Radio

On The BBC

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

As some of you will be aware, the radio interview that I did with my friend Jools for Ujima has got a lot of great feedback. First it got picked up by Shout Out, the LGBT show on BCFM (the other community radio station in Bristol). Then I got contacted by the team who do the Best of BCFM show on Radio Bristol. They ran the interview on their show today (around 20 minutes in, after Tina Turner). It will be available for another week on the BBC’s Listen Again service here. Huge thanks to Harriet Robinson for giving me, and Jools, that opportunity.

By the way, each new show that picked up the interview wanted it shorter. Shout Out wanted 15 minutes, the BBC wanted just 10. It is surprising how much time you can save by ruthless editing out of hesitation and repetition, and I think I kept the majority of the content even in the 10 minute version, but if you want to listen to the full thing it is available here.

On the back of all that, I have been invited to appear on Radio Bristol’s Richard Lewis Show tomorrow. My slot will apparently start around 12:15. That too should be available on Listen Again if you can’t tune in live. Hopefully we’ll get to talk a lot about books and BristolCon as well as about trans issues.

If you are local, or going to be in Bristol soon, I recommend that you also listen through the end of the Best of BCFM where they have an interview with Stephen Gomes from Meluha, a new Indian restaurant in Park Street which has been getting a lot of attention. Emily at Bristol Bites (who I’ve had on Ujima) is a huge fan. And Stephen has recently been voted the best Indian cuisine chef in the UK. Kevin dear, I think we need to go out for dinner while you are here.

Of course I had put the weekend aside to clean the cottage in advance of Kevin’s arrival next weekend. I guess I need to do that all today. At least the Japanese Grand Prix will be just about over when I have to leave to get the train. I hope it isn’t a tight finish.

Today on Ujima: Historical Novels, Equality Act, Women of Color

~ Cheryl

It was another busy day for me in the Ujima studio. Paulette is still on vacation and I had to host 1.5 hours of the show. Many thanks to my colleagues who ran the other half hour to give me a break.

From the bookish point of view, the most interesting session is the first half hour in which I talk to Lucienne Boyce about two panels on historical fiction that she has organized for the Bristol Festival of Literature. These feature Romans and maritime history (including pirates!). You can learn more about them here. We also talked more generally about historical fiction, and I managed to get in mentions for Nalo Hopkinson, Mary Robinette Kowal and David Anthony Durham.

That was followed by a session on the UK’s Equality Act, which managed to be quite topical as an attempt by a Christian couple to claim that they have a right to discriminate against gay people was all over the news today. The last 10 minutes or so of that was given over to discussion of how badly the Act works for trans people. I was not in the least surprised the the current government is busily conspiring with business leaders to remove all of the provisions in the Act that are useful in court, so as to make it seem like the legislation is still in place, but render it toothless.

The whole of that first hour is available on Listen Again here.

I took a break for the third half hour, at least in part because I needed to talk to my final two guests because I didn’t have much idea of what we were going to say. Thankfully Lynn and Sandra proved really good interviewees, having lots of interesting material and a very positive attitude. Basically they were talking about an event later this month that will showcase the craft, entertainment and business talents of women of color in Bristol, and provide training and inspiration for young girls. It sounds awesome. I’m going, and I’m hoping to meet some people who will be good guests on future shows. Also I managed to sneak in a name check for the awesome Laverne Cox and her idea of being a Possibility Model.

The second half of the show is available on Listen Again here.

Ujima: Raising a Trans Child

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

As promised, here is my final interview from today’s Women’s Outlook Show. It features a lady I will name only as Jools. She is the mother of a trans child, and she kindly came into the studio to tell me about her experiences in that very difficult role. It wasn’t an easy interview for either of us: Jools because of the pain that her family had gone through, and me because it inevitably brought back memories of my personal journey.

There are a few things I should note before presenting the interview. The first is that the whole thing is solely from the point of view of a male-to-female transsexual. That reflects the experience of Jools’ daughter, and of myself. It does not necessarily reflect the experiences of a trans man, or of someone who identifies more as genderqueer and neither needs nor desires medical transition. I apologize for these omissions, but Jools had come in to tell her story, and that of her daughter, and I did not want to spend her valuable air time on explanations of the varied nature of other trans experiences, equally valid though they are.

