The Sportsline team
Chief sports writer: Andrew Clarke
Former west Wales reporter at the Western Mail and at one time was the farming editor. He has been a freelance sports writer for almost 25 years with the Cambrian News, Carmarthen Journal, West Wales Guardian and the sports editor of the Tivyside back in the early nineties when it was a broadsheet .
He has played most sports, almost across the whole of the men’s spectrum for Cardigan even in the days when the town had a tennis team as well as playing rugby, football, cricket and more recently bowls.
He has also been very active as a coach and administrator over the years.
He is married to Shan who is the current head at Ysgol Gymunedol Maenclochog and Ysgol Brynconin, Llandissilio. His two grown up children are heavily involved in sport and daughter Hanna who lives in Neath is an established member of the Welsh Ladies Bowls team and she is a former World indoor singles finalist. Huw who lives in Cardiff is a huge sports enthusiast and running is his thing these days and he recently posted a cracking time in the Cardiff half marathon.
Their three grandchildren Jack, Leila and Mali keep them on their toes.
Anwen Francis. Freelance contributor
Sportsline feature writer, Welsh language columnist and equine specialist
Anwen Francis has been working in the media for over 20 years, starting her career at the Tivyside in Cardigan before moving on to BBC Cymru as the west Wales reporter. She has worked for many companies as a freelance, including Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Telesgop, Theatr na nOg, Torch Theatre, NFU Cymru Wales and the Welsh Books Council. She was an equestrian columnist for the Western Mail for over five years and is a published author. She lives on a small farm with her husband Dilwyn, and two children, Soffia and Henri with ponies and dogs!
Chief Photographer : Julie John
Our roving photographer, whose passion and enthusiasm for sport, especially rugby is infectious. Sportsline would never have got off the ground without her wonderful work and dedication.
Julie works in education during the day but finds time around her busy family and work life to provide us with the images that make our on-line magazine such a success. Her teenage children Iwan and Catrin are both very active in local sport.
Our technical back up:
Joe Rees of Bcc IT.
Joe is Sales and Marketing Coordinator at BccIT and he is our technical back up along with his team at BccIT in Newcastle Emlyn. They are one of our main sponsors and we are indebted to them for their assistance and encouragement.
Joe is a keen sportsman who was a regular footballer with Newcastle Emlyn FC until he suffered a nasty leg break. But he is well on the mend.
We also have a large number of contributors based across the community who regular send in information, ideas and reports and they are an essential part of the team.
The motivation behind Sportsline?
Andrew created the initial idea which was originally a tongue in cheek blog about poor local sports coverage and the fact that sport was not getting a fair crack of the whip and so many positive activities were being ignored.
This grew so quickly that Sportsline.Wales was created a few months ago to cater for the huge amount of readers that it attracted and last week it reached over 25,000 people.
There is a strong feeling within the team that there has been a lack of media coverage especially in the areas of women’s sport, junior sport, minority sports, disability sports and second team and reserve teams.
There appeared to be a lack of understanding and interest in the power of sport, and its important role within our community especially in this age of over dependence on ‘indoor technology’.
Sport is meant to be fun and it plays an important role especially in young people in improving self esteem and life skills and there is a sport out there for everybody.
Twenty years ago, sports fans were more or less dependent on a copy of their local newspaper for the latest updates on their favourite sports and teams.
There are some papers that think this is still the case.
Our aim is to bring as many of these local sports, news, analysis and chat together in an easy to read format which is updated daily.
The success of Sportsline is dependent on you the reader to keep following and sharing and telling other like minded people about Sportsline and ofcourse the businesses that advertise with us.
Please support these local businesses as they are key to us and important team players of Sportsline.
Thanks for your support and keep reading!
