November 23 2008: 'Brynberllan Challenge' Update
We have had several complaints about how outdated our blog has been! Oops, sorry folks. We could say we took an impromptu 'blog holiday' but the truth is we were just too darned lazy to write something. Now for those who have whined at us...

We shall start with an update to the 'Brynberllan Challenge.' The final result is that Angie and Ace (the 'A') team beat Mike and Chip 4-2 in the head-to-head battle. The final event was the decider and it couldn't have been closer as Ace and Chip were even on points but Ace took the win on the OLF score. However, Mike and Chip won our nursery league finishing 3 points ahead of Ace and Angie. How can this be? Well, the 'A' team missed the first nursery event of the season as they were galavanting around the hills of Scotland. If we really want to get scientific (and pedantic) about the scores. Mike and Chip scored 32 points from 7 events for an average of 4.57 points per trial. The 'A' team scored 29 points over 6 trials for an average of 4.83 points per trial. Mike, you can deliver the Brynberllan Cup any time you feel like it. Ace is waiting. Ha ha!

Our nursery season was a little short due to the ill health of one of our trial hosts. We are pleased to say the person concerned is doing well and will likely be back on the trial fields soon. The next event is the South Wales Nursery final in which Chip and Ace will both be participating. Mike will captain our team, and deservedly so.

Kelvin and Mike went off to watch the All Blacks (that's the New Zealand rugby team) play the Welsh team at Millenium Stadium yesterday. Picture if you will Mike decked out in the most iridescent red Welsh cap, and his black World Trial fleece vest (he had to wear something black as he knew the Welsh were about to be trounced by the All Blacks and he needed to be able to change allegiance quickly by removing his cap). Kelvin wore everything he could find that was black and had a silver fern on it.

One has to wonder about the sanity of these boys...a Welshman and a Kiwi going to a rugby match together, arriving 3 hours before kick off and then sitting next to each other the entire game each hoping their respective team would win. Oh yeah, how much fun is that? It would have been fun to watch Kelvin join in on the Maori haka from way up high in the stands...thankfully he refrained. For those who don't know, the Haka is a challenge performed by the All Blacks to opposing teams before major sporting events (OK, that's pretty crass but if you want to know about the Haka 'google' it and read the Wikipedia description). Before the game began, the Welsh team politely watched the All Blacks do the haka and afterwards they continued to stand rigidly steering down the All Blacks until the referee stepped in. One journalist wrote the following account of this (you can guess the nationality of this journalist):

"Well, another 'cunning plan' by Baldrick Gatland, the Welsh deciding to not move off after the All Black Haka had finished.  It was pretty cool, but really, WHO CARES what the opposition do during, and immediately after, the Haka? Perhaps the best thing about the All Black haka is the fact that opposition teams think that they need to diffuse it, and spend half their week thinking up cunning plans for Haka Diffusion, instead of thinking of plans on how to score tries against the All Blacks. That is something that the Irish, Welsh and Scots have all failed to do in the last three weeks.  So time spent on backline moves and scrum moves would be time better spent. ...Anyway, so the pre match kicked off with the Welsh standing their ground staring at the All Blacks once the Haka had finished.  The All Blacks stared back,  and so did the Welsh, as did the All Blacks, as did the Welsh.  Perhaps this was the Gatland master stroke, not actually play any rugby, and just have a stare-off for 80 minutes, and claim a draw...  ."  (FYI: Gatland is a New Zealander and the coach of the Welsh rugby team).

One of the coolest things about the pre-match pleasantries is the singing of the National anthems in the official languages: for Wales, Welsh and English; for the All Blacks, Maori and English. Kudos to the 50-strong Welsh men's choir who pulled off this feat.

Not to bore you with post mortems, the result was All Blacks 29 - Wales 9 (Wales led 9-6 at half time). Mike and Kelvin are still talking. Phew. Hopefully the South Wales Nursery final will see a reversal of scores for the Welsh and Kiwi contingent from Brynberllan (NZ 9 (off) and Wales (29 off).

Kelvin and his dogs did some sheepdog demonstrations last week at a local agriculture college. The dogs were big hits with the students, especially the pups that went along for the ride and a day of socialization. These pups came back smelling sweetly of perfume after being hugged by the girls. Ironically, it was the boys with their camera phones who wanted their photos taken with the pups.

Not much else happening over here. The weather is gosh awful. Hail, howling wind and lashing rain today. We are down to just 5 training sheep now so we have to be careful not to overtax them in the cold weather. Most of the dogs are having some time off to just be dogs...and as we continue our fruitless search for a new home.