A NUMBER of council workers and catering staff at the BIC are being made redundant as the centre undergoes its major redevelopment. Bournemouth council says it is too early to say how many people will be affected by the "temporary changes" to staff levels
SPANISH judges are now deciding on the fate of a former Poole man who may stand trial in Florida for eight murders. Builder Mark Merteith Ross has been in a jail in Madrid for the past year and may soon be extradited to the US where he could face the
POOLE'S luxury powerboat company, Sunseeker, is not only selling boats but teaching people how to handle them with the launch of its own RYA-approved sea school. Offering instruction to customers is nothing new to Sunseeker but its efforts have only recently
A FARMING leader has applauded the findings of a preliminary report which described the handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis as "lamentable". Dorset county chairman of the National Farmers' Union Simon Banfield said he totally agreed with the main thrust
ALL car park restrictions in the New Forest imposed because of the foot-and-mouth crisis will be lifted tomorrow. But Forestry Commission managers are warning members of the public that there will be no easing of the strict dog-control rules. They said
A £20,000 CCTV system is being introduced in Wareham to help combat anti-social behaviour. Wareham town council has paid half the cost of the high-tech digital system, with the other half funded by two £5,000 grants from Dorset County Council's crime
LOCAL historians take note, a book publisher is on the look-out for writers. In the past few months Snapshots of the Past has featured The Book of Swanage and The Book of Stourton Caundle, and publishers Halsgrove are keen to extend their Community History
SNAPSHOTS' FAN Mary Montgomery and her brother John, who live in Canada, keep abreast of events in Bournemouth by reading Daily Echos sent to them by their brothers, Bob and Peter, who still live in the area. Their parents moved the family to 13 West
IMAGINE going roller-skating or ice skating or playing tennis in a crinoline. It was said in the 1860s that the only sport crinolined ladies played was croquet where their crinolines were extremely useful for moving the ball about unseen. By the 1890s
AN OLD photograph of a tram struggling along the road at Boscombe after a blizzard in 1908 tells a poignant story. It was taken the day after a snowstorm that caused a disaster in the Solent claiming 27 lives. That snowstorm resulted in a liner, St Paul
TAMSIN Wainwright made a winning return to singles as West Hants booked their place in the National League play-offs after notching their fourth straight win. The all-conquering ladies beat Taunton 4-2 at home and they will qualify as South West League
WEST Hants Ladies reaped revenge for missing out of Division One South West top spot last summer as they trounced reigning group winners Bath University. After demolishing Caversham 6-0 in their first National Club League fixture of this season, West
Apple Tree Cottage, Mill Street, Corfe Mullen 3/04/1147/FUL, demolish existing house and extensions and erect replacement dwelling; AB Design, The Studio, 17 Curlieu Road, Oakdale, Poole (for Mr & Mrs Grove). Land adjacent to Sheridan Way, Sturminster
BOURNEMOUTH Bowling Club celebrate their centenary this year - thanks to Frank Newman deciding to spend his holidays in Scotland rather than go abroad. It was summer 1898 when Newman, who lived in Bournemouth, went north of the border where he watched
LIKE many young women, computer support technician Natalie Bee never liked wearing glasses - but her over-dependence on contact lenses ended up placing her eyesight in jeopardy. "I wore them every day from first thing in the morning until 11 in the evening
A NEW approach to type one diabetes - the kind people develop in youth - is proving a liberating experience for patients at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. The Diabetes and Endocrine Centre has developed a treatment programme which allows patients to
HE'S dark, handsome, played Premier League football and is called Jason - but any similarity to his namesake in the cult television series Footballers' Wives ends there. For unlike the fictional Jason Turner, former Chelsea, Spurs and Ipswich star Jason
JUST going out is a painstaking - and painful - experience for Donna Butler. She lives in a first floor flat, but the block has no lift, making the journey downstairs on two crutches a risky exercise. But once she has reached the lobby and negotiated
IT'S coming up to three years since Steve Tarrant nearly died in a horrific accident - and he is still fighting his way back to health. The motor sports enthusiast was working as a volunteer marshal at Goodwood Festival of Speed in June 2000 when a 1968
