There is mounting speculation that Iron Maiden’s mystery 2026 UK gig could take place in Cardiff – after billboards promoting the concert appeared in the city centre.
Bruce Dickinson’s heavy metal giants have announced the return of the Run For Your Lives World Tour for 2026 including 11 dates slated for May, June and July.
Further to slots in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Portugal, Maiden have announced a UK headline show on 11 July, with details yet to be revealed.
However, there is a belief from some fans that the gig could be heading to the capital city of Wales.
Cardiff clues?
Adverts promoting the gig have been seen on billboards at Eastgate House on Newport Road, near the bottom of City Road, in the heart of the city. The boards read ‘Save the Date – Saturday 11 July 2026’ and include a link to IronMaiden.com. And while these advertisements have been seen elsewhere in the country, there are further clues the rock royalty could return to Cardiff for the first time since 2017.
In 2021, Dickinson told WalesOnline that the Millennium Stadium was the “greatest stadium in the UK” and that he had kept “trying to persuade Iron Maiden’s manager” that the band “need to do a gig in Cardiff’s stadium”. He added: “I absolutely love Cardiff.”
Band mascot Eddie also features red and green hair in billboards promoting the mystery gig – colours of course synonymous with Wales.
Dickinson also has business interests in the aviation industry linked to South Wales – chairing Caerdav, based at former RAF hangars at St Athan.
This year, Maiden played three UK gigs as part of a packed 32-gig summer schedule that ran from 27 May to 2 August. Those were at indoor arenas in Birmingham and Manchester, plus West Ham United’s London Stadium – the club supported by bassist Steve Harris.
A return to the Welsh capital?
If the Principality-sponsored Millennium Stadium was to host, it would mark a far larger choice of venue for Maiden in Cardiff – though further afield, the group are widely accustomed to large stadium gigs. Most recently, Maiden played the Cardiff International Arena during 2017’s Book of Souls World Tour. Other appearances in Cardiff include a gig at Top Rank in 1980, at St David’s Hall in 1984, and at the CIA in 2003 and 2006.
Should it be Cardiff but not the Principality Stadium, Cardiff Castle or the Cardiff City Stadium are other possible suitors – but given the hype around this mystery gig, a big stadium venue seems likely.
The speculation follows a huge 2025 for gigs in the city, with Oasis kicking off their hotly-anticipated reunion tour with two dates in Cardiff in July. The Stereophonics, Slayer and Stevie Wonder were just some of the other big name artists to play the Welsh capital this year.
Maiden have released 17 albums since their self-title debut in 1980, and their Run for Your Lives World Tour is the first in more than four decades not to feature drummer Nicko McBrain, who recently retired from touring, to be replaced by British Lion percussionist Simon Dawson.
The joy of checking football scores via teletext is something of a lost art.
But a new app built by Mike Reynolds is scratching the itch for those who want to experience accessing live scores and football news through the distinctive colourful text and rudimentary graphics once synonymous with services like BBC Ceefax.
Core memories unlocked
Opening the app ‘Telescore’ will instantly unlock core memories for football fans above a certain age, and unleash a warm fuzzy feeling from a more straightforward time, that any social media feed, live score app or YouTube ‘watchalong’ just cannot recreate.
The app currently offers scores – including from English and Scottish leagues – news, and top goalscorer lists.
“I wanted to build a football stats app. That’s how it all started,” Reynolds, app owner and developer, told Interrobang News,
“I was getting tired of the missus asking me who to put in her bet builder! I figured one of the features needed to be live scores – so I decided to start there.
“I got the live scores working – and started thinking about how I wanted it to look. It hit me that it should look like Ceefax – I think I was walking the dogs at the time! Quickly, I realised I might be onto something people wanted so I ditched the stats idea and purely focussed on the live scores and making it look how it does.”
