Author: tjhsportsjourno

In one of my third-year Work Placements I had the opportunity to cover the Men’s Hockey World Cup qualifiers by Hockey Wales, which was held in Cardiff. I’ve never previously covered hockey, this was a completely different experience to what I was used too.

There were several obstacles that I had to overcome when reporting on the matches, firstly was dealing with players names while doing live updates and in my match report, as there was a range of European countries competing. Having never reported on a game of hockey properly I was unsure with every rule, especially with the professional level having different rules to the university standard. This was something that I had to overcome quickly in order to produce quality work. After watching the first game of the tournament and producing live updates on my Twitter, I was comfortable with how the game worked.

I also interviewed players after every match to post on my social media channels, to show the different work I was doing at the tournament. Doing these interviews taught me a lot about using the correct tone and how important clear pronunciation is, as I interviewed, French, Polish, Austrian, Scottish, Russian and Italian players. Therefore, I had to ensure that the players from different countries understood my questions properly in order to gather a good interview. This also taught me to slow down when talking and interviewing different people, naturally I talk quite quickly. However, being able to slow down and tone my accent down will help me if I decide to go into broadcasting or radio opportunities in the future.

27th October, 2021

I started working with Bridgend Ravens in the November of 2019, writing a couple of match reports for their website as I was learning how to write reports to the correct structure. Three years later I have just finished my third season of working for the club. I’m a completely different sports journalist now to the one I was when I started, I remember being very shy and nervous when first starting, I didn’t do anything other than match reports. Over the lockdown I started to write news pieces and ‘Where are they now’ pieces on the club.

However, over the course of my third-year placement with the club, it’s helped me develop my all-round skills as a sports journalist. I’ve had the opportunity to run the club’s social media channels on match day, providing live score updates from the games. This is something that most semi-professional clubs have started to develop, therefore, it was only right that I helped the Ravens develop this too. I’ve also produced several video content/packages for the club’s social media, which is something that they haven’t been able to do before due to personnel and resources. However, I was able to do video interviews with coaches and players and share them across Bridgend’s social media channels. The club gave me the freedom of posting whatever content I wanted on their social media channels, so I decided to do some video interviews to get some more interaction with fans, the feedback we received from these were brilliant. I gained plenty of confidence from the club allowing me the freedom and the pressure of handling the social media accounts, the tireless work I’ve put in for the club this year has been worthwhile, with the messages and feedback we’ve received from supporters. My time at the club has also given me the opportunity to improve my writing skills as well as my interviewing skills. By producing regular content for the website, it’s given me tight deadlines to work too, while still producing content of the highest quality. If it wasn’t for the club giving me the opportunity over the three years, my student sports journalism career could’ve turned out differently. However, I feel hat I’ve made the most out of all the experiences I’ve been offered this year and developed my traits to help me become successful in this industry.

25th April, 2022

I worked very closely with the marketing team at Scarlets Rugby, which was something that I’ve not done before, especially in that sort of environment. Seeing how the marketing team was run within the club and the different strategies used taught me a lot about other options I could consider in this industry and broaden my horizons.

The first initiative we did was ‘Paint the town Scarlet’, which we did in the lead up to face the Dragons in the URC that weekend. To engage the fans, we scheduled a meet the players in Elli town shopping centre, with Ioan Nicholas, Kemsley Mathia, Marc Jones, and Tom Phillips attending, as well as Cochyn the mascot. When we got to the shopping centre, I handed out flyers with links to tickets for the upcoming game, by the time I had got back to the offices we had a message to say that there had been several people buy tickets for the game in those few hours. Therefore, the marketing ploy worked to gain more ticket sales for the upcoming match. This taught me a low about how important little marketing campaigns are for the clubs’ finances and sustainability. I also learnt how effective it can be with fan engagement as well, it was the school holidays, so the timings worked well as there was a very good turn out of supporters at the hopping centre. From this marketing campaign the club could’ve earned several new followers and supporters who would sign up for season tickets and memberships.

I also helped create a video for the marketing team to promote season tickets for next season. We asked fans to come in the video so we could record them saying “Yma O Hyd” which is the Scarlets slogan, translated to, “We’re here forever”. This taught me how important fan engagement is when working within a club’s media team. The video wouldn’t be as engaging to fans if didn’t already include fans that attended matches already and showed their passion for the club. It also taught me how to position objects while filming people in this sort of scenario, for example I was tasked with holding the big microphone on a pole but had to make sure that it wasn’t in the camera shot and there was no shadow of it either. A little part like not having the shadow of the mic in the camera is something very little that I wouldn’t have though about immediately. However, after this being pointed out to me, it will be something I remember when shooting video packages again. These slight things could be the difference between a good video and an excellent video.