WHEN Britain's most popular sailing waters are your cruising ground chances are you will meet up with one or more of the country's most interesting craft. Such was the case when I took my own boat up the Solent to the Beaulieu River this season and found
A LEADING Dorset heart specialist has backed calls for a new body to regulate the tobacco industry in the United Kingdom. A report released this week by the Royal College of Physicians points out that tobacco and nicotine products kill 120,000 people
A NEW website has been launched in Hampshire to link people suffering from illness and their carers with others around the world. The site's founder, Alan Shepard, was inspired by the plight of his own father Jeffrey, who was forced to retire after 25
VICTORIA Beckham, Kym Marsh and Jules Oliver don't just have fame and celebrity partners in common - all suffer from a relatively common condition called polycystic ovary syndrome. As many as a third of women have polycystic ovaries, where many fluid
TWO chartered physiotherapists have set up the first private hydrotherapy practice in Bournemouth offering one-to-one treatment in a pool. Sarah Oakley and Jane Haynes, who both work for the NHS at Poole Hospital, launched their Therapy Wave service at
WHEN Rachel Perry was born in Germany without a right foot nearly 15 years ago, it was not the biggest problem she and her parents had to face. She had to be flown home for emergency treatment of an intestinal blockage at Great Ormond Street Hospital,
HE is his parents' little miracle - and he would not have survived to celebrate his first birthday yesterday without the skill of staff at the Wessex Cardiac Unit. When Aaron Drew was born in a text-book delivery at Poole Hospital on October 25 last year
IT has around 1,000 members, runs exercise sessions under the supervision of trained instructors and has given a new lease of life to hundreds of people. But far from being some swanky health spa, the Bournemouth Heart Club is one of only a handful of
IF YOU are determined to party then Poole people have proved the weather doesn't matter a jot. The thousands of Jubilee joysters who crowded into Poole's massive Party @ the Park might as well have been sheltering under sunhats rather than tents and umbrellas
CHEERING residents packed out the streets of Ferndown on Saturday afternoon for a special Jubilee-themed carnival. The sun shone down on the procession which wound a circular route through streets including Cherry Grove, Church Road and Penny's Hill,
WAREHAM civic leaders have launched a £9,000 appeal to create a permanent Golden Jubilee memorial on the town's South Bridge. The plan is to place six decorative three-quarter size lamps - three on either side of the bridge to enhance the historic entrance
FOR months it has been feared that all that's golden will far from glitter. Newspapers have been full of speculation that this year's Golden Jubilee celebrations will fall flat. Public support today has been compared over and over again to interest in
HUNDREDS of sea anglers from all over the country will be converging on South Dorset at the weekend for Weymouth Angling Society's, Dorset Echo-sponsored Chesil Beach Open. A first prize of £200 along with many other prizes is at stake in the competition
DORSET star Sir Rembrandt will take on his old rival Best Mate in the William Hill Chase at Exeter on Friday. The Robert Alner-trained charge is a confirmed runner in the coveted £65,000 showdown. Sir Rembrandt finished second to Best Mate in last year's
WEYMOUTH hope to beat off interest from a host of higher league clubs in the race to sign Simon Weatherstone. The highly-rated Hornchurch midfielder is available on a free transfer after the Essex outfit's financial collapse. Terras boss Steve Johnson
DORSET Business - the chamber of commerce & industry - is canvassing its members for feedback on the benefits of its free Business Review scheme. Under the scheme, firms which join or rejoin the chamber are offered a one-hour appointment with advisers
SICKENED by the number of occasions marine thieves were targeting their boats - 16 times during the first six weeks of this season - members of one of the smallest yacht clubs in Poole Harbour, North Haven, fought back by mounting a virtual 24-hour watch
A HAVE-A-GO hero risked his own safety during a robbery at a McDonald's restaurant, it has been revealed. The shift worker saw the thief on the CCTV screen and rushed out to confront him, in spite of being threatened with a weapon. The incident happened
PROTESTERS have lost their fight to stop a village pub from being bulldozed to the ground to make way for new homes. Councillors this week voted unanimously in support of plans by Blandford-based brewers Hall and Woodhouse to knock down the Fryers Arms
