Archive

  • Manhattans, 12 Upper High Street, Winchester

    THE LITTLE slice of Italy next to Winchester Castle has been feeding the city's diners for decades. Yes, it's changed hands a few times, but Manhattans has always been popular with those who stray off the beaten track of High Street's main drag. And the

  • Weston unearth another Roberts

    WESTON PARK Boys' School believe they may have unearthed a 21st century version of Graham Roberts. The irony is that Peter Castle, the lad in question, is too young to remember the exploits of the former England international whose photo still hangs proudly

  • Green's back in time for derby day

    Arch rivals Easton & Martyr Worthy and St Cross Symondians go head to head in an all-Winchester Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 derby at Cockets Mead tomorrow, 1pm. Influential former skipper Steve Green is free of suspension and is set

  • Chief speaks frankly on hospital's challenges

    PRESSURE of work under a new system and a lack of staff are being blamed by bosses for the barrage of complaints about nursing care for the elderly at Basingstoke hospital. Acting chief executive Mary Edwards conceded a new system for admitting patients

  • In Port

    Today's Principal Arrivals: Nedlloyd Oceania, container, 0030, 204; Atlantic Spirit, ro/ro, 0100, 40; MOL Priority, container, 0600, 205; Madame Butterfly, vehicle, 0630, 34/35; Auto Atlas, ro/ro, 1100, 38/9; Grande Mediterraneo, vehicle, 1100, 201; Platinum

  • Big Ben strikes five times

    ALL-ROUNDER Ben Hazell won five of the 17 titles Basingstoke and Mid-Hants collected at the Hampshire track and field championship at Portsmouth. He produced a five-star performance in the under-20 men's category to win the 110 metres hurdles, long-jump

  • National cup hurdle

    BASINGSTOKE and North Hants are involved in cup and league action for the second weekend running. They start tomorrow with a trip to High Wycombe in the Home Counties League, followed on Sunday (1pm) by the second round of the National Clubs Championship

  • Protests fail to stop mast extension plan

    PLANS to increase the height of a mobile phone mast in the New Forest have been approved - despite strong protests from a nearby school. Members of New Forest Council were told that the controversial application had resulted in a letter of objection from

  • Saints fans reach for the Sky with TV show

    A LOCAL television company is helping to keep Saints fans bang up to date with the latest news from St Mary's in the run-up to Saturday's FA Cup final against Arsenal. Curtiss Communications, based in West Wellow, produces Southampton Football Club's

  • It's your ticket to board Titanic

    It is perhaps the best known of all Southampton stories. It tells of courage, sorrow, bravery and survival. As the years roll by few remain behind who were actually around in Southampton on that day in 1912, when the legendary White Star liner, Titanic

  • Beside the Seaside

    Actor Jonathon Morris is still best-known for playing Adrian Boswell in 80s sitcom Bread. But he tells ANDREW WHITE that his true passion has always been for theatre... ACTORS who've starred in long-running TV series often complain of stereotyping. Jonathon

  • Calamity Jane

    Gosport Amateur Operatic Society ride into town with their production of the hit musical Calamity Jane this week. Set in the gun-toting Wild West of America, the show stars 19-year-old Becky Cordell as tomboy Calamity. Becky has been with the Society

  • Local Affairs

    GOOD humour is helping to raise money for a good cause as Bishopstoke Players present a comedy in aid of the NCH children's charity. Their spring offering is the excellent Local Affairs by Richard Harris. The plot revolves around three couples who live

  • Mis-Teeq and Kym top of bill

    KYM MARSH and Mis-Teeq are among the latest acts to be announced for this year's Power in the Park pop festival. The former Hear'Say star and the all-girl R'n'B group join Melanie C and Girls Aloud, announced last week, in the line-up for the free pop

  • £1m road opens up centre

    RESIDENTS in Southampton breathed new life into a neighbourhood centre yesterday when a new road was unveiled. The City of Southampton Albion Band serenaded the official opening of a new road and car park leading to the Swaythling Neighbourhood Centre

  • EU red tape threat to vital cancer research

    SOUTHAMPTON MEP Roy Perry says he'll fight to save the city's leading leukaemia charity threatened by new EU rules. As reported in the Echo yesterday, Leukaemia Busters could see clinical trial costs soar from less than £50,000 to about £1m if new EU

  • Longview

    Strictly speaking, this is a bit of a cheat in the Local Heroes section...Longview are Manchester-based, but the singer/songwriter and driving force is a Hampshire lad - so we figured he's local and, having landed a major record company contract, a hero

  • Capercaille

    As a genre, Capercaillie would generally be pigeonholed as folk and have certainly won awards in that genre, but perhaps World Music is a more accurate label. With their roots in Argyll, they are one of Scotland's finest traditional bands and the first

