Wales’s boxing ace Lauren Price will return to the ring for the first time in 16 months in Hungary next week. The Tokyo hopeful will be part of an eight-strong GB team competing at the Bocskai Memorial Tournament in Debrecen (8-12 February).

Entries have opened ahead of a planned full schedule of Championship Golf in Wales in 2021. After the effects of the pandemic on the 2020 playing season, all major Championships within Wales are planned to go ahead this summer with safe and secure COVID-19 protocols in place.

It’s not often the announcement of a TV rights contract ushers in much emotion, let alone some warm feelings of nostalgia. But the cricket deal to show England’s Test series in India from Friday has got Fraser Watson misty-eyed – and remembering one Welshman, in particular, who scaled the peaks of his profession. Cricket on Channel 4. For those of a certain era, the mere sentence prompts some gloriously rose-tinted day-dreaming.

Wales’ preparations for their Six Nations opener with Ireland have been thrown into turmoil after star wing Josh Adams was removed from Wayne Pivac’s squad for breaching Covid-19 protocols. Adams – the top try-scorer at the 2019 World Cup – attended a family event at the weekend in a decision which went against every protocol the Wales management had provided. To minimise the risk of coronavirus infecting their squad, Wales are spending longer periods in their bubble at their Vale of Glamorgan training base.

Geraint Thomas and Owain Doull finished safely in the main pack as they got their 2021 race season underway in France. The Ineos Grenadiers duo safely completed the 143.55km long opening stage of the Étoile de Bessèges around Bellegarde.

Welsh Fire have opted not to retain Australian Test stars Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc for The Hundred competition this summer. But they have added England’s World Cup-winning seamer Liam Plunkett to their ranks. The new Cardiff-based team were due to spearhead their campaign with two of the biggest names in world cricket last year before the tournament was suspended due to the pandemic.

A Six Nations tournament in the year of a Lions tour always adds extra spice, but for Wayne Pivac it might just be food that keeps him alive, according to Harri Morgan. With Lions places dangled on a string in front of them, he expects a few Wales players to step forward. As a fan, with designs on following the Lions to the southern tip of Africa, my preference would be for a postponement until 2022. The ‘+1’ approach is conceptually simple.

Wales back row international Ollie Griffiths has received a double boost – signing a contract extension at the Dragons and returning to training after ankle surgery. The 25-year-old, who won his only cap to date as a replacement in the summer tour victory over Tonga in Auckland in 2017, has been dogged by injuries in recent seasons, but is now targeting a return to action next month. His latest problem came in the Champions Cup defeat to Wasps, when he damaged his ankle. Successful surgery was followed by rehab and now he is back running at the region’s Ystrad Mynach training base.

WillGriff John says family reasons and a desire to be playing a vibrant band of rugby led him to sign for the Scarlets for next season from Sale. The prop – who came close to his first cap last season before the lockdown stalled his ambitions – would have been outside the eligibility category for the next campaign had he remained in England. But the tight-head has decided against renewing his contract at Sale in preference of a move to Parc y Scarlets.

The Celtic Dragons will finally begin their 2021 Vitality Netball Superleague season on February 12 when they meet new franchise Leeds Rhinos in Wakefield. All 11 teams in the league will be playing at Studio 001 in Wakefield for the first nine weeks of the campaign, with no fans, due to Covid restrictions. The teams will then move venue to the Copper Box Arena in London for the remaining fixtures, meaning the Dragons won’t get to play any games in Cardiff.

Geraint Thomas will return to racing on Wednesday for the first time since a crash wrecked his Giro d’Italia dreams last October. The 34-year-old will be part of a seven-strong Ineos Grenadiers squad for the five-stage Etoile de Besseges race in France.

Swansea City head coach Steve Cooper tapped into his England connections to land new striker Morgan Whittaker from Derby County. Cooper – who used his background as England U17s boss to previously bring the likes of Marc Guehi, Rhian Brewster, Morgan Gibbs-White and Conor Gallagher to the club – did not coach Whittaker directly during his time with the FA. But the 20-year-old was in the age group below and has worked with Cooper’s assistant Mike Marsh.

Robert Glatzel has insisted his move from Cardiff City to German club Mainz on loan will see him playing for a team that play to his strengths. The striker, who cost the Bluebirds £5.5m when he joined from Heidenheim 18 months ago, has returned to his homeland for the rest of the season. He leaves Cardiff having scored 11 goals in 58 appearances but believes Mainz can be a club that make the most of his talents.

Newport County striker Tristan Abrahams has joined fellow League Two club Leyton Orient on loan until the end of the season. Abrahams, who has made 28 appearances for County this season and scored eight goals, will spend the remainder of the campaign at the London club, where he began his career. The 22-year-old hit a purple patch earlier in the season when he scored six times in the month of September, including against both Watford and Newcastle in the Carabao Cup.

Jonny Clayton admitted he was over the moon after being crowned PDC Ladbrokes Masters champ – and booking his place in the Premier League series. The Pontyberem thrower triumphed in Milton Keynes after fellow Welshman and world champ Gerwyn Price was beaten in the semi-finals.

Wales have played six games since Hadleigh Parkes decided to pack his bags and head to the Panasonic Wild Knights in the Japanese Top League and in that time Wayne Pivac has tried four different players to fill the gap. Nick Tompkins, Owen Watkin, Johnny Williams and George North have all been given a run in the Welsh midfield as the experiment of trying to find the right man to accompany Jonathan Davies has been given an extended run since Parkes won his 29th and final Welsh cap against England last March. Davies has always thrived on playing with a regular centre partner – he started 46 times with Jamie Roberts for Wales and once with the British & Irish Lions and then played for region and country with Parkes – but the right balance has yet to be found for the 2020s.

Newport County manager Michael Flynn has accused his players of allowing themselves to be bullied as they slipped further down the League Two table. Flynn looked demoralised as County lost 2-1 at Harrogate to drop to seventh place in the table. They began the year sitting at the top. You have to go back to December 8 for the last time the best team in the league up the New Year last tasted victory in any competition. That was a 2-0 win at Grimsby, the team they face next at the start of a seven-match sequence in February.

Glenn Delaney has told his Scarlets team that conceding 50 points at home is “dreadful” and there has to be an immediate response. The New Zealander is facing up to his first crisis in his time in charge at the region after a third successive defeat was inflicted by Leinster who walloped the Welsh region, 52-25. Admittedly, the Scarlets were without 12 of their 1st XV but Leinster arrived without 17 Irish squad members and still put half a century of points on the home side.

Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton stormed into the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes Masters in Milton Keynes. New world champ Price swept past Joe Cullen 10-3 in his first match since his historic title success the title earlier this month.

Mick McCarthy said he was pleased with his side’s performance as his first home game as Cardiff City boss ended in a 1-1 draw with former club Millwall. Kieffer Moore second half goal – taking his season’s tally into double figures – cancelled out Millwall’s early goal thanks to a deflection from Cardiff’s Aden Flint.