Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of 362,310 in 2021 and forms a principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff. The city is the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom. Located in the southeast of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region, Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan. It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales. Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth.
Swansea is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea.
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the southwest and the Bristol Channel to the south. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 3,107,494. It has a total area of 21,218 square kilometres (8,192 sq mi) and over 2,700 kilometres (1,680 mi) of coastline. It is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon, its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate. The capital and largest city is Cardiff.
Mark James Williams is a Welsh professional snooker player who is a three-time World Champion, winning in 2000, 2003 and 2018. Often noted for his long potting ability, Williams has earned the nickname "The Welsh Potting Machine".
Paul Alan Hunter was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters champion, winning the event at the 2001, 2002, and 2004 tournaments, recovering from a deficit in the final to win 10–9 on all three occasions. He also won three ranking events: the Welsh Open twice, in 1998 and 2002, and the 2002 British Open.
Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open and the 2016 Scottish Open. He has been a runner-up at two Triple Crown events, at the 2008 UK Championship and the 2011 Masters. In addition, Fu has reached the semi-finals of the World Championship twice—in 2006 and in 2016.
The Welsh Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament that has been held annually since 1992. It replaced the Welsh Professional Championship, which ran annually from 1980 to 1991 and was open only to Welsh players. The Welsh Open is now the longest running ranking event after the World Championship and the UK Championship. Since the 2016–17 season, it has been one of four tournaments in the Home Nations Series, alongside the Northern Ireland Open, the Scottish Open, and the English Open. Since 2017, the winner of the event has received the Ray Reardon Trophy, named after the Welsh six-time world champion. Reardon himself presented the newly named trophy to 2017 winner Stuart Bingham.
Colin Ray Jackson, is a Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete who specialised in the 110 metres hurdles. During a career in which he represented Great Britain and Wales, he won an Olympic silver medal, became world champion twice, world indoor champion once, was undefeated at the European Championships for 12 years and was twice Commonwealth champion. His world record of 12.91 seconds for the 110 m hurdles stood for over 10 years and his 60 metres hurdles world record stood for nearly 27 years.
Matthew James Welsh is an Australian swimmer who is the former world champion in the backstroke and butterfly. He took two golds in 50-meter butterfly and 50-meter backstroke, during one hour, at the World Championships in Shanghai 2006. Welsh retired from professional swimming in March 2008 when he failed to secure a place in the team for the Beijing Olympics.
London Welsh Rugby Football Club was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seasons, after gaining promotion from the RFU Championship in the 2012 and 2014 play-off final. The club returned to Old Deer Park in 2015 after three seasons at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford.
Rugby union in England is one of the leading professional and recreational team sports. In 1871 the Rugby Football Union, the governing body for rugby union in England, was formed by 21 rugby clubs, and the first international match, which involved England, was played in Scotland. The England national team compete annually in the Six Nations Championship, and are former world champions after winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The top domestic men's club competition is Premiership Rugby, and English clubs also compete in international competitions such as the European Rugby Champions Cup. The top domestic women's competition is the Premier 15s.
The 2000 World Snooker Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 15 April and 1 May 2000 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
Michael Judge is a former professional snooker player from the Republic of Ireland. His best performance in a ranking event came in the 2004 Grand Prix, where he reached the semi-finals, and he reached his highest ranking, 24th, for the 2002–03 season.
Sport in Cardiff is dictated by, amongst other things, its position as the capital city of Wales, meaning that national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All of Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top-quality venues have attracted world-famous sport events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales.
Willie Davies was a Welsh international dual-code rugby fly half who played rugby union for Swansea and rugby league for Bradford Northern. He won six caps for the Wales rugby union team and nine caps for the Wales rugby league team. In 2003 he was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame. He was the cousin of Wales international Haydn Tanner.
Alan Norris is an English darts player. He was the runner-up at the 2014 BDO World Darts Championship and also lost in the final of the 2012 Zuiderduin Masters, with Stephen Bunting prevailing on both occasions. In 2015, he switched to the PDC and, after reaching the quarter-finals of the 2016 World Championship, he was named the PDC Best Newcomer of the year.
Jordan Brown is a Northern Irish professional snooker player. After winning back-to-back Northern Ireland Amateur Championships in 2008 and 2009, he made his debut on the professional tour in 2009–10 but lost his tour card after one season. He rejoined the tour via the 2018 Q School.
Elliot Kear, is a Welsh professional rugby league footballer who plays as a wing, centre or fullback for the Batley Bulldogs in the RFL Championship and Wales at international level. He is now the record 2nd all time Welsh cap holder with 32 caps.
Christie Renee Welsh is an American former soccer player who played as a forward. She previously played for the New York Power of Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) as well as the Los Angeles Sol, Saint Louis Athletica, and Washington Freedom of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). She is also a former member of the United States women's national soccer team.
Thomas Welsh is an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. As a senior in 2017–18, Welsh earned second-team all-conference honors in the Pac-12. He was selected by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft with the 58th overall pick.
