Life www.jmu-journalism.org.uk

Liverpool

5th - February - 2013

JMU student Kate Molyneux is seen struggling to keep her umbrella up as she fi ghts against the wind. More bad weather conditions are to hit Liverpool. Throughout the week there will a mixture of sunny and cloudy periods, with the more than likely chance of frost, due to the possible low temperatures of 1°C

CUT TO THE BONE’We simply haven’t got themoney’

Brolly bad weather

By Ian Bolland

Mayor Joe Anderson has warned of the pain and potential job losses to come as the council embarks on another round of deep spending cuts. � e mayor said that a� er the

£32million savings for 2013/14 that the council doesn’t really know what to do when it comes to services a� er that.Mayor Anderson said: “We’ve lost

1,600 jobs and that’s why services are not as good as they were and potentially there are more jobs to go but what I want to do is work with the trade unions who under-stand the predicament that we’re in. “People are complaining to me

about the roads, the potholes, the cleanliness of the streets and those things are going to get worse be-cause we simply haven’t got the money. � e reality is that we’ll only be a commissioner of services rather than a provider.”But the mayor insisted that Liv-

erpool is in a good place with and is con� dent that projects such as the water scheme and the rede-velopment of the Royal Hospital to come and pledged to help those who are struggling.Mayor Anderson added: “Liver-

pool is in a great place, Liverpool is going places. I am absolutely con� dent of that. “� e city has a really bright future

but it’s tough for those in need.Continued on page 3

Joy for Oliver King Foundation as campaign reaches 100,000 signatures to trigger MPs’ debate

See page 4 for more information

Liverpool Football Club faces match- fi xing claims over Champions League clash

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Pg 7Pg 4 Pg 12

Rocky Horror tours for 40th anniversary

Mayor Joe Anderson © Inniebear

Gunshot victim praised for bravery

Life/News/2

Police drug warning

The Phil: The Facts

The original Philhar-monic hall was de-stroyed by a fi re in 1933.

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall presents on average 250 events each year, of which approximately 70 are concerts by the Roy-al Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and sells over 250,000 tickets annually.

The Philharmonic Hall is grade II listed.

The Royal Liverpool Phil-harmonic Orchestra is the UK’s oldest surviving professional symphony orchestra and the second oldest concert-giving or-ganisation in the UK.

Liverpool Philharmon-ic has been working with schools and the community through its orchestral programme since the 1940s, when Sir Malcolm Sargent fi rst introduced a con-cert series for schools.

The origins of the Or-chestra’s concert series date back to the forma-tion of the Royal Liver-pool Philharmonic Soci-ety, which administers it, by a group of Liverpool music lovers in 1840.

More tributes to tragic teenager

Life Team

Liverpool

EditorLauren MurphyDeputy Editor Rachael BenthamRevise EditorLucy Baines News EditorJoshua Nevett NewsMichaela RoutledgeRachael LeitchScott Rumsey Emma Kemmery

Features EditorJosh ParryFeaturesRachael LairdPaul CollinsKarina GalliSport EditorAdam DaviesSports Rachael Bentham Rory KellyPicture EditorsPhlippa ProbertKarina Galli

A Liverpool man has been praised for his bravery after he was shot when he confronted hooligans who stole his sister’s bike at gun-point on Monday night.

Alan Moss, 26, of Netherton, was shot at point blank range by a gang of youths who had threat-ened his 13-year-old sister with a gun and put a knife to her throat just minutes before.

The shooting now means fi ve teenagers are now in custody in connection with the incident, two aged 17, two aged 14 and a 15-year-old.

The teenager was held on suspi-cion of possession of a fi rearm and

section 18 wounding and robbery. He was taken to a police station for questioning and remains in custody.

Mr Moss’ housemate Kevin An-derson, 28, said he was “lucky to be alive.”

He told the Liverpool Echo: “In a way it’s fortunate that they were just kids and didn’t know what they were doing, because other-wise from that range, he wouldn’t be here.”

Alan, who works at Jaguar Land Rover, heard the thugs had threat-ened his sister in Marian Square and went to help out with mum Joanne.

After he confronted them and pulled one of the youths off his sister’s bike, another shot him at

Tributes have been paid to Na-than Taylor by his friends and family after the teenager’s body was recovered from Latchford Locks after a seven day search.

The 18-year-old from Pad-gate went missing after leaving a friend’s birthday party at Bridge Bar on January 26.

The search to fi nd his body was aided by groups being set up on Facebook and other social media outlets. Friends and relatives vol-unteered to deliver police leafl ets in the hope of getting him home safely.

