Latest news with #Ringwood
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sailing programme for visually impaired people making waves
A sailing programme for people with visual impairments is making waves by opening up the sport to new participants. Spinnaker Sailing Club, based in the New Forest near Ringwood, has been running the 15-week 'See Sailing Your Way' programme, designed to introduce visually impaired people to sailing and support their ongoing development in the sport. One participant, Louise, said: "I've had a tremendous feeling of freedom being on the water, it really lifts my spirits. "It's really hard to describe but it gives me a high." Read more PICTURES: Scout groups go head-to-head in fiercely contested raft race Salisbury Sea Cadets take part in annual camp and enjoy water activities Project to build permanent home for men's shed is 'well under way' Visually impaired children have been able to get out onto the water thanks to the sailing club. (Image: Spinnaker Sailing Club) Another participant, Steve, said: "It's lovely to be so welcome and develop your sailing." The programme also extended to younger sailors after the Education and Learning Team from Dorset County Council asked the club to arrange a sailing experience for some of the visually impaired children they work with. On Saturday, July 19, eight children took to the water, supported by funding and guidance from the Royal Yachting Association (RYA). Club operations manager James Oborne said: "We are really pleased that the programme has been a success, not just with lots of fun on and off the water. "Establishing new friendships and growing people's confidence are all core to what we want to achieve. "This is part of a national scheme from the RYA, sailing's governing body, and we have been excited to be the local partners. "We hope that this will be the start of permanent visually impaired presence and activity at the club, along with New Forest Sailability. "We are grateful for the generous grant support we have received." The club has been running the 'See Sailing Your Way' programme. (Image: Spinnaker Sailing Club) Commodore Phil Tinsley added: "The club is more than simply race sailing. "We are a watersports club, with members using the lake each week for canoeing, paddleboarding and windsurfing as well as sailing. "Our sheltered waters allow access most days without the complications of shipping, waves and tides. "Our aim is to allow people from whatever background to develop confidence and skills on the water. "We are thrilled that we have been able to bring more people into our activities, and we are proud to offer all participants membership for the rest of the year as part of the programme." Spinnaker Sailing Club is a recognised training centre and offers courses for adults. Membership starts from £32.
The Guardian
10-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
First jobs, first love and a serve of minimum chips
My first part-time job was in a small continental delicatessen at the Ringwood Market. I worked Friday nights and Saturday mornings and was paid $2.50 an hour. I was 14 and yearned for something more glamorous than slicing salami and cutting cheese – although I do remember my workmate and I regularly enjoying sharing the inch-thick end piece of chicken loaf that was too small to slice. I wore a blue shapeless uniform and was supposed to wear a hairnet but never did. There was an apron of sorts that we'd wipe our hands down after each customer had left, smearing meat stains and olive brine in patterns on the thick cotton. The two men who owned the stall were generous with their teenage staff, never minding if we scraped in a few minutes late for a shift or rearranged our hours because of some upcoming party. And at Christmas they'd always tuck an extra $20 note into our pay as a bonus. The day I forgot to put the guard down on the slicer and watched in shock as the front half of my finger dropped into the 100gram order of ham off the bone, they cleaned me up, bandaged my hand and sent me straight to the doctor for stitches. I must have been more of a liability than an asset. From there I graduated to a news agency in a major train station hub. Again, I had a blue uniform dress but this one had a Pilot Pen patch sewn on to the lapel. I worked with two other teenagers on Friday nights and we became fast friends, gossiping and chatting in between serving customers. We lived for the weekly piles of unsold magazines because we could rip off the covers to send back for a refund and take the rest home to read. This was how I kept up with all the latest from Hollywood, learned what hairstyles were in and studied pages of fashion that I could never afford to buy. My third part-time job as a teenager was in a bakery near my parent's house I rode my bike to on weekends. The shop was always warm by the time I arrived because the baker started early. At the end of each day, the unsold cakes and bread would be divvied up among the staff, and my favourite was the boston bun with the fake white icing. My boss drove a panel van and told vaguely inappropriate jokes, but he was as kind in his own way as the owners of the deli, spending hours educating me about the lyrical genius of AC/DC's Angus Young. I was always working weekends as a teenager. Trying to save for something or other. A new coat. A pair of skinny jeans. A boom box that still plays. When I wasn't out with my school friends, I was sweeping floors, scrubbing meat slicers, and learning how to count change. Serving customers was at first terrifying, but I slowly grew