Archive

MIDLANDS TWO (WEST) Saturday, January 14: North Midlands Cup, Camp Hill v Malvern. Saturday, January 21: Stafford v Malvern. Saturday, January 28: Malvern v Newbold. Saturday, February 11: Broadstreet v Malvern. Saturday, February 18: Malvern v Newport

HUNTSMEN rounded up a group of masked anti-fox hunters and held them for more than an hour in a Wild West-style stand off. In a scene more reminiscent of Rawhide than Rushock, near to where the incident took place, around 10 riders from the Worcestershire

A WARTIME picnic marked the start of a beautiful relationship for one city couple, who will celebrate 60 years of marriage today. Noel and Christina Whittaker met when they worked with the Royal Signals, intercepting coded messages from the Germans at

ALTHOUGH the festive season of excessive drinking is over for another year, the harmful effects of excess alcohol and binge drinking are a permanent part of some people's lives, Worcestershire's advisory Service on alcohol has warned. Between 1,200 and

ARTISTIC types in the Malvern Hills are set to be given a boost as a composer building a new media centre has revealed he is in discussions to open it up to the community. Paul Farrer, owner of West Malvern-based company Music Mint - was granted planning

VISITORS can continue to enjoy walks around Hornhill Meadows and Nunnery Wood during the refurbishment of the Countryside Centre at Worcester Woods Country Park. The children's play area will remain open, but the caf and public toilets will be closed

THE Mayor of Worcester is distraught after his beloved drake went missing - he now fears he has been the victim of a fox. Aubrey Tarbuck thinks a fox may have taken Henry, named after Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry, on New Year's Eve, from the

July 2005 (friendlies) Tues 19 Alvechurch (a) 2-1 Martin 2 WEDS 20 TAMWORTH (H) 0-1 SAT 23 Leamington (a) 2-1 Ball, Pinkney TUES 26 MOOR GREEN (H) 2-1 Duncan, Ball SAT 30 WORCESTER CITY (H) 0-0 August TUES 2 REDDITCH UTD (H) 1-1 O'Toole THURS KIDDERMINSTER

ANDY Preece is confident of signing more players this week following the capture of experienced Redditch United defender Dennis Pearce. Pearce, 31, a former Notts County and Peterborough full-back, faced Worcester City in the 2-2 draw at the Valley Stadium

SOLID Worcester City took the pressure of any relegation fears by clinching their first league win in almost two months. Taking into account the improving form of Leigh RMI and tomorrow night's opponents Vauxhall Motors, City urgently required three points

IT should have been the perfect way to end a run of results that is now beginning to seriously undermine Worcester's early-season promise. When Aisea Havili crashed over the line with little more than a minute left on the clock, Sixways erupted at what

HEREFORD completed their first double of the season with a hugely important Nationwide Conference success at the McCain Stadium on Saturday. After dropping four points out of six against lowly Forest Green over the Holiday period, it was vital that the

MARK Yates was full of praise for Kidderminster Harriers' battlers following a magical start to his managerial campaign. The new Aggborough boss - who accepted the job last Thursday night - is off to an immediate flyer by masterminding Harriers' first

Gimmick is now a timebomb IF ever an election gimmick was destined to come back and haunt a political party, then it must be New Labour's ill-considered family credit system. Desperate to cling on to the fast-haemorrhaging support of middle class professionals

ID cards mean ID theft THE thing about ID cards is that the whole concept is based on the state's insatiable desire to poke its nose into the lives of its citizens. One of the ironies of life in Britain today is that we are becoming more like an old-style

NEW Kidderminster Harriers manager Mark Yates is looking to build on the experience he gained during his 18-month stint as Steve Cotterill's right-hand man at Burnley to lead Harriers away from the wrong end of the Nationwide Conference table. Chairman

HARRIERS' chairman Barry Norgrove is convinced Mark Yates is the right man to turn the fortunes around at Aggborough and lead the team into more successful times. Yates' appointment came as something of a surprise as he was unveiled as new manager the

SIR - George Cowley is asking what he and Shirley Bassey have in common. May I suggest they can't sing like I do. JOHN SHEARON, Worcester.

