Dawlish News' Posts

Player-manager Chris Myers admits he's got some trough decisions to make ahead of tonight's game away to Elmore in Division One of the Screwfix Direct Western League. With midfielders Chris Slough and Gary Head available after missing the last two games, the temptation is to include both in the starting line-up as the Sandy Lane side seek to stretch their unbeaten league record to six games. Myers ...

People visiting a south Devon beach have been allowed back into the water after a pollution incident. Teignbridge District Council is liaising with the Environment Agency to find out what caused the pollution at Coryton Cove, Dawlish. A bathing ban was put in place on Wednesday after some tests discovered unacceptable levels of some pollutants. Swimmers were allowed back into the water on Friday ...

South Devon's firefighters have returned home safe and well after lending a hand in Boscastle. The squad, including one Dawlish and four Torquay firefighters travelled to Cornwall to help with the search and rescue operation after the devastating flash floods on Monday. John Miller, assistant leader of the rescue team said: "Everyone is back home now. "Basically the crew were involved with ...

Dawlish junior Anna Kingman and 13-year-old Jake Grinsill from Torquay beat seeded rivals at the South Hams Junior Novices at Totnes to go on and book their place in today's final line-up at Borough Park. Twelve months after suffering a first round defeat in the girls' singles following a two-hour marathon with Charlotte Jago (Dawlish), Anna Kingman has made a spectacular return. In the ...

Dawlish Town manager Chris Myers has vowed to continue to run the Western League side despite Nigel Gooding standing down as chairman after a fire destroyed the club's stand. Gooding claimed he had received threats since taking control of the club in October last year and decided to put an end to the situation. He said the 'suspicious' fire which burnt down the club's main stand was "the final ...

Fears for the future of the centuries-old Topsham ferry in Devon have been allayed. The future of the service, which carries hundreds of birdwatchers and visitors each year across the tidal river Exe at Topsham, was in the balance when the ferryman recently left his post for personal reasons.

US space agency Nasa is to get a massive supercomputing boost to help get its shuttle missions back in action after the 2003 shuttle disaster. Project Columbia, a collaboration with two technology giants, will mean Nasa's computing power will be ramped up by 10 times to do complex simulations. It will be one of the world's biggest Linux-based supercomputers. The new supercomputer will help the ...

Police are hunting arsonists who burned down a South Devon football club's grandstand causing tens of thousands of pounds damage. The structure at the Dawlish Town AFC in Sandy Lane was deliberately set alight in the early hours of yesterday. Dozens of firemen with four appliances fought the flames, but were unable to save the wooden grandstand from being totally destroyed. A refreshment kiosk ...

The heatwave that was predicted to hit the Westcountry this weekend saw temperatures reach 27C, and as visitors headed to the South West, the region's roads were described as "busy and congested". As holidaymakers headed to the coast to soak up some much needed sunshine, they were caught in massive traffic jams on the M5, which on Saturday were reported have tailbacks of up to 19 miles. A ...

There are serious concerns about the reliability of this year's English tests taken by 14 year olds in England. This year, reading and writing parts of the national curriculum tests were sent to different examiners, as part of an electronic marking trial. There was a delay in sending out the results to thousands of students, with some arriving after term ended. The National Assessment Agency has ...

The first virus to attack handheld computers running Microsoft's Windows Pocket PC software has been found. It is called "Duts", and its existence has been revealed by the Russian security firm BitDefender. The company said the virus posed no threat and was produced only as a "proof of concept" by its creators. The program comes from the same virus writing group that put together similar code that ...

Ipplepen made a piece of unwanted history against Dawlish when they were bowled out for 19 and lost by a whopping 177 runs. It was the third lowest score ever recorded in the division. Only the now defunct Teignbridge (18 in 1983) and Victioria Park (15 in 1994 at Chelston) have been bowled out for lower scores. Andy Lockyer (42), Jon May (31) and Bill Alcock (30) were Dawlish's men in the runs as ...

One of the last remaining mature Exeter Elm trees is facing the chop after flourishing for more than 200 glorious years in the city. The rare species of elm is native to the city and was once plentiful across the region. But one of the last few to survive is now facing the axe after growing in a garden in Topsham's Grove Hill since the beginning of the 19th century. The rare tree is believed to be ...

