The Melin Sospan Sizzler Middle Distance Triathlon takes place this Sunday (August 26).

The event was postponed earlier this summer when the heatwave was rudely interrupted by a very unwelcome storm.

Race organiser Noelwyn Daniel said: “It was unfortunate that bad weather arrived on the weekend of the scheduled race. It forced us to make an early announcement about a postponement, saving competitors the trouble of starting their journeys.

“Hopefully, the postponement didn’t cause too much trouble for competitors as we kept them well informed throughout about weather conditions and the new date. We obviously keep health and safety in mind and conditions were impossible at the time. Hopefully, the weather will be much kinder to us on Sunday.”

More than 200 athletes have entered for the popular annual event – sponsored by Melin Consultants, providers of sustainable building and construction solutions.

Melin Consultants are delighted, once again, to be the main sponsor of this year’s Melin Sospan Sizzler Middle Distance Triathlon.

The event is being staged by the non-profit organisation Healthy Life Activities. It will run alongside the scheduled Burry Port RNLI Triathlon on Sunday.

It’s the third time for the middle distance triathlon (a demanding ‘half Iron Man’ event) to be held in Burry Port – and it’s the second year of Melin’s generous sponsorship.

This is the only middle distance triathlon to be held in Carmarthenshire and the challenging hilly bike course attracts athletes from across the UK.

Entry numbers doubled in 2017 and the aim is to make sure 2018 is even bigger and better.

The Melin Sospan Sizzler Middle Distance Triathlon involves a 1.9km sea swim followed by a challenging 90km bike course through the countryside around Burry Port and the Gwendraeth Valley. The bike ride includes the legendary Meinciau climb.

The 21km run is flat and will provide athletes will a great chance of posting a quick time.

Most competitors will be looking to complete the event in under nine hours.

The winning time for the inaugural year in 2016 was an impressive 4hrs 53min.

That was bettered in 2017, when the race was won by Stephen Evans, of Bynea Cycling Club, in a time of 04:39:15.20.

Jamie Best, Director of Melin Consultants, is a keen triathlete and has competed in events across the UK and abroad.

Jamie said: “Like all triathlon competitors I love a challenge. I am sure that the Melin Sospan Sizzler will attract interest from athletes from throughout the UK and they can be assured of a warm West Wales welcome and some first-class race organisation from Healthy Life Activities.

“We are all hoping for very kind weather conditions at the weekend and we hope it will be a splendid event both for spectators and competitors.”

As part of the event sponsorship, Melin will be looking to attract a number of corporate relay teams from Carmarthenshire and further afield.

As well as the opportunity for the winning team to lift the Melin Sospan Sizzler Challenge Cup, Melin will also be donating £100 to the nominated charity of the winning corporate relay team.

Jamie Best added: “At Melin Consultants, we’re proud to be involved in such a worthwhile event.

“I’m an active participant in triathlon events so I’m particularly pleased that our company is able to provide sponsorship.

“By helping Healthy Life Activities encourage attendance to the Melin Sospan Sizzler middle distance triathlon, we can ensure that people not only enjoy the challenge but also have the satisfaction that they’ve given back to the local community.”

Website link to Melin Sospan Sizzler

http://www.healthylifeactivities.co.uk/melin_sospan-sizzler-middle-distance-triathlon

See earlier stories about the Melin Sospan Sizzler Middle Distance Triathlon –

http://www.melinconsultants.co.uk/weather-forces-postponement-of-the-melin-sospan-sizzler-49.html

and

http://www.melinconsultants.co.uk/melin-sospan-sizzler-middle-distance-triathlon-46.html

Photos:

Preparations are well underway, with race packs and display boards ready for Sunday’s Melin Sospan Sizzler Middle Distance Triathlon.

Scarlets headed to Bath for the second, and final, pre-season friendly on the back of a solid victory over Bristol Bears last weekend.

The Scarlets, playing for the famous Ragdoll, were looking to build on last weekend’s performance with a number of players returning to action for the first time.

It was the homeside, under the leadership of former Scarlet Rhys Priestland, that got the upper hand and kept the foot on the peddle running in seven tries to Scarlets’ two, with a final score of 45-12.

Speaking after the game Head Coach Wayne Pivac said; “It was a good wake up call. We were outplayed across the board and came out second best.

“There were too many errors and Bath managed to capitalise on most of them. A lot of things didn’t go to plan today but pre-season games are about learning and we’ve got to make sure that we rectify tonight’s mistakes in eight days time.

“We have to make sure that we get a much more polished performance against Ulster next week.”

Pivac went on to say; “A lot of guys had their first run out today and they’ll be better for that. We did however pick up a few bumps and we’ll have to review those on Monday.”

Scarlets take on Ulster in the opening round of the Guinness PRO14, at Kingspan Stadium, on Saturday 8^th September, kick off 19:35.

By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants. This column appears in the Pembrokeshire Herald, Carmarthen Herald and Llanelli Herald.

The ‘B’ word continues to dominate the news agenda and the headlines on TV, radio and on the printed press.

Brexit is the ever-present keyword of the day as we continue the countdown towards Britain’s proposed exit from the European Union.

Some of the Brexit news is good, some of it not so good, some of it bad.

For example, British households are the most upbeat about their finances since early 2015, buoyed up, of course, by near-record employment.