Probably, along the way, we may have been slightly clumsy in our language and phrased things in ways that could have been better. Live radio is like that. I haven’t had enough practice to be perfect every time, and most guests have no chance of being so.

Finally, a trigger warning for trans people thinking of listening. The interview does contain mention of two separate suicide attempts. If hearing about such things will upset you, please don’t listen.

This podcast is now available from my new, gender-related podcast channel, Neither Simple Nor Binary.

Today on Ujima

~ Cheryl

I got to host the whole of the first hour of today’s Women’s Outlook Show. My first guest was a wonderful poet called Doreen Baidoo who told us all about various projects that she has worked on. I also got my colleague Jackie in to talk more generally about poetry. The second guest was Sarah Thorp who runs the Room 212 art gallery on Gloucester Road. Both of these interviews illustrate the fabulous diversity of art projects in the city. You can listen to that hour here.

I also hosted the final half hour of the show, for a very special interview. As often happens, the Listen Again system’s clock and the studio clock were not quite in synch, and the interview laps over in the first minute of Tommy Popcorn’s show. Rather than ask you to listen to both, I have taken the liberty of patching together a quick edit containing just the interview, which I will post separately shortly.

Missing Hugo Post

~ Cheryl

Yesterday on Twitter I promised I would post about the audio book Hugo debacle that has blown up. Well I have written the post, but I wanted to run it past Kevin first to make sure I haven’t said anything wrong. He’s been driving back from Worldcon, and has only just got home in the last half hour so so. He’ll be exhausted, and I need to get to bed because I have a very busy day in the Ujima studios tomorrow and I need to be rested (I didn’t sleep much at all last night, I was too upset).

So probably the post will go up tomorrow when I get back from Bristol.

Also there will be a link to what I expect to be a really amazing, if heart-rending interview.

See you then. Meanwhile I’m watching England play football in the expectation that it will send me to sleep.

More On Russia

~ Cheryl

Firstly, from Radio Free Europe, this heart-warming tale of straight folks in Russia taking a stand against homophobia.

Also the latest episode of Shout Out includes a telephone interview with Peter Tatchell in which he talks about how we can best help our Russian friends. (Fair warning, it also contains some highlights of the Union Cup coverage, which means small bits of me. The Tatchell interview is near the end.) I’ve figured out how to link directly to the show from here.

Today on Ujima

~ Cheryl

Well that was a busy day. Huge thanks to Stephanie Saulter for being a fabulous guest on the show. I seem to have monopolized most of the two hours this week. Here’s what went down.

The first half hour was all about Stephanie. We talked about her trip home to Jamaica to launch Gemsigns. We talked about her experiences at the Nine Worlds convention over the weekend. And we talked about the current state of affairs in Jamaica, which ranged from the economy to Usain Bolt and Chris Gayle to the horrific transphobic murder of Dwayne Jones.

The Nine Worlds coverage include shout outs for Hal Duncan, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Tade Thompson and quite likely a few other people. I also got in a mention of the fabulous new @WritersofColour Twitter account, and my friend Nikesh Shukla, who has a great article on their blog today about how brown people get used in movies.

In the second half hour I talked to Hannah Lawton, a young Bristol lady who, with her friend Jessie Van Beck, will be rowing across the Atlantic for charity this December. This is part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. You can read more about Hannah and Jessie, and why they are undertaking this grueling challenge, here.

The first hour of the show is now available as a podcast here.

Hour two begins with the Lighter Look at Life segment, which this week was all about proverbs and grammar and, well, it rambled a bit. And I think we might have got a bit confused between Axioms and Maxims. Stephanie and I both feature.

Then after 15 minutes we have the Woman of the Week slot, in which I talk to Stephanie about her life, her amazing family, and how a girl from Jamaica with what might have been the best job in the world ended up in the UK and becoming a science fiction writer.

Finally we have 15 minutes on summer reading, including Jackie’s kids being charming about their love for Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Between us Stephanie and I managed to recommend Nalo Hopkinson, Ian McDonald, Karen Lord, Juliet McKenna, Jon Grimwood and the whole of the World Fantasy Awards Best Novel ballot.

The second half hour is available as a podcast here.

