A GOSPORT yacht company which employs 25 people is set for a bumper year after a record increase in orders. Opal Marine boat sales in Quay Lane clinched £1.5 million in orders in just six weeks. Barrie Stillwell, Opal Marine's managing director, who works
DESPITE years of healthy living messages the depressing news is that the health gap between the rich and the poor in Southampton is wider than at any point in the last two decades. The shocking result of the latest public health survey is that your postcode
SOLENT Coastguards cracked open bottles of bubbly to celebrate their joy and relief after John Prescott saved their Lee-on-Solent station from closure. Those on duty throughout the day eagerly rang colleagues to break the good news and invite them to
SHANE WARNE has revealed the blueprint for the English county he wants to join next seasonand it fits Hampshire perfectly. Hampshire admitted yesterday that they have entered tentative preliminary discussions to try and bring the world's greatest spin
TROND Soltvedt has completed his £300,000 move to Southampton after turning down a last-minute offer from his former club Rosenborg. The Norwegian champions matched Saints' offer to Coventry but the 32-year-old midfielder declined the chance to return
STEVE RICHARDSON made a long overdue return to form in the £250,000 West of Ireland Classic in Galway Bay yesterday. After a nightmare season on the Volvo European PGA Tour in which he has made just one cut, the 32-year-old Lee-on-Solent ace had the leaders
AGE OLD speed and time records were given a sound thrashing in the 1999 Fastnet Race with credit going to the weather and the remarkable advances made in yacht racing technology. Kingfisher's Ellen Macarthur became the first British helm to finish, though
A SCHOOL caretaker has sent out an urgent appeal for help in rehousing a terrified young deer that strayed onto a Southampton playing field over a week ago. Lucian Rebera has managed to coax the 3ft fawn into an area of trees and bushes at Tanners Brook
HE'S been the thorn in the side of English batsmen for six years. Every fan in the country loves to hate him. But controversial leg spin bowler Shane Warne is sure to get a huge Aussie welcome from Southampton's only Down Under theme bar if Hampshire
HARD on the heels of excellent half-year results, Linden Homes has raised a further £20 million funding for expansion, which could include a new regional operation in the Bristol area. The company's southern managing director Gerard Price said: "Institutional
A NEW chairman has been appointed to lead a major Hampshire law firm into the next millennium. Niall Brook, who lives at Otterbourne, near Winchester, begins his three-year term at the helm of White and Bowker this month. He joined the firm in 1987 and
THE chalet groper preying on women and girls on the Isle of Wight has struck again. Extra police were being drafted in from the mainland today following reports that he had tried to enter another house on the island early yesterday morning. It is the
A NATIONAL campaign aimed at saving sub post offices - dubbed community lifelines - has been launched in the village of Allbrook. Eastleigh MP David Chidgey chose his own constituency to kick-start a series of nationwide petitions calling for government
A SHOPPING centre was brought to a stand-still as mime artists recreated one of the world's most famous statues. The performers - semi-naked and covered with blue body paint - turned heads at the Marlands Shopping Centre, as they smooched through the
AN old soldier who fiddled more than £14,000 through the benefits system has been told to keep on paying the money back until he is more than 99 years old. Michael Smith, 75, of Knightstone Grange, Hythe, admitted to New Forest magistrates that he had
POLLUTION caused by anglers in the New Forest has cost them one of the area's best carp fishing lakes. The renowned Cadman's Pool, near Fritham, will be stocked with other types of fish when it reopens next year. Cadman's Pool was closed several months
A WINCHESTER service excellence awards scheme has proved so successful that councils in other parts of England are interested in taking it up. The scheme will also be extended into the next millennium so that shoppers will have the chance to nominate
GOSPORT Borough Council has revealed ambitious plans to change the face of Priddy's Hard heritage area and attract 100,000 visitors a year. Proposals, which include museums, cafes, antique stalls, conference facilities and craft spaces have just won £525,000
SOUTHAMPTON residents could vote directly on council tax rises under a proposal to be considered by the city's Labour leaders Grassroots party members have prompted the ruling Labour group to weigh up the idea of a taxpayers' referendum. Similar people
BASHLEY chairman Frank Whitman has spoken of his disappointment in James Taylor after the £15,000-rated striker was made a free agent by the Football Association yesterday - and was instantly tipped to join Havant & Waterlooville. Taylor successfully
CHRIS MARSDEN is one of three Saints stars who are doubtful for Sunday's televised clash with Newcastle even though X-Rays have given him the all-clear. Saints feared the battling midfielder had broken a toe against Leeds but hospital tests have revealed