Social media buzz
Reynolds’ new app has caused a real buzz on social media. And while the app had quietly launched back in May before Charlton Athletic’s League One play-off final with Leyton Orient, and grew a little more during the Women’s Euro 2025 championship, it’s really found its feet in recent weeks. Bands FC recently shared the app to its 54,000 X followers – while a headline on Telescore’s news section focuses on a Cardiff City fan posting the nostalgic buzz to X, getting thousands of likes, and boosting its app store ranking.
But the West Ham United fan’s own teletext memories mean these nostalgic vibes come as no surprise.
He added: “I’ve so many memories of teletext – mainly being at my nans house on a Saturday with my brother, uncle and cousins. We’d see the screen ‘flick’ and pray that when the next page appeared, West Ham had got a last minute winner – we were often disappointed.”
Teletext – a staple of British culture
Teletext had such longevity in British culture, that it should come as no shock that the app had racked up 4,500 downloads by the end of last weekend (14 September) – and, amid a surge of interest, is on course to surpass 10,000 by the end of the week.
He added: “The great feedback has been humbling, to say the least. I couldn’t have asked for a better response – and that is putting it lightly.”
Teletext first landed in the UK in the 1970s – and, given the rapid growth of the internet, had a remarkably good run, still being commonplace well into the new Millennium.
BBC Ceefax ran from 1974 until analogue TV’s demise in 2012, some 12 years after Sky Sports News (then SkySports.com TV) launched with its wall-to-wall sports coverage. The page numbers are etched into the brains of many fans – 300 for sport, 302 for football, 340 for cricket, and so on.
Pages from Ceefax even featured on regular TV during downtime – and, amazingly, were still running on BBC Two just two days before the Ceefax switch off in 2012.
But it wasn’t just the BBC who offered services like news, weather and sport via a text function – Teletext Ltd provided services to ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five – but the plug was pulled in 2010. Elsewhere, and beyond football, Sky’s WWF text pages were legendary; and a must read in the late 1990s – famously sensationalist and packed full of rumours.
Other teletext services included holiday bookings, share prices, quizzes and even games.
Digital era – the long road to goodbye?
In the digital era, similar services have endured, and come and gone. In 1999, the BBC launched a digital text service, known first as BBC Text, then BBCi, before becoming BBC Red Button. For years, this retained many of the same page numbers and bookmarks as its analogue predecessor – and the Beeb even U-turned at the eleventh hour on switching off the service in 2020, amid protests. At the time, the BBC said it had found a way to “keep the most valued text and data elements of the red button service”.
Five years on, and while BBC Red Button text services haven’t officially gone away – their availability on television sets seems to have massively declined. On a Sky box, pressing the red button opens up an iPlayer box instead – and it isn’t obvious whether text based news, sport and other information is still available to us in any meaningful form. There’s some anecdotal claims on forums that it is only available on television sets not connected to the internet.
Meanwhile, a digital version of Sky Text ran from 2002 until 2013 – and while we’re sure at Interrobang HQ that some sort of app or services with league tables and fixtures endured on Sky Sports well beyond that, there’s very patchy information online. In a nutshell, like their analogue predecessors, digital teletext-style services seem to have largely had their day.
One man band
Historic news reports about teletext refer to 70 redundancies at Teletext Ltd, and dedicated staff in editorial suites. But Telescore app is a one man band, though Reynolds admits he gets some writing support from a much more modern phenomenon.
“Many people are surprised that Telescore is just me – an ordinary bloke, who loves football and happens to be able to code.
“Without giving too much away, the scores and scorers are automated, so it’s just a case of keeping an eye on things – unlike what teletext used to be like.
“But the news bit is different – that is a mostly manual process, which can be quite time consuming. I’m not a journalist, and do enlist AI to help with articles.”