Underwater divers recovered a body from the Locks on Friday af-ternoon. On Saturday police con-fi rmed it was Mr Taylor’s.

Since then online group mem-bers have paid tribute to the pop-ular Warrington Collegiate media student.

They described him as a big fan of working out at the gym and playing computer games.

Nathan’s cousin Hannah Taylor posted on Facebook: “I cannot thank you all enough, in Warring-ton and for coming together every-where to give the support and help to our family the past seven days. I can’t put into words the turn of events that have happened, you have been truly amazing and kept us all strong.” Anne Brodie-Simp-son wrote: “RIP Nathan, such a sad loss to all who knew him.”

A Cheshire Police spokesman said: “The thoughts of Cheshire Police and the communities of Warrington are very much with Nathan’s family during this diffi -cult time.”

In a statement the family said: “We are very grateful to Cheshire Police for all they have done for Nathan and his family. A special thank you also goes out to the Cheshire Search and Rescue team and to the Staffordshire Search and Rescue team who worked so hard.”

by Ryan McCann

Philharmonic bids for £12m revamp

point blank range.The bullet went right through

his arm as he tried to shield his face and protect his mum, who was also threatened with the knife.

Alan was released from hospital yesterday afternoon after having surgery on his arm.

Sefton Area Commander, Chief Supt Nikki Holland, said: “We are taking this incident extremely se-riously and are doing all that we can to investigate those responsi-ble.

“This type of reckless behav-iour cannot be tolerated and I would urge anyone who has any information about this incident to contact 0151 777 5699 or Crimes-toppers on 0800 555 111.”

High speed rail link boost The government have outlined plans to extend the ‘High Speed 2’ line to Liverpool. David Cam-eron hopes that the high speed links between the cities will help drive regional regeneration and

invigorate regional economies. Liverpool will be connected to the high speed line on the West Coast Mainline at Crewe. This will re-duce journey times to London by over half an hour from 2h 08m to 1h 36m. Secretary of State for

Transport, Patrick McLoughlin said: “High Speed Rail is an un-paralleled opportunity to secure a step-change in Britain’s competi-tiveness, and this government will do everything possible to ensure that Liverpool benefi ts.”

Merseyside Police have issued a warning about the use of illegal substances, following a surge in popularity of a ‘new’ drug in the county.

The force is asking people to be vigilant about the new type of class-A drug in the area known as Methamphetamine. The warning follows a large discovery of Meth-amphetamine in the Wirral last November.

The public are being urged to look out for the drug which is usu-ally white and odourless, which dissolves easily in water and alco-hol. It can be referred to as “ice” “crystal” or “glass” due to its transparency.

Methamphetamine belongs to the amphetamines family, and is highly addictive and has severe effects. Detective Superintendent Chris Green, said: “Methamphet-amine causes the heart to beat faster and blood pressure to rise. An overdose of methamphetamine can result in seizures, high body temperature, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, stroke and death.”

The Royal Liverpool Philharmon-ic Hall has been successful in an application to go forward to Stage Two of the Art Council England’s (ACE) capital grants funding pro-gramme.

The proposed investment of up to £7.3 million towards the refur-bishment of the Grade II listed building.

In 2012, ACE awarded seed funding of £634,000 to enable the Liverpool Philharmonic to appoint architects to lead a design team in the fi rst steps towards the refur-bishment.

The 1939 venue is the home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and is one of the UK’s premier arts and entertainment venues.

The project target for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s refur-bishment is £12 million.

For the Liverpool Philharmonic to progress in Stage Two of ACE’s capital funding programme it will need to submit detailed plans of the design and development demon-strating the organisation can deliv-er the project.

The refurbishment works will provide improvements to front of house areas and facilities for all visitors and participants including the foyer, box offi ce, bars and ca-tering, toilets and lift access to all levels of the building.

There will be re-buidling and improving of the stage and choir performance areas in the audito-rium, new practice and backstage facilities for resident and visiting musicians, increased environmen-tal sustainability, including the ability to reduce power consump-tion across the building’s utilities.

In September of 2012, Liverpool City Council’s mayoral cabinet en-dorsed the refurbishment plans for the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall by agreeing a capital contribution

of £2 million which will include modernising the current building lease on the council owned build-ing.

Music critic Glyn Mon Hughes said: “It will probably mean that concert-goers will have a better experience.

“Remember that the hall is not just home to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (they give around 80 or so concerts there each year) but it is also a venue for rock and pop events (though not the huge acts who would go to the Liverpool Echo Arena), comedy, fi lm and conference-type events.

