Archive

  • Memory Lane: Grand's theatrical past

    THE Grand Theatre in Southampton played host to many dramas in its time. However, few performances on stage could match the dramatic ups and downs of the theatre's fortunes, which forced it to close its doors several times before the curtain was brought

  • Bison hoping for a bit of Minnesota magic

    THE BASINGSTOKE Bison have signed a new player this week, and released another - Finnish forward Markku Takala. American Doug Schueller will fill the vacant defenceman spot left by Chris Slater. The 26-year-old from Minnesota will make his Wella Bison

  • Anderton can improve Pompey power

    DARREN ANDERTON has been linked with a move to Portsmouth after a new deal at Tottenham was put on ice. The Southampton-born former England international is a free agent in the summer and expected to agree new terms by the end of the year. But negotiations

  • In Port

    Today's Principal Arrivals: CMA CGM Balzac, container, 0030, 207; MOL Progress, container, 0200, 205; Hual Trotter, roro, 0200, 205; CMA CGM Pasteur, container, 0600, 204; Aurora, passenger, 0630, 106; Caronia, passenger, 0700, 38/9; Vytautas, cargo,

  • Investment in staff reaps its rewards

    SOUTH coast Volkswagen group Peter Cooper is reaping the rewards of its investment in the best staff to care for customer vehicles. The company, which is celebrating 21 years as a Volkswagen franchise, has some of the highest qualified technicians in

  • Civic chiefs unveil the library 'Plan B'

    CIVIC chiefs in Winchester are promising the city a new "cultural' quarter" after agreeing to shelve plans for a new £7m library because of overwhelming public opposition. They are now promising to transform and refurbish the existing library in Jewry

  • Animal Farm

    AWARD-WINNING Eastleigh Borough Youth Theatre will be 'revolting' when they perform George Orwell's classic Animal Farm from Wednesday. The show promises to bring to life the madness of the farm in a truly original way - on stage will be a mud bath, dozens

  • Review: Robin Hood, Nuffield Theatre, Southampton

    THE Nuffield Christmas show may not be the biggest under the tree - but it's certainly one of the best. Despite being one of the earliest festive offerings of the season - this one actually started in November - its combination of comedy, romance and

  • Residents demand action over bikers

    "JUST do something." That was the message from more than 100 angry residents who turned up to voice their views on nuisance bikers at a meeting in Lordshill last night. Scores of people attended the meeting, which was called by Southampton Test MP Alan

  • Brothers orphaned by air crash

    A HAMPSHIRE family has been rocked by a second tragedy in just three years after father of three Neville Moger died in a helicopter crash. The 45-year-old from Romsey was one of two passengers in the aircraft which nose-dived into a field near Hurstbourne

  • How medieval man made his mark

    IT HAS been the scourge of most modern cities. Few places have escaped the defacing of walls and infrastructure by youths armed with a spray can. But, believe it or not, this is no modern phenomenon - it was blighting Southampton more than 500 years ago

  • Move to save historic ground

    IT USED to be home to the champion football team in Southampton. In the season 1924/25, the days when the Saints would enter the Southampton FA Senior Cup, Thornycroft Football Club - the old name of the club associated with the former Woolston-based

  • School's anniversary events smash record

    A CITY school smashed all records when it raised thousands of pounds for charity to celebrate its 450th anniversary. The independent King Edward VI School, in Hill Lane, Southampton, broke all previous fundraising records when it raised more than £20,000

  • Is your electric blanket safe?

    HUNDREDS of electric blankets failed tests carried out by safety watchdogs in Hampshire. More than half of 850 blankets checked across the county proved hazardous. It was in contrast to the previous year when 37 per cent of those looked at were found

  • Simple Minds

    IT'S been 25 years since Simple Minds, the most successful Scottish rock band of the 1980s, exploded on the music scene. Their first single, Life in a Day, made it to a fairly unspectacular 62 in the UK charts, and it was to be a few more years before

  • FATAL SLIP

    A BINMAN was crushed to death after he was accidentally run over by a dustcart at a Hampshire landfill site, a jury heard. Arthur Whitear, who was known as Archie, was pulled under the wheels of the dustcart after he slipped from a step on the side of

  • Riding school bid fails

    A RIDING school owner facing eviction from his Portchester home on New Year's Eve has now lost his bid to live on the site of his business because of planning rules. Ronald Armstrong, 64, has run the popular Roshauna Equitation riding school for 30 years

  • Stopper's Royal show

    Reading 0, Chelsea 1 READING put up a spirited fight against Premiership top guns Chelsea in the Carling Cup - but were sunk by a second-half strike from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. At a packed Madejski Stadium on Wednesday night, goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann

  • Running - for two good causes

    Lordshill Road Runners are to host this year's popular John Dukes Memorial Boxing Day Run on Southampton Common (10am). Starting from the Cowherds public house, the event comprises a 5k two-lap course around part of Southampton Common. Entry is by donation

  • S.W.A.T. (12A)

    THERE'S nothing subtle about S.W.A.T., Clark Johnson's testosterone-fuelled action-thriller inspired by the popular 70s television series of the same name. Almost from the word go, the screen is filled with explosions, flying bullets and gung-ho Los Angeles

  • CINEMA LISTINGS

    Films showing in the Hampshire region until 11th December. ALIEN: DIRECTOR'S CUT (15): Re-release of the classic 1979 sci-fi horror starring Sigourney Weaver. Despite being over 20 years old, this film still has the ability to shock, with the chest-buster

  • Shire enjoys the gift of giving

    SHIRE Pharmaceuticals in Chineham has shot up to fourth place in the list of the top 100 FTSE charity givers. In the past year, Shire - which has buildings on the Hampshire International Business Park in Chineham - was recorded as giving a massive £2.8million