A struggling non-league football club in Devon has made an audacious request for a world famous Italian referee to preside over one of their matches. Dawlish Town FC have asked Pierluigi Collina to referee one of their games, and are offering to pay his expenses and put him up in a five star hotel. The struggling south Devon club were relegated last season. Club chairman Nigel Gooding said: "It's ...

A man was attacked by a dog and stabbed by its owner as he walked along Teignmouth sea front. The 37-year-old from Dawlish was on the sea wall between Teignmouth and Smugglers Cove when the incident happened at around 8.30pm on Tuesday. An argument broke out when he met a man walking an Alsatian along the sea wall in the opposite direction. He was then assaulted by the man and bitten by the dog ...

Warren are the new leaders after some high quality golf and no shortage of surprises in last weekend's South Devon League programme. The Dawlish club triumphed at home to Dainton Park by four and a half points to two and a half, while defending champions Torquay were being put to the sword at Teignmouth. Stover consolidated in third place when they overcame visiting Churston 4?/2? after a ...

Life is going swimmingly for a Dawlish man whose longstanding career with South West Water is being recognised with the MBE. Brian Hooper from Fay Road is to receive the honour for his services to the water industry, which span more than 30 years. The 59-year-old lives and breathes water, not only during the working week but also at weekends and in the evenings when he often goes out and about in ...

Controversial plans for university top-up fees have run into trouble on the first day of detailed Lords scrutiny. The House of Lords inflicted three defeats during the report stage debate of the Higher Education Bill. Ministers want English universities to be able to charge students up to £3,000 a year for courses from 2006. Peers voted to defer the fees for those on gap years in 2005, to limit ...

Venus made a rare transit across the face of the Sun on Tuesday, giving stargazers from Australia to the Middle East and Africa a celestial view that no living person had seen before. To the delight of hundreds of people around the globe armed for the occasion with telescopes, pinhole cameras and special glasses, Venus appeared at 0520 GMT as a small black dot on the lower edge of the Sun at the ...

Plymouth Civil Service romped back to the top of the C Division with a crushing seven-wicket win at Stoke Gabriel. Heathcoat were top on Saturday morning, but their defeat by Dawlish & Teignmouth opened the door for Civil to take pole position. And Dawlish are up to second now with Exeter St James newly installed in third - they easily accounted for lowly Mount Wise by six wickets - with Heathcoat ...

SpaceShipOne and the White Knight, are the unconventional designs of the California-based aerospace visionary Burt Rutan, who in partnership with the billionaire founder of Microsoft and space travel enthusiast Paul Allen, has invested between USD $20 million and $30 million USD in the project. A small rocket plane will power into a steep climb over California's Mojave desert later this month and, ...

Controversial plans to split Exeter's Parliamentary seat along the River Exe have been scrapped, the Echo can reveal today. The Boundary Commission for England has abandoned proposals to cut a chunk off the city's seat west of the river. In a dramatic U-turn, the commission has ditched plans to hive off Alphington, Cowick, Exwick and St Thomas into a massive 'Mid Devon' seat stretching to ...

Exactly seventy years to the day that the county association (DCLBA) was formed and affiliated to the English Women's Bowling Association (EWBA) at an hotel in the town, a Devon President's team took on the England President's team at Courtenay Park. Seven past presidents of the DCLBA and section secretaries were among a bevy of officials in Margaret Shillabeer's side, while Devon's Sue Harriott ...

Ian Langler of Dawlish Coasters holds a narrow lead in the Fox River/Ironbridge Runner Devon Race Series going into the fourth round at Plymouth on May 30. The Plymouth Half-Marathon, for which entries have now closed, includes the next round of the popular series which has already seen fierce competition during the early races of the season. Langler was eighth Devon runner in the opening race, ...

Veterans Dennis Gibbs and Don Beesley both added to their silverware collections at the South Devon and Torbay Table Tennis League awards night at Torbay Hospital Social Club. Others to swell their trophy cabinets included Halwell's Kevin Nicholls and Sonja Wicks and Supa-Roofing's Shaun Gibbs. 2004 South Devon & Torbay Table Tennis League Roll of Honour Collins Cup (h'cap singles): 1 Kevin ...

Proposals to increase the frequency of connections to London and dual almost the entire length of the region's main track have gone down well with transport campaigners. One of the most exciting plans is to reinstate the line between Exeter and Okehampton and build a new station near the town. By re-opening the tracks south to Tavistock and onto Plymouth operators could provide a commuter ...