“Indeed, it is proving an increas-ingly popular venue with concert attendances for the RLPO up more than 10% since 2008 and overall hall events up by more than 5%. It is likely that the hall will become an even more attractive venue to

touring bands and acts. “Better bar facilities will mean

people are more likely to use and stay at the venue and so spend money, which means income will rise.”

The refurbishment will see the bars and catering areas re-vamped.

Glyn Mon Hughes said: “When there is a sell-out concert, the bars are very uncomfortable and crowded and it is almost impossi-ble to get an interval drink.

“In its defence, I’d say the hall was built at a time when people went out to the concert and re-turned home directly.

“There was not the culture of going out to a bar and restaurant beforehand and then hang around afterwards.

“If you look at places like the Royal Albert Hall in London, they have the same problem: totally in-

adequate bar areas. “Compared to, say, Sympho-

ny Hall in Birmingham, the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester or even the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank in London (built during the 1950s so not that long after the present Phil) the Phil is not a good venue for the times in which we live. So that will change.”

Subject to securing the re-quired investment for the refur-bishment, works to Liverpool Philharmonic Hall will com-mence in Spring 2014, with the venue undergoing a period of closure until the end of October 2014.

The full programme of works will be completed during 2015, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Royal Liver-pool Philharmonic.

by David Williamson

The grade II building has been at the heart of Liverpool’s culture since its opening in 1940

by Michaela Shawby Rory O’Reilly

by David Williamson

Life/News/3

By Joe Lanigan-Smith

Merseytravel’s new park and ride scheme has failed to win over commuters, who are still parking their cars in side roads. 270 parking spaces have been in-stalled at Birkenhead North Station, but the public are still leaving their cars in streets away from the station. The scheme has been twinned with another in Bidston and both cost £2.6million to build. Councillor Harry Smith, the Wir-ral councillor for transport, wants to speak to Merseytravel to see

The Police and Crime Commission-er for Merseyside has asked for a 2% rise in her fi rst budget proposal. Jane Kennedy identifi es that is the rise needed to prevent los-ing more frontline offi cers. The current budget plans would force Merseyside to cut 25 police offi cers over the next three years. Merseyside Police has al-ready lost 624 offi cers and 177 staff posts since 2010. The majority of the pub-lic on Band A would only see a 4p a week rise in council tax.The 2% increase would allow Merseyside Police to keep of-

The cost of travelling through the Mersey tunnels is set to increase by 10p from April in line with increased funding for

maintenance. Merseytravel is increasing the toll from £1.50 to £1.60 for cars travelling this Thursday, a total rise of 7%. The increase will amount to an extra £2.6million a year for the Labour run au-thority which is needed for the

upkeep of the tunnels. Nearly £10million a year is still being used to pay of long standing debts on the tunnels which stand at over £58mil-lion. It was revealed earlier this month that half of the annual £37million collected in Mer-sey tolls is diverted away from their staffing and maintenance. But despite Merseytravel not needing the additional £2.6mil-lion officials have recommend-ed the rise to keep pace with inflation under the Mersey

Tunnels Act 2004. The move has been criticised by Wirral Conservative coun-

cillor Chris Blakeley who said: “I find this absolutely incredi-

ble. “Over the last 10 years Mer-seytravel has taken more than £40m pounds in surplus tolls to subsidise half empty new head-quarters, tramlines that never saw the light of day and other

vanity projects.” In past years the authority has discounted the rate. But the report for this week’s meeting says that discounting the cur-rent rate should be done when “necessary” or “appropriate” on social or economic grounds. The report also contains a comparison between tunnel tolls and other forms of trans-port getting across the river. Since 2006/07 tunnel tolls have increased by 15.4% from £1.30 to their current price of £1.50. Rail saw the biggest increase from £1.60 to £2.30 (43.75%) followed by buses which in-creased from £2.20 to £2.85 (29.5%) and then ferries £1.35

to £1.60 (18.5%). At a meeting earlier this month Merseyside councillors

Tunnel tolls set to rise again in AprilBy Rory O’Reilly asked officials to contact gov-

ernment for clarification on the option for the tunnels to be brought into the national high-

way network. Officials are expected to give a verbal update on that situa-tion during Thursday’s meet-ing. If, as expected, councillors vote for the changes, the price will increase on April 1.The 7% rise will also apply to their types if vehicles, so that classes 2, 3 and 4 will pay £3.20, £4.80

and £6.40 respectively. Earlier in January John Mc-Goldrick, secretary of the Tun-nel Users Association, said that the “usual excuses” would be

used to justify the increase. He also noted that there will be no local elections this year

across Liverpool. Mr McGoldrick said: “They feel that if they want to do something unpopular they stand a better chance this year.” Merseytravel will not com-ment on reports that they will announce an unpopular propos-al, and that they stand a better chance of passing it this year. Mersey tunnel tolls will increase by 7% ©Pimlico Badger

