For the second time in a fortnight my hopes have been dashed by the Welsh.

Two weekends ago I met up in Cardiff with old rugby mates Ronnie, John & Jerry from back home for the Wales v Scotland international.

That`s the one where Scotland took a surprise lead and we held on until the Welsh broke our hearts by scoring with the last move of the game.

Despite that we had a great time helped greatly by a little old lady next to us at the game who passed along a hipflask of 10 year old Malt every time Scotland scored.

And now today, March 1st as the Welsh celebrate St David`s Day, my hopes are dashed again as a Welshman is awarded first prize in “The Great British Pie” competition leaving The Three Crowns Beef, Mushroom and Guinness Pie as a beaten finalist.

For the record the winners pie was made with chicken, asparagus and potato, topped with a layer of Tintern Abbey Cheese and puff pastry and in fact it sounds so good I think we`ll try it out at The Three Crowns.

It`s been great fun being part of the competition and the interest from the local newspapers has resulted in Al & Kris in the kitchen cooking up an extra 20 pies a day to meet demand.

I`ll leave it to Frances Bacon Senior to sum up on my behalf.

“There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that lost by not trying”