Salford City beware! Padraig Amond will be going all out to end his FA Cup goal drought for Newport County when the two League Two sides clash in the second round of the competition. Yes, that’s right, ‘drought’, for the Irish marksman hasn’t scored in his last two FA Cup ties for the Exiles.

Gerwyn Price is determined to bounce back to winning ways by going one better than last year and claiming the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals crown. The 35-year-old saw his bid for a Grand Slam of Darts hat-trick ended by a last 16 defeat against Nathan Aspinall.

Life inside the Wales camp is tough enough at present, with England looming this weekend and a whole load of restrictions in camp due to the pandemic. But Jake Ball has more than most to contend with, as he told Graham Thomas. Big Jake Ball admits he is missing his three kids and he hopes to take out three months of frustration against England on Saturday. That’s how long it is since the 6ft 7in Wales second row last saw his two daughters – Charlotte and Amelia – and son Jackson, due to Covid-19 restrictions and the fact his wife Christie is expecting their fourth child at any moment.

Wales could be drawn in a World Cup qualifying group with England next month. The seedings for the European section of qualification for Qatar 2022 were confirmed on Friday morning, and left open the possibility of some old rivalries being renewed. Wales have moved two places up the world rankings to 18th and are in pot two along with Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia and Romania.

Skeleton star Laura Deas continued the good form she showed in her BMW IBSF World Cup opener by finishing fifth in Latvia on Friday. Wales’ first female Winter Olympic medalist improved one place on her sixth place last week at the same venue in Sigulda.

Louis Rees-Zammit is just 19 years old and is facing England in only his second start for Wales tomorrow. But don’t be worried. Because he certainly won’t be, says one man who knows him very well and told Graham Thomas. Louis Rees-Zammit will not be losing any sleep over the prospect of facing Jonny May tomorrow, according to the man who used to be both wings’ boss. In fact, before Wales’ new 19-year-old star goes head-to-head against his Gloucester clubmate, then he will be counting down the hours, says former Gloucester director of rugby, David Humphreys.

Former Cardiff Devils head coach Andrew Lord has swooped to sign three players for his Greenville Swamp Rabbits club. Defenceman Sam Jardine and forwards Joey Haddad and Mike McNamee will be part of the Swamp Rabbits training camp that starts on Friday.

Jim Botham insists he will leave the fancy nicknames to England until after Saturday when he has completed the biggest game of his life. The Cardiff Blues forward will earn his second cap for Wales at openside flanker alongside his good friend and clubmate Shane Lewis-Hughes, who will wear No.6. Their opposite numbers for the weekend are Tom Curry and Sam Underhill, who have been given the nickname ‘the Kamikaze Kids’ – a reference to their fearless and destructive impact – but something that doesn’t impress the grandson of Sir Ian, the cricket legend known as, Beefy.

Wales captain Sophie Ingle admitted she was ‘shocked’ after discovering she had been shortlisted for the Fifa Puskás Goal of the Season award. The Chelsea ace has been nominated for her wonder strike at London rivals Arsenal at the start of this year.

Lydia Hall led the Welsh challenge before play was suspended at the LET Spanish Open. The Bridgend player was tied for fourth place on -2 before rain cut short her day with five holes of her round left. Finland’s Sanna Nuutinen fired an opening round 67 (-5) to lead by one shot at the Real Club De Golf Guadalmina.

Wayne Pivac has admitted it took him three years to change the Scarlets, but he insists transformation will comes quicker with Wales – and could go into overdrive against England on Saturday. The Wales coach has picked a youthful looking and adventurous team, his hand forced in part because of injuries that have robbed him of Liam Williams, Justin Tipuric, Jonathan Davies, Josh Navidi and Ross Moriarty, plus the struggles for form of George North. But in picking James Botham, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Louis Rees-Zammit and Johnny Williams to start, Pivac is also underlining that the old days of Warren Gatland have gone.

Five years after his professional rugby career was cruelly cut short at the age of 18, Harrison Walsh is back in full time sport as a discus thrower. The former Ospreys product is one of nine Welsh athletes named on British Athletics’ Olympic and Paralympic World Class Programme (WCP).

By James Dodd Josh Adams insists Wales have turned a corner and feel in confident mood about facing England on Saturday. The Wales wing believes there is an improved mood in the squad following the win against Georgia last weekend, which ended a sequence of six defeats. It was their first victory since February and […]

Steve Cooper declined to divulge the roots of his unhappiness with referee Andy Woolmer for fear of getting fined – but he may already have said enough to alert the interest of the FA. The Swansea City manager gave an honest appraisal of the abilities of Woolmer after his side were held 1-1 at home by Sheffield Wednesday. Cooper went as far as revealing that his concern over the official’s appointment for the match had extended to contacting the FA before the game to voice his disapproval of the Northamptonshire referee.

Neil Harris said it was time for change at Cardiff City – but will it be him? The Bluebirds boss had insisted before the game that he did not fear for his job.

Welsh marksman Ben Llewellin will have a quartet of Olympic Skeet titles to shoot for early next year. The 26-year-old has been named in the British Shooting team for three World Cup meeting and the ISSF Championship Grand Prix in Rabat.

Joel Makin will fly to Egypt next month, home of five of the world’s top six male squash players, to compete in the Black Ball Open. It will be the final tournament of what has been a peculiar but breakthrough year for Makin, Wales’ No.1, as he told Graham Thomas. Joel Makin insists his answer to how he has broken into the world’s top 10 squash players is “rather boring”. “Basically, it’s just been hard work,” he says. “It sounds rather boring, but it’s as simple as that.

Former Dragons boss Bernard Jackman has urged the WRU to follow the IRFU’s lead by pumping more money into the four Welsh regions or see them slip further into the abyss. Three of the four professional sides in Wales are privately owned with the WRU normally providing them with payment for the services of their players.

Welsh football fans could return – in small numbers – for the clash between Cardiff City and Swansea City on December 12. There have been no fans in stadia in Wales since March, but the picture could now change in time for the Welsh derby when Neil Harris’s Bluebirds host Steve Cooper’s Swansea City side next month. Meetings are scheduled between the Welsh Government and the football clubs for the early part of next week to discuss opening up football and rugby stadia in Wales on the back of Boris Johnson’s announcement that fans can return in England.

Ray Prosser, who died earlier this week at the age of 93, was more than just a player and a coach. As Peter Jackson recalls, he was a philosopher, educator and sociologist, when he wasn’t driving a bulldozer for a living. Monday, January 20, 1975 – training night at Pontypool RFC in readiness for the next match: home to Glamorgan Wanderers on Saturday. Graham Price rolls up along with everyone else, unmoved at the praise showering over him since the climactic end to his Test debut in Paris a little more than 48 hours earlier.