The iconic look of Ceefax – with its distinctive blue banner, turquoise text and four colour menu palette has already proven the inspiration for other products – with companies like Retro Classic and RetroAway flogging t-shirts, and other merch, brandishing famous scorelines immortalised in the distinctive style. Clearly this BBC look is also the inspiration for Telescore, and there could be more features to come – potentially combining people’s nostalgia with the new statistical demands of football fans (although, we hope, not the somewhat tedious xG!).
Reynolds adds: “I think the football element still needs some improvement and new features. In the teletext era, nobody cared about assists – but Fantasy Football has changed that a bit, so it’s something I want to incorporate.
“Lots of people have asked for a Vidiprinter too, so that is in the works.
“I would love to expand into other sports too, but there’s no timelines for that right now. I think horse racing or cricket would be the first sports I look at – if and when time allows.”
Retro revival
Telescore isn’t the only option for fans wanting to digest their sports updates in a more minimalist, or at least traditionalist, fashion.
League Frame is a staple on the Interrobang HQ desk – a small 7.5″ Kindle- reader style screen that offers league tables, live scores and fixtures on a loop, in a fashion that definitely shares some similarities with teletext. The product advertises itself as offering “no tapping, no scrolling, no apps, no ads.”
And a little further afield, the Baltimore Ravens recently wound the clock back to 1996, with a temporary remodelling of their app to celebrate three decades of the NFL franchise – in the style of a 1996 website. Quite cool.
But for anyone who misses the rituals of checking news, facts and stats via teletext – Telescore is a must add to any smart phone. Telescore is available to download for free on app stores.
Dorking Wanderers caused something of a sensation this week – with the announcement that a 54-year-old supporter is set to keep goal for their upcoming league game against AFC Totton.
But it’s also attracting interest from eagle-eyed gamblers, with AFC Totton still underdogs for the clash with bookmakers hours after Dorking announced their surprise signing. Is there any chance Dunn will really play 90 minutes, or is this a social media rouse from a club who’ve got more X followers than any other team in the Conference South?
Injury crisis for Wanderers – but what about Sullivan?
Dunn’s arrival follows the club’s regular goalkeeper Harrison Foulkes being ruled out for four weeks with a spleen injury.
Wanderers say Dunn’s signing is because they are “unable to secure a replacement” in time for the Conference South clash with AFC Totton – with the club claiming that Dunn is “set to make his debut at Meadowbank this Saturday”.
Newly-promoted Totton, sitting fourth in the league table with four wins and a draw from their opening seven games, were already set to provide a tough test for Dorking. The Wanderers are mid-table in 11th, currently three points behind their Hampshire opponents. But that test could become significantly harder if they field a goalkeeper who hung up his gloves from amateur football in 1997, with North Holmwood reportedly among Dunn’s former suitors.
The club’s website lists Foulkes as their only first-team squad goalkeeper – but Dorking have a B team who ply their trade in the Southern Combination Football League, and Louie Sullivan is their shot stopper. He played for the first-team in a pre-season friendly in July – in a 7-0 win over Bourne Town.
It is currently unclear why Sullivan cannot play on Saturday – whether registration rules are having any sort of impact, and why Dunn can sign for the club but other local goalkeepers cannot.
Before their recent league game at Hornchurch, Dorking tweeted an “all smiles from the GK union!” message showing two goalkeepers entering the pitch – including Sullivan, who is also an ambassador for Hawk Goalkeeping. However, despite travelling the 50 miles to East London, Sullivan was not named on the substitutes’ bench.
Interrobang News today (5 September) checked in with Dorking’s very helpful and friendly press office – who also weren’t able to confirm the situation with Sullivan’s eligibility for the game. Senior sources at AFC Totton were very sceptical as to whether Dunn will be Dorking’s goalkeeper for the match.
Is a big Totton win now a real possibility?
The speculation makes Saturday’s betting markets very interesting for non-league punters.
Bookies were either slow to react to Dorking’s announcement, or largely nonplussed.
