TOM Hill's first-half goal earned a young Cherries reserves side a fine 1-1 draw at Swansea City last night. Despite finishing the game with nine first-year trainees on the pitch, the Dorset team proved a match for their experienced Welsh opponents
FORTY-one years after her death, children’s author Enid Blyton is to be the subject of a new, 90-minute drama on BBC4. Those hoping for heaps of adulation and lashings of jolly anecdotes about the woman who wrote 800 books and made Purbeck her second
BIZARRE? Weird? Strange? Which word would you choose to describe the wacky world of Michael Jackson? Over the years the press has never been slow to serve up the latest details about his curious carryings on and I’ve chuckled along too.
CHRISTCHURCH has one of the highest proportions of pensioners in the country. So it’s no surprise that people in the town are probably more concerned than most about yesterday’s interest rate cut which is set to cripple their savings even further. The
A “HEAVY-handed” investigation into “improper” emails allegedly circulated by Bournemouth council employees has left staff morale at rock-bottom. That’s the claim by union officials and staff who were stunned by the decision to send around
WANTED: One disused gravel pit or similar, far from the madding crowd. That’s the buzz among a group of New Forest beekeepers who want to rear queen bees. Cliff Polton from New Milton is one of a committee of seven from the New Forest Beekeepers’ Association
LIQUORICE, Dubonnet, and farmyard slurry form an improbable trio. But there is a pleasing logic behind the circumstances that have brought this unlikely triumvirate from a farm in Sturminster Marshall to the tables of Gary Rhodes’ new Christchurch restaurant
RINGWOOD Town return to Sydenhams Wessex Division One action with a visit to mid-table rivals Amesbury Town on Saturday (3pm kick-off). Manager Jy Taylor’s team will be looking to chalk up their third successive league victory after a week off. In their
PAUL Baker is today hoping to reach a satisfactory conclusion regarding the new owners of AFC Bournemouth but says the club's future is still "in limbo". Baker, who invested in Sport-6 before purchasing Cherries with Alastair Saverimutto in
A 20-YEAR-old from the Lymington area is in hospital with serious head injuries after an alleged assault in the town in the early hours of Thursday, March 5. Police want to hear from witnesses to an altercation between a small group of men that began
FRUSTRATIONS over the “insufficient” funding for free bus travel did not prevent Christchurch councillors from unanimously agreeing to the lowest council tax rise in years. The full council met on Tuesday and confirmed that its part of the council tax
PARKSTONE’S Mark Chadbourne (ride) has been in action earlier that usual this season, competing in the Barnsfield Heath Winter series. Unnown to most of the riders competing, Chadbourne was an early devotee of the sport of mountain biking and is a multiple
FIRST the snow, now comes the ice… Warnings of potentially treacherous icy roads have been issued with the mercury set to plunge below zero this evening. Police say melting snow could freeze on the roads as the temperature begins to plummet
LIQUORICE, Dubonnet, and farmyard slurry form an improbable trio. But there is a pleasing logic behind the circumstances that have brought this unlikely triumvirate from a farm in Sturminster Marshall to the tables of Gary Rhodes’ new Christchurch
DOZENS of people lobbied a government inspector over plans to knock down a historic beach café and replace it with flats. An appeal hearing held at Bournemouth town hall about Point House Café on Harbour Road, Southbourne, included 40 members of the
CONSTRUCTION work on Europe's first artificial surf reef will resume at the end of April, contractors have confirmed. And work should be completed by August, Andy Campbell, commercial director of New Zealand based ASR announced today (Thurs
WILTS and Dorset bus company said that most bus services are back to normal after this morning's problems with snow and slippery roads. But service 40 between Swanage and Poole is still running via Harman's Cross, because of slippery conditions
THIS is an alphabetical list of schools closed today. A Archbishop Wake CE First B Beaminster School Bovington Nursery Bovington First School Bere Regis First School Buckland Newton Primary
When will the front of Boscombe Pier be finished? It is a grade two listed building and the front is a disgrace. Why is a caravan selling burgers allowed to trade in front of the pier? So much for the gentrification of Boscombe. Richard Smith, Parkwood
I WAS interested in the recent February article on your website about the Critical Care Outreach team at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Last weekend was the anniversary of my near-death experience in that hospital. I spent the first five months of
WHY can we not be more upbeat and optimistic about the Boscombe surf reef? Recently we have heard far too much negative comment about it, we should be grateful to our forward-thinking council officers and elected councillors alike for daring to go forward
