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

Council staff who organised events welcoming the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay have been rewarded for their efforts. In May 2014, Carmarthenshire folk turned out in their thousands to welcome the Queen’s Baton in style, with fun events from Laugharne, through to Carmarthen, Ammanford and Llanelli,. Chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Games Wales, Chris Jenkins, visited County Hall for a celebratory reception delivering t-shirts to the organising team and a memento - ‘The Granite Gift’, which is an official replica of the gemstone from the top of the Queen’s Baton - to recognise their efforts. Mr Jenkins said the welcome carpet rolled out for the Queen’s Baton across Carmarthenshire had exceeded all their expectations. Senior sport and leisure manager Carl Daniels, who managed the Carmarthenshire Queen’s Baton Relay welcome programme, said: “It was a tremendous effort by a hard working team that captured the media’s attention and brought a good deal of glory to Carma...

Celebrities who hail from Carmarthenshire will help carry the Queen’s Baton next month. British television star Julian Lewis Jones, Big Brother winner Sam Evans, Welsh Tenor Wynne Evans and former international rugby player, weightlifter and wrestler Non Evans MBE will be among the baton bearers joining in the celebrations when the Queen’s message to commonwealth games athletes arrives on Tuesday, May 27. The Welsh leg of the Queen’s Baton Relay is now just one month away and as the final details of its journey through Carmarthenshire are made available, Commonwealth Games Wales bosses and Carmarthenshire County Council organisers are urging the public to get behind Team Wales by lining the streets to welcome it. The council’s Senior Sports and Leisure Manger, Carl Daniels said: “We are delighted to have secured some big names and sporting greats to the Carmarthenshire event. We now want as many people as possible to come out of their homes and help build a welcoming atmosphere and j...

The Queen’s Commonwealth Games Baton Relay will showcase Carmarthenshire to 71 countries on May 27. Carmarthenshire’s sports and leisure teams are delighted and have been working with the QBR organisers to maximise this tremendous opportunity. Council leader Cllr Kevin Madge said: “Our teams have worked had to impress and secure this wonderful opportunity to showcase our county to the world.” The county has secured a prime relay display day after the May Bank Holiday for guaranteed massive television coverage with the baton being trailed from Laugharne, to Carmarthen, then Ammanford and Llanelli before returning to Carmarthen. TV companies are keen to link the Dylan Thomas DT100 anniversary celebrations with the QBR and are setting up their early morning command centre at Dylan’s boathouse in Laugharne for the day. The county sports and leisure teams have been working on the relay for six months and impressed assessors with their plans for the three county towns and Laugharne. The rela...

The countdown is on to Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games looms and Carmarthenshire’s Sports Development teams are getting into gear, building up to a year of sport to get even more people sports active. Plans include a Queen’s baton relay replicating the Olympic torch relay of 2012 and all county secondary school teacher head teachers are being approached to help for this event from March 10 - April 10 2014. Sports development unit manager Allison Rees said: “We are keen to use the Commonwealth Games to attract even more people into physical activity and promote opportunities in Carmarthenshire." She said: “We are keen to promote the 17 sports that will feature in the games and will focus on a couple of sports each month in the countdown to the games starting in September.” They have allocated the sports and months as follows this year September: Gymnastics. October: Shooting and weightlifting. November: Hockey and December judo, boxing and wrestling. Then next year - January: T...