But the approach of Brexit and concerns about inflation are making them worry more about the future.

That’s what a new survey showed this week.

Households said they felt able to spend more as their earnings from employment rose at the fastest pace since the survey began.

Market research company IPSOS Mori interviewed 1,500 people for IHS Markit between August 9 and 13.

Britain’s unemployment rate sank to a new 43-year low of 4.0 percent in the three months to June and the share of people in work is only a fraction off a record high.

Sam Teague, an economist at IHS Markit, declared: “That said, the spectre of higher living costs on the horizon and ongoing Brexit uncertainty both contributed to renewed worries towards future household finances.”

Households’ pessimism about how their finances would fare over the next 12 months was the greatest since March 2017, when British Prime Minister Theresa May started the clock on a two-year period of Brexit negotiations.

With little more than seven months to go until Britain is due to leave the European Union, London and Brussels are still at odds over their future trading relationship, raising the prospect of no deal being reached.

The survey also found nearly 73 percent of respondents expected another Bank of England interest rate hike in the next 12 months.

The BoE raised interest rates for only the second time since the financial crisis on August 2.

BoE Governor Mark Carney said financial market expectations of one rate rise a year for the next couple of years was a good rule of thumb.

In other news, hot off the press from the Reuters news agency, Britain has extended its lead in the global currency trading business in the two years since it voted to leave the European Union.

It is reckoned to be another sign London is likely to continue to be one of the world’s top two financial centres – even after Brexit.

Leaving the European Union was supposed to deal a crippling blow to London’s position in global finance, prompting a mass exodus of jobs and business.

But with eight months to go, London has tightened rather than weakened its grip on foreign exchange trading, a Reuters analysis shows.

Foreign exchange – the largest and most interconnected of global markets, used by everyone from global airlines to money managers in transactions worth trillions of dollars a day – is the crowning jewel of London’s financial services industry.

Reuters’ analysis, based on surveys released by central banks in the five biggest trading centres, shows forex trading volumes in Britain had grown by 23 percent to a record daily average of $2.7 trillion (£2.1 trillion) in April compared to April 2016.

That was double the pace of its nearest rival, the United States, which was up 11 percent to $994 billion, mostly out of New York.

That means about two-fifths of all trades are handled in Britain, nearly all of them in London – a daily volume almost equivalent to the annual economic output of the United Kingdom.

The next three biggest markets are Singapore, which fell by 5 percent to $523 billion; Hong Kong, which grew 10 percent to $482 billion; and Japan, which increased by 2 percent to $415 billion.

London has dominated the foreign exchange market for nearly half a century.

You can find out more about money matters on the Clay Shaw Butler website (under our news for business section) –

http://www.clayshawbutler.com/news/latest-news-for-business

We have a strong and experienced team with great local knowledge all geared-up to helping you get the very best from your finances – whether that is as an individual or as a business.

We stay ahead of the game by putting great store by continual professional development for our staff.

With Investors In People status at Clay Shaw Butler, we care passionately about making sure our staff have all the tools they need to serve you, our customers.

Weblink – http://www.clayshawbutler.com

The team at Clay Shaw Butler can be contacted on 01267 228500.

The team at Clay Shaw Butler are on Twitter. Look for @clayshawbutler.

The second, and final, pre-season friendly of the summer will take place at The Rec ground on Friday evening, 24^th August, with Scarlets taking on Todd Blackadder’s Bath Rugby side.

A victory over Bristol Bears at Carmarthen Park last weekend secured a winning start to the season for the Scarlets and Friday night’s clash will be a final opportunity for Wayne Pivac and his coaches to see the boys in action, and work on new plays, before the Guinness PRO14 starts in earnest next weekend.

The star-studded starting XV includes no less than 12 internationally capped players with British and Irish Lions Man of the Series 2017, Jonathan Davies, captaining the side.

Club captain Ken Owens is named on the replacements bench and is one of two additional international replacements named alongside Werner Kruger.

Davies makes a long-awaited return to action after suffering a foot injury against Australia during last year’s Autumn Series.

Kieron Fonotia, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Uzair Cassiem will make their first starts for the region while newcomer Blade Thomson, who arrived in Wales only a few weeks ago, will make his Scarlets debut.

Looking ahead to the game head coach Wayne Pivac said; “We learned a lot from the performance against Bristol last week, despite the terrible conditions, and we’ll hopefully be able to build on that against Bath on Friday.

“Last weekend’s game was more of a trial whilst the second of our two friendlies is more of a dress rehearsal.”

Scarlets team to take on Bath Rugby at The Rec, Friday 24^th August, KO 19:30;

15 Leigh Halfpenny*, 14 Tom Prydie*, 13 Jonathan Davies* ©, 12 Kieron Fonotia*, 11 Steff Evans*, 10 Rhys Patchell*, 9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyde*, 1 Rob Evans*, 2 Ryan Elias*, 3 Samson Lee*, 4 David Bulbring, 5 Steve Cummins, 6 Blade Thomson, 7 James Davies*, 8 Uzair Cassiem*

Replacements; 16 Ken Owens*, 17 Phil Price, 18 Werner Kruger*, 19 Ed Kennedy, 20 Josh Macleod, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Dan Jones, 23 Clayton Blommetjies, 24 Tom Price, 25 Steff Hughes