Council cuts: Have your say More bad news, says mayorBy Ian Bolland

Continued from page 1

Mayor Anderson added: “It’s tough for those who are unem-ployed, those who are on benefit and we’ve got to do all we can to try and help them.” The city budget has been overshadowed by the Budget Working Group (BWG) – a cross-party group which worked on the council’s budget deci-sions - breaking down over the weekend. This transpired into an email row between Mayor Anderson and Councillor Kemp over documents from the BWG leaked into the public domain with the Mayor accusing the Liberal Democrat leader of be-ing dishonest and of being a “despicable character.”But Councillor Kemp claimed that despite the sour relation-ship that has developed between himself and the Mayor that he will support a lot of what the Labour group will put forward. Councillor Kemp has ex-pressed his bewilderment at how the BWG got to this stage. “It was quite obvious that pub-lic finances were going to fall off a cliff irrespective of who had been in government because of the financial position nation-ally and internationally.

“We will support the vast ma-jority of what has come through the BWG and we will support the vast majority of what the Labour group is going to do because we’d have been doing roughly the same thing.” “We are going to be a respon-sible opposition.

“We will continue to support all those things which we think they’re having to do and having to do correctly so I’m not go-ing to be leading an opportunist charge at the budget meeting that would be wrong” Councillor Kemp has also called for a fresh approach such as social enterprises to the way the council runs services like Allerton Golf Course and the city’s libraries - which could be hit by closures as a result of cuts. “Let’s go and talk to the users and say “can you do something about this?” and in many cases they will do. “Lots of these peripheral ac-tivities that are going to get chopped you could say “there you are, there’s the golf course, we’ll give you a 99-year lease, you run it and carry on running it then it won’t be a drain on our finances.”He also said that libraries need to have a thorough review about what a library is for and the ser-vices and technology it offers.“The biggest threat to libraries isn’t now money, anything that the government does, the coun-cil does, it’s Kindles and iPads. “So my view was on the li-braries - and I put this forward - is to have a thorough review about what a library is for and what it does and if you want to do those things, is the library the best way to do it [run the ser-vice] now?

“Because to my mind a library has become a specialist com-munity centre now rather than a place of books.”

Police chief’s budget call Park and ride scheme fails

fi cer numbers at their current levels and would cost “Band A” council tax payers - the majori-ty on Merseyside - £2.01 per year She has proposed to increase the precept by around £1m bringing it to £51m. The extra 2% will en-able her to set a balanced budget, maintain police offi cer numbers and protect frontline services. Ms Kennedy is also reducing the costs of her own offi ce by £800,000 over the next two years in order to keep the precept as low as possible and defend the police budget from further cuts. Ms Kennedy also feels very strong-

ly for some communities on Mer-seyside, with gun, gang and violent crime destroying the neighbour-hoods. Jane Kennedy said: “For me that’s got to be a top priority, tackling those kind of crimes, and then work-ing together in partnership, when you’ve got a reducing budget the most effective way to maintain the best standards of policing and crime reduction is to work in partnership with their own, some crime is bet-ter dealt with by local authorities, some crime is better tackled even in schools and the title itself includes the word crime so it’s not just police, its Police and Crime Commissioner.”

if a resolution can be reached. He said: “I agree that the present situation is far from ideal. First the extended bridge has yet to be built and also there are no yellow lines. People will be reluctant to use it if they continue having to walk around to gain access to the station. “I’m also asking for direction signs to be erected to encourage commuters to use the facility.” A Merseytravel spokesman said plans for a bridge to connect the park and ride facility were in phase two of the programme due to be completed later this year.

Amanda Pugh, of Liverpool said: “Bedroom tax is disgraceful; it is completely out of order. People are being discriminated against. I’m going to be paying £13 a week for my extra room.”

Jacqueline Hynes, of Liverpool said: “People over 60 aren’t getting looked a� er properly because of a lack of funding. � e government needs to re-assess their actions be-cause the cost of living has gone up, but you can’t a� ord to live.”

Eric and Mary Bache, of Liver-pool said: “Our pension has only got up by £1 which amounts to nothing because everything else has gone up too. My gas bill is an extra £10 a week.”

