Grasstrack car racing is back at Grange Farm, Hougham, this Sunday.
The Trent Autograss meeting will feature many races with classes ranging from 1,000cc Minis to 3,200cc V8 specials. The first race starts at 11am and the action will go on till around 4pm.
Admission is £6 for adults and over-16s, £3 for 12-16s and OAPs, with under-12s free.
The Highways Agency is reporting the closure of the A1 as running from the A52 junction at Grantham and the A46 junction at Newark.
The road is closed in both directions following a collision between a lorry and van which resulted in a fire. The lorry is believed to have been carrying gas canisters.
The Highways Agency is advising northbound traffic to follow the “hollow yellow circle” diversion route via the A52/A46. Southbound traffic is advised to follow the “hollow yellow diamond” diversion route via the A46/A52.
Long delays are expected.
The incident happened at around 5.30am today (Wednesday) near to Claypole.
If you saw the crash contact Nottinghamshire Police on 101, quoting incident 115 of 19 June 2013, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Occupants of a van have died in a smash on the A1 north of Long Bennington.
They were travelling in a van which was in collision with a white Volvo lorry on the northbound carriageway of the A1 this morning at around 5.30am. It is not yet known how many people were in the van.
They were promounced dead at the scene, said a Nottinghamshire Police spokesman. The 60-year-old driver of the lorry was shaken but uninjured.
The lorry is believed to have been carrying gas canisters. The collision resulted in a blaze and a large plume of smoke. The surface of the road has been damaged.
Both carriageways of the A1 were closed between the A52 junction at Grantham and the A46 junction at Newark. The southbound carriageway has now reopened but the northbound carriageway is expected to remain closed for the majority of the day while the scene is cleared and police conduct their enquiries.
Diversions are in place at the junctions with the A52 and A46, but motorists are being asked to avoid the area where possible.
If you saw the crash contact Nottinghamshire Police on 101, quoting incident 115 of 19 June 2013, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Here’s a selection of pictures taken by Journal photographer Toby Roberts at this year’s Grantham Carnival.
We have lots of videos to upload - can you spot any familiar faces?
Enjoy!
Relive the fun of this year’s Grantham Carnival!
Or if you didn’t make it to Grantham biggest annual event at the weekend, check out what you’ve missed.
We have lots of videos to upload - can you spot any familiar faces?
Journal photographer Toby Roberts captured this year’s Grantham Carnival parade in pictures.
There were some wonderfully colourful costumes worn by those who took part.
A lot of effort clearly went into the floats, which followed the theme of ‘Events and inventions that changed the world’.
Relive the fun of this year’s Grantham Carnival!
Or if you didn’t make it to Grantham biggest annual event at the weekend, check out what you’ve missed.
We have lots of videos to upload - can you spot any familiar faces?
Relive the fun of this year’s Grantham Carnival! Video: Grantham Carnival 2013
Or if you didn’t make it to Grantham biggest annual event at the weekend, check out what you’ve missed.
We have lots of videos to upload - can you spot any familiar faces?
Journal photographer Toby Roberts captured this year’s Grantham Carnival parade in pictures.
There were some wonderfully colourful costumes worn by those who took part.
A lot of effort clearly went into the floats, which followed the theme of ‘Events and inventions that changed the world’.
Relive the fun of this year’s Grantham Carnival!
Or if you didn’t make it to Grantham biggest annual event at the weekend, check out what you’ve missed.
We have lots of videos to upload - can you spot any familiar faces?
A couple who met on a blind date celebrated 50 years of marriage surrounded by family and friends.
Tom and Janet Baker of St Nicholas Close, Barkston, married on June 15, 1963 and celebrated their golden wedding with a special event in the village.
The couple met quite by chance when Tom returned home. Janet said: “Tom was born in Belton and I lived in Londonthorpe. Tom was in the army and I was working at Chambers in the High Street, where Yorkshire Bank is now.
“A friend asked me if I’d like to make a foursome up as Tom was home on leave. So that’s how we met.
He then went back to Germany but we stayed in touch. To cut a long story short we wrote to each other for two years, seeing each other occasionally, then married two years later.”
Tom served in Singapore and Malaya before being posted to Germany, where Janet flew out to live with him after they were married.
They spent 14 months together in Germany before Tom was posted to Libya.