As of Thursday evening (4 September), and many hours after the news had made great waves on social media, AFC Totton were still 11/4 underdogs on SkyBet for the game. But prices haven’t really moved much into Friday – Dorking, seven places below Totton in the league table, are still favourites to win the game with all major online bookmakers. Interestingly, Bet365 have even shared the news on their website, noting that despite the “goalkeeping crisis”, Dorking remain favourites.
Big prices have also been available on a hefty away win. Totton winning by four or more goals was 80/1 on Betway; while Totton winning the fixture and more than 2.5 goals being scored in each half was 50/1.
Even if Dunn proves to be a safe pair of hands, those prices are surely unbelievably inflated given the uncertainty that now exists around this game.
The club had another famous name – Charlie Austin – on their books last season, but he swapped Dorking for Basingstoke Town over the summer. Instead, Totton’s firepower could come from the prolific Tony Lee – who scored twice in a recent league win over Tonbridge Angels, and has also bagged against Torquay United, Eastbourne Borough and Chesham.
Dorking’s meteoric rise means they’re no strangers to publicity
The story is the latest headline grabber from Wanderers – who have enjoyed a meteoric and impressive rise up the football pyramid under the stewardship of Marc White. In addition to his credentials in football management and ownership, White has had business success in marketing – and it is difficult not to speculate whether Dorking’s announcement is everything it seems.
The club was formed in 1999 by a group of friends – playing parks football, but would go into secure 12 promotions in 23 seasons – to rise from the Crawley & District League League, all the way to the National League, though they were relegated back to the sixth tier in 2024.
White has been involved from the very beginning.
Publicity stunt, or Dunn deal?
This could all be a publicity stunt – or perhaps Dorking’s charismatic manager and owner White making some sort of statement to the league about registering new players.
Dunn could be taken off the field after just a few minutes of playing time – adding a few curious bums on seats to the gate, getting Dorking talked about on social media, and backing up the announcement Dunn will start the game – only for Sullivan to enter the fray moments into the match. Any such event would be in a similar vein to musician Pete Doherty’s five minute cameo appearance for Margate FC, before being substituted ahead of a concert the same day. That, however, was in a friendly against Tonbridge Angels, and not a competitive fixture. The Libertines – Doherty’s band – are the sponsors of Margate’s shirts.
He may also not feature in the game at all. Or – as Dorking currently say – this could all be true, and he is set to not only become the oldest player to ever play for Dorking, but presumably one of, if not the oldest, to play in the top six tiers of English football for many years. Dunn reportedly has only played walking football recently, and not been a regular shot stopper for 28 years.
Regardless, there’ll be a few more people than usual on Saturday afternoon joining Dorking’s 52,600 X followers to see if Dunn starts the game, and – if so – how the fan’s stint as temporary custodian will play out. Dunn deal, or dud news? We’ll find out on Saturday afternoon – as will some hopeful punters,
Photos in this piece reproduced with kind permission of Dorking Wanderers FC, and AFC Totton. The image of AFC Totton’s Tony Lee was taken by Harvey Gerring.
A local shop in the Penylan area of Cardiff has applied to sell alcohol – in a move that could offer more choice for shoppers seeking a tipple in the Lady Mary area.
S & R Oriental and General Merchandise opened on Maryport Road, near Roath Park, earlier this year – and soon hopes to gain permission to sell booze.
The new store specialises in Asian/Oriental groceries, as well as snacks, drinks, confectionery and other convenience items.
S & R operates only two doors down from another local convenience store – Penylan Premier Stores – which already has an alcohol licence.
Online shopping for some groceries is also offered, including free delivery on orders over £50 within the Cardiff area. It took over the former site of dry cleaners, Cathedral Cleaners – which had previously closed down.
Council invites representations
Cardiff Council notices have appeared in the local area advising that S & R hopes to sell alcohol between 10am and 9:30pm on Monday to Saturday, and from noon until 8:30pm on Sunday.
Local authorities are responsible for approving licensable activities – such as the sale of alcohol. Residents and the wider public can make representations about the application until 6 September.