SIR - Every day, 275 older people choose to move into a care home. That's more than 100,000 people each year. Research shows that during and after the holiday season more people find themselves addressing the options for care of older family members than

Saturday, January 7, 2006 MARK Yates was full of praise for Kidderminster Harriers' battlers following a magical start to his managerial campaign. The new Aggborough boss - who accepted the job last Thursday night - is off to an immediate flyer by masterminding

SIR - Despite all the festive warnings, there may be some families which received puppies or dogs as gifts at Christmas. Dogs Trust, the UK's largest dog welfare charity, asks that all new dog owners take time to think about our famous slogan - a dog

A PUB is hoping its second annual sausage eating competition raises more money for charity than the inaugural one held a year ago. In January 2005, regulars of the Red Hart, Kington, near Inkberrow, raised £1,200 for the victims of the Asian tsunami in

NEW car sales dipped five per cent last year despite a record December, official figures showed. New regist rations in 2005 totalled 2,439,717 - a 4.97 per cent fall on the 2004 figure.

STAFF at the Department for Work and Pensions voted to go on strike in protest at job cuts, the Public and Commercial Services union announced. The Government has a target of cutting 30,000 jobs from the DWP and has already axed around 15,000 which the

SAINSBURY'S has announced plans to boost sales of Fairtrade products by 50 per cent during 2006. The supermarket chain launched the target by converting 75 per cent of its rose bouquets to Fairtrade. The move will make it the biggest retailer of goods

WORCESTER Warriors rugby club has joined forces with Green-Line Vehicle Rental for a premier result. Green-Line has provided the Warriors with a brand new van to ensure all of the team's refreshments, kit and essentials are transported safely to away

TRIPLE child killer David McGreavy is under lock and key once more after an outcry by villagers where he was due to be rehoused. As we revealed last week, McGreavy, who killed three children in Gillam Street in Worcester in 1973, had been spotted in Liverpool

MENTAL health patients and their carers are fighting plans to close a special hostel in Worcester. Worcestershire County Council has proposed closing 2 Stanley Road and moving the eight residents into their own accommodation in the community where they

HOMELESS people will be able to take cover from the elements thanks to generous Worcester News readers who have raised a massive £10,000 for a city night shelter. The 15-bed facility - at the Maggs Day Centre in Deansway - officially flings its doors

Malvern Theatres has some treats in store for avid theatregoers next season. It gets off to a fantastic start as Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers returns after previous sell-out visits (January 23-28). Set in Liverpool, it tells the tale of twin

FIVE Hereford teenagers star in a short film showing at London Film Festival. Special People by Justin Edgar is one of six short-listed films in the 2005 best short film competition. Director Justin approached the students at the Bishop of Hereford's

Snow White on Ice, Malvern Theatres THE cold wafting from the specially installed ice rink may have chilled the Malvern Forum but not its audience, many of whom were on their feet at the end of a bravura performance from the Russian Ice Stars. This production

Things have gone a little crazy for Hereford-based 2 Faced Dance since their appearance at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, writes Julie Harries. As reported in last week's Daily Telegraph, pop queen Madonna nearly enlisted the talents of the eight-strong

HEREFORDSHIRE'S castles - past and present - are included in a newly published and lavishly illustrated comprehensive guide to the nation's fortresses. Castles, by the splendidly titled Plantagenet Somerset Fry, is the latest revision of a classic bestseller

MANY book lovers in the Marches will be familiar with the cases of the Rev Merrily Watkins, the heavy-smoking woman exorcist from Hereford. In Phil Rickman's latest novel, The Smile of a Ghost, she ventures into the northern end of the diocese and on

FORMER teacher Ann Ashley has brought the writings of distinguished Herefordian Alfred Watkins to life for a new generation. Her book, The Dodman Quest, explores Watkins' theory on ley lines through a detective story involving two young enthusiasts. David

LEDBURY author Suzette Hill sees her debut novel published this week - a quirky crime fantasy set in 1950s Surrey. Suzette, who retired to Herefordshire five years ago, said although she had never had any desire to write a novel, the characters came into

Commemorating the restoration of Hereford Cathedral's historic Willis organ, a new edition of The Organists and Organs of Hereford Cathedral has been published. Cathedral organist Geraint Bowen, himself featured in the book, and co-editor Tim Symons,

