Latest news with #JamieMurphy
BBC News
05-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Swift-watching volunteers sought across West Midlands
The RSPB is encouraging people to sign up to be West Midlands Swift Champions, to help record species numbers and ensure they have places to comes as the number of swifts has declined by more than 60% in the last 25 years, the charity who join the project will conduct swift surveys, engage with communities, attend events and respond to planning applications to see where nesting sites could be implemented."That's particularly happening in the West Midlands Combined Authority area - so Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull and Coventry," said Jamie Murphy, senior conservation officer. But more volunteers are Murphy said the charity understood there were places in the West Midlands where swifts were no longer seen."We're talking to people who have lived in the area for a long time, and they say 'I remember hearing swifts all the time when I was growing up, but I don't really hear that many anymore'," he explained. The charity believes part of the decline could be down to fewer suitable nesting sites in buildings, and a decline in flying insects."They're urban nesting birds, so they can nest in buildings in towns and cities anywhere, provided that there's the right places for them to nest within them," said Mr Murphy."They're relying upon the built environment now to find their nesting opportunities, so we can coexist with swifts if we provide the opportunities for them in those places." "There's been local clusters of people coming together to put swift boxes up, to install more boxes on their road - so I've been out to a couple of communities this week who have run swift walks... one in Walsall, one in Solihull," said Mr Murphy."You can see in those places that the swifts are starting to show an interest in those nesting opportunities and hopefully that will cause the population to increase."There are several swift groups across the region, including Shropshire Swifts, Ledbury Swift Group in Herefordshire, Swifts of Leek in Staffordshire, and Swifts B30 in the south Birmingham Wood, from Shropshire Swifts, said: "We started up these swift groups in a lot of the little towns in Shropshire.""What we want to do is look for nest sites."We like to record the nests so that if somebody comes along and wants to do a huge development we can mitigate, by either putting boxes or bricks up." Swift-watch walks across the region Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire: Shipston Action for Swifts is hosting a swift-watching walk around the town on Saturday between 19:30 and 21:45 Shropshire: Led by Carol Wood of Shropshire Swifts, meeting at Ford Village hall, 20:00 BST to Led by the RSPB in Fort Royal Park, starting at 19:00 BST on 9 Shropshire: Led by Carol Wood of Shropshire Swifts, 20:00 BST to dusk in Caradoc ViewSt John's, Worcester: Held in the Happy Land area of St John's, Friday 18 July, meeting outside The Brewers pub. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Irish Independent
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Programme aimed at encouraging children to read during the summer holidays opens at Sligo Library
Conor O'Grady, Jamie Murphy, Gareth McElroy and Shane Crossan from Sligo Rovers Football Club were also in attendance. Summer Stars is an exciting reading-based programme which encourages children to visit the library during their summer holidays. Summer Stars is open to all children across the county, with no restrictions on how many books must be read. For each visit to their local library, children will receive a small reward. Every child who takes part in the challenge will be invited to an awards ceremony in mid-August to receive a certificate and medal. There's also a summer schedule of storytimes, competitions, events and workshops across all Sligo Library branches.
BBC News
10-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Dessers out and Poku in at Rangers? Gossip
AEK Athens are interested in Rangers forward Cyriel Dessers, 30. (Record), externalFree agent Kwame Poku, 23, is a possible target for Rangers after most recently playing for Peterborough while fellow wingers Nedim Bajrami and Ross McCausland could be moved out of Ibrox. (Sun), externalRangers are one of a number of clubs interested in Poku. (Glasgow Times), externalFormer Rangers winger Jamie Murphy believes Conor Coady could work well as part of Russell Martin's new Ibrox team. (Record), externalBut Rangers have dropped their interest in Paris St-Germain winger Oumar Camara, 18. (Herald - subscription required), externalRead Tuesday's Scottish gossip
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Thistle hope to prey on Ayr play-off quandary
Scottish Premiership play-off quarter-final: Ayr United v Partick Thistle (1-0)When: Friday 9 May, Where: Somerset Park Kick-off: 19:45 BSTCoverage: Watch on BBC Scotland, BBC Sport website & app Do Ayr United stick or twist on their narrow first-leg lead as Partick Thistle visit Somerset Park to conclude the Scottish Premiership play-off quarter-final?It's a quandary the visitors hope to benefit from since their mission is crystal clear, says co-manager and captain Brian 1-0 from Tuesday's loss at Firhill, Graham is adamant there is more to come from Thistle in a game you can watch live on BBC Scotland."The game is all to play for, it's still there," he said. "We go down there and we win and we get ourselves into the semi-final. That's the feeling within the camp."Obviously, they have got the lead. Do they defend it, do they go and try and add to it? So they're in a bit of a dilemma, whereas we know we need to go and win the game and that's what we're aiming to do."Runners-up Livingston await the winners over two legs next week, with the last Championship side standing taking on the team that finishes second bottom of the Premiership for a place in the top winger Jamie Murphy scored the only goal on Tuesday and he is sure the Ayr United management team of Scott Brown and Steven Whittaker will have the hosts extremely well prepared."They have a different game plan each week," he explained. "We watched a lot of footage of them [Partick Thistle] over the last couple of weeks, We will watch the Tuesday match again and plan."There's a lot to work on. There's a lot we can probably still get better at."Thistle could have Logan Chalmers back in contention, with the attacking midfielder rated 50-50 to be Graham, who has been charge with Mark Wilson since mid-February, is urging his players to be bold."We were asked to keep the club in the play-offs," he said. "We've done the job that was asked of us. Now it's about looking forward. "The result didn't go our way the other night but it's over two legs. There's not much in it."We want to approach the game in a better manner, take that extra touch, show composure on the ball, a calmness and a bravery on the ball to really go and play at times."I felt there were too many sideways passes, backwards passes on Tuesday. We need to play on the front foot. We need to go and win the game."
