Elfyn Evans has finished Friday’s dramatic leg of Wales Rally GB in eighth place, after a near miss in Penmachno forest damaged his chances of winning Britain’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship this year. Evans put last night’s poor opening stage at Oulton Park behind him by jumping from 22nd to sixth position with fastest time on Friday’s opening stage, Elsi 1, in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC. Conditions were atrocious, with mud and standing water making the forest roads extremely slippery, and on the next stage in Penmachno forest he slid wide, clipped a bank and collected a puncture – with the 43 seconds lost dropping him down to 12th. Fourth fastest through Dyfnant (SS4) and another fastest time in Aberhirnant put Evans and co-driver Scott Martin back into the top 10, as crews arrived back in Llandudno for mid-day service.

Neil Warnock has revealed the moment he thought about walking away from Cardiff City. It came after the Bluebirds slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Reading six weeks ago and the City manager says: “I wouldn’t have wanted to stand on the touchline with performances like that, with the crowd unhappy.” Warnock, aged 70, badly […]

Marlon Pack says scoring his first goal for Cardiff City in their 3-0 win over Queens Park Rangers will help him to settle with the club, after signing from Bristol City in the summer. The 28-year-old midfielder scored City’s second of the night on Wednesday from Gavin Whyte’s low cross following a Lee Tomlin corner. And Pack admits the goal was a move straight off the training ground.

Ken Owens has warned Wales not to get suckered into a Fijian free-for-all when they face their next World Cup opponents. The Wales hooker insists Fiji possess “a lot of X-factor” and it would be a mistake to try and take them on at their own all-court handling game. Victory for Wales in Oita next Wednesday would secure a quarter-final place with one game to spare.

Ian Traylor has former Martyrs captain Steve Williams in his sights after makes his 400th appearance for the club. Traylor, who has scored almost 200 goals for Merthyr Town over the last decade, is 12 matches behind Williams. Tomorrow, in a BetVictor Southern Premier clash with Wimborne Town at Merthyr’;s MatCoaches Stadium home, ‘Traylz’ looks […]

Fyn Corcoran – Welsh Athletics’ new National Talent Development Coordinator for jumps and combined events – says he will bring a professional attitude to his role, whilst aiming to give every child an opportunity enjoy the sport. The former Great Britain combined events international is the final block in Welsh Athletics’ structure of four NTDC’s covering all of the athletics disciplines. The Rhumney Valley AC club member joins Matt Elias (sprints and hurdles), Liz Davies (endurance) and Ryan Spencer-Jones (throws).

Fan diarist Harri Morgan is in Japan, but finding the World Cup challenging as he juggles travel, clothing choices, Irishmen, and Wales worries, while riding the bullet train to faraway Tokyo. The air-conditioned train proves – yet again – to be an absolute sanctuary for a bloke who kicked off his World Cup tour by opting to complete his air travel decked out in international rugby social uniform; blue shirt, rugby tie and chinos – and has only continued to make ill thought out gear choices. The old Cotton Traders classics are not the go-to in 30 degree heat, yet the man keeps reppin’ it. Not cool. Literally.

Ryan Giggs expects to get it in the neck over his decision to include Tow Lawrence in his Wales squad and the message that could send. Despite accepting there were very valid reasons for making the opposite call, the Wales manager decided to include the Derby forward in his squad named on Thursday. Lawrence is due to appear at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on October 15 – two days after Wales’ vital Euro 2020 qualifier with Croatia – having been charged with drink-driving.

Elfyn Evans has made a steady start to Wales Rally GB, completing a very slippery opening stage at the Oulton Park motor racing circuit without drama. His time of 2mins 59.8secs was, however, over 12 seconds off the fastest time set by Kris Meeke/Seb Marshall (Toyota), leaving the Dolgellau driver outside the top 20. But fear not, because the short 3.58km blast around a venue better known for hosting motorbike and touring car races is nothing compared to what’s to follow over the next three days, with tomorrow’s route through Dyfnant, Aberhirnant, Elsi and Penmachno forests (not to mention the Slate Mountain stage) a full 116kms in length.

On his return to competition, a now fully fighting fit Elfyn Evans set the second best time on today’s Wales Rally GB Shakedown stage. Co-driven by Scott Martin in the home favourites’ M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC, the 30-year old from Dolgellau set an impressive time of 2mins 55.2 secs through the 4.68km Gwydir forest stage, equal with Citroën Total WRT team-mates Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia and Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm. Kris Meeke/Seb Marshall set the fastest time of 2min 54.1secs in their Toyota Yaris WRC, 1.1 seconds quicker than their nearest rivals. Their Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT team-mates and World Championship leaders Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja were eighth fastest, over two seconds behind.

