven stone in weight at the time – and in danger of being brushed aside by the crowd noise (had there been a crowd). It has to be said though – I was spectacular – a real crowd pleaser. Had Peter Bonetti not already been nicknamed 'The Cat', it would have been me!! A six all draw was a good result some weeks, but my bleakest day was actually in a game we won, playing at Cefn Coed hospital, with little to protect you from the elements, I was hit by so many hailstones that my shirt was as solid as the post I spent the whole match leaning against. We won 7-0 I seem to remember.

I do remember spending much of my time sliding out at the feet of oncoming forwards, and eventually, the weekly kicks in the ribs had to stop.

We had some very talented players scattered amongst the six or seven wannabees. Does anyone know or remember Kevin Dacey, Tim Palmer or Micky Sullivan? Great skills. There must be others that my memory can no longer recall, but Tony Webb, who kicked the whole thing off, and later played for and managed Motspurs (DVLA), Teifion Hughes and brother Nicky, Paul Battenbough, Anthony Bunkham, Gareth Williams, John Cleverly, Dai Churchill et al were great to be around on a Sunday afternoon at Mynydd Newydd Fields, Underhill Park, or Ashleigh Road.

As far as spectators went, we had some regulars – John Dymond well worthy of a mention at this point - but the nearest we got to a big crowd was if we played at one of the roadside pitches at Ashleigh Road, and the traffic on the Mumbles Road got snarled up with a few buses were in the queue.

If anyone knows what happened to Pentredwr Rovers into the 80s, I'd like to know.

Into the great wide open…………………….

So we are just a few days way from the creditors' meeting, when the fate of the Swans will be decided. We must hold our faith that this is the right course of action (and for the majority of us, in the absence of a John Batchelor type character, is there a choice?) and that the outcome will see a club with a future mapped out which will ensure that situations like those we have face for far too long now, never return. There have been many comments amongst fans that this person or that person should help the club out because they are Swansea people. Being from Swansea (whether still here or not) and having made a success of life, financially, does not automatically match a desire on their part to plough millions or even hundreds of thousands of pounds into our Football League club. They have no duty or obligation to do anything. Let's also look at the wider picture, and remember the number of lower division clubs who are in a similar predicament to us. Swansea is not the only place in the Uk to produce famous or wealthy people, but how many local people in any of these town or cities are rushing to bail out their own clubs. Very few, so let's not be too critical of the faces that Swansea has produced, let's just work towards having a stable football life in front of us, and one that we can build on.

If there are any particular subjects that you would like covered in this column each Friday, then I'd be pleased to hear from you, and I'll throw my views and perspective on virtually anything. Use the e mail address below.

If anyone has any feedback to give me, I'd love to hear from you at pauly@scfc.co.uk