A BOOK celebrating the stained glass windows of stained glass artist-craftsman, A J Davies (1877-1953) - who created many windows in Herefordshire - contains 50 colour photographs illustrating the range of his work. Davies was educated in Birmingham and

FANS of Brian Viner's weekly column in The Independent will probably know that his first novel, Tales of the Country, was published this week. Brian and Jane decided to take the plunge and move their family from London's fashionable Crouch End to sleepy

THE village, the pub and the church could be just the inspiration you need to start planning your spring trips to Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the North Cotswolds. Written by Roy Millar, The Village, the Church and the Pub is sold to benefit the

SOMEWHAT in the shadow of its illustrious big brother in Hay-on-Wye, the second book festival in Blaenafon whirs into action next Tuesday. Featuring local writers Barbara Erskine, Phil Rickman, Jasper Fforde and Rebecca Tope, this year's programme offers

RURAL bishops, including John Oliver, formerly Bishop of Hereford, are warning that the tangible and significant contribution that churchgoers make to the life of their communities is in danger of being lost. This message comes in a new book Changing

FOLLOWING a long period of ill health after the breakdown of his marriage, Bromyard shopkeeper Julian Sergeant has published a beautifully illustrated, limited edition children's book, aimed at six to 10-year-olds. Dragon Tears is the poignant story of

AUTHOR Karen Wallace was born in Canada, where she spent her youth messing about on the river, climbing trees and building toboggan runs. They are memories which are well served in the plethora of children's books for which she is responsible. Married

ONE of Herefordshire's most famous sons looks set to be a Christmas best-seller - 37 years after his death. Ledbury-born John Masefield wrote the classic children's novel The Box of Delights in 1935 as a sequel to The Midnight Folk. The BBC made a memorable

HEREFORD writer James Clarke comes full circle this month, as his first book - The Pocket Essentials: Steven Spielberg - was published in its second edition format. The book, which includes some new material and an amended introduction, looks at Spielberg's

LOCAL author Jasper Fforde has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, the annual prize for comic fiction, with his third book, The Well of Lost Plots. "Previous winners have been either literary masterpieces of great humour - The Mighty Waltzer,

MAJOR Bruce Kinloch has stood eyeball to eyeball with bull elephants, forced to shoot them at point-blank range to save his life or to hide in jungles and swamps to escape their wrath. But he has never swerved in his fascination, love and respect for

SKIVING schoolboys helping out at market over 100 years ago have been captured forever as part of a unique publication of 'snapshot' photographs. The new publication, entitled Early Photographs of Radnor, illustrate the photographic talents of William

AS part of The Courtyard's Book Week, vociferous readers can take part in Battle of the Books, sponsored by the Hereford Times, on June 26. Three great books - Emma (Jane Austen), The Green Mile (Stephen King) and Charlotte Gray (Sebastian Faulks) - are

AFTER 40 years in Herefordshire author Graham Roberts thought he knew almost every nook and cranny. Now he knows that he has hardly scratched the surface. His love and knowledge of the county persuaded the retired Hereford city surveyor and planning officer

MOVING into her new flat has taken one Herefordshire woman back half a century. When Kalyani Menon moved into her retirement apartment in Watkins Court, Old Mill Close, last year she was instantly reminded of her days at university in London. "Exploring

events/talks 9 'Hands Around The World' introductory meeting, The Old Council Chamber, Hereford Town Hall, 7.30pm. 01594 560223. 11 as above, Worcester Suite, Three Counties Hotel, 7.30pm. 01594 560223. 13-14 Jungian Seminar, A Search for Meaning and

CELEBRATED sculptor Henry Moore's work is coming to Monmouth. Since gallery owner Angie Sayer was a child she has had Henry Moore around her. At Much Hadham in Hertfordshire, in fields around her house, Henry Moore sculpted his famous Sheep piece, The

THIS gigantic whalebone monument has returned to Evesham after a three-month makeover. The structure, made from the jawbone of a Bowhead Greenland whale, was unveiled in Workman Gardens. It was placed on the site in 1906 and has now been treated with

GENEROUS Worcester residents are being thanked for donating £1.6m to the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. The Boxing Day 2004 disaster in Thailand, which killed more than 200,000 people, touched the hearts of thousands in the Faithful City, and was brought

