Robert Lloyd


 

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The Carmarthen Town AFC 2012 Sportsmans Dinner will be held at the The Ivy Bush Royal Hotel on Friday 18th May.
BBC TV pundit Steve Claridge will be the guest speaker.
Steve is one of a very select few players who have amassed 1000 career appearances. He scored more than 250 goals during a 22 year career that saw him playing for more than 20 clubs.
His appointment as manager of Millwall, a club for whom he is regarded as a legend by their fans at The Den, came after previous successful Player Manager roles at Portsmouth in 2000/2001 and Weymouth in 2003/2004. However, he was sacked as Manager of Millwall in July 2006 after less than four weeks in the job.
Steve is now the leading face of The Football League Show, which follows Match of The Day every Saturday evening, and is a regular pundit for Football Focus, Live Championship matches on BBC1 & BBC2, Score and Radio 5 Live including the iconic Monday Night Club.
Steve is a high profile after dinner speaker with humorous stories about his on and off field trials and tribulations of a 20 year football career, his gambling addictions and the roller coaster ride that is his life.

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Members of Llanelli Rotary Club carried out bucket collections at Llanelli's Tesco superstore last week as part of the service organisation's 'Thanks for Life - End Polio Now' appeal.
Over two days, the Rotarians raised 900.
Pictured are: Monro Walters, Gordon Battersby, Dennis Wooley and Richard Thomas.
The collections were timed to mark 'Rotary Day-Thanks for Life', an annual RIBI project set up to highlight and celebrate the humanitarian work of Rotarians. Its number one aim is to help eradicate polio throughout the world.Now in its third year, Thanks for Life saw clubs and members across Great Britain and Ireland organising activities on and around 23rd February (Rotary Day) - the anniversary of the first Rotary meeting in Chicago more than 100 years ago - to raise awareness and understanding of Rotary in their community and maximise donations to The Rotary Foundation to assist polio eradication.
Weblink-
http://www.ribi.org/thanks-for-life

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Cor Meibion Llanelli on song in car showroom!


By Robert Lloyd, 2012-02-22

Cr Meibion Llanelli Concert at the Gravells Subaru Showroom in Kidwelly. Soloist: soprano Joy Cornock. The posters on the wall were all about precision engineering and powerful gearboxes but there was nothing mechanical about Cr Meibion Llanellis performance at the Gravells Subaru showroom in Kidwelly.
Yes, they were precise.
Yes, they provided some interesting musical gear-changes.
Yes, there was plenty of power.
But there was much, much more and , as always, it was all served up with a passion which has become a hallmark of one of the finest choirs in Wales.
The concert was a fund-raiser for the Llanelli Sea Cadet Corps (TS Echo) to commemorate their 70th anniversary and the Warship Week (1942) adoption by Llanelly of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Echo.
The President of TS Echo, Lt Col David Mathias, provided the military background to the occasion in an illuminating opening address.
And there were reference points to World War Two in the choirs programme most notably Y Tangnefeddwyr (about the Swansea Blitz) and the Requiem, a piece first performed by the choir on their recent visit to sHertogenbosch to mark the liberation of the Netherlands city by Welsh soldiers during the war.
It wasnt all war, though, as the choir served up some old favourites.
Myfanwy, Nant y Mynydd, Anthem, Swing Low, Amen and Ride The Chariot were all warmly-received.
Under music director D Eifion Thomas, the choir pulled out all the stops on Verdis La Vergine Degli Angeli from la Forza del Destino, which featured guest soprano soloist Joy Cornock.
The soprano was a big hit with the audience with her solo spots, including Ivor Novellos Waltz of my heart and a dramatic rendition of Puccinis O mio babbino caro (Oh My Beloved Father).
The accompanist for the concert was Joy Amman Davies, musical director of the Morriston Orpheus Choir.

Pictures: Choir members in full voice; David Gravell and the Llanelli Sea Cadets guard of honour welcoming the audience to the concert; soprano soloist Joy Cornock.

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St Davids Day (Dydd Gyl Dewi Sant) is the feast day for Waless patron saint, so Llanellis biggest bakery marking the occasion in style.
Jenkins the Bakers will be rolling out patriotic products to make March 1st a real feast.
There will be a proper Welsh theme to our products before, during and immediately after St Davids Day, said Russell Jenkins (above), a director at the bakery.
We are already well known for helping to put the accent on all things Welsh at our bakery and our shops, but this year we will be making an extra special effort.
Among the products hitting the shops later this week (February 20) will be
Welsh Beef Pie, the Welsh Pastie, Welsh Cakes, Wholemeal Welsh Cakes, Bara Brith, Teisin Lap (cake on a plate) and even Welsh Cakes without fruit as the bakery likes to cater for all tastes!
A new Jenkins Bakery product to mark St Davids Day this year will be a rustic bakestone made with an addition of malted brown flour and kibbled wheat to add to the plain and fruited bakestone range.
We pride ourselves as being a bakery business which knows its customers and we know how people love to celebrate St Davids Day, added Mr Jenkins.
The Welsh-themed products will be available until March 12.
The Jenkins bakery employs 300 people, full and part-time, across 25 different stores in South Wales.
The company has the Gold Standard Welsh Food Hygiene Award and the Investors in People award.
The business employs 70 people at its Trostre HQ, while the Jenkins shop network stretches from Carmarthen to Bridgend. There are 13 shops in Carmarthenshire and even one as far afield as Powys.