Janet said: “We both went to North Africa, Benghazi, then got thrown out by Colonel Gaddafi when the Six Day War began. Our first child was born in Libya. We should have been out there for three years but we only stayed for two-and-a-half.”
On returning to the area the couple first moved into a house in the Earlesfield. Janet said: “We didn’t like it because we are both country bred and born.”
In 1970 they moved to Barkston, where they have lived ever since. Tom worked at the Blue Star garage in Brook Street, Kontak and finally Belton Garden Centre before retiring due to ill health. At the weekend the couple - who have three children and seven grandchildren - held a special celebration in Barkston, inviting many military friends from their days in Benghazi.
Janet said: “It was a really close unit. Everybody knew everybody else.
“It was a family really.”
An internet cafe located in the Jubilee Church Life Centre in Grantham has officially opened.
Lite Bytes internet cafe, in St Catherine’s Road, is for students with learning difficulties to use. It is the result of a collaboration between education providers, such as Lincolnshire County Council, that already work with the students who will be using it.
At the opening on Wednesday, five pupils from the Grantham Additional Needs Federation, which consists of Ambergate Sports College and Sandon School, served in the cafe.
Jacki Bartram, the federation’s fund-raising officer, said: “It is work experience for them that they wouldn’t normally get because of their needs. They get to serve customers and help the customers use the computers.”
In my last column, I highlighted my opinion on the way the Labour Party is funded by individual union member donations, and how I felt that criticism of this method of funding by the Conservative Party and its supporters was wildly inaccurate.
After the column was published, I continued to receive the criticism even though they could not demonstrate to me how millions of individual donations from working people were less representative than large donations from wealthy individuals. An important distinction to make, yet one that a significant number of Conservative Party supporters deliberately fail to understand.
They then felt the need to divert attention from this debate by highlighting one donation to the Labour Party to be made in shares, in what has been described as a deliberate attempt to avoid paying tax on the donation.
Now, for starters, there is nothing illegal done here. This is perfectly acceptable under the current tax law to make a donation in this way. The complaint levelled here is that of hypocrisy. The Labour Party criticising the tax arrangements of large multinational companies whilst accepting donations that would be considered “tax-efficient” by a large multinational company.
Firstly, these shares were donated to the Labour Party to provide a steady income for the Labour Party over many years. Tax will be paid on the dividends received year on year as it should be. The complaint of hypocrisy is completely unfounded. The donors tax affairs for themselves.
For the record, Cameron & Co regularly receive donations of a similar nature, even after calling tax-avoiders as “morally repugnant”. This is a government and also a political class that are unprepared to simplify the tax code to make the economy competitive, to make the tax code fair to everyone, yet are prepared to play political games over donations and political funding, continually confirming in the eyes of the public just how disconnected from reality Westminster really is.
First Hull Trains - which transports around 90,000 people every year from Grantham - has been named as the best long-distance rail operator in the country.
Figures released today by Passenger Focus, the independent rail industry passenger watchdog, reveal First Hull Trains tops their survey of customers. The company provides 90 trains to and from Grantham a week.
In the latest independent survey, which was undertaken in February and March, First Hull Trains scored 95 per cent in overall customer satisfaction – a seven per cent improvement on 2011 and two per cent better than spring last year.
For more information about First Hull Trains, visit: www.hulltrains.co.uk.
An annual campaign aimed at getting more unemployed young people into work, has been launched this summer.
The Keep Producing Campaign is for under 25s in the area who are either unemployed or in full time education. It is designed to get young people to sample the events industry before making any major decisions on their future careers and employment.
Each year participants will be asked to produce a short video clip on a topic that is relevant and influential at the time. This year’s topics are to create either a flash mob or a harlem shake video in various locations throughout the local area. Once completed, participants will then submit to us to be picked to showcase on our YouTube site throughout that month.
Using social media sites, networking and PR tactics participants must then promote their work throughout the year, to be in with a chance of winning a cash prize and the opportunity to work within an events company for a year.
Sam Darlington, Director of One Events said: “The idea behind the Keep Producing Campaign is to allow young people in the local area to experience the events industry first-hand in a fun and educational way. This way they are not being told what to do but are given the freedom to think creatively about their event and all the things that go along with it, whilst being supported by our experienced events team.”
