LADY luck went missing for Pirates big time as they somehow contrived to throw away four league points at Brandon tonight. Poole Castle Cover were on course to pick up their first away league win of the season when Hans Andersen and Chris Holder
The spotlight continues to shine on planning in Poole with 20 of the 59 complaints to the Ombudsman last year concerning the contentious issue. Included was a finding of maladministration – and the previous year saw 48 complaints made by residents
AN ALCOHOL-fuelled man who knocked his partner unconscious with a wine bottle after discovering her “shady past” has been jailed for 10 months. William Shakespeare, 43, from Sandecotes Road, Parkstone, admitted a charge of unlawful wounding
Sunday July 19, 2009: We went to the adoption picnic today, all four of us. It was a really lovely day. The girls enjoyed the bouncy castle, face paints and learning circus skills (brilliant). I enjoyed seeing children I have worked with in the past
Thursday July 16, 2009: My Macmillan nurse came today. She reassured me that my tiredness is completely normal for several reasons: A: the effect the chemo has had on my body/fitness levels B: the psychological affect of the cancer on my body/fitness
Saturday July 18, 2009: Well Megan was bouncing around at 5.30am. I guess an early night and a dose of Calpol sorted her out and it wasn’t swine flu. Glad I didn’t phone NHS Direct because they would have told me to take her wherever you need to
Friday July 17, 2009: Leah had her leavers party at nursery today, even though she’ll be there through the summer it is officially the end of term and some of her friends finish now. I just can’t believe my baby is so grown up. She came home with a
Tuesday July 14, 2009: I’m going to be in the Echo again tomorrow – just to boost the profile of the journal and the fund-raiser. So many people have been so encouraging about it. 300 people have joined my Facebook group now so
Monday July 13, 2009: I heard from Paula again today because the Echo had run out of journal entries. I copied the next bunch and edited them, then went through them with Mum and Mel (my sister). It’s so hard to get feelings across without
Wednesday July 15, 2009: I’ve just been out for dinner with work – it was a weird evening, I’ve not seen some of them for months but it was lovely. We were celebrating a 50th birthday and a 40th birthday so there was a lot of talk about getting
WEST Moors boosted their prospects of avoiding bottom spot in the Dorset Men’s Championship by winning the relegation tussle at Bridport 8-2 (46-45). A 17-9 victory from John Riddington plus the 20-16 card of Ray Hunt gave West Moors a vital result against
CHRIS Daniels continued his sizzling summer by becoming Hampshire singles champion at Southampton. The in-form Boscombe Cliff bowler turned what many thought would be a close final into a masterclass as he crushed fellow Middleton Cup skip Peter Ward
BOURNEMOUTH Dolphins star Amelia Maughan has missed out on her fourth medal of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Finland. Maughan, who had already collected a gold and two bronze medals during this week's championships, finished fourth in this afternoon's
PROPOSALS to demolish a Bournemouth church and replace it with 105 student flats have been submitted. The planning application seeks to replace the Christadelphian Church in Bath Road with an eight-storey block of flats. The proposed building will have
THE traditional school tie appears to be the latest victim of “elf and safety”, with up to 10 schools a week switching to clip-on ties because they are deemed less dangerous. Schools fear that pupils could accidentally be strangled if they yank each
WE are all familiar with the legendary “curse” of Tutankhamun’s tomb. But not many people can say they were on hand for a scene which could have come from a Mummy movie. Despite being a fairly cynical newspaper reporter I had a few butterflies
FOR the past three years, Fladermouse Productions have proved that taking historical drama out of the confines of a theatre and moving it around the streets can offer an entirely fresh look at the genre for its audience. This year’s fourth
LET me confess that the thought of sitting through Shakespeare’s longest play, with its less-than-sunny themes of treachery and murder, did not fill me with unalloyed joy. However, Jo Puttick’s judiciously pruned production and a mercifully rain-free
FLIGHTS have been diverted to Bournemouth Airport after Gatwick Airport temporarily closed following an emergency landing by a Flybe jet. Nine planes are expected and three have already landed. No-one is understood to have been injured at
SINGER Amy Winehouse was cleared today of punching a dancer at a charity ball. Burlesque dancer Sherene Flash claimed the 25-year-old hit her forcefully in the right eye after she asked the singer for a photograph while backstage at the Prince's
I began playing 1vs100 on LIVE two weeks ago with my girlfriend and my friend sat round the telly each taking turns to play on my friend's profile. The entire sign in process was painless and was spent mainly watching his avatar loitering around in the
HIGH School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, who has played Gabriella in all three films, joins Friends star Lisa Kudrow and music legend David Bowie in new comedy drama Bandslam. And you can be among the first to see it before it goes on general
