My personal highlight was an interview with Bleddyn Williams (above), captain of Wales and the Lions in the early 50s and, in 1953, captain of the last Welsh team to beat the All Blacks. I had the honour of sitting next to him for the climax of this year's Welsh Grand Slam against France.
The Welsh team is sponsored by Brains and the nation is partial to a drink so it was no surprise that a Grand Slam brought record sales for local pubs (below).
Cardiff & Co., the company charged with promoting Cardiff, launched a new logo. We decided to do a for and against feature on it (above). In the diary section is also a small story I found about seagulls attacking PCSOs.
A Friday edition meant plenty of sporting previews. Here is one for the Cardiff Blues v Munster in the Magners League (below).
A Blues v Leinster preview (above) and a feature on George Evans, a 70-something table tennis champion who once knocked Kevin Keegan off the back page of the Hamburg Bild (below).
A women's football reunion (above) and uncovering extortionate park and ride charges for the National Eisteddfod. Such schemes had been a big success in previous years in other Welsh towns and cities - because they were free.
Experience of a public inquiry into a butcher whose lack of cleanliness caused the biggest ever outbreak of E.coli in Britain and the death of a young boy (above).
Mike Atherton branded Cardiff's Sophia Gardens "a joke" during his Test commentary on England v New Zealand. Glamorgan cricket captain and former England cricketer Matthew Maynard stood up for the redeveloped ground (below).
Both ends of the sporting scale - An interview with Welsh full back Lee Byrne during the Six Nations (above) and a preview of Dody Constantinou's trip to Chicago to compete in the hairdressing World Cup (below). Completing my quota for this particular production day was attendance at a talk on climate change at the Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay by the Welsh Assembly's Sustainability Committee (below).
Interview with Gethin Jenkins on his anticipated tussle with Irish stalwart John Hayes ahead of Wales's bid to win the Triple Crown at Croke Park (above - bottom left). A million miles away from Croke park are the pitches of Pontcanna Fields. But this piece (below) broke news of a £390,000 investment.
The Cardiff Devils' goalkeeper Phil Osaer returned from injury and spoke to Sarah Garrod and me about him, the club and talk of takeovers (above) while Blues and Wales' outside-half Nicky Robinson talked up his race to be fit for the Blues' Heineken Cup quarter-final against Toulouse and life after rugby.
A feature behind the scenes at the Millennium Stadium including interviews with the conductor of the pre-match choirs, Hadyn James, and the stadium's hawk handler, Phillipa Hawkins. You couldn't make it up (above).
Short piece from an interview with former Welsh captain and record try-scorer Gareth Thomas on Shane Williams closing in on his 40-try record (below).
Wales v Italy preview following a press conference with Warren Gatland at the Welsh training base in the Vale of Glamorgan (above).
The latest twist in the Welsh nation's "obsession" with the number 10 shirt. Gatland chose to announce his team for the Ireland match on a Tuesday, three hours before our deadline. That'll be the back page sorted then and ensure a speedy drive back from the Vale (above).
On our first production day I was the editor and, the night before, the Cardiff Blues had a behind-closed-doors vote on the future of the club. We chased the outcome and the financials being discussed and eventually our persistence (in particular that of our reporter Chris Cousens) paid off (above). I include it as a good reminder to just make one more phone call on every job in future.
There was Crown Court duty too. I had a lovely tale of a man charged with murdering his lover. After two hours of discussing the admissibility of evidence they allowed his ex-wife to testify, the headline says it all (below).
A spot of boxing on a young prospect in Cardiff (above - bottom left) and an interview with Rhys Williams, part of the 2005 Grand-Slam-winning Welsh side (below).
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