By David Williamson

Responsible

Life/News/4

£2.7m research to cut smoke deaths

by Sara Ainsworth

Liverpool researchers have been awarded £2.7m to explore the fatal effects of smoke inhalation from cooking in a bid to reduce death rates. The Liverpool School of Trop-ical Medicine and Aintree Uni-versity hospital have teamed up to lead the investigation on how to reduce the effects of smoke inhalation from open fi res by supplying people with effi cient biomass cook stoves that reduce smoke emissions and exposures. The trial will be conducted in Malawi and involve 156 villages. All households with a child under four and a half years of age will be entitled to two Phillips fan assisted stoves and the research will be carried out for two years. Dr Kevin Mortimer, a Res-piratory Consultant at Aintree University Hospital and a Sen

ior Clinical Lecturer at LSTM said: “It is the poorest people in the world who use open fi res in their homes, which are often basic structures with poor ventilation. “The harmful effects of the smoke inhalation lie between passive and active cigarette smoking. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an example of one of these harm-ful effects and is an area of great clinical and academic expertise at Aintree University Hospital.” In Malawi approximately seven million households depend on bi-omass as their main source of fuel. Smoke from burning biomass in open fi res causes many health problems including chronic lung disease, lung cancer, heart disease, stillbirth and low birth weight which cause a total of four million deaths. In addition to this, a cook-ing fi re fuelled by wood emits 400

cigarettes worth of smoke in just an hour. Infant death rates are a growing problem in Malawi de-spite making progress towards the Millennium Development goal of reducing child mortality rates. Pneumonia which can be caused by smoke inhalation accounts for 30% of deaths in children under 5 each year. Dr Mortimer said: “The cook-stoves burn the same fuel used in the open fi res but much more effi -ciently, which reduces the amount of smoke emitted by around nine-ty per cent. The implications could be enormous and benefi t millions of people around the world.” The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) was launched in 2010 to give families access to clean affordable energy. A target of the alliance is for 100 million homes to adopt clean and effi cient stoves and fuels by 2020.

by Lauren Kelly

Around 70 employees work-ing at Liverpool training pro-vider Scientiam were informed on Monday that they will lose their jobs after the compa-ny went into administration. The fi rm, based in Hanover Street One, appointed adminis-trators on Monday after several meetings with external assessors. The board of Liverpool-based training provider Scientiam ap-pointed Tim Askham and Rob-ert Adamson, both of Mazars as joint administrators who said; “The appointment reluctantly followed an internal review sup-ported by advice from the exter-nal auditors which concluded that Scientiam had become insolvent and could not continue its opera-tions. Learner numbers not reach-ing targets coupled with claw backs of previously advanced funding combined to drain Sci-entiam of its cash resources.” For over ten years Scientiam have become one of the largest training schemes in the region providing invaluable advice and skills to young unemployed peo-ple hoping to work in construc-tion, retail, catering and manage-ment sectors. It has worked with the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency to de-liver a range of Government-fund-ed programs to young people. Scientiam are currently provid-ing training for 700 people, most of which are aged between 16- 18 but the end of its operations will mean that these young people will have to seek help from other organizations. However adminis-trators have said that they are in discussions with other funding agencies who may be interested in

More job misery as 70 facethe axe

Family of Oliver King in e-petition victoryby Joe Lanigan SmithThe Oliver King Foundation e-pe-tition for lifesaving Defi brillators in schools and public buildings has reached 100,000 signatures. The matter can now be de-bated in Parliament as long as enough MP’s agree to approach the Back Bench Business com-mittee. All Liverpool MP’s as well as shadow health secretary Andy Burnham are currently on-board with the campaign as are many more around the country. The government would then have to consider whether it should be mandatory require-ment for defi brillators to be installed in all public places. The foundation was set up in memory of the 12-year-old

Childwall boy who died when his heart stopped as he swam in the pool at King David high school, in March, 2011. Up to 700 people a year – mainly chil-dren and young people – are thought to die from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) every year in the UK. Aims of the foundation include in-troducing defi brillators to all public buildings by 2017, and providing staff with the appropriate training. Training would be provided for all young people working in a sporting environment be-tween 15 and 35 and it is hoped this could reduce the current death rate by 12 people a week. In Liverpool, 122 Primary schools now have lifesaving defi brilla-