  • POLICE PROBE MYSTERY DEATH

    A POLICE investigation is continuing on the Isle of Wight today after the body of a labourer was found in the garden of a flat. The body of 36-year-old Mark Smith was discovered by a postman delivering letters to the flats in Ryde. Police immediately

  • £300,000 needed to protect mosaics

    EFFORTS to stave off the possibility of having to bury some of western Europe's finest Roman mosaics are gathering pace. Some £300,000 is still needed for a new building to protect the unique mosaics at Brading Roman Villa. Without the cash the site could

  • Seven new refs with inside knowledge

    SEVEN inmates from Camp Hill Prison at Newport have qualified as football referees. They have given crime the red card by passing the Football Association course that now enables them to ref at all levels of the game, up to and including the Premiership

  • Mayor helps couples celebrate

    IT WAS a golden moment for 14 couples who joined together to celebrate 50 years of married life. They were invited to mark the milestone in the mayor's parlour with a delicious spread of tea, sandwiches and cakes. In 1953 all of them said their wedding

  • We'll fight allotment development

    ANGRY allotment gardeners last night stepped up their campaign to block controversial plans to build homes on their Eastleigh town centre plots. Their protest outside The Point came as the council launched the first in a series of public exhibitions on

  • Final puts mockers on Terese's big day

    SAINTS' first FA Cup final appearance for 27 years will play havoc with tomorrow's athletics programme. Poor Terese Swain can hardly believe that her debut as manager of Team Solent's British Men's League Division 3 team coincides with Gordon Strachan's

  • Pain means gain for centre

    A HAMPSHIRE man stuck out his chest for an Eastleigh charity - as people ripped off clumps of his hair with wax strips. Roger Collins spent a morning stripped to the waist in a yard at Hampshire Riding Therapy Centre, near Fair Oak while visitors paid

  • Manhattans, 12 Upper High Street, Winchester

    THE LITTLE slice of Italy next to Winchester Castle has been feeding the city's diners for decades. Yes, it's changed hands a few times, but Manhattans has always been popular with those who stray off the beaten track of High Street's main drag. And the

  • Saint Craig David

    IT'S NOT every day an A-list celebrity engages you in conversation about the finer details of your love life. But then it's not every day that you talk to Craig David. Craig's diversion from the normal interview path into a casual conversation about early

  • THE ACTORS (15)

    CONOR McPherson is one of the most exciting and acclaimed young dramatists working today. His play, The Weir, ran for more than two and a half years in London's West End and later transferred to Broadway, collecting the Olivier Award along the way. His

  • KANGAROO JACK (PG)

    CHARLIE Carbone (Jerry O'Connell) and Louis Fucci (Anthony Anderson) have been best friends ever since Louis saved Charlie from drowning as a child. Twenty years later, the pair are still inseparable, with Louis embroiling them in a succession of shady

  • THE HEART OF ME (15)

    HELENA Bonham Carter returns to her cinematic home - period drama - in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's latest movie, set in '30s London. She stars as the bohemian Dinah, one of a pair of sisters who are in love with the same man. Unfortunately for Dinah, the object

  • CINEMA LISTINGS

    Films showing in the Hampshire region this week THE ACTORS (15): See review. ANTWONE FISHER (15): See review. BULLETPROOF MONK (12A): A Tibetan warrior picks an unlikely youngster to take over the role of guarding an ancient scroll which grants its reader

  • Manhattans, 12 Upper High Street, Winchester

    THE LITTLE slice of Italy next to Winchester Castle has been feeding the city's diners for decades. Yes, it's changed hands a few times, but Manhattans has always been popular with those who stray off the beaten track of High Street's main drag. And the

  • Spearman takes advantage

    Shaun Udal spent the day in the treatment room as Gloucestershire's batsmen put a threadbare Hampshire attack to the sword at Bristol yesterday. Off-spinner Udal, unbeaten on six overnight, failed to reappear after waking up with a stiff neck that prevented

  • Completion date set for re-housing plans

    LONG-RUNNING plans to provide new accommodation for a group of Basingstoke people with learning disabilities should be completed by next March - even though a bid for £200,000 from the deputy prime minister's office was turned down. Jo Young, director

  • Saints are kings of The Castle

    THE SAINTS fans will come marching in to a Basingstoke pub tomorrow as supporters gather for their team's FA Cup final showdown with Arsenal. The Castle pub is being decked out inside in yellow and blue - Southampton's colours for tomorrow's final at

  • Fan's cup final ticket anguish

    A SCHOOLBOY footballer has put his team-mates first and given up his dream of seeing his soccer heroes play in tomorrow's FA Cup final. Saints fan Sean Wheeler, 16, has had to make one of the toughest decisions of his life this week - whether to play