The Trans Pride Report

~ Cheryl

The podcast of last night’s Shout Out show is now available for download via their Listen Again feature. That will scroll down the page with time, but there’s a direct link to the podcast here. I manage to get name checked throughout the show, but the actual report starts at around 27 minutes in. It includes interviews with Fox and Sarah from My Transsexual Summer, and with CN Lester. All of the websites mentioned during the report are linked from the show notes.

Today on Ujima – Juggling, Glass, Twitter & Housing

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Well that was a busy day.

What I knew about today’s show was that I was going to be interviewing Rod Laver, the amazing juggler who was part of Amanda Palmer’s show in Bristol. That took up the first half hour, in which we discussed Amanda, Rod’s act, the juggling world championships, running away to the circus and much more.

What I didn’t know was that I would also be interviewing Jackie Victory, a Bristol-based glass artist, who does some really cool things, and who gave me an excuse to mention Dale Chihuly on the radio. After the ad break I bring in a couple of the regular crew to talk more generally about art in Bristol. There’s a lot of it. One thing I didn’t mention, because I wasn’t sure of the dates, was the crazy golf exhibit at the Arnolfini, which looks like a lot of fun.

All of that is in the first hour, which you can listen to here.

The second hour begins with one of those “lighter look” segments that always gets serious and political in the end. We were supposed to be chatting, in a light-hearted way, about how to put off unwelcome attention from men. But that was partly inspired by the awful trolling that has been going on on Twitter recently, and that led to me having a rant about the proposed abuse button. I guess I need to do a blog post about that. And about the equally idiotic porn filter.

Paulette actually got on the show for one segment doing Woman of the Week with our fabulous Amy, but then she ducked out again and left me to present the final half hour on housing issues. I’m not sure that the discussion got anywhere, but at least people got opportunities to air grievances.

You can listen to the second hour here.

Update: I’m just listening to the first hour and there’s a blank spot during the first ad break. We had a small tech snafu. Don’t worry, it comes back.

Today on Ujima: Nene Ormes & Jon Courtenay Grimwood

~ Cheryl

The first half hour of today’s show was given over to an interview with Swedish fantasy writer, Nene Ormes, who is in the UK on vacation. I lured Nene over to Bristol and I’m delighted to say that she does great interviews. We discussed her books, and those of other Swedish writers (including Karin Tidbeck and Stieg Larsson). And we talked a lot about Sweden. There were also name checks for Lavie Tidhar and Charles A. Tan for being awesome.

I haven’t heard the second half hour yet. Nene and I were out in the Ujima offices talking to some kids on the National Citizenship Scheme. But it does feature Emily Williams, of who more later. You can find the whole hour here.

Hour two starts with a brief recorded interview that I did with Jonathan Grimwood (a.k.a. Jon Courtenay Grimwood) about his new book, The Last Banquet. The studio team then had a little chat about eating weird things. After 15 minutes we switch to me interviewing Emily Williams who is an amazing person. Her son, Eddie, was diagnosed with potentially life-threatening problems with his internal organs at age 6, and was given months to live. Thanks to Emily’s care, he’s just celebrated his 21st birthday and is living a very full life. Emily is the most positive person I’ve ever talked to. Take a listen and see.

I missed the last half hour as I had to get Nene and her husband back to Temple Meads. I, and you, can listen to the whole second hour here.

Got Downloads?

~ Cheryl

Well, this is embarrassing. I’m way to used too things on the Internet being there for ever. I was therefore somewhat surprised when it was pointed out to me that some of the links to my Ujima shows no longer worked. I was even more surprised when I was told by colleagues at the station that no archives are kept. The shows that have been shunted off the system to make room for new ones have just been thrown away. Aaarrrggh!

From now on I will be making backups of every show that I do. But I don’t have copies of the interviews I did with Stephanie Saulter, Emma Newman, Bea Hitchman and Jack Wolf. If anyone downloaded those shows, can they please get in touch?

Today on Ujima

~ Cheryl

Thanks to a minor scheduling mix-up, the first hour of Women’s Outlook was all me.

First up I got to chat with two visitors from American, Warren Rochelle & Gary Nelson. The discussion covered a range of issues including why they are here (Warren has been teaching a course on Tolkien and Lewis for visiting American students), what they have been doing for tourism, marriage equality, and Trayvon Martin.