Mixed fortunes for shops in Lady Mary
The opening of S & R follows mixed fortunes for shops in the Lady Mary area of Penylan.
In addition to Cathedral Cleaners shutting up shop, Burns Pet Food opened a store that proved very short-lived, while a cafe – Ten Maryport – recently closed its doors. A nursery school – Playbox – also left their premises on the precinct in recent times.
Other businesses currently operating on the patch include Gent’s Club barbers, Mucky Pups dog grooming salon, Hogg & Hogg estate agents, a hair and beauty salon and an optician. There’s also a lettings management businesses, and a civil and structural engineering consultancy.
The decision on whether to grant an alcohol license to S & R also follows some specialist additions to the local business offering – with the opening of CORE Cardiff Pilates studio, and Eden Moroccan Bath and Spa, two more recent retail developments.
A much loved children’s story about a family of dieting elephants was controversially removed from a collection of audio stories purchased by Toniebox owners – only to be reinstated five weeks later, Interrobang News can reveal.
‘A Piece Of Cake‘ is one of five audio stories to feature on The Large Family Series tonie – which plays on the Toniebox, a cube-shaped digital audio device hugely popular with kids and families.
In the story, Mrs Large – the mummy elephant – announces she is “fat” and seeks a healthier lifestyle for her whole family. However, the new regime – including family jogs around the park and watercress soup – ultimately proves unpopular with the family, who end up getting too tempted and eat a pink-iced cake as a late night snack.
The story was quietly removed from the tonie in early July, “eating” into a 43 minute running time and leaving only four elephant-themed tales remaining. This caused surprise and dismay for many families tuning in to hear the story. It then reappeared last week (August 7) following questions to the company from Interrobang News, and negative feedback from many Toniebox owners on Facebook groups dedicated to the audio device.
The initial decision to remove the story – made on July 2 – followed a single one-star review posted to the product page on the Tonies website, which called for the book to be removed from circulation. The review expressed concern about themes of “fat shaming, dieting & negative body image”.
However, subsequent reviews praised the story – with several specifically calling for its reinstatement.
Tonies told Interrobang News that the story about how the elephants attempted to shed the pounds had been subject to a “formal content review” after feedback – and was disabled as a “precautionary measure”. They say that the story was reinstated to the tonie after a “comprehensive evaluation” – and had the decision been different, that the removal would have been communicated to Toniebox owners.
A warning now appears on the product page flagging that some titles may “contain outdated cultural references, language, or themes that reflect the historical context in which they were written”. Presumably, however, elephants being large animals who should probably avoid fad diets is not a dated concept.
The decision to remove the story will not only ignite debate around over-zealous ‘Cancel Culture’, but raises interesting question marks about Tonie’s ability to remove audio from story collections already purchased by users.
Crash diet: cancelling dieting elephants, for a few weeks anyway
First, that ‘Cancel Culture’.
A Piece of Cake is a very funny story that gently juggles topics like family dynamics, self worth and the challenges of eating healthily. Discussions around eating well and trying to be healthy shouldn’t be baulked at, but the book’s final message is very much that Mrs Large’s crash diet was madness.
Kids could take away any number of positive messages from the story – elephants embracing being themselves, that a balanced diet is probably a good idea anyway, or that the family do both fun and challenging things together – or just perhaps that it’s a funny bedtime story. There’s also any number of positive discussions parents can have with their kids after reading the story – or, equally valid, they could just laugh together when the baby says “wibbly-wobbly, wibbly-wobbly” and not overthink things too much.
A fair bit of children’s literature has fallen victim to some form of cancellation, censorship or limited rewriting in recent years, including – prominently – texts by children’s literary greats like Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss,. And while any decisions about the suitability of a book for children should be considered on a case by case basis, anachronistic criticism has sometimes been at play. But – until now – Jill Murphy’s stories simply haven’t been at the races from even the most ardent fans of retrospective censorship. Her vibrant and fun books are a mainstay of public libraries in the UK – including A Piece of Cake; while lovable stories like “Peace at Last” or “On the Way Home” don’t contain an egregious word or theme on their colourful pages.
