Celtic Games 08

The games were hosted this year by Wales in the University of Wales campus at the medieval town of Caerleon.

The Scottish and both Irish teams arrived almost at the same time on the Thursday evening and as they arrived it started to rain! Not to be outdone the Welsh had arranged for a night at the races, luckily enough indoors on cine film with chicken and chips in the basket at 'the course'!

Friday morning saw the start of the sport, with teams playing a variety of sports in mixed teams (apart from the football), some of which were outdoors and others indoors using the fine facilities of the University.

At noon the sports stopped and all the competitors enjoyed a packed lunch before starting off on their afternoon activities. As the results started to come in the teams started to float in to see who would finish top of the leader board and who would be taking home the wooden spoon. The Welsh got their nose in front and managed to hold off the Scots in second place, with the two teams in green holding up the rest!

Unfortunately due to the wet weather the finale of the day ? an obstacle race had to be postponed much to the disappointment of all concerned.

In the evening Wales hosted a gala dinner followed by some dancing from the Welsh Under 21 Salsa dancing champions who followed their routine by getting everyone up on their feet as they learnt one of their 'easier' routines.

To round off the whole event, the live band 'Elvior' entertained everyone with a fine performance with plenty of opportunity for everyone to get up and dance the rest of the night away!

Typically, as the three visiting teams pulled away from the site on the Saturday morning the rain stopped and the sun came out!

However, I think it's fair to say that whilst the rain was unfortunate, especially the fact that it was non stop on the actual day of the sport, it didn't stop anyone having a great time and new friendships were made and old ones re-kindled. The Welsh mascot for this years games was 'Daffydd the little rubber duck', perhaps they had prior knowledge of the weather to come!

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