In the second half hour I talked to Mark Goodway of The Matthew Tree Project, an amazing Bristol-based charity that has an innovative approach to tackling poverty through a focus on food. I really like what they are doing. Rather than just give out free food, they encourage people to eat well, to learn to cook meals for themselves, and now even to grow their own food on land provided by Bristol City Council.

You can listen to the whole of the first hour here. The last bit of my chat with Mark has flowed over into the second hour.

I was also in the studio for the first 15 minutes of the second hour, in which we were discussing missing out on things and avoiding burn out. I managed to get in a mention of the Amanda Palmer gig, and running Worldcon.

I have no idea what happened in the rest of the second hour. When I got out of the studio I immediately got involved in talking to some lads who were at the station as part of the National Citizen Service scheme. And then I needed food. But you (and I) can listen to the second hour here.

My thanks as ever to my studio guests. Next week I’ll be talking to Swedish author, Nene Ormes, who is in the UK on vacation.

Today on Ujima – Militant Feminists & Bristol Pride

~ Cheryl

It was a busy day for us at Ujima Radio. Paulette was occupied with a bunch of young lads who were doing some sort of community involvement training. She spent the first half of each hour talking to some of them. I had them in my segments as well, but given that I was talking about feminism and Bristol Pride rather than football they didn’t have a lot to say, and who can blame them.

In the second half of the first hour I talked to local writer, Lucienne Boyce, about suffragette militancy. That was a trailer for this event at M-Shed on Saturday. Given discussions online, I asked Lucienne whether British suffragettes had been as racist as we are learning American ones were. She says she has seen no evidence for it, and that there are records of Indian women being involved, which is encouraging. The main point, however, is that those ladies were seriously militant. If they did stuff like that these days they would be shipped off for extraordinary rendition faster than you can say “terrorist”. Take a listen and see. I was also amused to discover that (male) Bristol MPs engaged in trolling and victim politics in a bid to thwart the suffragettes.

The second half of hour two was given over to discussion of Bristol Pride. Daryn Carter joined me in the studio. We took a look through some of the many events that will be taking place during the rest of the week, and especially on Saturday. Then we talked a little bit about the marriage equality bill and other current LGBT rights issues.

Saturday is the main Pride Day for Bristol, and my pals at Shout Out will be taking over the Bristol Community Radio airwaves for the whole day. Some of the content will be broadcast on Ujima as well. I’ll be spending much of the day wandering around Castle Park looking for victims volunteers to interview. Also, between 3:00pm and 4:00pm I will be in the field studio with Paul Davis doing the Sports Show live from Pride. Given what went on today, it looks like we might be discussing the early end of the Test Match rather than following scores. If you want to follow the day’s broadcasts, you can do so on 93.2fm in Bristol, or streamed over the BCFM website. The shows will also eventually appear on Shout Out’s Listen Again pages.

Radio: Jo Hall, Wendy Davis & Julia Gillard

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday’s radio was a bit manic as we had a number of guests scheduled to come in, some of whom might not be able to make it. Thankfully my guests are always well behaved, and the first half hour of the show was devoted to me quizzing Jo Hall about her great new fantasy novel, The Art of Forgetting: Rider. I’m delighted at the way Jo has busily subverted several of the common tropes of epic fantasy. Good QUILTBAG content too. Must write a review. And if you are local and are not coming to the launch event tonight I want to know why.

The next segment was the “lighter look at life” thing, in which we finally managed to make ourselves laugh. Then again, we were talking about pet hates. If you want to know what some of mine are, do listen in.

Finally in the first hour, with guests missing, I bullied the team into letting me talk about Wendy Davis and Julia Gillard. We might be local radio, but we do care about what happens elsewhere in the world. That’s especially true when the only news that gets out comes via another local news service: well done Texas Tribune.

You can listen to the whole of the first hour as a podcast here.

I was thinking I was all done by 13:00, but Paulette ambushed me with another interview. Still minus guests, we dragged in one of the Ujima staff, Caroline Oldland, to talk about the work she does devising youth projects for the station. It turned out to be a great interview and I’m really pleased to have got to talk to Caroline.

The second hour of the show is podcast here. I’m done after the interview with Caroline. The rest of the show is about local politics, but still worth a listen if you want to hear local people standing up to austerity culture.