CRAIG Boyce marked his long-awaited Poole homecoming with an immaculate 11 paid 12 point maximum against a spirited Workington outfit last night. A crowd of under 2,000 at Wimborne Road was slightly disappointing, if not understandable because of the
POOLE Meridian Lifts Pirates extended their unbeaten league run to five matches with a more than convincing victory over defending league champions Wolverhampton. Even more reassuring for Pirate fans was that this 26-point victory came through a solid
PIRATES moved into third place in the Elite League on the back of one of the club's best performances in recent times. They took a three-point win at Arlington Stadium on Saturday to go above their Sussex rivals in the table. At the half-way stage, Poole
TONY Rickardsson and Leigh Adams pulled off one of the great 5-1s of all-time in Poole's history as they came back from the dead to beat Peterborough last night. The Meridian Lifts Pirates, most people's favourites to win the Elite League title before
TEENAGE Australian Cameron Woodward came through a tough baptism of fire to notch up three valuable points on his Pirates debut as they beat Premier League underdogs Trelawny. And the Mildura-born 18-year-old's mother Jenni heard the news of how her son
POOLE produced one of the great 'five-rider' performances of all-time as they crushed a lack-lustre Eastbourne at Wimborne Road. Meridian Lifts Pirates rode most of the meeting with only five men - but they still walloped the Eagles in front of a delighted
BIRTHDAY boy Lukas Dryml outshone his elder brother Ales as Pirates produced their best performance of the season to crush lowly Belle Vue. Lukas, who celebrated his 22nd birthday yesterday, outgated his sibling in heat three to go on and win the race
WHEN internet whizkid Jon Davies was invited to set up yet another new website he had no idea he was about to undertake a project so dear and personal to his heart it would set him on an emotional rollercoaster. The 25-year-old was asked to set up and
ACTRESS Paula Wilcox jumped at the chance of appearing in the comedy The Memory of Water because she loves the thought-provoking way in which it gets people laughing at themselves. The fact that it focuses on bereavement and death might have hindered
PLANS for a giant campsite could sound the death knell for the New Forest Show. The Forestry Commission has pledged to forge ahead with its scheme to create a giant campsite on the showground site at New Park, Brockenhurst - albeit slightly scaled down
POOLE Pirates had too much in reserve for Ipswich Evening Star Witches. The visitors quickly forget the pain of their home reverse against Coventry the previous night to comfortably gain their first Sky Sports Elite League win of the season. And it was
COVENTRY are starting to become something of a bogey team for Poole, especially around their own Wimborne Road circuit. The buzzing Bees, who won at Poole last season, returned for a second helping to withstand a late fightback from the Pirates and clinch
PIRATES new boy Leigh Adams overshadowed big guns Tony Rickardsson and Ryan Sullivan as Poole produced a battling display at the East of England Showground yesterday. All eyes had been on the showdown between Rickardsson, the reigning world champion,
GRAND Prix contenders Lukas Dryml and Bjarne Pedersen showed just what they could achieve in this year's World Championship as they helped inspire Pirates to a perfect start to the season. Dryml marked his Poole Meridian Lifts debut with an impressive
POLICE today hailed major successes in the fight against crime in Dorset with falls in robberies, burglaries, criminal damage, car thefts, fraud and forgery. New figures from the county's force showed an 8.8 per cent drop in crime for April to September
YOUNG footballers in Weymouth are over the moon after winning their first match since forming nearly two seasons ago. Chickerell Sonics Under-9s failed to win any of their 18 games last year and had conceded 76 goals with just eight scored halfway through
PUB landlord John Hanna is launching the first smoking ban at a bar and restaurant in Dorset. He is stamping out tobacco in the entire premises at the Springhead in Sutton Poyntz from December 1, to protect the health of customers and staff and to create
BOURNEMOUTH singer Alexander Clarke has been offered a part in a new Bollywood musical film by Indian-based film company Bombastic productions. The 39-year-old entertainer - winner of the Echo Star Trail talent contest in 1994 - has had many brushes with
A FOREST of unsightly and potentially hazardous mobile telephone masts could be sprouting up across the New Forest as operators rush to beat the restrictions national park status would bring. That's the fear of campaigners John and Renate Morley after