Wales Rally GB begins this morning, with crews leaving the Service Area in Llandudno and tackling the Shakedown stage in Gwydir forest. Elfyn Evans has enjoyed a good two day recce this week and says that he’s ready for his home round of the FIA World Rally Championship, despite a three month layoff after hurting his back in July. “Of course I’ll be doing everything I can to win, it’s what we are here for,” says Evans. “The recce has been good and the stages are looking excellent. It’s looking like the first real day [Friday] will be more tricky in terms of, let’s say surprises on the stages thanks to the conditions that we were perhaps not expecting, but overall, it’s been a pretty good two days.”

Neil Warnock hailed the impact of Marlon Pack after the midfielder played a key role in extending Cardiff’s unbeaten Championship run to seven matches, with a 3-0 home win over QPR. The Bluebirds midfielder scored his first goal for the club he joined from Bristol City for £4m in the summer and also set in motion the move that finished with Callum Paterson scoring his side’s third. Added to Sean Morrison’s opener – also his first goal of the season – it gave Warnock his biggest win of the season and moved Cardiff up to 10th in the table, just two points off the play-offs.

Brian Flynn, Wrexham’s caretaker manager, expects to be in charge when the Dragons travel to play Woking on Saturday.  But he warned club directors ‘it’s important things are resolved pretty quickly’. Flynn has been in charge for two Vanarama National League fixtures, a 1-0 win against Ebbsfleet and Wrexham’s 3-1 defeat at Solihull Moors, following […]

Welsh Wizards, the Cardiff-based Premier Squash League team, look certain to call up a couple of the World’s leading players for their opening home match of the season. That will be against St George’s on Tuesday, October 15. They have Mohamed ElShorbagy and Joelle King their top male and female players. Wizards have an abundance […]

Elfyn Evans could need 24 hours to get back to his best when he takes to the roads at the Wales Rally GB. That’s the verdict of Nicky Grist, when assessing the chances of Wales’ top driver who is making his return from injury at his home event. The M-Sport Ford driver from Dolgellau in back hunting for points in the World Rally Championship after a back injury forced him to miss the legs in Finland, Germany and Turkey.

Merthyr Town 1, Cinderford Town 2 The Martyrs gave youth a chance in their BetVictor Southern League Cup tie against Cinderford Town at the MetCoaches Stadium. Captain Kieran Lewis and his Merthyr Town team produced a solid team performance, but suffered when their visitors from the Forest of Dean scored a last minute winner. “The […]

Neil Warnock wants his Cardiff City players to bridge the gap between high-flying West Brom and his team this week so he can put his feet up for the next fortnight. Cardiff – who have confirmed they are to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being told by FIFA to pay the first £5.3m of the Emiliano Sala transfer – host QPR tonight. The visitors are one of Warnock’s many former clubs and it’s a hurdle he wants to clear before the manager then prepares his team for The Hawthorns – arguably their biggest assignment so far this season – at the weekend.

Hannah Mills has been handed a ticket to make Olympic history in Tokyo next year by becoming the first woman to win three sailing medals at the Games. The 31-year-old former Howell’s School, Cardiff, pupil struck silver in the 470 class in London in 2012 and then followed them up with gold in Rio four years later alongside Saskia Clark. Next year she will head to Japan in tandem with Eilidh McIntyre in pursuit of another medal.

With a week still to go until Wales play Fiji at the World Cup, Warren Gatland must decide whether or not to rest some of the A-listers who triumphed against Australia. Robin Davey insists the more sensible day off for them would be against Uruguay in the final pool match. Forget talk of Wales making a crop of changes for their next World Cup challenge when they take on Fiji in Oita. For win that, achieve a bonus point to boot – with minnows Uruguay to follow – and Wales will surely qualify for the quarter-finals as group winners.

Fresh from his successful British Rally Championship (BRC) campaign, where he won three of the season’s six rounds and claimed dominant victory on the final event in Scotland a few weeks ago, Aberdyfi driver Tom Cave now sets his sights on the Wales Rally GB. Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship starts on Thursday afternoon (3 October) from Liverpool and finishes on Sunday (6 October) in the rally’s host town of Llandudno. Accompanied for the first time by Dale Furniss from Llanfyllin, Cave will drive the same Philip Case Rally Sport-prepared Hyundai i20 R5 that he used to such great effect in this year’s BRC.