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Llandeilo businessman and brewery owner Simon Buckley says traders in Llandeilo will be sorry to see the Welsh Game Fair leave its traditional home at Gelli Aur in the Tywi Valley.

But he remains buoyant that the move of the game fair to the Nantyci showground site just outside Carmarthen will not damage Llandeilo's economy.
Mr Buckley, chief executive of the Evan-Evans brewery, said: "The Llandeilo stretch of the Tywi Valley has a long association with the game fair event.
"In the past, the game fair has been an important part of the list of annual summer events.
"In more recent times, due to bad weather, and the ever-increasing entry cost, the numbers of people associated with the game fair visiting Llandeilo seems to have dropped away.
"The show had become rather tired, with no new innovations.
"We are sorry to see it go, but there are new events planned for Llandeilo that will more than adequately replace it.
"We wish them well for their new site and their plans for the future.
"Somehow, the Nantyci showground in Carmarthen will not have the same feel that the Tywi Valley and Gelli Aur has. It will be interesting to see what they do.
"I remain confident that it will have little economic impact on Llandeilo, as this is a bustling, thriving and charismatic town with a charm of its own.
"Llandeilo is an attraction in its own right. There are also plenty of summer events planned to keep casual visitors interested."
The switch to Nantyci has beendescribed as a major coup for Carmarthen.
The event moves from Gelli Aur for the first time since it started in 1986.
Carmarthen business leaders said they are relishing welcoming the show to the town over the weekend of June 16 and 17.
They hope the town can capitalise on the move, with the thousands who head to the fair in turn spending their money in local shops and businesses.
Carmarthen Chamber of Trade and Commerce discussed the move at last weeks meeting.
Treasurer John Nash said: This is a great move for the show ground to be hosting the fair.
As a chamber we should be making sure the town benefits from the Game Fair coming here.
Mr Nash added: We need to ensure that visitors to the Game Fair, know that the town is within easy reach.
Whether that means coming up with a marketing plan to advertise the town in the coming months or simply us as traders being on the gate with flyers and copies of the town map.
Either way we have to make sure Carmarthen town centre sees the benefits of the game fair coming to Nantyci.
Ellis Davies, treasurer of the United Counties Agricultural Society, which runs the showground said: Being able to host the game fair at Nantyci proves that the showground is attracting top events over the coming months.
It is in a prime location on the edge of Carmarthen and served by the A40 dual carriageway.
He added: We have close links with the countys tourism association and are going to be in talks with them about marketing the event.
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Carmarthens leading theatre arts school has picked St Davids Day (Thursday, March 1) to announce a boost for the Welsh language.
Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen will soon launch new bilingual classes for early years pupils at the school.
Weve had lots of requests for Welsh in our early years classes, said Stagecoach Carmarthen principal Liane Davies.
We already have the resources as I am a fluent Welsh speaker, along with two of my early stages staff, so it was just a question of testing the opinion of our students and their mums and dads.
Everyone seems very keen on the idea, so, from the start of the April term, one of the early years classes for four to six-year-olds will be a bilingual class.
I am a passionate supporter of the Welsh language and think that everyone deserves the best possible start in life by being bilingual.
I think Stagecoach as a national organisation will be considering whether it wants to roll out the idea across Wales eventually.
For now, though, we will be in the vanguard helping to increase the use of Welsh.
Dance, drama and singing is all very much based around self-confidence and many of the pupils that come to us at a young age have that confidence in the Welsh language from using it at home or at nursery schools.
The skills they will be taught at the school will be just the same, but for those who want it we will now be able to do so through the medium of Welsh. We will, of course, also be continuing to hold a specifically English language early years class.
Thinking long-term, there are great opportunities out there in the arts and the media in Wales. Helping our pupils get the opportunity to read a script in Welsh, to work in Welsh TV and theatre is one of our key aims.
Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen has its base at the Model Church in Wales School.
The school opened in May 2009 and became an instant success. The school now attracts students from the three counties of Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.
In recent years, Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen has staged the musicals Billy Elliot and Oliver.
Liane added: Our aim is always to nurture and develop four to 18-year-olds to fulfil their potential through dance, drama and singing.
Its not all about treading the boards on stage. Early stages classes focus on allowing the children to express themselves, while at the same time building up confidence, poise and self-esteem. Above all, we make sure the experience is fun! The children love it.
If you want to find out more about Stagecoach Carmarthen, contact Principal Liane Davies, phone: 0845 604 1422. Email - carmarthen@stagecoach.co.uk.
Website - http://www.stagecoach.co.uk/carmarthen
Pictured above: Sam Bolton, currently a Stage 1 student at Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen.