MULTI-million-pound plans for a new shopping mall in the centre of Ringwood have been put on the back burner by New Forest council's powerful new "Cabinet". The seven-member committee has sent out a strong message that it will listen to local concerns
DORCHESTER is set to get desperately-needed top class sports facilities. A cricket oval, football pitches and state of the art tennis facilities are all being lined up for Prince Charles' model village on the edge of Dorchester. It was revealed today
A NEW public transport interchange on the site of Weymouth's railway station is included in plans for a major revamp of the town published today. The King Street transport hub, taking in bus and taxi services, would also boast co-ordinated timetables
A CAMPAIGN to build a skatepark in Weymouth was given a £100,000 boost today. Skate enthusiasts are on a roll after hearing their bumper grant application to the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) was successful. The massive cash award will
HOUSEHOLD incomes in Dorset are well below the national average, a new report has revealed today. The report, compiled from data from four million homes, has shown that the average household income in Dorset is £21,400 a year, £1,800 less than the United
WORRIED Dorset parents fear a financial crisis at a charity could mean the end of lifelong support for their disabled children. The cerebral palsy organisation, Scope, one of the biggest in the UK, has seen income from its charity shops plummet in recent
CROCKED Cherries star James Hayter has set his sights on returning to action at the start of next month, reports Neil Perrett. Hayter was carried off during Cherries' FA Cup clash at Forest Green Rovers on Saturday after taking a heavy blow to his left
CHERRIES soccer stars scored for the Grange School in Christchurch when the team kicked off a new era of community involvement with the Somerford school recently awarded sports college status. Strong links between the Grange and AFC Bournemouth have been
Warning: Some readers may find this column disturbing A TV programme being shown this week lifts the lid on a pretty horrible kind of psychological torture. It seems that military forces have been known to break the will of their prisoners by playing
PIRATES spearhead Tony Rickardsson could be frozen out of British speedway this year. The five-times World champion has agreed personal terms to line up for Poole Meridian Lifts on a loan basis this season. But Ipswich Witches - who own Rickardsson's
HAVE you seen the film The Hours, celebrating the life of Virginia Woolf, and featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Nicole Kidman? It's not generally known that Virginia and the Bloomsbury set visited Studland. In London, it was joked, they "lived
IT was a beautiful night when the crew of a Lancaster bomber took off from the Lincolnshire airfield where their squadron was based. Seven men were aboard, including 23-year-old Flight Sergeant Stanley Honour, who came from Corfe Castle. Their mission
A REQUEST from Echo readers for their memories of a day Bournemouth was bombed in 1943 has equipped a local author to write another book. Malcolm Lowe appealed for anyone with memories of the day the Luftwaffe bombed Bournemouth in 1943 to come forward
FORMER village baker Peter White has been given permision to transform part of his old bakery premises to be used for housing. Purbeck planning chiefs have given the go-ahead for the cafe building fronting onto the High Street to be turned into a four-bedroom
TODAY is a red-letter day for Bournemouth University with the visit of the Duke of Kent to open the new £7.8 million library and learning centre. And the occasion will trigger memories of the last royal visit to the campus when the Queen graced Poole
A WOODEN wagon from 130 years ago has been returned to the Wareham area where it started its life transporting clay on to barges in Poole harbour. It might not look much but the well-preserved narrow gauge wagon is a rare link back to a bygone age in
IMAGINE going roller-skating or ice skating or playing tennis in a crinoline. It was said in the 1860s that the only sport crinolined ladies played was croquet where their crinolines were extremely useful for moving the ball about unseen. By the 1890s
POLICE are warning clubbers to be on their guard after a number of people had their drinks spiked in Bournemouth and had to go to hospital. The incidents happened in the town centre over the weekend as thousands of young people descended on Bournemouth's
IT IS dark by five. The temperature is dropping. It's time for soup, hot water bottles and woolly scarves. November can be a bleak time of year - the magic of Christmas too far away to get excited about, long hot summer nights a distant memory. But there
GOVERNMENT plans to restrict smoking in public places have disappointed health and community bosses in Dorset, who say they don't go far enough. Poole's director of public health, Dr Adrian Dawson, and Cllr Peter Adams, who is behind plans for a ban on
