Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

It’s being billed as the Christmas comedy DVD with a difference. Four South Wales comedians will be using Neath Little Theatre to record a special show on Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8. Ignacio Lopez, Phil Evans, Simon Emanuel and Sarah Bridgman are producing the ‘Stand-Up in the Land of the Sheep - Christmas Special’. “Forget Michael McIntyre, Lee Evans, Peter Kay and all those other comedy superstars who produce special DVDs for the Christmas season,” said Swansea-based Ignacio Lopez. “We won’t be competing with them on their journey to their next tax-deductable million. We are producing something unique in Wales and for the people of Wales. “Our DVD will be a real ‘alternative’ to the ones produced by the TV giants this Christmas. “Instead, of the ‘stadium’ arenas seen in most live comedy DVDs, our show is being held in the slightly more intimate Neath Little Theatre! “The whole thing is very much a local affair - from the set creation to the cast of the sketches, to th...

A Carmarthen Town supporters bus is being arranged for the WORD Cup Final between Carmarthen Town and The New Saints, Saturday, January 12, 2013. The match is being staged at Latham Park, Newtown. Bus £10, £5 under 16. Names and money to Paul Ashley-Jones @ Club Shop; Colin Payne (07809 174487); Anthony Parnell (07989 448629). http://www.carmarthentownafc.com/wordfinal_bus.html

At the third and final leg of the 2012 Welsh League series at the SEWBBA Brass Band Festival in the World Heritage town of Blaenavon, Burry Port Town Band delivered a purposeful performance of Philip Sparke's ‘Year of the Dragon’ to win the Championship Section and the coveted Dewar Challenge Cup. In the process, Burry Port Town Band reclaimed the overall Championship Section Welsh League honours by winning all three legs of this year’s series following victories at SEWBBA Ebbw Vale and WWBBA Fishguard competitions. Burry Port’s solo trombone player Geraint Thomas took the ‘Best Trombone’ Award for his fine personal delivery of the fearsome solo in the work’s middle movement. There was further success in the Youth Section, with Burry Port's Soprano Cornet player, Jayne Thomas conducting the West Glamorgan Training Band to further success with their outstanding Silver Award. Graham Howe, the band's chairman, said: "The band has worked hard all year to deliver some stunn...

Aberystwyth University’s Department of Law and Criminology has been awarded a £87,743 Leverhulme Research Project Grant to study the deterrent effect of legal measures taken against business cartels. The two year study, Explaining and Understanding Business Cartel Collusion, will be undertaken by Professor Christopher Harding and Dr Jennifer Edwards. The study’s main objective will be to produce and analyse a number of 'cartel biographies' which will draw upon the experience of dealing with some major international cartels in a number of jurisdictions over the past 30 years. Professor Christopher Harding, who is leading the research, says, “The activities of such cartels – price fixing, market sharing and the like – are considered to have a very detrimental effect on markets and consumers, but legal control is difficult and costly. There is therefore a strong public interest in effective enforcement.” “Research into the actual prosecution of international cartels and assess...