A giant fire-breathing bird, a huge mechanical turtle and meerkats the size of people will all descend on Bournemouth when the spectacular outdoor show, Arena - The Perfect Circle, transforms Meyrick Park into a place of wonder on Saturday, April 28.
RICHARD Scott has shrugged off claims it might be easier for Dorset to lift the Western Division title because they don't have to play Minor Counties champions Devon at that stage. The former Hampshire all-rounder, now coach at Dean Park, saw his resurgent
DARREN Anderton has admitted he would "love to stay" at Bournemouth after he was crowned Daily Echo Micky Cave Cherries Player of the Season 2006/07. The former England international, pushing for a starting berth in today's crucial League One clash with
JASON Crump has admitted it "doesn't get any easier" trying to triumph in the Grand Prix but stressed winning the World Championship "is what matters to me." The reigning champion begins his quest for a third title in the Italian GP at Lonigo tonight
STALWART Pirates supporter Marian Simmonds probably speaks for everyone else who witnessed Kevin Holden's crash and death at Poole Stadium 30 years ago this week. She still can't believe how the 26-year-old rider was killed in such an innocuous fall
CHERRIES legend Ted MacDougall has labelled Alan Ball the "catalyst" of England's 1966 World Cup Final triumph. The former Scotland, AFC Bournemouth and Southampton striker also believes Ball was the "best midfielder I ever played with". Speaking to
RICHARD Scott has shrugged off claims it might be easier for Dorset to lift the Western Division title because they don't have to play Minor Counties champions Devon at that stage. The former Hampshire all-rounder, now coach at Dean Park, saw his resurgent
CALLS for parents to be prosecuted if they give their children alcohol - even with a meal at home - have been labelled "unrealistic" by a Dorset MP. The charity Alcohol Concern made the recommendation as part of a series of proposals aimed at cutting
A REWARD of £500 is being offered in a bid to find the person who shot a 23-year-old Bournemouth man in the arm. And the police officer leading the inquiry into the incident on the evening of Monday April 16 says he believes the solution to the crime
IT'S always nice to be told- although we always suspected it anyway - but overall we live in the nicest part of the United Kingdom. The South West came top of the regions in a Local Life survey - commissioned by Somerfield - that compared crime, neighbourliness
HE'S THE first Englishman ever at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, and his Westerner celebrity status has courted Korean TV companies and journalists to document his every move. In the five years since Mark Thomas has been away from Bournemouth
The drama of local election night on Thursday, May 3, may not be all it was. Four Dorset councils won't be counting and declaring results until the following day. Purbeck, East Dorset, North Dorset and New Forest district councils will all delay counting
UNSUSPECTING residents in Bournemouth are being targeted by "boiler room" scams - overseas operations using high-pressure phone selling techniques to persuade investors to purchase virtually worthless shares. According to the Financial Services Authority
PSYCHOLOGIST Dr Aric Sigman tells MPs that watching TV is bad for children's health. Nothing new there. But get this: he wants to see recommended daily allowances imposed and TV totally banned for the under-threes. Kids aged older than that would be
Parents are being urged to bring their children to an open day at an outdoor education centre threatened by cost-cutting measures. Bournemouth council is considering splitting the education aspects of Hengistbury Head outdoor education centre's work.