  • Lilly lovelies pose

    LILLY employees have produced a 2004 calendar to help raise awareness of issues surrounding breast cancer. Sparked by this autumn's WI-themed film Calendar Girls, it is being sold to help Lilly's charity of the year, CancerBACUP. Glamorous Miss November

  • Time of festive cheer and serious buyers

    THE AVERAGE house price in Basingstoke for the third quarter of the year was £173,572, with an average of half-a-dozen viewers before a sale was clinched. These are statistics from the register of The Right Move estate agency in the town, where director

  • Computer 2000 wins award for fifth time

    A BASINGSTOKE-HEADQUARTERED computer company has gone into a class of its own by being named Distributor of the Year for the fifth time. Computer 2000, which is based at Intec, achieved a feat that no other company has ever done in any of the categories

  • Delightful family home

    WESTON Mark Cottage is a detached house with Edwardian origins which has been extended into a four-bedroomed home. The property is on the boundary of the village of Upton Grey and Weston Patrick and the price guide through agents Lane Fox is £650,000.

  • Take the plunge

    SWIMMING is said to be one of the best forms of exercise - and there's no excuse for the over-55s not to taken an early morning dip at Seymour Place in Odiham. A heated indoor swimming pool, with changing rooms and shower facilities, is one of the perks

  • Crowning glory

    THIS Basingstoke house looks as though it is detached - but, in fact, it stands at the end of a terrace in Kings Road, South Ham. It was built in the 1950s and selling agent Fox and Sons believes it is being sold on the open market for the first time.

  • Robson told to keep nose out

    THERE is no love lost these days between AFC Totton and their former boss John Robson. The Wessex League club say they are "livid" about Robson's comments in last Saturday's Pink regarding their classy defender Matt Parnell. Robson is keen to sign Parnell

  • Brooking good for women

    Southampton Saints team manager Sue Lopez believes Trevor Brooking is just the man to help steer women's football in the right direction. The appointment of the 55-year-old former England captain as the FA's director of football development has brought

  • All to play for at foot of the table

    One of the two sides at the foot of Hampshire Division One will throw themselves a lifeline when Millbrook and Fawley clash tomorrow. Neither side - they are both on on one point and three points adrift of the safety line - can afford defeat which will

  • Tribute to 'man of the people'

    TOP brass from organisations throughout Hampshire packed into Fawley Parish Church yesterday to pay their respects to former New Forest Council leader and chairman John Coles who died last week. More than 300 hundred people packed the church to hear a

  • Worker's neck broken by block

    A BUILDING firm has been fined £15,000 after a worker suffered a broken neck when a concrete block plummeted 30ft on to his head. Agency engineer Jack McCann was rushed to hospital after being struck at the new development being built at Ocean Village

  • That's the ticket as wardens nab buses

    TRAFFIC wardens have a new target in their sights - buses. They are stepping up ticketing to clamp down on the vehicles using double yellow lines to park in Southampton city centre. Dozens of householders around Castle Way signed a petition calling for

  • Paul Weller

    Paul Weller is an established name in the hierarchy of the music business. ANDREW WHITE looks back at The Modfather's many incarnations and successes... TWENTY-SIX years after The Jam first hit the British charts, Paul Weller is still a musical force

  • Feeder

    ALMOST two years on from the death of their band-mate Jon Lee, Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose are still keeping the Feeder name alive. Despite the tragedy which must have shaken their world to its foundations, the Welsh/Japanese went on to record an acclaimed

  • Macca penalty seals Town win

    Basingstoke Town 1, Chippenham Town 0 A CRAIG McAllister penalty, scored in the 72nd minute, put Town through to the third round of the FA Trophy for the first time in the club's history. As in Saturday's 1-1 draw in Wiltshire, which forced the replay

  • Town win brings a cup of cheer

    ERNIE HOWE believes an air of optimism and confidence is returning to his Basingstoke Town side after their FA Trophy triumph took their unbeaten run to four matches. Howe was delighted with Town's 1-0 replay win over Chippenham and said he could sense

  • Hook climbs in the national rankings

    LAURA Hook has jumped a place in the national biathlon rankings following her fourth finish in the weekend's national championships in Sheffield. Saturday's 3,000-metres cross-country run was in appalling weather and she finished eighth. The 17-year-old

  • BROTHER BEAR (U)

    THERE are some animated films, like Finding Nemo, that are great for everyone and there are others, like Brother Bear, that are only suitable for small children and their immediate families. Actually, make that small children, their immediate families

  • TIMELINE (12A)

    TIMELINE is a surprisingly subversive nugget of sci-fi hokum. Which other Hollywood blockbuster would dare to throw together America and France as allies in a bitter and bloody war against the sadistic British? Or rather, the sadistic English - in Richard

  • WILBUR (WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF) (15)

    WILBUR (Jamie Sives) is a pessimist who is so disillusioned with life his only thought is how to end it: hanging, paracetemol overdose, slit wrists - everything Wilbur tries comes to nought and, invariably, his long-suffering brother Harbour (Adrian Rawlins

  • Classic sword tale gets to the point

    THERE'S been a lot going on at Basingstoke's Haymarket Theatre. Sweaty, barefoot actors have come stumbling into the bar panting for a reviving coffee. The clash of swords and shouts of "en garde" have echoed around the rehearsal room and auditorium,

  • The countryside is calling buyers

    AGENTS FPD Savills are reporting a resurgence of the country house market in the build-up to Christmas - and one in which local buyers have been outbidding those from London. Fairview Cottage in the village of Preston Candover (pictured above) was one

  • A property with a lot of sty-le

    PIG PEN is the name given to a cottage-style home on a small development built by Berkeley Homes. It is built in Marsden Court in the village of Laverstoke and is selling through estate agents Mann and Co at £229,950. A loft conversion has created a master