tors fi tted and this is all because of the campaign’s tireless work. Labour Councillor for the Wa-vertree area, Jake Morrison who was instrumental in setting up the petition, told the Liverpool Echo: “Mark and Oliver’s family are absolutely delighted with the news that the petition has now received over 100,000 signatures. Did we ever think that we would reach the fi gure we needed? No I honestly didn’t, but we’re so overwhelmed by all the support. “We have done it. It has been a long and really busy 12 months, but we have the support of the British public. Our job is now to take this back to the Government and work towards legislation which will save lives.” Tragic: Schoolboy Oliver King

by Alice KirklandA measles outbreak has been de-clared in the North West of Eng-land as over 700 cases of the vi-rus were recorded in Liverpool in the fi rst nine months of last year. This increase in outbreaks has been put down to the knock on effect of the Autism scare nearly 15 years ago when Dr Andrew Wakefi eld believed he had found a link between the MMR (mea-sles, mumps and rubella) vac-cine and the mental condition. Within six years the re-search had been discredited but the seed of doubt had al-ready been sown in the minds of parents around the country. This resulted in a drop in the up-take of vaccinations imple-mented. By 2004 only 80% of all children aged between one and two had received the two-stage vaccination; a fi gure down from 92% previously. The implica-

tions of this have seen an increase month on month of the num-ber of outbreak cases recorded. The number of children receiving the MMR vaccine has increased each year since 2004 but the fi gure is still below that of the 95% which the World Health Organisation be-lieves is needed to make it almost impossible for the virus to spread. Other areas which have noticed a number of outbreaks of the vi-rus includes the South East and London, which recorded around 400 cases, and the North East and Wales where about 80 cases were documented between them. Dr Mark Ford explaind why the virus is more prevalent in some areas than others; “It’s a combination of bad luck, as the virus can get a foothold in an area, but also what we call ‘herd immunity’. “This is where a group of peo-ple have not immunised due to the

hang over from the autism scare. This group of children, usually no older than their early teens, are of a large enough scale for the virus to get a foothold and spread.” In an attempt to prevent fur-ther outbreaks the NHS and the Health Protection Agency have organised a series of sessions in schools to immunise children who did not receive the MMR vaccine when they were younger. Jane Cloud, whose son Jack, 12, came down with measles on New Year’s Day this year,said: “If I’d had him immunised this would never have happened. While it’s readily available if you haven’t had your children vacci-nated before get them done now.” Anyone can contract the vi-rus, which is passed on by direct contact, but it is most common in children, especial-ly those aged between one and two years old. Early stages of

symptoms are not uncommon to those of a cold, but within four days a rash appears on the skin. Although measles is usually a mild virus, and like chickenpox can only be caught once, it can have long lasting, and sometimes fatal, consequences for the victim In 2000, 1,500 cases were report-ed in Dublin, of which 100 children were admitted to hospital. Six of these found themselves in the In-tensive Care Unit, three later died. The MMR vaccine also prevents the contraction of mumps and ru-bella. Of the three viruses mumps is the most common, with over 50,000 cases reported in 2005. Rubella, on the other hand, is very rare but can have serious implications. Anyone under 25 who has not been vaccinated is advised to do so and those who believe they have contracted the virus should seek medical as-sistance as soon as possible.

Measles outbreak in North West confi rmed

Streets on big stageby Alice Kirkland

Scenes of one of Liverpool’s most iconic streets were shown dur-ing Sunday night’s Super Bowl as part of a trailer for an up-coming Hollywood blockbuster. Filming took place back in No-vember for the sixth Fast and the Furious instalment as stunt cars and extras took to Dale Street and the surrounding areas. Although none of the stars were present during the Liverpool fi lm-ing hype quickly spread across so-cial networks as crowds gathered to watch the high speed chases. The trailer, which features Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, was viewed by 71,000 people within the Superdome and over 100 million world-wide during America’s big-gest sporting event of the year. The much-anticipated half time show also featured trailers for Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness, as well as a spectac-ular performance by Beyoncé. Advertisement slots dur-ing the show are widely re-garded as the most lucra-tive time for commercials.

Dr Andrew Wakefi eld

A Malawi woman cooking on an open fi re

Life/News/5

Volcano climb in memory of Naomi

Angie McCartneyvisits Royal patients

by Michaela Shaw

A Merseyside high school has launched a charity which aims to enable disabled pupils to take part in various sports.

The Mosslands School in Wal-lasey has created ‘The Moss-lands Embrace Charity’ follow-ing a successful year for disabled sports with the Paralympics 2012.

It aims to raise money for spe-cially adapted wheelchairs which will allow disabled children the opportunity to get involved in sports.