Update: Fixed spelling of Wendy’s name. Sorry.

Jo Hall on Ujima Tomorrow

~ Cheryl

If it is Wednesday, it must be Women’s Outlook on Ujima Radio. At noon tomorrow I will be interviewing the fabulous Joanne Hall about her new novel, The Art of Forgetting: Rider. You can listen to the live stream here, and if you are busy at work I’ll post the Listen Again link when I can. That probably won’t be until Thursday as in the evening I’ll be listening to Eugene Byrne talk about his Unbuilt Bristol book at the Arnolfini. If you want to know what that’s all about, check out last week’s show.

Ujima with Eugene Byrne on Unbuilt Bristol

~ Cheryl

Today on Ujima I had the pleasure of interviewing Eugene Byrne about his new book, Unbuilt Bristol. It forms the first half hour of the show, and you can listen to it here.

The book is a guided tour of architectural projects that didn’t quite make it off the drawing board. We talk about the original design for the bridge across the Avon Gorge, and why the existing bridge isn’t exactly Brunel’s design. We discuss the history of the Severn Barrage, which stretches all the way back into the 19th Century. If you want to know why there are no trams in Bristol, and why there are no nude statues outside City Hall, do listen in. We only scratched the surface of the book, and could easily have talked for another half hour.

For those of you who live in and around Bristol, Eugene will be giving a talk about the book at the Arnolfini next Wednesday. With him will be a man who is responsible for some of the more interesting unbuilt projects in the book, architect and now Mayor, George Ferguson. This will be your chance to come along and tell George what sort of buildings and civic projects the city needs.

Today’s Radio

~ Cheryl

I made it to the studio today, despite the fact that I feel like I’m dying of jet lag and allergies. The show is now available online.

The first hour opens up with a guest appearance by a local performance poet, Isadora Vibes. I was very impressed by her, and hope to get to see one of her shows soon. In the second half hour we talk about a variety of things to do with travel and conferences. That includes a segment of me talking about my recent trip to Finland. There are brief mentions of Karin Tidbeck, Johanna Sinisalo, Hannu Rajaniemi and, of course, the fabulous Mercedes Urbano-Winquist and her chocolate factory.

I only do the first 15 minutes of the second hour, which is all about kitchen gadgets. Lots more interesting and serious things follow, but I was on my way home, after which I slept for a few hours.

I won’t be doing the show next week, but for the other two Wednesdays in June I have lined up Eugene Byrne and Jo Hall as my studio guests. I also have an interview with Madeline Ashby that I need to edit and do something with.

Union Cup – The Audio

~ Cheryl

As with most local radio stations, BCFM has a “listen again” feature that allows you to listen to their shows after they have been broadcast. Consequently everything we did on Saturday is online. However, the process is automated, which means no show notes, and because we didn’t follow the usual Saturday schedule the titles of the shows are a bit of a mess.

The live coverage of the finals are in the Saturday Sports Show, which my co-commentator, Paul Davis, usually hosts. You can find the two hours of that show here. As the two games lasted a bit longer than 2 hours our commentary continues into the slot normally shared with Nia’s Chart Show from Ujima. After the 15s final finished we are in the studio interviewing people.

During the morning various interviews of mine got played. I haven’t had a chance to listen to everything yet, but I know I’m in the studio of the second hour of Clane’s Saturday Breakfast, reviewing Friday’s matches and looking forward to the day’s play. I’m also interviewing Mark Sampson of the Vixens, and later in the studio, during the second hour of Fin’s 100% Best of Bristol.

During the day we got email from someone in the south of France, presumably a Montpelier fan, thanking us for the coverage. I see that there is now a comment on the Sports Show page from an Emerald Warriors player who was in South Africa during the tournament. I’m delighted that we were able to give the Union Cup such good international coverage.

Union Cup – Day 2

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Saturday began early for me with an appearance on Clane’s Breakfast Show. The BCFM studio was up and running at the ground and we were broadcasting live all day. Show’s such as Clane’s needed sports experts to bring in to talk about the tournament, and that meant Paul Davis and myself. We contributed a review of the previous day’s play, and looked forward to an exciting final day.

After grabbing some breakfast myself, I was faced by a terrible choice. I very much wanted to see my Portuguese friends play. I wanted to cheer on Cardiff Lions in their Plate semifinal against London Steelers 2nds. But what I had to do was watch what I expected to be one of the best matches of the day, the Cup semi final between Dublin and Manchester.