IT was entirely predictable that when Bournemouth Borough Council suspended (or in the town hall jargon, placed on management leave) around 20 staff because of emails they had sent or had stored on their system, someone would leak the story. Equally,
THE blockade of Gaza continues with very tight restrictions on aid and re-construction materials. In recent days the Middle East envoy Tony Blair, as well as the government minister Douglas Alexander, have visited Gaza and have called for the blockade
I have been lucky enough to win a Valentine’ s poetry competition organised by Transdev Yellow Buses for which I won some chocolates, flowers and a pass to use on their buses to the value of £52. As I can already travel on their buses using my OAP bus
With regard to the proposed travellers’ site, I recently attended the drop-in at the Littledown Centre for what was described as a consultation, which in fact turned out to be a fait accompli. When asked if the council has started the process to look
I READ with interest your article (Daily Echo, February 26) concerning the proposed develop-ment by the Crown Estate to site 100 wind turbines in the Poole Bay area. I understand the local council’s concern over the lack of consult-ation and the possible
Speaking as the father of a beautiful young lady, killed on the A338 Ringwood to Salisbury road, I would like to add my views in reply to recent letters. To start with, I am not a slow driver, I don’t like too many speed limits and I disagree
BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, LIGHTHOUSE, POOLE Sandwiched between two dazzling orchestral scores, Brahms’ Violin Concerto held a packed house in awe of its inspiring artistry and the complete mastery of its protagonist Sergey Khachatryan.
THE costly Costas’ loss is set to be the South Coast’s gain this summer with resorts pooling their resources to cash in on an expected surge in holidays at home. As the credit crunch continues to bite and exchange rates make foreign holidays
A COOL-HEADED shop worker foiled a robbery at a Bournemouth supermarket despite being threatened at knifepoint. The armed raider threatened to kill mother-of-two Feng Liu if she didn’t hand over takings from her till at the Feng Hua Chinese
CONCERNED health chiefs are urging teenagers and young people to make sure they have full MMR protection after an outbreak of mumps. Cases started cropping up in the Wimborne and Corfe Mullen area last autumn and the disease has spread across the rest
KEVIN Bond is urging Cherries’ owners and prospective new investors to keep faith with managerial find Eddie Howe. Bond tipped Howe to keep Cherries in the Football League following his appointment to the Dean Court hot-seat in January
DORSET seniors star Kevin Spurgeon will be on hand to answer any last minute call-up to this month’s DGM Barbados Open. The 53-year-old Ferndown touring professional is travelling to the Caribbean despite not making the starting line-up for the second
TOUGHER discipline could help more schools to become “outstanding”, according to government inspectors. Just one state secondary school in the Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset area has received the accolade from Ofsted. But strict uniform guidelines
FOLLOWING the success of our last live webchat in February, Echo sport's Neil Meldrum, Neil Perrett and Ian Wadley will be hosting another question and answer session online tonight from 6pm. The trio will be giving their thoughts on everything
DETHRONED Rallye Sunseeker champion Marcus Dodd believes his engine failure cost him “a guaranteed win” last Saturday. The Poole-based driver headed for stage six in Somerley Park with a massive 25.3-second lead over eventual winner Will Nicholls.
PROUD father Steve Fletcher has dedicated his Cherries comeback goal to his eldest daughter Danni. Fletcher capped Cherries’ 2-0 win over Aldershot with a trademark bullet header to help Eddie Howe’s men claw out of the League Two drop zone on Tuesday
NOT everyone can boast they have been hugged by Louis Armstrong – even fewer while “Satchmo” was wearing a dressing gown – but Kenny Ball regards this as one of the highlights of his career. The English jazz trumpet legend played with Louis
WORK has finally begun on the site of a Verwood pub to end a long-running saga over the plot. Demolition of the Fayrewood, controversially closed by brewery Hall and Woodhouse at the end of 2005, has begun in the last week. A convenience store and
HUNDREDS of parents and children marched on County Hall in Dorchester in a last-ditch effort to make their voices heard against controversial schools plans. As the consultation period closed yesterday, more than 200 placard-waving protestors
TEETHING problems and low tides have led to Wightlink’s controversial new W-Class Lymington to Yarmouth ferries running up to 45 minutes late. The two large craft, Wight Light and Wight Sky, which have been generally opposed in Lymington on
IT’S not quite the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but it could give you a nasty shock. A group of conservation volunteers cleaning out a New Forest pond found what could be all that remains of the Dalek invasion of Earth. Clad in waders, the group