Tom Keggin, one of the char-ity leaders, said: “Last term a group of our pupils enjoyed a trip to The Oval Leisure Centre in Bebington for a Paralympics Day with other schools from the North West.

“After this we decided to launch the charity to get more suitable sports wheelchairs for students, and to try and involve the whole school in the cam-paign.”

Many of the activities the pu-pils can partake in with these special wheelchairs would nor-mally be restricted due to their disability, but the charity aims to give them a new found freedom.

The new adapted wheelchairs are lighter and faster than the average ones, allowing the pu-pils to move more easily in PE lessons.

As well as raising money, the school hopes to raise awareness of disability and sports across the county, but the main ambi-tion is to raise enough funds for six of the speciality wheelchairs needed to get pupils involved in sport, at a total cost of £3,000.

The charity also wants to focus on encouraging able-bodied pu-pils to participate in sport with fellow pupils who are disabled, enhancing the experience for both.

Tom added: “We are an in-clusive school and felt that we wanted to offer more sports to our pupils with special education needs.

“The wheelchairs will really enhance our disabled pupils’ experience and participation in both PE and extra-curricular sports.”

Pupil-led fundraising events such as cake sales and non-uni-form days are already under way and another Paralympics Day for Wirral schools.

Merseyschool launches disablitycharity

by Rory O’Reilly

Sir Paul McCartney’s step-mother Angie gave pa-tients at the Royal Hospital’s Linda McCartney Centre a pleasant surprise when she dropped in to pay a brief visit. Angie was visiting Liverpool

from LA last week to promote her new memoir ‘My Long and Winding Road’ and took time out of her schedule to visit the centre where she was shown around by staff.Chris Holcombe, clinical di-

rector of cancer services at the

Linda McCartney Centre, gave Angie the guided tour. He said: “Angie has been a brilliant sup-porter of the centre for some years now, kindly sending over donations every year from the sale of her tea line, so we were really looking forward to fi nally meeting her.“Without the continued sup-

port we receive from individ-uals like Angie, businesses and other organisations, we simply wouldn’t be able to maintain our position at the forefront of innovative treatment and care.”The Linda McCartney Centre

began its life as a nursing col-lege when the Royal Liverpool University Hospital was built in the 1970s but, once nurse train-ing was transferred to John Moores University, it became under-utilised. It re-opened in 2000, bringing

together a state of the art breast assessment unit, a purpose built chemotherapy unit, an outpatient unit and a research and development department to oversee over 500 different forms of research within the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

by Hayley Minn

A man from Bootle has decided to climb an active volcano in In-donesia to raise money for ward 10z in Liverpool Royal Hospital, in memory of his friend, Naomi Daly.

Scott Stringer, 25, made the de-cision to climb Mount Semeru to raise money for ward 10z just two weeks ago after seeing one of his friends, who lives in Indonesia, post a picture of the volcano up on Facebook, with the caption, “Some of my mates are going to climb this in August. Anyone’s welcome to join.”

Naomi was diagnosed with lym-phoma and leukaemia, and passed away 16 months later, at the age of 21, and ward 10Z at the Liv-erpool Royal Hospital is the day care ward that looked after her fol-lowing her stem cell transplant in February last year.

A close friend of Naomi, Scott said: “Naomi started the work that both me and Naomi's whole fam-ily wish to continue, which is to refurbish and improve the condi-tions on this ward. It was a cause very close to her heart and now close to mine. She was absolute-ly the most amazing, kindest, best inspirational person I’ve ever met. She’d call me crazy for doing this, but she’d call me crazy anyway.”

Having never fl own abroad be-fore, Scott will have to endure an eighteen hour fl ight to Indonesia on his own, in order to meet the group of people he will be climb-ing up the 60ft tall volcano with, which erupts every 20 minutes, and takes over two days to reach the summit. However he insists that he is not scared about any-thing.

He said: “I went up Snowdon when I was 12, but Snowdon’s easy. I’ve got no fear at all. Noth-

ing can scare me. I’ve got two motorbikes, I’ve been in fast cars, I’ve had lots of piercings and tat-toos and none of that’s bothered me. Nothing bothers me.”

A lover of tattoos, Naomi want-ed a tattoo of a cancer research ribbon, with the words “You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice” written across it. However, as she was unable to get it, Scott got it for her. The tattoo parlour where he had it, 3 Sixes Tattoo, are holding a charity day soon, where anyone can get a tattoo of a charity sym-bol, and make a donation, rather than paying for the tattoo.