17th April, 2022

A valuable lesson I learnt while on placement in Media Wales was the importance of SEO (Sports Engine Optimization) articles. By seeing the amount of views SEO articles get it surprised me how many people look for basic information about big sporting events. In this article I published, I included all the games from the Autumn Nations Series that weekend. I pointed out all the basic information about the matches, for example, kick off times, previous history, team’s form and tv channels. These are all very basic but are important and are always top of the search engines when people want to know about matches.

I also learnt and was taught the importance of headlines in this industry from Jon Doel. One standout example of this was a piece I did on Wales international centre Nick Tompkins. Rugby pundit David Flatman made comments saying that a number of Tompkins opponents this season had said that he was a nightmare to play against. However, in this comment there were expletive words, therefore, in my headline I didn’t include any quotes. However, I learnt that headlines are that vital to whether readers click on an article or not. Therefore, the headline I used in the end was “Wales star Nick Tompkins takes delight in opponent’s ‘f***ing Tompkins’ verdict”. This headline entices the reader to click on the article and see what exactly the comments were about Tompkins.

Another skill that I developed while on placement was my time management, especially when it came down to transcribing press conferences. I was tasked with transcribing the press conference with Australia head coach Dave Rennie, which was a 30-minute-long presser. I then had to produce an article from Rennie’s comments, highlighting Wales’s main threat, Aaron Wainwright. I had to ensure that the transcribe was thorough so that I could analyse it and pick the best points and quotes to include in the article I wrote.

I was also tasked with creating a feature piece using my own contacts, I learnt a lot while developing this piece for publishing, as it’s completely different to the usual news or story pieces. In this piece I concentrated on the rebrand of the famous ground, Pontypool Park. However, I researched into previous feature articles that Wales Online have published before and the way wrote them, I tried to structure my piece in a similar way. I looked back on some of the famous history of Pontypool, from hosting Australia and New Zealand at the park to having the famous ‘Viet Gwent’ Pontypool front row at their disposal. I decided to interview club CEO, Ben Jeffreys, who’s family injected large amounts of money into the club to help their turnaround.

Throughout my time in the Media Wales office, I gained a great amount of experience through seeing how the professional environment works. It also helped me develop my journalistic traits, working in a vibrant newsroom with other journalists who can share ideas and bounce off each other with you. I’ve learnt the importance of headlines, which something that I have always given special attention too since, and I’ve learnt how to be a journalist and how to conduct yourself in the correct manner in this industry. Additionally, the use of time management and contacts are both vital parts of the job that I development over my week in the office.

Date: 19th November 2021

SEREN Hughes, a 20-year-old cricketer made history back in the summer of 2021, becoming the first female player to score a century at club level in the South Wales Cricket Association.

Back in August Hughes was playing for her local side Britton Ferry Steel second XI against Kidwelly, the only female on either side she scored 105 with the bat.

The achievement was a standout moment in Welsh cricket last year, Hughes summed up the feeling of achieving the feat, “I was surprised to find out that I was the first female given the fact that there are many previous and current females playing.

“But it feels amazing to be part of this, it just shows the growth in the women’s game over the years, and I know that this won’t be the last with the current and future talent from female cricketers in Wales playing in the men’s teams.

“It is more than just a personal achievement; it highlights the development of women’s cricket. It just shows that if you have the ability, and are given the opportunities, anything could happen. I am always grateful for these opportunities.”

The 20-year-old recalled that she didn’t know she was nearing a century at the time, “I didn’t know what I was on, so I was just batting and looking to score as many runs to add onto the team’s total.

“I remember everyone on the side on the edge of their seats, so I guessed I was getting close, then I ran a single and everyone started clapping and I didn’t know what to do. I was very shocked, and I think it hit me when I came off the pitch that I had scored 100 for the men.”

Her performances have warranted her several first team appearances for Britton Ferry Steel, albeit being a surprise to her, “When the teams were selected, I was very shocked to be playing in the firsts. It was a great opportunity to play with some of the best players in the club and experience the standard of first team cricket. These opportunities helped me grow and develop as a player which I am very grateful for.”

“The club means everything to me; it is a big part of my family history with many of my family members playing important roles in the club. I always love the atmosphere and camaraderie down there, from playing since I was nine and coaching.”

Hughes, who currently studies sports coaching and development at USW was also awarded the Chairman’s award at the SWCA annual dinner, previously won by the likes of Amir Ikram for taking 1,000 league wickets.

by Tobias Hunt