Content removed from afar
Second, the act of deleting the story from pre-bought audio collections.
Part of the joy of tonies is their simplicity. They act as a form of physical media that my youngest daughter mastered as a toddler, and are enjoyed by both of my children every evening – after their regular storytime – as the soundtrack to their sleep!
You pop the character or tonie on top, and it plays. If you take it off, it stops. Pop it back on, and the box remembers where you were, unless you put a different tonie on top – and then the process starts again. The ears control the volume, and a slightly unpredictable slap to the side of the box skips tracks. You can also tilt it to fast forward and rewind. The process is like owning cool, advanced, modern cassette tapes. The characters are collectible and double up as toys – while the innovative Creative tonies allow families to produce their own 2025 version of a Mix Tape.
But – despite this simple, and beautifully executed concept – Tonieboxes are connected to the internet.
When you buy a new tonie, the box needs to be connected to the web to gather the audio. It then downloads the music, stories or episodes and stores them on an internal 8gb hard drive – allowing for offline listening, and storage of between 140 and 200 hours of content.
But, so long as the box remains online, a tonie’s audio can be updated, changed or tinkered with the next time the character is popped on top. This works great for collections like the excellent ‘Today with Tonies’ podcast – which downloads a brand new episode every day. But it seemingly also means pre-bought collections of stories – like the Large Family of elephants – can be tinkered with from afar.
This raises some interesting ethical questions. It is not quite the same, or perhaps as expected, as a streaming service taking down your favourite show. When you buy a Toniebox, you don’t feel like you are subscribing to a service. Instead, the individual tonies invite you into a specific collection of songs, stories or otherwise you have specifically chosen to buy – an equivalent to purchasing a book, a CD or a DVD you can keep forever. But that isn’t strictly the case.
Tonies is sort of a hybrid – the only way to indefinitely ensure downloaded audio can’t be altered is to disconnect the Toniebox from the internet – reducing its functionality. Otherwise, content can technically be altered from outside your own home and, crucially, your own control. The problem is, any such occurrences will leave many product owners feeling like a book store had ripped some pages out of the novel they’d already bought; or the record store has cut a big scratch onto a new vinyl on their deck.
Tonies’ response – a ‘formal content review’ that ended after our questions
A few days before a decision was made to reinstate the story, we asked Tonies SE about the disappearance of ‘A Piece of Cake’’.
A spokesperson for the company told Interrobang News: “At tonies®, we place the utmost importance on the feedback we receive from our community – especially when it relates to content that may be considered culturally dated or not fully aligned with today’s values. We are committed to ensuring that the stories we share remain inclusive, thoughtful, and appropriate for young audiences.
“In response to recent feedback regarding the story “A Piece of Cake” from The Large Family tonie, we initiated a formal content review. As a precautionary measure, this particular story was temporarily disabled while the review was underway. This review was conducted in collaboration with the licensor and our internal tonies® content team, with further consideration given to public sentiment and community insights.
“As a result of this comprehensive evaluation, the decision has been made to not remove the story. We would like to emphasise that, had the outcome of this review been to remove the story permanently, our tonies® community would have been informed at the time the decision was made.
“We remain committed to curating high-quality audio experiences that reflect the needs and values of today’s families, and we thank our community for continuing to share their voices with us.”
Tonies, however, did not respond to our queries about whether they had remotely removed audio from any other prerecorded tonies – so perhaps one for listeners to keep an ear out for.
Cloud-based tech: a server-ous issue?
