TWO Bournemouth runners will follow in the footsteps of the 2004 Olympians and tackle the gruelling Athens marathon course next month. Southbourne's Graham Hadfield, 52 and Boscombe's Mark Antony, 40, will run the 26.2-mile Athens Classic on November
FEARS are mounting of a hike in Dorset's council tax as a formula which the Audit Commission branded "fundamentally flawed" is again used to calculate the county's funding. Last year Dorset was among the worst funded counties in the country and council
TRADERS in Bournemouth town centre can sleep more easily at night now that two serial burglars have been caught. Jason Jones, 33, of Bournemouth, was sentenced to five months imprisonment at Bournemouth Magistrates Court yesterday after admitting carrying
LEGO has been voted the top toy for the past 100 years in an online poll. The survey was commissioned by the Museum of Childhood in London and marks the start of its exhibition on toys throughout time. The plastic building blocks have indeed stood the
PAY-and-display parking meters near Poole's beaches and harbour are being covered up and 44 parking fines torn up after the council discovered it can't charge for parking. And the controversial introduction of winter charges at the town's beach car parks
A firm has been fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £13,310 costs for failing to ensure the safety of its employees and the public. Rollalong Ltd, which manufactures prefabricated buildings at Three Legged Cross's Woolsbridge industrial estate, admitted
CONSUMER debt is soaring locally - with young people and students the worst hit. Local Citizens Advice Bureaux are reporting people coming into their offices weeping, with handfuls of unopened bills. According to the CAB organis-ation - Britain's biggest
THE majority of people in Dorset are in favour of speed cameras, a new survey claims. The survey carried out on behalf of the Dorset Safety Camera Partnership found that most people are in favour of cameras because they save lives, mean fewer accidents
DID you see the England/Germany match this week? It was a cracker. The clinical Germans dominated from the start and for most of the game looked set to win - as usual. But in the dying seconds of play, a bit of nifty teamwork from the England squad rescued
SUBTITLED "a sexual history of the 18th century", this contains chapters on courtesans, libertines, homosexuals, flagellation, transvestism and other headline grabbing sexual habits. It is horrifyingly informative (those convicted of sodomy were hanged
WHEN it comes to elderly victims of criminals, Joan Elford is a pretty feisty one. Without her evidence, two con-artists who swindled hundreds of elderly victims out of thousands of pounds would never have been jailed. But even the 74-year-old former
ESTABLISHED in 2000 and celebrating four successful years of trading in Bournemouth town centre, Morgan Recruitment specialise in IT, Technical, Sales and Marketing positions, and offer a bespoke service for all Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire-based companies
TELEVISION stars are heading to Weymouth tomorrow for a celebration of the lives of two sisters who died in a car crash on their way home from work last month. EastEnders actor Shane Richie, comedian Bobby Davro and Soccer AM's Helen Chamberlain will
A WEYMOUTH fisherman may have drowned after passing out while urinating, an inquest heard. It is believed Richard Pullin suffered from a very rare medical condition which caused him to black out at certain times. Mr Pullin, of Chickerell Road, disappeared
TODAY'S Coca-Cola League One clash at Oldham may dictate whether Sean O'Driscoll's search for a stand-in left-back intensifies, writes Steve Wilson. Warren Cummings' ankle injury he suffered at Torquay on Tuesday is expected to keep him out of action
AN AWARD-winning Dorset scheme which has dramatically cut crime by rogue travelling traders is being developed in Christchurch and Purbeck. The Dorset Itinerant Trader Scheme, aimed at disrupting the activities of itinerant traders within the county,
DURSCHMIED'S The Hinge Factor and its sequels are some of the best recounts of the pivotal moments in history that you'll find anywhere. This follows the same vein, though the focus is very much on individuals who have been either forgotten or overlooked
THIS bitter-sweet collection of poetry about life in a mental institution is disturbing. It presumably has a special appeal to folk who have shared Hill's experience and to those of us who have not it is a sad revelation of a desperate search for normality
THE battle to stop flats being built at the former Beehive pub site in Poole is not over yet. Behind closed doors councillors decided evening to go ahead with another legal challenge against the scheme. And the crux of their argument is to ensure that
STEVE Claridge is planning a Football League comeback following his Weymouth sacking. The veteran striker is currently nursing a hip injury but says he hopes to return to the full-time game shortly. And the former Leicester City star today revealed how
PIRATES star Ryan Sullivan has stressed that he "knows I can reach my best form again" after being handed a Grand Prix recall next year. The 29-year-old Australian failed to qualify for the 2005 World Championship GP series after finishing 13th in this
A NEW type of drug is offering fresh hope to Dorset patients with bowel cancer whose tumours have become resistant to conventional treatment. In the UK, more than 35,000 new cases of bowel (or colorectal) cancer are diagnosed each year, making it the
JOIN a band and see the world. It's an interesting way of travelling as brilliant young singer Katie Melua has discovered during a globe-trotting year spent playing songs from her hugely successful debut album. To be fair, Katie had been around a bit
A FORMER Tory councillor has been warned he faces prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a man on Weymouth Esplanade. Ian Strong, 39, of Overcombe Drive, Weymouth, appeared at Dorchester Crown Court with two other defendants, Paul David Jones, 33,
TV'S top handyman Tommy Walsh was in town on October 22 to offer hope for the more DIY-challenged. The Ground Force star delighted local fans by signing copies of his latest DIY survival guides at Borders bookshop in Bournemouth. But after years of transforming
DORSET isn't a million miles from the sweaty, swampy southern United States. But, on a fresh autumn day, with the cool air tumbling around the remote cottage where Clive Stafford Smith now lives with his wife, Emily, and their retriever, Mel, it must
EDUCATIONALISTS and business leaders in Bournemouth are at loggerheads following the announcement yesterday that GCSE grades have risen dramatically. The new government figures claim that the proportion of pupils achieving five GCSEs at grades A* to C
IN the back streets of Liver-pool, Eve and Eddie Dobson run a small corner pub. With the onset of the Depres-sion money is in short supply and life becomes a struggle to survive. Their three daughters are no trouble and are leading their own separate
PAY-and-display parking meters near Poole's beaches and harbour are being covered up and 44 parking fines torn up after the council discovered it can't charge for parking. And the controversial introduction of winter charges at the town's beach car parks
A TEENAGER has admitted moving a street sign into the middle of a road in an act of 'high jinks' which led to the death of Portland sisters Lucy and Catherine Breakwell. Lee Pennington, 18, of Wakeham, Portland, could be jailed for up to seven years after
