Hafal's Sports Day is the best ever with over 200 attending, including not only clients of Hafal projects but other service users with acute needs who flourish in the sunshine and get stuck in enthusiastically to the volleyball, soccer, welly-whanging and a host of other challenging activities. We resolve to extend an invitation next year to other acute services - in plenty of time so that statutory and private sector hospitals can organise accompanying staff.
We are graced by the presence of Cyril the Swan, Swansea FC's mascot, who participates decorously in photo opportunities. His famous fracas with Millwall FC's Lion in 2001 is now a distant memory. The Swan decapitated the Lion and then punted its head into the crowd; in a rare interview - he is a mute swan apparently - with Dutch television he was asked what he had said to the Lion: he confirmed that he had offered the advice "Don't f**k with the Swans". No stranger to controversy in 1999 he was fined £1,000 for dashing on to the pitch and grabbing the ref during another Millwall game; he also landed in hot water for barging over Norwich City coach Bryan Hamilton and he once hurled a pork pie on to the pitch during an FA cup tie with West Ham. However, before you wonder if Cyril is a suitable role model for our event, be assured that he has turned over a new leaf and anyway upright and responsible BBC Match of the Day viewers have voted the Swan "Best Mascot". We are to hope that his recent marriage to Cybil the Swan also heralds a more serene - if less exciting - future.