A slight segue, but it’s also a reminder of an issue covered by first class tech reviewer Techmoan in his Toniebox review back in April 2022. He (coincidentally) described it as the “elephant in the room” that Tonies are server-based – so their future relies on the cloud-based infrastructure remaining in place. If the Tonies server was ever turned off, then if your box still works, you can keep playing content already saved on the 8gb of internal storage, and using characters you’ve already used on the device. But otherwise, the wider ecosystem would be immediately rug pulled.
But while that’s a risk taken with investing in any cloud-based technology, having content you’ve already bought tampered with feels like another issue altogether.
Hugely popular – and well worth buying
The ‘Piece of Cake’ controversy aside, Tonieboxes remain a great addition to any family home, including for us at Interrobang HQ. They have been flying off shelves in the United Kingdom since 2018 – with more than 300 different Tonies available to Brits alone on the tonies store, including some of the nation’s favourite franchises. And while the technology relies – at least in terms of new tonies – on their servers, there’s no suggestion Techmoan’s fears will be realised any time soon. In fact, Tonies SE – based in Düsseldorf and Luxembourg City – seem to be flying; establishing new link-ups with prominent personalities like Ms. Rachel, amid a broader picture of surging revenue growth, profitability in 2024 and impressive international expansion.
Tobias Wann, CEO of tonies, singled out “new products and strong customer loyalty” in driving customer demand. Let’s hope his fantastic device continues to perform well for years to come – but also that families don’t have to make a habit of tuning into their favourite tonie, only to find a story has disappeared! Park that, and looking after a dedicated customer base should be a … piece of cake!
It’s been more than 27 years since Cardiff City and Newport County went head-to-head in an English competition – but that will change this October.
Details for the EFL Trophy derby clash were quietly added to the club’s respective fixture lists in recent days – with the game slated for 7 October, with a 7.45pm kick-off at the Cardiff City Stadium.
A rare meeting
It will be the first time the two clubs have gone toe-to-toe in a competitive English competition since April 1988, when the Bluebirds beat the Ironsides 4-0 at Ninian Park, watched by 6,536 spectators.
The intensity of the rivalry between the two clubs is an interesting one – arguably generational, and at least partly escalated for many by incidents of 1980s football hooliganism. But with the two clubs now just one division apart, it will be fascinating whether the dislike between the two sets of fans hardens into a new era; particularly with the tectonics of club football in Wales having shifted significantly in recent times.
Admittedly, there’ve been more recent, albeit occasional, meetings in Welsh competitions between the sides, including three in the too often-maligned FAW Premier Cup. Most recently, County fans occupied a corner of the Grange End and came very close to outnumbering home supporters at Ninian Park, as the Exiles won a famous penalty shoot-out victory in the 2008 semi-final.
But encounters between the two sides have been strangely uncommon in any competition, given the quantity of tournaments they could have met in over the decades, contributing perhaps to a ‘stop-start’ nature to the rivalry.
Animosity not hard to find – but passions vary
Animosity hasn’t been hard to find, even when the clubs were at very different ebbs. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, with County plying their trade in the Conference South, chants taking aim at the Bluebirds – like “We Hate Cardiff” – were common on the Spytty Park terraces – despite the target playing as many as four divisions higher in the Football League Championship. Arguably, that was led by a largely older demographic of fans watching Newport in the sixth tier at that time, with razor-sharp memories of historic clashes between the two sides – including nine games in English competition in the 1980s.
Conversely some younger Newportians likely grew up instead supporting Cardiff, particularly after chairman Sam Hammam breathed new life into the capital city club at a time when Newport were often struggling in the non-league. The cities are of course separated by just 12 miles.
Anti-Cardiff chants have become less common at Newport games in recent years – likely younger fans who’ve never seen their team play the Bluebirds presently see less relevance to the derby as some of the older heads. Whether fixtures now become more common with Cardiff back in the third tier, or whether a newfound closeness in the football pyramid proves time limited, remains to be seen; and will likely play a role in how the rivalry renews.