The family and supporters of a Worcestershire soldier executed by firing squad in the First World War are hoping the new year will bring an official pardon. Campaigners have been working to clear Sgt John Wall's name, together with hundreds of others

A PUB is hoping its second annual sausage eating competition raises more money for charity than the inaugural one held a year ago. In January 2005, regulars of the Red Hart, Kington, near Inkberrow, raised £1,200 for the victims of the Asian tsunami in

FIXTURES Harvey World Travel Midland Football Alliance Saturday, January 7, Cradley Town P, Malvern Town P. Tuesday, January 10, Malvern Town v Romulus (7.45). Saturday, January 14, Malvern Town v Loughborough Dynamo (3.00). Tuesday, January 17, Malvern

WARRIORS head coach Anthony Eddy remains positive despite watching his side slip to their fourth consecutive defeat. Worcester went down 15-11 to Northampton Saints at Sixways, which also means they have lost three Premiership games since Christmas --

EVERY weekend throughout the football season, pitches up and down the land will bear witness to all manner of expletives, some shouted others merely mouthed. Yet it appears that the dirtiest word of them all is another 'F' word. Failure. Modern society

IT'S just a year ago that the joy of Christmas and the new year was overshadowed by the Asian tsunami. The utter horror of the deadly tidal wave that claimed thousands of lives became imprinted on our consciousness as amateur footage of the moment when

HOW would you like to visit a warm, shallow, tropical sea with many of the characteristics of Australia's Barrier Reef, yet only 10 miles from Worcester? Yes, me too. The one drawback is that it would mean travelling back in time hundreds of millions

WARRIORS head coach Anthony Eddy remains positive despite watching his side slip to their fourth consecutive defeat. Worcester went down 15-11 to Northampton Saints at Sixways, which also means they have lost three Premiership games since Christmas --

EVESHAM United leapt out of the Southern League Premier Division bottom three with a deserved 3-0 victory over Rugby Town at Common Road. It was the Robins' first league win since slamming four past Northwood on November 19 and they will need many more

ROD Brown's first match in charge of Bromsgrove Rovers ended successfully with a 2-1 Southern League Division One West win at 10-man Bracknell Town. The visitors dominated the early proceedings at Larges Lane, but it was the home side who scored first

YOUNGSTERS in Worcester-shire are being urged to kick-start healthy eating for the new year with a special fund-raising 'five- a-day' initiative. St Richard's Hospice wants pupils from schools or nurseries to join in a Healthy Eating Week with the children

S OME horse-mad youngsters enjoyed their annual festive party at Gracelands indoor arena in Droitwich. Members of the Wyre Forest branch of the Pony Club spent hours washing and grooming their ponies before donning their special festive headgear for the

My daughter played with a pop star YOUNG people known to me have been enthusing about the latest beat group, a pair of chart-topping pop pickers by the name of Nizlopi. Apparently, these jiving jeepsters really do swing with a crazy don't-you-rock-me-daddio

Saturday, January 7, 2006 IT should have been the perfect way to end a run of results that is now beginning to seriously undermine Worcester's early-season promise. When Aisea Havili crashed over the line with little more than a minute left on the clock

SIR - There should be no doubt that the world is in the grip of cyclical change. Many of these changes are being hastened and exacerbated by human activities. Emissions from industry, land vehicles, including trains and planes, do make a difference. On

SIR - I wonder if any readers of Worcester News have noticed a new phenomenon when travelling on a motorway fitted with the expensive new illuminated message signs? I call it the phantom queue syndrome. The sign flashes the message 'slow down, queue ahead

SIR - So Mr Cole thinks that it's "parochial nonsense" to oppose West Mercia police being swallowed up in a regional force (Letters, Wednesday, December 28). Parochial? One-and-a-half million people would be a pretty large parish. Far larger, in fact,

SATURDAY FOOTBALL NATIONWIDE CONFERENCE Scarborough 0 Hereford United 1; Woking 0 Kidderminster Harriers 1. NATIONWIDE NORTH Leigh RMI 2 Redditch United 1; Worcester City 2 Kettering Town 0. SOUTHERN LEAGUE Premier Division: Evesham United 3 Rugby Town