  • Rae's strike ends promotion dream

    Reading 0 Wolves 1 (Wolves won 3-1 on aggregate) READING'S Premiership dream is over - for this season at least - following a smash and grab victory by Wolves at Madejski Stadium on Wednesday night. Royals pounded Wolves in one of their most impressive

  • New Town accolade for Allaway

    BASINGSTOKE Town defender Ricky Allaway added another award to his season when he became the club's player-of-the-year at the annual dinner and awards evening. The Basingstoke Gazette Town player-of-the-year collected his new award, which was based on

  • Tarr sticks but Liddiard leaves

    TWO of Basingstoke's top sporting stars have made decisions this week which will affect their respective teams for the coming season. Goalkeeper Scott Tarr has signed a new deal which will keep him at Basingstoke Town for the next two seasons, but top

  • DIVING - 60 kids ready to take a dive

    OVER 60 pupils from schools in Southampton and the surrounding area have entered the first ever Southampton Schools' Diving Competition due to be held at The Quays tomorrow, writes Wendy Gee. Funding from the Lottery's "Awards for All" scheme has allowed

  • Picture improving for cable TV firm

    HAMPSHIRE based cable television operator NTL said it had made a fast start after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States four months ago. The New York-listed group, based at Hook, with operations centred in south Hampshire

  • Wilde at Heart

    I thought my life was going to be a brilliant comedy. I found it to be a revolting and repellent tragedy." These are the words of Oscar Wilde. Now considered one of the greatest playwrights of the 19th century, his brilliant career was brought to a shuddering

  • City's huge thirst for Cup success

    PUBS across Southampton will be packed to the rafters as the city celebrates its biggest footballing occasion in 27 years. Queues are expected as early as 9am outside some of the most popular venues which are screening the big game. Police have advised

  • Bowling club bust-up over phone mast plan

    A ROW has broken out between a Southampton bowling club and its neighbours over plans to construct a 15-metre mobile phone mast. Woolston Bowling Club has accepted an approach from telecoms company Hutchison 3G to install a mobile phone mast in its car

  • Leanne's story

    AS SOMEONE who knows the value of targeted treatment, Totton's Leanne Jacobs is deeply concerned about the future of Leukaemia Busters. The 23-year-old leukaemia sufferer, who was diagnosed earlier this year, has warned that the EU directive could seriously

  • Lisa Scott -Lee

    WHEN TEEN bands disintegrate you never can tell which of them are going to survive with their careers intact. Gary Barlow looked like the Take That success story but Robbie has left him for dust and while Mel B's solo career got off to a good start, Melanie

  • Chemicals removed from factory site

    A MAJOR operation to remove 300,000 gallons of dangerous chemicals from a disused Shanklin factory site is under way. Work by specialist contractors to remove the cache from the former Teknacron factory in Landguard Road, Shanklin, began on Monday. Agencies

  • SHE CAME, SAW, AND RAN AWAY!

    THEY were determined to make their presence felt - despite being denied a face-to-face meeting with the woman who holds the fate of the their community in her hands. Wearing their trademark yellow caps, blowing whistles and waving banners, 300 men and

  • Best-seller Match of the Millennium back on shelves

    Saints are set for their first Cup final of the Millennium at The Millennium Stadium. And that will make them only the second club after Liverpool to have played FA Cup Finals at the two major venues of the last century - Crystal Palace and Wembley -

  • County clubs to discuss the Wessex League expansion plan

    The Hampshire League are calling their elite clubs together to discuss the repercussions of this week's bombshell news that the Wessex League are to expand into a second division. All Premier Division clubs have been called to a meeting next Wednesday

  • MP offers a reprieve in return for change

    BASINGSTOKE MP Andrew Hunter says he is prepared to suspend his threat to name and shame the town's hospital in the House of Commons so managers can grapple with serious lapses in care for elderly patients. After a meeting with hospital chief executive

  • All change!

    THERE'S been a change at the head of Basingstoke council with the leader and deputy swapping over the two top roles. The new leader, Cllr Rob Donnelly, who up until this week was deputy leader of the council, has taken over from Liberal Democrat group

  • Hundreds sign petition to remove road humps

    A PETITION of more than 500 signatures calling for the removal of the road humps in Pack Lane, Kempshott, was due to be presented to Basingstoke council at its annual meeting last night. Handing in the protest was the first task of newly-elected Kempshott

  • MP backs gas pipeline plan

    PLANS to build a 17-mile gas pipeline across the north Hampshire countryside have won the cautious backing of Basingstoke MP Andrew Hunter. The £50million gas storage project proposed by Star Energy will extend the life of the Humbly Grove onshore oilfield