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Top 10 British ranking for 'The Ash'


By Robert Lloyd, 2012-02-22

The Ashburnham Championship Links golf course in Pembrey has just been given a Top 10 ranking in a new guide to Britains best value courses.
National Club Golfer published its guide to the 100 most affordable courses in Britain.
And The Ashburnham was one of the highest ranked courses in Wales, finishing in sixth position.
Weve always known that The Ash is great value for money and this guide just reinforces that fact, said Ashburnham club manager Huw Morgan.
The guide focuses on the Top 100 courses with a green fee under 50.
Mr Morgan said: The Ashburnham is already universally recognised as an excellent course, playable all the year around.
But it is also great to get the recognition for being able to deliver value-for-money for golfers.
Last year, The Ash was featured in the National Club Golfer guide to Britains best courses under 80.
We were ranked No32 in that guide, said Mr Morgan.
The guide described The Ashburnham as follows
This is a links where the start and end do little justice to what lies between. Ashburnham is consistently excellent from the 3rd to the 15th inclusive . . . the 15th is a brilliant brute at 464 yards.
Dan Murphy, editor of National Club Golfer, said he wanted the magazine to put together guides which realistically reflected the fact that many golfers played to a budget.
Mr Murphy said the guides were an appraisal of the best Britain has to offer.
He added: In a bid to capture the spirit of this enterprise, the deliberately intangible criterion was as follows: If you were in charge of taking a group of like-minded golfers away on a trip, are you confident that they would have a memorable day for all the right reasons here?
The Ashburnham Golf Club will host a number of top events over the coming years
2012 Welsh Ladies Open Stroke Play Championships
2013 Mens Welsh Amateur Championships
2014 Ladies British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championships
2015 Mens Welsh Stroke Play Championships
Club manager Mr Morgan added: Thats quite a portfolio of events for us at The Ashburnham and we are delighted to be staging them. We can promise a true championship test for each event and the warmest of Welsh welcomes.
The Ashburnham is the course where the great Welshman and winning Ryder Cup Captain Dai Rees won the PGA title in 1959. It has long been regarded as one of the best links courses in Britain.
The Ashburnham takes its name from the 5th Earl of Ashburnham, who once owned the land and became the clubs inaugural President in 1894.
Two other Ryder Cup Captains have been successful in their playing careers at The Ashburnham in the shape of Bernard Gallacher, who won the Schweppes PGA Championship in 1969, and Sam Torrance, who won the Martini Tournament in 1976.
The Ashburnham has a proud history of hosting many of the major amateur tournaments, having first held a Welsh Amateur Championship in 1904.
Last year, The Ashburnham was the venue for the Mens Home Internationals.


Pictures above: The front cover of National Club Golfer and the certificate rating The Ashburnham No6 in Britains best 100 courses under 50.

For further information about The Ashburnham Golf Club, contact -
The Clubhouse, Cliffe Terrace, Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, SA16 0HN
Tel:01554 832269
Fax:01554 836974
Email:admin@ashgolf.co.uk
Website - http://www.ashburnhamgolfclub.co.uk
Weblink:
http://www.nationalclubgolfer.com/courses/articles/course-news/top-100-under-80-no-4031.html
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Carmarthens leading theatre arts school is expanding to cope with demand.
Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen is launching a new afternoon school following the success of the morning classes.
Demand for places at Stagecoach is huge and there is a waiting list to get places, said Stagecoach Carmarthen principal Liane Davies.
We put the accent firmly on quality teaching here at Stagecoach and we limit class numbers to 15 pupils per class.
That philosophy of making sure that the quality of teaching is at the highest level does, of course, mean that we cannot always accommodate everyone.
But we are going our best to expand our services and that is why we are going to launch afternoon classes at Stagecoach Carmarthen at the start of the new term in April.
The classes will be for the six to 18-year-olds age group and will run from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. We already have morning classes between 10am and 1pm.
Hopefully, this will open the door for some pupils who have other interests. For example, those who do swimming or rugby or football on a Saturday morning, will now be able to attend in the afternoon.
The pupils play a major part in the success of Stagecoach Carmarthen and we want to do all we can to accommodate them.
Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen has its base at the Model Church in Wales School.
The school opened in May 2009 and became an instant success. The school now attracts students from the three counties of Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.
In recent years, Stagecoach Theatre Arts Carmarthen has staged the musicals Billy Elliot and Oliver. Pupils joining the new classes will be able to take part in the July production of Annie at the Lyric Theatre in Carmarthen.
Principal Liane added: Our aim is always to nurture and develop four to 18-year-olds to fulfil their potential through dance, drama and singing.
If you want to find out more about Stagecoach Carmarthen, contact Principal Liane Davies, phone: 0845 604 1422. Email - carmarthen@stagecoach.co.uk.
Website - http://www.stagecoach.co.uk/carmarthen

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