These were two of the top teams in the tournament. The Emerald Warriors had got maximum points from their league play, but had never beaten the Spartans before. It should have been close, but it wasn’t. Dublin won 27-0, and that margin of victory was to a large extent due to the quality of their goal kicker, Dave Matthews. Dublin is the only side that I saw in the tournament happy to take pots at goal after a penalty rather than run the ball or go for the touchline. Matthews put one over from almost on the half way line. He was going to be a serious threat in the final.

After the game I rushed over to pitch 2 to check on the score from the Plate semi final. I was delighted to find that the Cardiff boys had got the job done, defeating the Steelers 2nds by a score of 10-5. In the final they would play Amsterdam Lowlanders who had put an end to the fine run of Northampton Outlaws in their debut tournament.

Meanwhile the Bristol Academy Ladies had arrived at the ground for a final training session prior to leaving for Doncaster and their FA Cup Final against Arsenal. I managed to get an interview with their manager, Mark Sampson, once they were done.

Let me say that again. I got to interview the manager of the local soccer team prior to their leaving to play in the FA Cup Final. Yes, it was a ladies team, but wow.

Paul was still busy checking out the potential finalists. Newcastle Ravens had had a good run, but in their semi final they got to see a very serious team in action. London Steelers put 45 points past the hapless Ravens, and affirmed their status as tournament favorites.

Having got my interview filed with the studio, I headed over to pitch two where I provided Twitter commentary on the Spoon final between Bristol and Berlin. It was a close fought affair. The Bisons scored two tries, made an amazing conversion from wide on the right, and had plenty of possession in good attacking positions. Unfortunately they kept spilling the ball at vital moments. The final score was 19-12 to the Germans.

I don’t think that the Bisons should be too disheartened. Though they lost all of their games, none of them were blowouts, and all but the Berlin game were to teams who placed in the Plate or Cup finals. They scored five tries, and clearly have an excellent kicker. I really like their scrum half too, though the rest of the team sometimes struggle to keep up with him. Besides, they have an trophy from the weekend. And it is not an actual wooden spoon.

On pitch one Paul had been watching the Bowl Final, in which Edinburgh Thebans defeated the Rebelyons from Lyons by a score of 34-7. The Scots boys, having a trophy in the bag, proceeded to stock up on beer and copies of the Bisons calendar, and camp by the side of the pitch underneath our commentary position. They got steadily louder through the afternoon.

I got to make a brief studio appearance to report on the morning’s events, then it was off to the commentary position for the first live game: the 10s Final between Dublin Emerald Warriors 10s and Los Valents of Montpelier. The French side had been the best team in the 10s field all weekend, but with the sun on their backs they turned on the afterburners. What Paul and I had hoped would be a close game turned into a 50-0 blowout. Still, it was good practice for us, and the French were very good indeed.

My colleagues on the ShoutOut team kept me supplied with regular score updates from pitch two where the Plate Final, between Cardiff and Amsterdam, was underway. Much to my delight, the Welsh boys had the game well under control, running in four tries for a 20-0 win. Go Lions!

George Ferguson, Bristol’s Elected Mayor, turned up in the afternoon to watch the finals, and did an interview with our team, before heading off to another civic event.

And so we came to the main event of the day, the 15s final between the Kings Cross Steelers of London and the Emerald Warriors of Dublin . The Irish boys got off to a quick start and were soon presented with a scoring chance when the Steelers’ defense was penalized. Dave Matthews stepped up to take the kick, but just missed.

The Londoners then took control of the ball and spent much of the first half camped in their opponents’ 22. Time after time they launched attacks against the Irish line, but the defense held firm. After a series of failed back moves, the Steelers tried a pick-and-go strategy instead. They charged around the base of the ruck, alternating left and right, and finally, just before half time, they crashed in for a score. That was converted so at half time they held a slender 7-0 lead.

The second half proceeded much as the first had done. The Steelers dominated possession and territory, and while they were out of the Irish half they didn’t need to worry about Matthews’ boot. Penalties did get conceded but the London forwards were adept at spoiling Irish lineouts (as they had wrecked the Lions lineout when they played them in the group stage). Without the ball, the Emerald Warriors could not score, and eventually the Steelers managed to breach their defense for a well-taken try. It was a very close game, but the Steelers certainly deserved their 12-0 win.