ALISON Cronin carefully chooses one of the 3,000 letters, cards and emails received at the park since Jim died on St Patrick's Day. It's a neatly-typed, single sheet of A4 bearing the letterhead 10 Downing Street' and signed by Prime Minister Tony Blair
FOREIGN drivers who bring unsafe vehicles into the UK via Poole Harbour could soon be subject to on-the-spot fines. At present four boats a day come into Poole, each carrying between 50-60 heavy vehicles and only a small percentage of these are examined
THE number of hospital admissions in which illegal drugs played a part has almost trebled in the last nine years, according to the latest national figures. The annual drug misuse survey shows the number of cases seen by consultants where drugs were a
MY weekly TV viewing schedule consists of a handful of soaps, some reality shows and a few American dramas thrown in for good measure. Then there's the odd half-hour here and there spent flicking through the music channels, and breakfast just wouldn't
POLICE in Christchurch are appealing for the public's help to trace a pair of bogus workmen who tricked an elderly woman into paying them and also stole money from her handbag. The conmen, believed to be driving a white pick-up truck, called at the home
SOUTHAMPTON Football Club this afternoon confirmed they have received a preliminary approach from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen regarding a potential takeover of the club. The Southern Daily Echo has reported how Allen, the 19th richest man in the
RENAULT hasn't been afraid of making an arse' of itself with the Megane model line-up - its famous exaggerated bottom now among the most recognisable automotive sights on the road. That is of course unless you choose the Sport Tourer version (an estate
SEAT's most powerful production car to date, the 24bhp Leon Cupra has gone on sale in the UK. The 2.0-litre T FSI Leon Cupra can sprint from zero to 62 mph in 6.4 seconds, before going on to a top speed of 153 mph (where permitted). Enhancements over
A WORD of warning - it'll take you a little while to start enjoying this, as there's a fair bit of indignation to get over at the thought of Bridget Jones as Beatrix. But Renee Zellwegger's portrayal of the much-loved children's author is endearingly
LET'S get this straight right from the start - Emmanuelle is an exploitation film, pure and simple. But it exists and nothing is going to change that. If we're grown up and sensible about things, it even has a few merits. So, newly-wed, young and naïve
NO ONE does the seedy, gritty underbelly like the British, and director Paul Andrew Williams has himself a nifty little debut which excells on these counts here. From the dramatic opening scene, in which a prostitute and young runaway burst dishevelled
A HIGHLY enjoyable curiosity this, as British cinema has a stab at both the Hollywood-style high school rom-com, and the nostalgia movie. It's 1985, and working class student Brian (James McAvoy) heads off to Bristol University for his first year. There
FIVE years after turning his back on Toronto's folk scene in favour of California and its rock 'n' roll promises, Neil Young went back home. Bootleggers have long been aware of how good this show was and now the rest of us get a chance to sample its rare
SO, you've had the fastest selling debut blah blah blah - don't count for much now though. Favourite Worst Nightmare may not have the element of surprise that drove its predecessor into the hearts of millions... it's better than that. Tougher and more
SET in 1983, This Is England tells the story of a fractured 12-year-old boy who finds meaning in the company of the local skinhead gang. As befits any representation of the age, the soundtrack is a mixed bag. Naturally there's plenty of orginal ska (
COVERS albums are rarely anything to get excited about, but Ronson's should more than tickle the curious and will send the converted into joyous overdrive. In case you're wondering, we have Ronson to, ahem, thank for recent works by the likes of Amy Winehouse
"YOU'VE probably seen a lot of these shows - mentalists, magicians, illusionists - and wondered if they're the real deal," says Las Vegas conjurer Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) in his opening voice-over, as he prowls the neon-lit desert strip. "You'd
THE searing heat and choking humidity of '20s Shanghai provide a suitably steamy and exotic backdrop to John Curran's handsome period romance, adapted by Ron Nyswaner from W Somerset Maugham's novel. Falling in love is a perilous business: young hearts
TAKING its title from a term used by gang members for people not involved in a crime, Straightheads is a brutal and unsettling revenge thriller that sinks to the same unnecessarily violent depths as its characters. Documentary filmmaker Dan Reed, making
A DISTRAUGHT mum whose young baby had stopped breathing just minutes before says she was turned away from a new doctor's surgery in Poole. Gina Smart, 31, says she was told the GP surgery at the Boots store was "not a drop-in centre" and she was forced
A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer is appealing for help to buy a medication based on goat serum that she says is giving her back her life. Former probation service secretary Angela Garrett, 49, of New Milton, was diagnosed with MS in 1985. The condition
FOUR thugs who threatened a man with a knife before taking his car are being hunted by police in Bournemouth. Their victim was punched in the face during the "completely mindless act of thuggery" in a pub car park early on Monday evening. Detectives