To put together these video clips participants will be using essential skills applied by events coordinators on a day-to-day basis including; organisation, communication, time management and promotion skills. These skills are easily transferable to most jobs today, so even if participants decide events management isn’t for them they are still taking away essential skills that will help them progress in the future.
To find out more about the Keep Producing Campaign and how you can get involved whether as a participant, partnership or sponsor, then contact One Events on 01476 978 184 or email amie-leigh@oneevents.org.uk
South Notts League
Division A
Hucknall 165
Belvoir 168-2
Inspired man-of-the-match Matt Irvine (5-37) bowled superbly and, with the help of an outstanding catch at slip by Tom Neville and another by keeper Ryan Lewis, reduced Hucknall to 23-3.
The Hucknall middle order continued to come and go to tight Belvoir bowling, with the persistent Danny Gibson (2-39) and guileful Lewis Dann (2-31) to the fore. But at 71-6, Nathan Thomas (15) joined the gritty Lee Smith (75) in a fightback.
All 22 players owed Thomas their gratitude. It was his innings that made the match and provided the early entertainment, including a couple of lovely straight sixes.
Irvine returned to trap Thomas lbw and end the 32-run stand in a second spell as vigorous and accurate as the first. With the stubborn Adam Scott, Smith added another 27, and with the swashbuckling Tom Walters (17) a further 31 for the ninth wicket.
Two fine steepling catches in the deep by James Fellows prevented Hucknall seeing out all 50 overs.
Thomas and Tim Buckthorne started well, taking a very early wicket and cramping Belvoir’s reply. But Olly Clayfield (31), playing more strokes behind the wicket than usual, and Tony Dyer (50no) steadily upped the rate and set a base to the innings.
A towering innings of 64 from 47 deliveries by an imperious Tom Neville saw him hit 14 fours, six of them from consecutive balls, mostly through his favourite arc from mid-on to mid-off.
Dyer topped off the innings with three reverse swept fours, scoring the winning run to complete his half-century.
Forecasts of rain have not dissuaded thousands of people to take to the Lincolnshire Showground for day two of the 129th Lincolnshire Show today (Thursday).
Already the morning has seen a flypast from the Red Arrows and the Countess of Wessex has been spotted taking in the atmosphere.
Former England rugby union star Mike Catt is the sporting guest of the day and will be fielding questions in a Q&A debate later this morning.
Watch the video to see some of what happened on the morning of day two.
What was a drab, lifeless play area has been given a colour boost thanks to a ward councillor.
District councillor Bruce Wells is behind the make-over given to the park at Harrowby Lane playing field.
He asked the maintenance team at South Kesteven District Council to make the park a priority, and workers soon came out to give it a lick of paint.
Coun Wells said: “Under-11s really use it. I felt it was looking a bit shabby and they deserve better. They can’t speak for themselves so I thought I would do it for them.
“A bit of paint, make it look spick and span, and it will be there for years to come.
“I don’t want to lose this facility so I thought ‘I’ve got to do something about it’.
“I asked the council, they found a bit of cash and now it looks 100 per cent better than what it was.”
Last weekend saw Grantham’s Fenland junior netballers travel to Northants and Brigg to represent the club in tournaments.
The under-11s and under-12s went to Duston in Northants to compete against teams from the East and West Midlands.
The under-11s played six matches with mixed results, winning three, drawing one and losing two, to give them an overall result of sixth out of 12 teams. The under-12s fared slightly better, winning four, losing one and drawing one, to give them an end result of fourth.
l County under-14 champions Fenland Meerkats travelled to Brigg in North Lincolnshire.
Sixteen teams entered into this competition, coming from far afield as Yorkshire and Humberside.
The group rounds in the morning saw Fenland win all their matches comfortably to take them through to first position in the afternoon’s competition.
Matches became tougher and Fenland were eventually undone by the undefeated Chevrons from Hull who sneaked it 4-3 to leave Meerkats finishing third overall.
The Countess of Wessex was the Royal visitor at the second day of the 129th Lincolnshire Show today (Thursday).
The Countess arrived earlier in the day but her movements were kept secret until she appeared before the media shortly after 3pm.
She went on to watch some of the action in the main ring as the afternoon wore on.
Thankfully the rain stayed away for much of the day with visitors enjoying warm sunshine despite drizzly forecasts.
Watch the video to see some more of the afternoon’s action including the Countess’ visit.