to enjoy it. My new children's book, Sonny & Tess, is a tribute to the part-time jobs of my teenage life and to the endless crushes that populated my diary. It's partly set in a suburban fish and chip shop where Tess and the shop owner's nephew Sonny work. Together they cry as they slice onions, argue over the correct salting of chips and learn to navigate all those awkward and exciting feelings of your first crush. Unfortunately, my teenage working years were not so romantically blessed. Instead of meeting cute boys, I had to be content with slicing off my finger, becoming an ardent AC/DC fan and learning which magazine featured the best star sign prediction for a Virgo. I did serve Guy Pearce fresh from his role in Neighbours once, prompting my friend and I to giggle so much that it took both of us to bag the loaf of bread. The beauty of writing Sonny & Tess is that I could finally invent the sort of gentle romance I longed for when I was 14 – complete with chicken salt, potato cakes and a generous serve of minimum chips. Nova Weetman is an award-winning children's author. Her latest children's book, Sonny & Tess, is published by UQP
The Herald Scotland
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
New book confirms Maureen Cullen's status as a significant new voice
Havoc Shore contains 21 short stories, the majority set in or around 1963, nearly all of which were shortlisted or longlisted in literary competitions, a reflection of their consistently high quality. Cullen made quite an impression with her debut novel, Kitten Heels, last year and Havoc Shore is, if anything, even more impressive for its range and variety. Nineteen-sixties Clydeside is lovingly and vividly recreated here. Men working at shipyards hand their wage packets over to their wives on pay day, after extracting money for drink. Mothers with seven kids enquire at the clinic about the miraculous new contraceptive pill only to be fobbed off by the staff. A housewife works secretly as a cleaner so that her family won't know she's supplementing their income. Glaswegians migrate to Corby for work, or weigh up the advantages of emigrating and becoming 'Ten Pound Poms'. (Image: Jim Altgens) It's a fictional town constructed from very real memories, the remnants of a childhood that no generation will experience again. For those old enough, there are little bursts of nostalgia in every story. But Cullen is equally drawn to the darker, heavier undertones of the time, dealing with issues like alcoholism, misogyny and violence, things it wasn't done to talk about openly but were implicitly acknowledged by the whole community. Domestic violence looms particularly large, with several interconnected stories referencing a son's murder of his abusive father which was made to look like an accident. And in the opening story, 'The Cailleach of Redgauntlet Close', two mismatched neighbours bond over their shared concern over the alarming noises coming from another flat in their stair. But Cullen always looks for the warmth, empathy and strength of character that persists in tough times, such as the young Englishwoman in a maternity hospital finding a welcoming atmosphere among the new mothers entirely absent from her husband's Scottish family. Or in Isa, the formidable mother of seven who single-handedly takes on the local council over facilities for the neighbourhood kids. The span of the book roughly equates to a lifetime, and it's not hard to notice, as they inch closer to the present day, that the stories become more sparsely populated and elegiac, the bustling throng of Havoc's strong community having dissipated long ago. Her latter-day characters are facing bereavement, having to fill in 28-page forms to apply for PIP or scattering their grandmother's ashes on Skye (even though Grannie never went there and all her stories of the island were just handed-down family memories). (Image: Ringwood) Cullen has a natural gift for the short story. Each is concise, feeling neither rushed nor drawn out – at around ten pages each, none outstay their welcome – and they have a feeling of place and community that rings true, as well as the sense of lives that have been observed with a compassionate, understanding eye. They're so consistent that it's hard to pick highlights, but the trio of stories set around the weekend of JFK's assassination, giving different perspectives on the same events, particularly stands out on a first read.
BBC News
25-06-2025
- BBC News
Tribute to cyclist dad-of-two killed in Ringwood crash
Tributes have been paid to a cyclist who was killed in a crash with a Tom Manston, from Ringwood, died at the scene after the collision involving a black Range Rover in Southampton Road, Ringwood, on Saturday 14 a tribute to the 26-year-old, his family said: "His laughter, caring and kindness will be missed by all his friends and he will always be in our hearts."Tom was a loving son, grandson and father of two to Freddie and Frankie Ray." Officers have appealed for anyone with information or dashcam footage of the crash to contact them. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
BBC News
15-06-2025
- BBC News
Cyclist, 26, dies in collision with car in Ringwood
A cyclist has died in a collision with a car, police & Isle of Wight Constabulary said it was called to the crash involving a black Range Rover in Southampton Road, Ringwood, at 19:33 BST on cyclist, a 26-year-old man from Ringwood, died at the scene, the force asked anyone who saw the crash or with relevant dashcam footage to get in touch. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