BUSINESSES across Dorset and Hampshire risk being wiped out by an autumn aftershock of the foot-and-mouth crisis, it is feared. Firms which supply the leisure industry are likely to start feeling knock-on effects from the crisis when the summer season
A MAP featuring every one of the 5,600 footpaths to be re-opened in time for the weekend is now available on the Dorset County Council website. The large-scale map allows people to zero in on the area they want to walk and to check which paths are open
WORRIED farmers have inundated Dorset County Council's footpaths hotline anxious to keep sensitive routes closed. Scores of farmers said they struggled to get through to the council's footpath team while many condemned the authority for the short time
TORIES are celebrating after taking control of Dorset County Council. The political composition of the council is now 23 Conservatives, 14 Liberal Democrats, four Labour and one Independent. Delighted Tory group leader Cllr David Fox, who held his Christchurch
DORSET RESULTS: The latest Dorset votes CHRISTCHURCH Con hold Christopher Chope (Con).....27,306 Dorothy Webb (Lib Dem).....13,762 Judith Begg (Lab).....7,506 Margaret Strange (UKIP).....993 NORTH DORSET Con hold Robert Walter (Con).....22,314 Emily Gasson
A WOODEN wagon from 130 years ago has been returned to the Wareham area where it started its life transporting clay on to barges in Poole harbour. It might not look much but the well-preserved narrow gauge wagon is a rare link back to a bygone age in
DORSET under-10 girls were unfortunate as they missed out at the LTA Southern Region County Cup. After losing 3-1 to a strong Surrey side in their opening tie, the Dorset team of Sophie Ramsbottom, Lydia Whitehouse, Georgina Strickland and Alice Pyrgos
3 Wiltshire Road, Bransgore; 82919, extension to garage, (additional plan); New Forest Care and Repair, 65 Christchurch Road, Ringwood (for Ms Casey). HSBC Bank, 26 Brookley Road, Brockenhurst; 83038, lower height of ATM, install hand rails to front entrance
RINGWOOD showed what a force they have become with a 14-0 (92-53) whitewash of Alexandra Park, the club who finished third in Section One last year. Bernard Fenner, Fred Merritt, Rob Huggett and Alan Bryant (27-14) led the Foresters' spree. It was an
THE National Health Service has its fair share of critics - but one patient is so impressed with the care she received in Dorset that she has written to the government. Personal assistant Lyn Allen-Rowlandson went to her GP last year after developing
KIM Upton was a lifelong asthma sufferer who was faced with having to take increasing amounts of medication in the battle to keep his condition under control. But then he stumbled across an alternative that meant he was able to give up all medication
THE world is divided into two types of people: smokers and non-smokers. And if you are in the former group, this Wednesday's National No Smoking Day will either nudge your conscience - or make you more determined than ever to light up. There are an estimated
SALLY Terry was only 28 in 1990 when she was diagnosed with stomach cancer and had to undergo radical surgery and chemotherapy. Around a year-and a-half later, she developed an unsightly swelling in one leg. "I couldn't get any answers as to why the leg
SEX can be a dangerous business, as consultant Dr Ainsley De Silva would agree. As the man in charge of a hospital department dealing with sexually transmitted diseases, very little surprises him. "I think patients think they can shock us, but we have
THE hard task of whipping up enthusiasm for healthy eating has been given a boost with the help of National Lottery cash. The New Opportunities Fund, which distributes lottery money, is appointing nine regional co-ordinators to work on its health programmes
MANKIND has suffered from the scourge of tuberculosis for at least 5,000 years. Signs of the disease have been found in an Egyptian mummy dating back to 3,400BC. It is caused by bacteria and thrives in places where people are poor, ill-nourished and crowded
DOES diabetes affect women differently from men? A new survey released to coincide with this week's World Diabetes Day suggests that it does. The International Women's Diabetes Survey found that the role of women as family carer is negatively affected
LEVELS of colds and flu in the South West hit "high risk" this week for the first time in the autumn/winter season, according to Beechams. The company's Cold and Flu Scale estimates that more than six million people nationwide are currently suffering,
A PENSIONER who believes his late wife was let down by the medical profession is calling for an overhaul of the way complaints are investigated. For the past two years Norman Tilley feels he has been going round in circles trying to raise concerns with