But there’s always been some mutual umbrage. In a poll for PlanetFootball back in 2004, and with Cardiff rising up the Football League with lofty aspirations, fans still voted Newport County as their third biggest rival – joint with Stoke City; and behind – unsurprisingly – Swansea City and Bristol City. This was despite Newport playing in the Southern Football League at the time – and Cardiff’s ambitions being so hyperbolic that their former chairman flirted with the notion his charges could be as big in footballing terms as Barcelona.
Rivalry renewed: now a Vertu-al reality!
The draw for the EFL Trophy’s group stages have thrown up this latest encounter – with Cardiff City playing in the competition for the first time since the 2002/03 season, following relegation to League One. It’ll be their first time since Academy sides were controversially let into the Cup – and playing against Arsenal’s youth team in a competitive game will be a source of quiet embarrassment for Cardiff fans, given their club was in the top flight alongside the Gunners as recently as 2019. But while few Bluebirds fans will be relishing a return to the competition, currently sponsored by Vertu, the game with Newport County certainly adds a layer of intrigue – though, with their team freshly relegated, and when naming their preferred line-up for the group stages, some hosts on the popular View from the Ninian podcast forgot Newport was even an option!
For County fans, the game is an opportunity to get one over their neighbours in an English competition for the first time since August 1987 – when County won a League Cup tie 2-1.
It will also be another proud reminder of how far the club has come, since going bankrupt in 1989. Not since the 1980s have the clubs been so close to one another in the footballing pyramid, and indeed for much of the two decades that followed, it was a pipedream that County and Cardiff would be so near one another in the footballing ladder again.
Promising start for both clubs
Newport County have started the new season with two draws – first up was a 2-2 League Cup draw at Barnet, before a win on penalties. Cameron Antwi, formerly of Cardiff, and Michael Reindorf, on loan from the Bluebirds, both bagged absolute worldies, before the Exiles came out on top in the shoot-out after a dramatic Barnet fightback. That was followed by a return to league action – a 1-1 clash with Notts County at Rodney Parade, with new signing Gerard Garner this time on target.
But the club has also made a surprising summer splash off the pitch – with the launch of a new away kit, as part of a collaboration with Athletic Club Bilbao, capturing international headlines. The red and white striped jersey, Bilbao’s colours, helps tell the story of 56 young Basque children who were housed in Caerleon during the 1930s; a part of the 4,000 kids evacuated to Britain amid bombing back home – a story many today were unaware of; that has been stylishly retold through a kit launch, that currently sees the away shirt have top billing on Newport County’s store front, amid messaging in the Basque and Spanish languages to satisfy overwhelming demand from the Iberian Peninsula. County’s new home and change strips are classy affairs – and whether they go for traditional Amber, or the Bilbao stripes, for October’s derby remains to be seen.
Cardiff City, meanwhile, returned to the third tier in impressive fashion – beating Peterborough United 2-1; with a performance packed full of attacking intent, and with goals from Rubin Colwill and Ronan Kpakio worthy of any highlight reel.
But events off the pitch have also been a big focus of the summer – not least speculation of a takeover. Firstly, Chris Pike’s nephew Gareth Bale, with an almost mischievous glint in his eye, used media interviews to openly discuss working with a consortium looking to buy the club; before speculation of an alternative takeover of a South African-backed bid involving Gary Otto. Any takeover from Vincent Tan – the man who ditched decades of tradition in scrapping Cardiff’s blue home jerseys in 2012 – will likely be instantly popular with the CF11 faithful.
Ticket details for 7 October are yet to be announced – but there’ll likely be a lot more clamour over tickets in the away end; than the home end. Still, this game will matter a lot more to both sets of fans than your average early Football League Trophy encounter – after a group stage draw which added another talking point to a pre-season that has seen Wales adjusting to new power dynamics in its club football scene. Whether this begins a new chapter in a curious, at times intense, but sometimes forgotten South East Wales footballing rivalry remains to be seen.
Interrobang News 