The second half was interrupted by a serious injury to one of the Steelers players. We actually had an ambulance on the pitch for several minutes. There was no word from the hospital by the end of the day, but our best wishes go to Giles Gale for a speedy recovery.

After the game I dragged the Steelers’ captain, Chris Buckmaster, into the studio for an interview, and Mary found a couple of Frenchmen for us to talk to. We also spoke to Kevin Bartlett, a veteran of gay rugby who played in the first ever all-gay game between Manchester Spartans and London Steelers in 1995. Kevin refereed the final this year, and I’m pleased to report that our players were much better behaved than those in another rugby final taking place that day.

The feedback we got from the rest of the crew was very positive. Paul admits he’s not a rugby expert, but he’s a sports expert and can pick games up quickly. He’s also very good at radio. I was in awe of the way he always had some smooth patter available when there was a lull in the action. I’m sure we made some mistakes. The biggest one I know of is that we were so busy finding things to talk about during the injury break that we missed poor Giles being put into the ambulance.

I also note that commentating on rugby is so much easier when you have a TV screen in front of you. It is really hard to know what is going on in ruck when it is 70m away.

With the games over, the only thing left in the day was the closing ceremony. The Bisons kindly offered to let us present one of the trophies. Most of the team weren’t that much interested in rugby, and we were all very tired, so I volunteered. The ceremony took place in The Vault, a night club in Old Market, Bristol’s gay quarter. Rugby players, it seems, are not big on night clubs. What they wanted was beer. The Bear Bar was doing a roaring trade, and we only moved on when it was time for speeches.

As with the rest of the tournament, things went very smoothly. The ceremony was hosted by Miss Demeanour, a local drag queen (who also played for the Bisons – even our drag queens are tough in Bristol). Special thanks were given to Michallis “Mike” Sanidas, the Bisons’s chair, and David Aird, the tournament director. The best speech came from Ian Boulton, who looks like he ought to have been a good rugby player in his youth. He talked about avoiding the game as a boy because of the lack of role models. Here he had hundreds of them to pick from.

Because they are lovely folks, Mike and David allowed me to present the 15s Plate trophy to the Cardiff Lions. This won’t mean much to you folks, but given the amount of time I have spent screaming myself hoarse at the TV during Wales rugby matches, I hope you’ll understand how much it meant to me to be able to present a rugby trophy to a Welsh club. It was a special moment.

A couple more results were announced. Amsterdam won the Fair Play Award, and Brussels won the right to stage the 2015 tournament (in a process remarkably reminiscent of Worldcon site selection). Although the 10s competition only had 4 teams, they still awarded Plate, Cup and Spoon trophies. That meant that Birmingham Bulls went home with something, which is great because they are a new club and had skipped their local Pride weekend to come and play. Here are winners:

  • 15s Cup – Kings Cross Steelers (England)
  • 15s Plate – Cardiff Lions (Wales)
  • 15s Bowl – Calendonian Thebans (Scotland)
  • 15s Spoon – Bristol Bisons (England)
  • 10s Cup – Los Valents Montpelier (France)
  • 10s Plate – Dublin Emerald Warriors (Ireland)
  • 10s Bowl – Lisbon Dark Horses (Portugal)
  • 10s Spoon – Birmingham Bulls (England)
  • Fair Play Award – Amsterdam Lowlanders (The Netherlands)

My thanks again to Mike, David and the rest of the Bisons for letting us cover their fabulous tournament. Thanks also to Mary, Andy and the crew from ShoutOut, and to Paul for letting me commentate with him. Finally thanks to the Cardiff Lions for giving me something to cheer about.

Union Cup – Day 1

~ Cheryl

Last night I attended the launch party for the Union Cup, which was held at Bristol’s science museum, @Bristol, an extraordinary venue which I must visit again and report on in detail. The party was a fascinating experience. There were around 500 people present, of whom only 4 were women. Almost all of the men were gay, and very few looked anything like the mincing stereotype that the national media still trots out whenever gay issues get mentioned. Kudos is due to Peter Williams, the Chair of Gloucestershire Rugby Football Union, who made the opening speech, stressing rugby’s support of the tournament and its commitment to inclusivity.