IF you have ever watched a child stagger off to school under the weight of a loaded back pack, a new study commissioned by the British Chiropractic Association will come as no surprise. More than half the parents questioned for the association's research
A THRIVING Dorset village will come under the spotlight when it stages the world premiere of a new film. But instead of a glittering array of celebrities walking up a red carpet for the occasion, around 100 villagers will pack the local hall to see the
JANUARY DORCHESTER began the New Year by being placed on flood alert as rain swept across the county. Many villages around the town were flooded, including Charminster, Maiden Newton and Bockhampton. The Heritage Lottery Fund gave town councillors the
THINK back. Stretch your imagination and try to remember when you last worried about having enough food to eat? When did you last fret about whether to switch the heater on, stay in bed or sit in your sleeping bag? Thankfully, the answer for most of us
A FORMER motel said to have been the inspiration for the long-running television soap Crossroads could soon be flattened. Owners of The Open Country bar/restaurant near Fordingbridge have appealed to the Department of the Environment against council refusals
SHE was inspirational, wonderful and lived life to the full - just a few of the many sentiments the great and the good have used to describe one very courageous New Forest woman, Jenny Rose-Wolfeld. Jenny died on December 23 from breast cancer at the
STONE Age artefacts unearthed in a gravel pit near Ringwood are causing excitement among the Oxford University archaeologists who discovered them. Scientists believe the chipped flints dating from the upper palaeolithic era, around 12,500 years ago, are
POLICE officers evicted seven homeless people who were living rough in a derelict church in Weymouth. Six men and one woman were yesterday escorted from the burnt-out shell of Maiden Street Methodist Church in the town centre, because of fears the building
FOUR key elements dominate the Weymouth and Portland Local Plan Review, the document which sets out the borough council's vision of the area's way ahead in the next ten years. They are housing, transport, development (including employment) and tourism
FORMER Cherries star Steve Robinson is tipping Richard Hughes to bounce back from his Britannia Stadium penalty nightmare. Robinson was among the crowd for Cherries' 2-1 defeat by Stoke City on Saturday where Hughes' second-half spot-kick blunder proved
PETER Grant has set his sights on returning to action in Cherries' Avon Insurance Combination clash against his former club Norwich City. Player-coach Grant has been sidelined since tearing a calf muscle in his right leg just 10 minutes into Cherries'
TWO Blandford teenagers raided a flat a total of five times while the occupant lay asleep in bed, a court heard. John Jason O'Donoghue, 19, of Magnolia Court, West Street, and a 16-year-old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, both pleaded guilty
WEYMOUTH and Portland fishermen are backing conservation and quota curbs in the battle to restore severely dwindling fish stocks. But they warn that this action will be no good unless other countries are forced to toe the line as well. They spoke out
TEARS of protest came from Jessica Johnson when her dad took her in his arms - which was only to be expected from an almost seven-month-old baby finding herself cuddled by a stranger who had been absent for most of her life. Petty Officer Mike Johnson
THE plaque of the new type 23 frigate, HMS Portland, was presented to town mayor Les Ames who received it on behalf of Portland town council during his recent visit to the ship in Glasgow. Coun Ames was given a conducted tour of the vessel and was later
ERRORS in the Royal Manor School's GCSE information and communication technology results caused a lot of disappointment and upset among pupils and staff who were well aware that their students were capable of achieving good results. After two appeals
IT started with the publication of an old school photo in the Daily Echo and has taken off to become a fascinating community project focusing on local history. It's three years since Hazel Thorby contacted Snapshots with a photo of the class of 1952 at
THE year was 1964 and Cilla Black, the Dave Clark Five and the Beatles all made it to number one in the charts. But in Bournemouth a group called The Dictators emerged as the best in town, sweeping the board in the first Bournemouth Beat Contest at the
THIS summer Poole Park will ring to the sounds of a joyful day-long celebration to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee. The People's Park will be full of family picnics, music, arts, stalls, fun and games on June 3 - a huge community event to mark the royal
