THERE are times in every correspondent’s writing career, be they professional or amateur, when they are lost for words but an article is called for and something has to be committed to paper. It is considered only fair to the regular readers of the publication that they receive a contribution that reports the events in which they are interested.

It is also important that the coverage accurately reflects the event that took place with a certain licence to ensure that the participants are named in a positive context. This is particularly true when reporting the performances of local sports teams where it is considered appropriate that players’ and officials’ names are mentioned and good efforts and scores are recorded, possibly to be recalled at some later date by archivists or local historians.

Having said that there are usually deadlines to meet and the submitted copy has to meet the number of words specified by the editor. In the case of sports reports for the Penarth Times that is 10am on a Tuesday and either 500 or 550 words dependent upon the article being supported by photographs.

Sometimes the reports submitted by over enthusiastic contributors contain too many words and the article is edited. This can lead to omissions of names and sometimes to a loss of content that makes the article inaccurate. Fortunately, this does not happen on too many occasions.

And in the case of the report being submitted on behalf of Old Penarthians for their fixture away to St Albans in WRU Division Three East Central (A) last Saturday, October 11 this is unlikely to happen.

The bare facts are that the team lost the match at Tremorfa Park by 69 points to nil. In the process St Albans scored eleven tries and seven conversions. The scoring started in the third minute and by the twentieth minute the home team had earned a bonus point for scoring four tries. At half time the Buns had scored 45 unanswered points.

If there was a positive that the Old Penarthians could take from the performance, it was that they did not give up and with some astute defensive alignments there were only 24 second half points.

It was a very disappointing performance and it was no way to mark the 300th appearance of stalwart prop forward Lee Brennan in Old Penarthians first team colours. Lee has been the cornerstone of the team for over 15 years and he is sure to remember many games more favourably than this. It may however be some satisfaction that he is the only player that is individually credited in this report and he should be very proud of this milestone achievement. The club is indebted to him for his time at the ‘coalface’ and hope that he will be there for many years to come.

Next Saturday the first XV play at home to local rivals and table-toppers Dinas Powis and it is hoped that the report will again return to a positive appreciation of the game whatever the result. The seconds also have a league game away to St Albans. Both games are due to kick off at 2.30pm.