The tournament got underway today with a ceremonial first kick by Ian Boulton, the Chair of South Gloucestershire Council, and the equivalent of the mayor for the region in which the Stoke Gifford sports campus is located. WISE Campus is home to Bristol Academy and boasts the only purpose-built ladies’ soccer stadium in the country. There’s even a little statue of a vixen with a football at the entrance to the ground. It also has three rugby pitches, and we used them all.

As might be expected, the standard of rugby varied enormously. Some teams were very professional, while others had never played a competitive match before. All of the teams, however, were out to do their best, and there was no shortage of aggression. In the very first game a Newcastle Ravens player left the field with a dislocated shoulder (rough lot, those Bisons). I saw several other shoulder injuries during the day; a Bisons player limped off with an ankle injury, and I heard rumor of a broken arm. Pride of place in the tough guy stakes goes to Matt, the fly half for Manchester Village Spartans, who took a boot to the face in his first game. After a quick trip to hospital for some stitches just above his eyebrows, he was back in action for game two.

There was plenty of needle too. In the first five minutes of their game against Cardiff Lions, the London Steelers were twice penalized for foul play, including a vicious clothesline tackle that left the Welsh player flat out on the field for a couple of minutes. Later on the referee stopped the game for five minutes while he gave the teams a good talking to and got them to calm down.

The conditions made play difficult at times. The wind was very strong and several times I saw players kick the ball only to see it blown back over their heads. Although there were some competent kickers, not once did I see a penalty attempt at goal. Everyone tried to keep the ball in hand, but the cold temperatures and occasional fierce rain squalls made that difficult too. We are all hoping for better weather tomorrow.

There was, of course, plenty of excellent rugby, and a nail-biting finish to the day. The teams in the 15-a-side tournament had been divided into four groups. Each team played three matches, mostly in-group, with points being scored according to a system of 4 for a win, 2 for a draw, plus bonus points for 4 tries and losing by 7 or less. At the end of the day all of the teams were combined into a single table. London, Dublin and Manchester qualified for the final being unbeaten in their groups, but there was a three-way tie for fourth place and a tense wait while Dave Aird, the tournament director, counted up points scored for and against in matches. In the end Newcastle Ravens just pipped Cardiff Lions, with Northampton Outlaws, in their first ever competition, finishing a very creditable sixth.

In the 10-a-side content Dublin and Montpelier were clearly the form teams. The French team is unbeaten, and will be expecting to vanquish the Irish again tomorrow. My new best friends, the Lisbon Dark Horses, will be delighted with a win over Birmingham Bulls.

As with rugby sevens, the tournament will feature additional playoff games for lesser trophies. Cardiff and Northampton will be joined in the Plate contest by the London 2nd XV and the Amsterdam Lowlanders. The Bowl will be fought over by Stockholm Berserkers, Brussels Straffe Ketten, Edinburgh Thebans and Lyons Rebelyons. The Spoon match will be between Berlin Bruisers and Bristol Bisons.

Although the Bisons lost all three matches, they can count themselves somewhat unlucky. They were not expected to beat Newcastle, but the Northampton Outlaws were very much the surprise team of the tournament. They had never played a competitive game before, and came within a whisker of making the finals. Bristol’s third game was against an experienced Amsterdam side that had only narrowly lost to Brussels.

Much as it pains me to admit it, I am fairly sure that London will come away with the cup again tomorrow. However, Dublin and Manchester are both fine sides. The Irish have come to Bristol with the firm intention of winning both tournaments, and have a group play record as good as London’s, but Manchester had to play a game against Newcastle. The Spartans have a proud tradition in gay rugby, having hosted the world’s first ever such match in 1995. They’ll be determined to make the final again.

Whatever happens, we can be guaranteed a lot of exciting rugby. Bristol’s Mayor, George Ferguson, will be joining us at the ground for the finals. I’ll be doing live commentary, alongside my new friend, Paul Davis, who runs BCFM’s sports show. We’ll also be doing the sports show live from the ground, covering all the day’s action (including the test cricket and the Monaco Grand Prix), and previewing Sunday’s Woman’s FA Cup Final. You can follow all of the action over the Internet via the BCFM website.