  • Pony sisters share in British success

    A GREAT Britain show-jumping debut in South Africa turned into an unexpected triumph for the Mantel family from Aldermaston. Laura Mantel, the elder of two sisters, helped the Great Britain under-14 team to the gold medal at the Children's Classique in

  • Top marks for Shaun

    SHAUN UDAL helped himself to two four-wicket hauls as Hampshire drew with hosts Oxford University in a three-day rain-affected game that finished on Sunday. The home side won the toss and elected to bat, with skipper Joe Sayers leading the scoring with

  • HQ final beckons

    THE three Basingstoke players who helped Hampshire into tomorrow's semi-finals of the County Shield keep their places against Oxfordshire at Down Grange. Although it is Cup final day, a large crowd is expected for a 3pm kick-off in a match between the

  • Six day rule for livestock to be relaxed

    AN EASING of laws controlling livestock movements - in place since the foot-and-mouth disease crisis of 2001 - has been welcomed by organisers of the New Forest Show. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced this week that

  • The Edge of Darkness

    THE upper-class Victorian household could have created for the writer of gothic-tinged thrillers. Steeped in an atmosphere of secrecy and containing the two separate worlds of servants and masters, it's an environment brimming with dramatic possibilities

  • Go on, win it for me, Saints!

    BRAVE and proud. Perhaps the most deserving Saints fan at the FA Cup showdown in Cardiff tomorrow will be Hampshire eight-year-old Jack Belge, pictured right with the famous trophy. And he has this stirring message for manager Gordon Strachan's team:

  • Saints on tour - but only if they win!

    SOUTHAMPTON people will have the chance to welcome home their FA Cup heroes on Sunday - but only if Saints beat Arsenal. The city council has laid on an open top bus tour for the team, but Saints have insisted it will only go ahead if Gordon Strachan's

  • Residents slam traveller invasion

    ACTION will be taken to evict travellers who have invaded Eastleigh playing fields as Hampshire County Council assesses what help it can give to the community. Local people were taken by surprise when between 26 and 28 vans turned up overnight on playing

  • Bid to curb fake Saints gear rip-off

    TRADING standards officers have been sweeping the city's streets clean of counterfeit football goods ahead of Saints' FA Cup final this weekend. More than 500 items, including shirts, hats, scarves and flags, have been seized from bootleggers who have

  • Crucial talks on who will control city's budget

    CRUCIAL talks are due to take place that could decide who controls Southampton's multi-million pound budget over the coming months. Councillors from Southampton's Labour group will discuss whether to back Independent councillor Harry Mitchell's request

  • Goldfrapp

    GOLDFRAPP are a duo made up of former Tricky vocalist Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. Their debut album Felt Mountain, released last year was a huge seller - half a million at the last count. The music press called it "top hallucinatory pop. Deliriously

  • Police hunt holiday park bomb hoaxer

    A POLICE hunt is under way for the hoaxer who sparked a major emergency services alert by sending a suspect device to an East Cowes holiday park. An Army bomb disposal squad joined police, firefighters and paramedics at Waverley Park on Tuesday morning

  • Action ruled out in Pirelli furore

    HUNDREDS of Hampshire workers who believe they were made redundant unfairly have been dealt a bitter blow by a European inquiry. It has ruled that no action will be taken over allegations that a £50m grant from the Italian government led to Pirelli switching

  • MARS: I'M FIT FOR THE FINAL!

    Saints skipper Chris Marsden has declared himself fit to face Arsenal in tomorrow's FA Cup final. The influential midfielder was a major doubt for the game after hobbling off against Bolton two weeks ago with damage to his right leg sustained the previous

  • Seaman to lead out uncertain Arsenal line-up

    Arsene Wenger has confirmed that David Seaman will lead out Arsenal for the FA Cup final as captain. Seaman has been passed fit for tomorrow's final despite having missed training until yesterday due to a stiff neck. The 39-year-old Arsenal vice-captain

  • Hunger could be the difference says legend Tiss

    SAINTS legend Matt Le Tissier is backing his former teammates to pull off an upset and lift the FA Cup tomorrow. He believes the massive desire of the Southampton players could be the telling factor against Arsenal in the Millennium Stadium showdown.

  • It's your ticket to board Titanic

    It is perhaps the best known of all Southampton stories. It tells of courage, sorrow, bravery and survival. As the years roll by few remain behind who were actually around in Southampton on that day in 1912, when the legendary White Star liner, Titanic

  • ANTWONE FISHER (15)

    FILMMAKERS should have to apply for a special licence to make a movie that is more than an hour-and-a-half long. Unfortunately there sees to be a growing trend to attempt to add gravitas to a movie by making it longer. In the same way that the epic novel