TRADERS in Bournemouth say they are relieved that the A338 spur road works have come to an end and roads in the area are free-flowing. Many centres and shops say their trade was severely affected by the contraflow on the busy dual carriageway, which took
DORSET could lose up to £340 million by the end of the summer because of foot-and-mouth, a report has claimed. And more than 300 jobs have been lost across the county and the New Forest since the outbreak started - although there has not been one recorded
LEE James faces another year in the golfing wilderness after failing to make the grade in the European Tour Qualifying School at San Roque yesterday (November 16). The 31-year-old Bournemouth player had hoped to regain his place on the main European Tour
ARTIST Sally Winter will be demonstrating etching and aquatint techniques on Christmas cards on Saturday, when the Mayfield Gallery opens its 17th annual Christmas exhibition. The show features original paintings, sculptures and ceramics by several popular
SHE'S jumped a lot of hurdles and now she's hoping to gallop her way to becoming the first female jockey to win the Grand National. Sixteen-year-old Jemma Phillips, from New Milton, is one of only 52 people to win a place at the prestigious Newmarket
MEET Poole's team of five community cancer nurse specialists, a unique initiative now inspiring other areas to consider a similar service. Lynn Maxwell, Cathy Hughes, Wendy Farrell, Angela Bradbury and Nikki Dibley were appointed by Poole Primary Care
CALL it a mother's instinct, but after Donna Copson's first baby was born, she knew something was not right. Edward weighed a healthy 9lbs 5ozs at birth, but when Donna took him home, she realised he was having problems with his breathing. "He used to
ROB was 14 years old when he started becoming withdrawn and his schoolwork began to suffer. His parents asked if anything was wrong, but he would not open up to them. They noticed their son was losing weight. He did not wash, would not have his hair cut
A NEW website giving people in Dorset and Somerset better access to information about local health services goes live on Monday (March 27). The site, www.dorsetsomerset.nhs.uk, has been developed following last year's merger of the two counties' health
A MAN who lost part of his leg after picking up the "superbug" MRSA in hospital is launching a support group to help fellow sufferers. An estimated 5,000 people in the UK die each year from infections they have contracted in hospital. The most common
HAY fever sufferers in Dorset and Hampshire are being warned to stock up on tissues this year. Experts say that instead of the traditional cuckoos and bleating lambs, the most common sound this Spring is more likely to be coughing, nose-blowing and sneezing
HE holds down a demanding job and manages to lead a near-normal life: few people would suspect that customs and excise officer Dick Franklin suffers from agoraphobia and panic attacks. The problem, a fear of open spaces, first manifested itself when Dick
FALLS among sufferers of Parkinson's disease could become a thing of the past, thanks to a new study. People with the tremor condition are being recruited for the research, which aims to find out whether exercise programmes can help to prevent falls.
IT'S a grey day on the Purbecks, but just to be out among the beautiful countryside lifts the spirits. I am on my way to meet Dave Pagett, a community mental health nurse who has hit on a winning formula for helping clients. The Margaret Green Foundation
THEY may be close neighbours, but there was nothing friendly about Oakmeadians' 17-17 draw with Swanage and Wareham at Meyrick Park in Powergen South West Division Two East. Although Oaks staged a gutsy late fightback to ensure the points were ultimately
THE National Society for Epilepsy has revised its complementary therapies leaflet following recent Government guidelines on the use of herbal medicines. Research has shown that St John's wort could have an adverse effect on people with epilepsy. There
THEY may be dreaming of the World Cup trophy, but school children across Bournemouth will be holding royal cups above their heads. All children in the borough are being given commemorative Golden Jubilee mugs courtesy of the town's education bosses. Youngsters
DEBORAH SMITH talks to Dorset-based author and illustrator Graham Oakley about his enduring creation, the Church Mice books WHAT do you get if you cross a cat with religion and a posse of church mice spiced up with few tales of the unexpected? The answer
AN estimated 4,000 children in this country are separated from their mothers who are in prison. The Mothers' Union is lobbying judges to apply non-custodial sentences and keep children and mothers together where it is in the children's interests to do