THERE must be some irony in the fact a farmer named Bullock has a top flock of sheep, but the system obviously works. Because, for the sixth year running, Marcus and Kathryn Bullock of Bank Farm, Abberley, have won the Midlands Area Lleyn Flock Society

ANDY Preece is confident of signing more players this week following the capture of experienced Redditch United defender Dennis Pearce. Pearce, 31, a former Notts County and Peterborough full-back, faced Worcester City in the 2-2 draw at the Valley Stadium

Monday, January 7, 2006 SOLID Worcester City took the pressure of any relegation fears by clinching their first league win in almost two months. Taking into account the improving form of Leigh RMI and tomorrow night's opponents Vauxhall Motors, City urgently

JJB profits miss SPORTSWEAR firm JJB emerged as one of the casualties of a tough retail Christmas after a price war took its toll on profits. Despite a late surge in sales over the festive period, the Wigan-based firm said heavy discounting over previous

SHARES in Birmingham-based flooring specialist Floors 2 Go fell 16 per cent on Friday after it revealed like-for-like sales slumped by a quarter as consumers reined in spending. The firm, which sells laminate and wooden flooring from 139 British outlets

WORCESTERSHIRE-based car manufacturer Morgan has unveiled a special model to mark the 70th anniversary of its iconic 4/4. The firm, based in Malvern, said 142 of the cars would be built between now and November, keeping up the continuous production of

A QUARTER of small businesses are so scared about being sued they are refusing to tackle their own lazy staff. According to a survey by Employment Law Advisory Services, one in four small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) has far more staff throwing

A MAN in his 20s was killed when his car veered off a road and smashed into a tree. Two fire crews from Worcester were called to the scene on the A443 Main Road, just north of Hallow, near Worcester, to free him from his vehicle. However, he was pronounced

THE Ross-based mixed-voice chamber choir, The Penyard Singers, have been together for more than five years and, in that time, have presented 28 concerts. With two important dates in their 2006 performance calendar - a Mostly Mozart concert with orchestra

HOW would you like to visit a warm, shallow, tropical sea with many of the characteristics of Australia's Barrier Reef, yet only 10 miles from Worcester? Yes, me too. The one drawback is that it would mean travelling back in time hundreds of millions

THIS month Bristol University launches a weekly class at the Courtyard Arts Centre in Hereford. It will be led by local writer, Lyn Webster Wilde, whose book about the Amazons stirred controversy by claiming that these women warriors did indeed exist.

There is some great contemporary theatre to look forward to in the Courtyard new season, including 4Play Theatre Company's rendition of Patrick Marber's Closer, Red Shift Theatre Company's Get Carter and European Arts Company's Pinter Double Bill - all

Film-maker Tamara Gordon has nine major television awards to her name; but the recent addition of a MISTY is the most important to her. "I've got a history but to me this award is the most special one. I've done a lot of community TV and that's what these

Peter Pan, Malvern Theatres WELL I really am reviewing the situation and there's no need for Ron Moody to think it all out again - he and pantomime are made for each other. The veteran actor, headlining as Captain Hook, ups the ante. The more you boo,

IN the year that marks the 89th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, Peter Weston, a Great War enthusiast, has published the fruits of three years' research - an account of the part played by Herefordshire men in the main Allied attack on the Western

THE intimate lives of a Herefordshire gentry family are revealed in the pages of a new book Salt & Silk, in which the chronicles of the Aubreys of Clehonger are intepreted by D Meredith McFadden. Sometime in the 1540s, the Welsh-born Morgan Aubrey

HEREFORDSHIRE author John Stempel-Lewis says the county's green and pleasant land was the inspiration for his latest book on the history of England. England The Autobiography takes a rather different approach to the average history book, which sees John

A HEREFORDSHIRE woman who retraced the route taken by her father 60 years earlier as he fled from Nazi occupied Norway following his arrest for spying tells the story in a new book. Another Man's Shoes, by Sven Somme, includes an introduction by his daughter

LINKS between Hereford and the battle of Trafalgar are included in yet another book to mark the 200th anniversary of one of the shortest but best remembered of naval victories. The best type of reporting and history comes not from journalists or historians