A supernatural mystery set in Victorian London streets. Bodysnatchers are plundering the graveyard. The dead cannot rest in peace. Nathaniel Wolfe is on another ghost hunt and he must make a terrifying journey to the other side
GORDON Brown suffered another blow at the hands of voters today as the Conservatives overturned Labour's 5,000-plus majority to snatch Norwich North in a by-election. Chloe Smith, who at 27 becomes the youngest MP in the Commons, won by 7,348
ENGLAND footballer Steven Gerrard was a free man today after he was cleared of unjustly attacking a man in a bar. The Liverpool captain admitted hitting Marcus McGee, 34, in a Southport bar last December and a jury at the city's Crown Court
Dad wakes up grumpy, grouchy and grizzly. In fact he’s like a bear with a sore head. Wait, he IS a bear with a sore head! Can he be tamed? A lively, witty exploration of the way in which children take language literally
A RICHLY evocative love letter to a recent history, Hodkinson’s debut novel recalls the era immediately after punk but before MTV, when literally anything was possible to the newly liberated teenage minds obsessed with music and words, and maybe girls
WHEN defence barrister Geoffrey Mason hears the judge’s guilty verdict, he quietly hopes that a long custodial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent receives only eight years seems all too lenient. Little does
THE AFC Bournemouth boss has a new signing. It’s a stylish performer that covers the ground effortlessly and takes corners well. Eddie Howe has just taken delivery of a Mercedes CLC 220 CDI Sport Coupe courtesy of Mercedes-Benz of Poole. The car is
LIKE a scene from an extreme garden make-over, the well-established and much-loved Fern was replaced by an everkeen – I mean green – Holly that, it’s hoped, will take root come autumn. Yes, it was the end of an era as the amazing shrinking woman, Fern
AMELIA Maughan could be set to claim her fourth medal of the European Youth Olympics Festival. The Dorset swimming star today qualified for the 4x100m medley final, to be contested this evening, alongside her Great Britain team-mates.
THE main road in and out of Swanage has reopened after being blocked by a fallen tree. The 30ft tall tree fell at around 11.30am across both sides of the A351 at Harman’s Cross. Police said it had hit a power cable and a tree surgeon
SANDRA Bullock returns to sparkling form in Anne Fletcher’s screwball romantic comedy, which proves that the path to true love can sometimes begin with some good old-fashioned blackmail. With the triple whammy of Speed, While You Were Sleeping
WRITER-director Nick Moran adapts his own acclaimed stage play for the big screen, documenting the rise and fall of pioneering gay British songwriter and record producer Joe Meek, who stormed to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic
WRITER-director Rebecca Miller adapts her own book, which chronicles the journey of self-discovery of 40-something Pippa (Robin Wright Penn), who moves to a quiet and leafy retirement community with her much older husband, publisher Herb (Alan
GAEL Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, the stars of road movies Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Motorcycle Diaries, reunite for this footballing drama, playing siblings who are destined to meet in one of the biggest televised championship matches in Mexico
Art Loan Exhibition 2008-09 Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus. A-Z A Handbook Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth (until August 9). Manga to Mural: The Sketches of John Thomas Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth
WHEN it comes to air displays, size matters – but who really has the biggest and the best? Bournemouth Tourism is promising that this year’s More Bus Air Festival is “the UK’s biggest free aviation festival”. Yet this year has also seen
THE Royal Marines’ fabled Endurance Course doesn’t take place at their Lympstone base. It’s on nearby Woodbury Common. As we travel there by van, PT instructor Sgt Bart Ledger and my Royal Marines minders, Neil Hipkins and Ben Wright, keep reminding
I WRITE in response to a recent article, which claimed that ‘unsellable tat’ is costing charity shops thousands of pounds. I’d like to assure readers that we at PDSA don’t take that view. Poole PDSA shop is always appealing for people to have
MICHAEL Roberts-Butler (Echo, July 22) seems confused that global warming isn’t benefiting our local climate for the advantage of stay-at-home tourism. In fact climate chaos is indeed going to throw up a lot of strange weather. How wonderful it would
ED PERKINS recently wrote about ‘The shape of things to come’, his thoughts on misshapen produce. My long experience in matters concerning the quality and shape of produce has prompted me to comment on Ed’s thoughts. I write as a former president of
IT SADDENS me when there is yet another attack on the streets of Boscombe. Even more it saddens me because of the tireless work that residents, traders and hoteliers do to promote the area. Yes, it is news, but unwanted news for the effort these people
I help to run the local branch of the Humane Research Trust, a registered charity which sponsors medical research into cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma and many other illnesses without the use of animals. We have two fundraising games planned