The Herald Scotland
08-05-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
Kyle Turner hoping sixth play-off's the charm as Ayr await
This is the Jags No.6's sixth attempt, and Turner is determined to use that previous experience to turn the Premiership play-off quarter-final around at Somerset Park tomorrow evening. The Honest Men hold a 1-0 advantage, with Jamie Murphy's second-half header on Tuesday night giving Scott Brown's side a priceless lead to defend back on their own turf. Turner is under no illusions about the task that awaits Thistle. He is the first to admit that the performance at Firhill fell flat. But, pointing to the Jags' back-to-back wins over Falkirk and Livingston, he also knows that he and his team-mates are capable of so much more. 'Apart from Thistle, there was Raith Rovers last year,' Turner said of his play-off experience. 'Airdrie before that, Stranraer before that. I think that's what, six years I've been in the playoffs? And I've not won [promotion] once yet. 'I haven't been promoted yet and they've all been promotion play-offs I've been in. So I need to use my experience on Friday and help players that maybe haven't been in it as much. But listen, we know the job at hand. We just need to produce a performance like the one at Livingston again. And hopefully that'll be enough.' He added: 'Yeah, [it's painful to see other teams celebrating promotion]. You see Falkirk. You see their celebrations on Friday. That's what you want to be. That's what every footballer aspires to do. It's to win trophies and get promotions, have good memories.' Brian Graham, who is co-managing Thistle on an interim basis alongside Mark Wilson, said after Tuesday's defeat that he didn't think his side could play much worse. Turner agrees with that assessment. 'Yeah, we spoke about it in the dressing room,' he said. 'I thought we weren't great at all. We didn't look after the ball well enough. I don't think we created enough chances as a team. But listen, we're going to Friday now. It's only half-time. Read more 'I don't think there was much in the game. I think Ayr scored probably with their only good chance. Good ball, good header. But I think we had a couple of chances as well. The keeper makes a great save in the first half. Brian has a great header in the second half. He's unlucky. 'We went to Livingston on Friday and got a result. We beat Falkirk out here when we had to win as well. So we'll be looking forward to it. 'We just need to have a mindset now of just going and winning. No matter what, we need to win the game. We win 1-0, it goes to extra time. But we just need to go down and win the game.' Thistle may well be light on bodies again for the second leg – 23-year-old Terry Ablade was the only outfield player on the home side's bench aged 21 or over on Tuesday night – but Turner remains convinced that there remains enough experience in the midfield and forward areas to turn the tie around. You can't start a fire without a spark, after all - but he says Thistle have plenty of match-winners who can light up Somerset Park. 'Big games need big players,' he reasoned. 'And I think we've got that. [Stevie] Lawless, Fitzy [Aidan Fitzpatrick], Brian [Graham], me, [Stuart] Bannigan, even Ben [Stanway] coming on, [Robbie] Crawford - we've got a lot of good players in there. So Friday we just need to turn up and try and win the game.' Ayr forward Murphy, meanwhile, says Scott Brown's men were happy with their well-executed game plan that leaves them in the driving seat. When these two sides last met in the play-offs, Thistle won the first leg 3-0 a Firhill before thrashing Lee Bullen's side 5-0 at Somerset Park – a fact the players were cognisant of heading into Tuesday's first leg. 'The game plan probably was to leave here and not be out of the game,' Murphy explained. 'Try and keep a clean sheet and try and get a goal or two, and everything seems to have went to plan. 'But we know it's only half-time and there's still 90 minutes to play, so we're looking forward to Friday. 'I know I wasn't here but here a couple of years ago we finished second and went into that next play-off, and we were 3-0 down in the first leg. So the plan was to not let that happen again. It was a good performance all round. I thought we were the better team.'