James Tourgout's weekly look at the world wide web IT is freezing cold and rainy. It's dark when you get up for work, pitch black when you go home and everyone looks miserable. Yes, it's the middle of January and the summer looks light years away. It's
PIRATES heat leader Lukas Dryml believes they can still improve on their first-half-of-the-season performances following a comfortable 49-41 win at Oxford. The Czech Republic and Grand Prix star rattled up 11 paid 12 points at Cowley as Poole Meridian
WHAT is it about Davey Watt and rider replacement? It seems that every time Pirates need their young Australian to come in and take extra rides he shoulders the responsibility with aplomb. He certainly did last night as he scorched to his highest score
COMEBACK man Craig Boyce shrugged off a severe case of pre-meeting nerves to lead Pirates to a comfortable success in deepest Cornwall last night. The 35-year-old Australian marked his first full appearance for Poole since 1998 by scorching to three heat
LEIGH Adams and Lukas Dryml inspired a last-ditch fight back as Meridian Lifts Pirates went down to a narrow defeat at Peterborough. The Grand Prix aces prevented a double figure defeat by storming to a maximum in the last race. Adams twice beat Peterborough
LUKAS Dryml and David Ruud turned on the style for Pirates as they inflicted the first league defeat of the season on Oxford last night. Dryml, the Czech Republic star, beat Australian Grand Prix rider Todd Wiltshire from behind to bring another big Wimborne
TONY RICKARDSSON'S head was the coolest as the world champion emerged from a first bend ruck for a win that clinched a significant draw for Poole at Wolverhampton's Monmore Green last night. The Pirates had gone into the last heat of the meeting on level
DAVID Ruud rose to the occasion in spectacular style in heat 11 1ast night to inspire Pirates to victory in a much tighter contest than the final scoreline suggests. The young Swede rode a superb second bend to keep Witches duo Jarek Hampel and Chris
TWO New Forest routes are the best of the bunch when it comes to walking and riding in Britain. The Forest has scooped double honours in the Forestry Commission's annual "top ten" guide to leisure trails around the country. Experts plumped for Radnor
THE Forestry Commission has told concerned dog owners that it has no plans to restrict people walking their dogs in the New Forest. Following a meeting with the newly formed, powerful New Forest Dog Owners' Group the Forestry Commission said it welcomed
VILLAGERS claim they are being left out in the cold over a fridge-stripping plant in rural Dorset. Residents fear for the countryside because they claim thousands of fridges and freezers will be treated on a former farm during the coming months. And they
OPPONENTS of plans to build homes in a pub car park are celebrating winning the first round in what could be a prolonged fight against Inntown Properties Limited. New Forest District Council rejected the company's plans for nine terraced houses n the
THE effects of the foot and mouth epidemic leave just one card for British punters to immerse themselves in tomorrow, an all-weather affair at Southwell. Of course tomorrow should have seen the start of the Cheltenham Festival, and there will be more
AS his hugely successful Lord of the Dance heads for Bournemouth this summer, Irish American dance genius Michael Flatley says he's delighted to be bringing the show back to Britain. (Aug 31) The globe-trotting production has played to more than 50 million
TWO NEW Forest fire fighters who saved a woman from drowning after her car was swept away by floods last Christmas have been awarded a prestigious bravery honour. Leading fire fighter Colin Coley and fire fighter Paul Dorrington waded through chest deep
PREGNANCY advisors for parents-to-be around the New Forest have settled in a new - and permanent - home. Forest Pregnancy Counselling, which has operated from a variety of venues over the past couple of years, has opened a new centre at 18 Whitefield
CASH totalling almost £1,500 has been handed out to worthy causes in the New Forest area. Members of New Milton Town Council have delved deep into their grant aid coffers in response to a string of charity requests by organisations in and around the town
THE latest Home Office figures have reinforced fears about rising violent crime in Dorset. The Home Office has today published figures for a whole year for the first time - previously the official figures were released every six months. The new figures
ANGRY villagers packed a hall to confront council bosses over flooding misery. Householders still mopping up after water poured into their homes in Milborne St Andrew, near Dorchester, confronted officers of North Dorset District Council, councillors