A city mum who fled the violence in Zimbabwe is attempting to rebuild her shattered life in Exeter. Liz Bennie, 59, who now lives in Topsham, lost everything when supporters of President Robert Mugabe's regime seized her home and business. Today she spoke of her last traumatic 18 months in Africa, as members of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party occupied the ranches of white farmers across the troubled ...

Flying cars, transparent cloaks, technology which can read minds and games played by brain waves - the stuff of fiction, surely? Not so, these seemingly far-fetched inventions - and more - are now reality. What lies beneath the cloak. For a vision of what the future holds, thousands of nay-sayers and believers alike have got an up close and personal glimpse at NextFest, an expo in San Francisco ...

A schizophrenic woman jumped to her death just 24 hours after "begging" psychiatric staff to allow her back into a health unit in Torquay. The family of Linda Hammond, 52, claim she had pleaded with staff at the Haytor Unit to let her return to the place where she felt safe. The following day she was dead after leaping from a parapet at the Sefton Hall nursing home in Plantation Terrace, Dawlish. ...

Dawlish Town manager Chris Myers will be helped in his quest to revive the club's ailing fortunes next season with an "attractive bonus structure" to offer potential players. Myers took over at Sandy Lane last autumn when Town were rooted to the foot of the table and morale was low in a team that couldn't compete in the Western League Premier Division. His influence steadily turned round Town's ...

The Information Commissioner is today warning UK businesses not to be mislead by bogus agencies who continue to send notices demanding money to register under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). Over 200 businesses a month fall victim to fake data protection agencies posing as official government bodies. The letters, which request sums of between £95 and £135 to register under the DPA, often use ...

Introduction The Phoenix Report is an accurate account of questionable actions of public authorities as directed against an entire family with 9 children, particularly the author who will forthwith be referred to as the claimant. In accordance with protecting individual rights of public servants and to protect the children involved, the identities of the parties will be withheld unless the ...

The procedure entails taking stem cells from a living being, nurturing them in a laboratory until they form a ball of new cells known as a bud, and inserting the bud into the gum where the new tooth is needed. The researchers estimate human teeth in adults could take about two months to develop fully. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the potential to grow into other kinds of ...

Dario was awarded the PFA Merit Award on Sunday and has told the press that it's "probably one of the proudest moments of my footballing life.". "We literally picked Seth Johnson up off a beach in Dawlish and he had no chance. He has done really well and it is great, especially after telling his mum that he needed to come down as a 14-year-old to Crewe. He made that sacrifice and is now getting ...

Just after 2pm yesterday afternoon on the A379 at Cockwood close to Starcross, a red Citroen Visa travelling towards Exeter and a green Rover 114, travelling in the opposite direction towards Dawlish, collided, seriously injuring both drivers and one passenger. The Devon Air Ambulance touched down just feet from the tangled wreckage on the normally busy road - which was closed for more than five ...

Keen walker Mr Moffatt, 54, is raising money for the Devon Air Ambulance and Clic (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood) by walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. The 45-day expedition starts on Saturday, April 24. Mr Moffatt, from Holcombe, near Dawlish, said: "It's going to be tough, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and, hopefully, a sizeable sum can be collected for the charities. ...

It's especially welcome here. Five years ago eight year old Heather Preen died after contracting e-coli whilst holidaying in the resort. Despite an extensive investigation the source was never found. Today it has a different sort of publicity. Brian Gray, Teignbridge District Council: "I think it just shows that we have put a lot of effort into making sure this is a top resort and we're delighted ...

Sarah Down, from Topsham, begged that her daughter should be taken into care when she ran away last year to live with a 31-year-old man in his car. But the authorities refused - and Katie, now 16, is due to give birth in a fortnight's time. That means her baby was probably conceived around August last year - the same time that Ms Down was pleading that the teenager should go into care - and ...

If Nigel Bliss's team do well in the national festival, they will get to play before the England-Barbarians game at the end of May. The side have not been beaten since the final of the Devon under-10 festival, when Devonport Services edged past them. Their dominance has seen them score 486 points so far this season and concede only 19, a remarkable achievement at any level. A squad of 20 ...

Peter Jubb, one of 98 residents evacuated from their homes in Dawlish Warren, South Devon, when flood waters surged into Hazlewood Park in December 2000, said: "For the first time in three years we can sleep soundly in our beds when the rain is pouring down during the winter. This scheme will mean we no longer have to venture outside to see if the water levels are rising." He said some ...