Take me there
If at any point this summer you start to feel a bit stressed, we strongly advise you to get down to the Royal Geographical Society in London and plant yourself in front of this scene for a few minutes. Think of it as your own personal aquarium and let it carry you away to a river in the wetlands of Brazil. The hyperreal photograph of piraputanga fish in the crystal-clear waters of the Sucuri River in the Pantanal region was taken by Franco Banfi and is part of the Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition, which runs from 22 June-19 August (tpoty.com). It is open Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm; Sat, Sun 10am-5pm. Entry is free (rgs.org)
Travel clinic: UK holidays
The dilemma We haven't booked a family holiday yet and are wondering what to do. Is the UK a no-go zone in July and August, with no-vacancy signs in every window? Jane, Hounslow
"It's busy in London on your dates, so you may wish to try different dates" is the message that flashes up on booking.com during a search for London hotels in August, together with eye-watering prices, so perhaps steer clear of the capital. Any British city with international appeal is busy in peak summer season, but there are still options. The four-star boutique Bocardo in Oxford (thebocardo.co.uk) has doubles from £120. Elsewhere in the UK there's plenty of availability, as the wait-and-see approach to booking remains popular. Sites such as cottages4you.co.uk still have plenty of properties, such as Dell Cottage in Far Sawrey near Windermere (sleeps four; £579 for seven nights). That said, as ever, the good places go first, so if you have your heart set on somewhere special, don't hang around. The Hayloft at Calgary Farmhouse on the Isle of Mull (calgary.co.uk), slap bang on Calgary Bay, sleeps eight and is available in August for £1,075. Tom Hall
Three of the best: new central London hotels
In the run-up to the Olympics, new hotels will be opening in London – many charging Olympic-sized rates. We wanted to show you that not everywhere in the capital is looking to bleed you dry
CitizenM, Bankside Affordable luxury – online check-in, mood pads, free Wi-Fi and films – in a prime location, from £99 to £199 during the Olympics (citizenM.com)
Tune Hotel, Paddington/ King's Cross The Malaysian-based budget chain launches a hotel in Paddington on 25 June from £50 and King's Cross on 9 July from £40 (tunehotels.com/uk)
Z Hotel, Victoria A converted Victorian townhouse with small designer rooms, from £75 as of 1 July. Free Sky and Wi-Fi, plus iDock (thezhotels.com/victoria)
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Essex and Suffolk links to international coaches - East Anglian Daily Times
Head coach Ian Pont with the trophy after leading Dhaka Gladiators to victory in the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League
By Nick Garnham
Sunday, June 10, 2012
9:00 AM
THE appointment of former Suffolk cricketer Richard Pybus as coach of Bangladesh has re-affirmed the rich seam of coaching talent with Suffolk and Essex links.
Former Sudbury and Halstead pace bowler Pybus, 47, who has been living and coaching in South Africa for several years now, worked with Pakistan at two World Cups.
He was appointed coach of Pakistan in 1999 but sacked just a month into the job after losing three Tests in Australia, and returning to work in South Africa, where he has led Border and Titans to ten championship finals, winning six of them and twice doing the double.
Pybus, who turned to coaching after his playing career was cut short by injury, has now taken on the challenge of coaching Bangladesh on a two-year contract.
Below is a list of cricketers with Suffolk and Essex links who have made their mark in recent years in the coaching world at international level.
Stuart Law: Pybus replaces the former Essex batsman as coach of Bangladesh. Law stood down less than a year into his two-year contract for family reasons. The Australian was a popular player at Chelmsford between 1996 and 2001 before a falling out saw him move to Lancashire.
Andy Flower: The former Zimbabwe wicket-keeper and batsman played for Essex from 2002 until 2006, before being assistant coach of the England team in 2007. Following the departure of Peter Moores in 2009, Flower became the full-time England team director.
Graham Gooch: The former Essex and England captain took over as head coach of Essex from 2001 until 2005. He remained as the county’s batting coach and in 2009 he was appointed as England’s ‘temporary’ batting coach, which subsequently became a permanent role. He stepped down as Essex’s batting coach after he was appointed full-time to the England role earlier this year.
Keith Fletcher: The ex-Essex and England captain was England team manager from 1993-1995. He subsequently returned to Essex as first-team coach before stepping down in 2001.
Alan Butcher: The former Surrey and Glamorgan batsman was coach of Essex in 1993 and later coached Surrey from 2005 until 2008. Butcher, who won one Test cap for England, was appointed coach of Zimbabwe in 2011 and has overseen their return to Test cricket.
Grant Flower: Following his retirement from Test cricket in 2004, Grant followed his brother Andy to Essex, where he played for six seasons, combining playing with being batting coach in 2010 before retiring to take up the role as Zimbabwe’s batting coach. He made a surprise, but brief return to the national side, before retiring in January last year to concentrate on his role as batting coach.