OFFA'S Dyke is at the centre of a new work of fiction now available. Love on the Borders, the latest book from Dr Martin Bax, follows a young woman as she walks the length of the ancient earthwork tracing the border between England and Wales in honour

AUTHOR David Nobbs has written his latest fiction to order. He will perform the first reading under a new scheme launched by the West Midlands Readers' Network, which encourages British authors to write and read stories for readers' groups. The Ledbury

A RETIRED Baptist minister who is campaigning for a right to die has praised the late Pope for "setting an example". The Rev Geoffrey Morris, of Leominster, is a member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society who has battled against cancer and other illnesses

Bridge Sollars-based publishing company, Orpheus, is hoping to make it third time lucky, having again been short-listed for this year's Aventis Prizes for Science Books Junior Prize. The world's most prestigious awards for popular science writing selected

FOR Herefordshire author Peter Burden, ghost-writing is a way of life. Being asked to ghost-write David Hemmings' autobiography, just months before the actor's death, was a cherry ripe for the picking. Holed up in Hemmings' country retreat, the two shared

A NEW book gives its readers a bird's eye view of some of Herefordshire's finest - and oldest - scenery. Herefordshire Past & Present - An Aerial View, by Ruth E Richardson and Chris Musson, takes a revealing look at the county's landscape, including

A NEW book says that illegal chemical weapons were made in Hereford. The claim that Britain broke the Geneva Protocol, which the country signed up to in 1925, by manufacturing gas weapons is set out in The History of Rotherwas Munitions Factory, Hereford

A CAPTAIN who lived a life of adventure on the ocean waves lies buried far from the sea in Leominster. Joseph Jackson survived shipwreck, hurricanes and spine-chilling brushes with icebergs. A member of the Leominster Moravian Church congregation, the

FORMER Hereford woman Tiffany Murray saw her first novel, Happy Accidents, hit the shelves this week. Crackling with the darkest of dark humour, brimming with crazy ancestors and closely guarded secrets, Happy Accidents is not a novel about pastoral and

CONTROVERSIAL global oil intrigue and 'big wall' mountaineering are the subject matters for a new book launched by former soldier Bronco Lane on October 21. The book, Project Alpha, is to be launched at the Shirehall, Hereford where Bronco will give a

A NEW BOOK will evoke memories for older readers of a relaxed form of travelling before the advent of motorways. Herefordshire and Worcestershire's Lost Railways, may also encourage readers to make the acquaintance of the preserved lines in the area.

VICTORIA Cross winners and their remarkable stories are the subject of a new book by Herefordshire's best-known ex-soldier, General Sir Peter de la Billiere. Sir Peter, who has himself been awarded the Military Cross and bar, was at Ross Books last weekend

DO you regard yourself as a bit of a budding poet looking for the opportunity to see your work in print? If so then the UK's largest publisher of poetry is waiting to read your verse. Forward Press is in the final stages of preparing its latest series

THE sometimes wicked world of the vegetable is revealed this week in a new book by Herefordshire author Bill Laws. The humble vegetable, it seems, has sparked religious protests, helped win wars, threatened to topple one British Government and even gained

THE Courtyard book week kicks off on Sunday with the Reduced Shakespeare Company's riotous new show, All The Great Books (Abridged). Combining literature and film, the week offers plenty of opportunity for the young and old to be involved. How to write

THE sixth annual children's book festival begins in Hereford today (Thursday). Hosted by Herefordshire Schools Library Service, events will take place at Hereford Town Hall, Ross, Leominster and Bromyard libraries, various schools and The Courtyard, Hereford

A party at the award-winning Felin Fach Griffin Inn near Brecon this Sunday (July 18) celebrates the publication of local author Molly Watson's book, In The Pink. Born in Wales, and brought up near Llangorse, Molly worked on the London Evening Standard

WHEN Patrick Marber's Closer opened at London's National Theatre it was hailed as the Private Lives of the 90s. Couples regularly left the theatre arguing over the dubious relations of the four players - some finding the measures of cruelty they expend

When former footballer Geoff Thomas was diagnosed with leukaemia, he was determined to beat the disease and to raise as much money as possible for cancer research and treatment - so with the determination that had served him well in his sporting career