THE writer of the letter ‘Let us enjoy wildlife’, Have Your Say July 22 had better realise that these ‘cute’ squirrels are classed as vermin, like rats, and are carriers of all sorts of diseases. Talking of dog owners being responsible, I certainly would
The Groove on the Green event took place in Parkstone Park on Sunday, July 12. Not such a groovy event, though, if you happen to be a resident or have a business near the park. The noise was not such an issue, particularly as the event finished in
I’D LIKE to thank the kind lady who bought us chocolate whilst we were protesting in the pouring rain at Poole Stadium last Tuesday. May I take the opportunity to remind your readers why we are protesting against the stadium. The dog racing industry
TO some, the first sign of spring is the cuckoo. To me, it is the army of cuckoos. Not the birds. The men who spot a lonely ray of sunshine battling through the winter clouds… and immediately don their shorts. Now, the sun has been spotted
KYLE Newman revealed Pirates captain Bjarne Pedersen gave him a big helping hand as he notched up double figures for Buccaneers, who soared to the top of the league with victory last night. The Bournemouth Castle Cover teenager took a heavy
ENERGY, prisons, civil liberties, tax and spending were just a few of the subjects thrown at David Cameron when he visited a Poole school on Thursday. The leader of the Conservative party stopped off at Haymoor Middle School in Canford Heath
DORSET swim star Amelia Maughan smashed her personal best on her way to bronze at the European Youth Olympic Festival – but was far from happy. The 13-year-old Bournemouth Dolphins star was ranked second going into the 50m freestyle final in
BOURNEMOUTH boss David Ridley is confident the team’s batsmen will come good tomorrow – when it really matters. Southern Premier League Division One leaders Havant visit Chapel Gate (11.30am) in a match which could go a long way to deciding the destination
PAUL Sackey and Ugo Monye will be the star attractions at the O2 Scrum on the Beach event in Bournemouth tomorrow. The pair will front the free family festival, which takes place at Boscombe Beach from 10am. England star Sackey and British Lion Monye
A SINGLE mum is recovering from a terrifying ordeal after armed police wrongly smashed in her front door while she was giving her young son a bath upstairs. Innocent Rachel Whitmarsh was ordered out of the Poole property while her boy, Jordan
Llewellyn Kinch (GWR Team) won the latest round of the Wessex Cycle Racing League with a powerful ride on the Holt circuit. Kinch even had time to raise his hands as a victory salute to celebrate his win – and he was not the only one – as second-placed
CIVIC leaders have approved major plans for the regeneration of Bournemouth town centre over the next 25 years. Cabinet members gave the go-ahead for the council to join forces with the private sector for the project, which forms part of the
THE humble pair of shorts has become this season’s sizzling hot buy – and what better place to sport them than at Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle this weekend. The laid-back atmosphere of a music festival in beautiful rural surroundings
BOSS Eddie Howe is still holding out hope of making Steve Lovell his first summer signing after the out-of-contract striker rejoined the Cherries squad today. Howe’s brother Lovell, who has already spent a week training with Cherries, appeared to be
POOLE’S James Lelliott saw his European Youth Olympic Festival campaign come to an abrupt end as Team GB crashed out of the sprint relay in Finland. The 16-year-old – who failed to qualify for the long jump final earlier in the week - teamed
ANDREW Elkins’s European Youth Olympic Festival dream turned into a nightmare in the hammer final as he failed to land a single throw in Finland. The Poole-born 16-year-old, who only registered one valid throw in qualifying, exited the competition
A LAST-ditch attempt is being made to keep the Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education Centre open for at least another three months, instead of closing on August 31. Members of Bournemouth’s overview and scrutiny management panel made that recommendation
CHERRIES are hoping to avoid another major injury blow – with skipper Danny Hollands facing a race to be fit in time for the new season. The central midfielder was forced to sit out the high-profile pre-season matches against Tottenham Hotspur
MOTORISTS on the A31 endured mile-long tailbacks yesterday after a diesel spillage closed the westbound carriageway from the Ashley Heath roundabout for nearly four hours. Traffic travelling westbound on the dual carriageway queued from the Ashley Heath
CHRISTCHURCH Borough Council has given the provisional thumbs-up to plans which could revamp radically its way of working in order to cut costs. A partnership group comprising East Dorset District Council, North Dorset District Council and Christchurch
Submit your event to our FREE calendar listings ART Art Loan Exhibition 2008-09 – Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus A-Z A Handbook – Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth (until August 9) Manga to Mural: The Sketches
RADIO 4 will be broadcasting one of its most popular shows from Verwood tonight. Any Questions? will feature South Dorset MP and employment minister Jim Knight. The topical discussion show, in which the panel field questions from an