Ian Pont: The ex-Essex fast bowler was named as Bangladesh bowling coach in September 2010, but decided not to extend his contract beyond the World Cup early last year when they had a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals after beating England. In March this year he was head coach of the Dhaka Gladiators side that won the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League.
Don Topley: The former Essex bowler, who is now a cricket coach at the Royal Hospital School at Holbrook, just outside Ipswich, coached Zimbabwe between 1990 and 1992, famously leading the minnows to victory over England, captained by Gooch, by nine runs at the 1992 World Cup in Australia.
Source: www.eadt.co.uk
East London: Right On Track - BBC News
Synopsis
BBC 2012's Community Reporters showcase the emerging talents of East London. From break dancers and fashion designers, to chefs and authors, the Community Reporters shine a light on just some of the many creative young people beginning to make waves in the area. At the same time they discuss what it is about East London that's made it such a fertile breeding ground for new talent in so many different areas; and look at the challenges people face in trying to make a name from themselves.
This documentary is one of two programmes produced by a group of 14 young people from East London on the BBC 2012 Community Reporters Scheme. Over seven weeks they were trained in all aspects of journalism, before working with the Radio 1 and 1Xtra Stories team to produce two 60 minute programmes. From generating the initial ideas and developing a structure, to recording the interviews and editing the finished content, this is all their own work.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Interview: Declan Collier, chief executive of London City Airport - Daily Telegraph
Now Collier wants to step that growth up a gear. Armed with a mandate from London City's owners, he plans to expand the 130-acre site's runway area and invest in new stands as part of a drive to reach 7m passengers annually by 2016.
"Like any airport around the globe, we saw a fairly precipitative decline in passenger numbers in 2008/9, but have seen that recover. Passenger numbers were up 7pc in 2011, back over the 3m mark, and by 5.5pc so far this year," he says. "We see the potential for strong organic growth. What we've got to do is put in place an investment and infrastructure plan that will facilitate that."
Reports suggest that will involve new investors coming in and current infrastructure fund owners GIP and Highstar Capital diluting their holdings. GIP, which also owns major stakes in Gatwick and Edinburgh, has form in syndicating out its holdings and Collier won't discount a similar move at London City. "They're leaving their options open. There's no reason to believe they wouldn't be willing to put equity in," he says. "My brief was to come in and help the business realise its potential. A sale or the introduction of new investors will be elements of what we look at." Collier claims the Olympics will put London City in the shop window – it sounds like that's exactly where the owners would like it to be.
There's certainly a positive story to tell. Anyone who's used London City will know it's a world away from Heathrow's out-dated, over-crowded halls. At 2pm on a weekday afternoon London City arrivals feels more like a library than an international airport. The baggage track is 29 yards long – at Beijing it's more like 80 miles, Collier points out.
The airport works to a 20-10 blueprint – it should take a passenger no more than 20 minutes from arrivals to the departure gate and no more than 10 from landing to the taxi rank. "Many airports are struggling because of their age – they're retro-fitting like crazy to prolong their lives. It's like open-heart surgery as flights are landing and taking off around you," Collier says, pointing out that London City was only opened in 1987. "We're using facial recognition to track people through the airport – how they shop, rest, what toilets they use. It allows you to design an airport according to what the passenger wants."
There are drawbacks. Planning restrictions mean the airport – which generates revenues of about £85m and employs 550 staff – has to operate peculiar hours. It's shut from 9.30pm to 5.30am and from midday Saturday to the same time on Sunday. The short runway – and there is room for only one – also limits the size of the aircraft able to use the airport. Plans to increase the number of stands from 18 to 23, build a new runway area to increase 'movements' from 36 to 41 an hour and introduce a new generation of aircraft to increase passenger numbers are all a must if the airport is going to continue to compete.
In many ways, its success thus far has been not only a consequence of its location – just minutes from Canary Wharf – but also the wider failings of London's infrastructure. The capital's lack of airport space and capacity constraints of its biggest hub Heathrow are well documented.
Where does London City sit in the debate over the opposing calls for a third runway at Heathrow, a new Thames estuary airport or the loosening of planning restrictions at Gatwick? "The big issue for London is a lack of capacity and that's most acute at Heathrow. Larger aircraft can only do so much and we see a role for London City in helping with those capacity problems. But clearly we're not going to solve the issues of the London airport system.
"The great tragedy is that London is an important part of the UK economy but it's missing opportunities, they're sliding by. And the point that might well be missed is that these opportunities don't come back," he says, pointing for example to last month's decision by Comac, the Chinese aerospace group, to base its European headquarters in Paris instead of London. "You have to believe that any government will have the economy at heart and will carry out an open and objective review of what is needed."
For now, Collier thinks London City is well placed. "We have the capacity here, we're in the right place and we're in the right City," he says. So small in this case isn't all bad? "My mother used to tell me that great things come in small packages. I've lived by that over the years."
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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