Having already raised £464.25, Scott has already got some other challenges planned for before the climb, including kayaking Leeds & Liverpool Canal, a Race for Life in a Pikachu onesie, and he is even looking in to doing a mankini car wash.Scott described Naomi as amazing, kind and inspirational

Scott Stringer plans to climb the volcano Mount Semeru in Indonesia - despite it being active - after seeing a friend post about it on Facebook

SURPRISE VISIT: Angie McCartney at the Royal Liverpool Hospital last week

Life/Style/6

Despite the gay marriage debate causing a split in the House of Commons, people on the streets of Merseyside believe we should move with the times and accept gay marriage ...

“All I can say is that it will happen eventually but it needs careful thought and discussion before they make it law.” Jeff Burrows, 70.

“In true love to make a commitment like marriage cannot be denied no matter what gender.” Vincent Gilligan, 61.

“Personally I don’t like David Cameron but he’s right, being with someone of the same sex is legal so why shouldn’t someone be able to marry the person they love?” Becca Mcgann, 19.

“Well, I would agree with David Cameron. “These are modern times and people should be allowed to do as they want. It seems strange for it not to be already legal as this is the 21st century. “People are people and should be allowed to love and marry whoever they want.”

Mary Burgess, 20.

“I think it should be legalised too. “It is between those two human beings if they want to make a commitment to each other. “They should have access to same benefi ts enjoyed by heterosexual couples. “It is discrimination not to allow it.”

Gareth Deary, 39.

“I agree because everyone deserves to be treated equal-ly, gay or straight.”

Melissa Mulvey, 34

“I think gay marriage should be legalised because if you love someone, you love someone. It doesn’t matter if it’s female-female, male-male, dog-cat, it doesn’t really matter. So yeah I think they should. It’s about love,

religion shouldn’t matter, it’s old fashioned. If you love someone you love them, you can’t help your feelings.”

Kate Quinn, 24

“I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be legalised. “It’s each to their own; no-one should be discriminated against.”

Amy, 21

‘In true love making a commitment cannot be denied’

Will we ever learn to lovegay marriage?

As Parliament discusses both sides of the argument, Rosie Cameron and Vanessa Gainford report on the same sex marriage bill

A heated debate over the same sex marriage bill has split Conservative MPs.

The debate today (Tuesday) was met with a wave of anger amongst a selection of the Tory party. David Cameron is facing an army of his own party arguing against the same sex marriage bill, with a number of Tory MP’s expect-ed to vote in opposition.

A national newspaper re-corded a list of 118 Tory MPs who have expressed their disapproval of the bill, in comparison to the 14 Labour MPs who will vote against.

George Osborne, William Hague and Theresa May made a late appeal to Con-servative MPs not to oppose gay marriage, insisting it “is the right thing to do at the right time”.

Locally within the Conserv-ative party there is a clear

split with Tory MP for Ches-ter, Stephen Mosley, stating he will be voting in favour. However Tory MP for Wirral West, Esther McVey, has said she will be voting against the bill.

With Liverpool having the second largest Pride event outside of London, it is evident that there has been a strong reaction from the city.

Star of E4’s reality show Desperate Scouse Wives, Jaiden Micheal was renowned for his honesty on the pro-gramme.

He said: “I believe that anyone, regardless of sex, race, and religion should be allowed to marry anyone they

choose to. I think it’s ridicu-lous how a government has the power to basically dictate someone’s future.

“I do however understand the religious argument as in history, same sex relation-ships were not allowed in the church. So why not legalise gay marriage then leave it up to an individual church to choose if they want to allow the marriage to take place there?

“Making gay marriage ‘il-legal’ makes it sound terrible and wrong just by using that one word. It also promotes homophobia in a world where there is already enough of it.”

The passing of the bill

would result in all religious organisations being able to opt in to holding cere-monies with the Church of England and the Church in Wales’ agreement to change canon law. It would also allow couples who had previously entered into civil partnerships to convert their relationship into a marriage.

LJMU law student, Nathan Selby said: “Equal marriage is about bringing the UK in line with morality - legislating to say that the UK believes that, in terms of marriage, all citizens are equal - and - in a sense - that one instance of love is no greater or lesser than another.

“I hope that this Bill passes today. If it does, it will further cement our status as a modem and equal society.”

Over 120 Conservative backbenchers are expected to reject the Prime Minis-ter’s proposal, arguing that legalising same sex marriage would mean the primary purpose and role of marriage will be lost and marriage’s role in assisting heterosexual couples bring up children will be undermined.

Tory MP, Esther McVey, has a large Catholic community in her Wirral West constitu-ency. She wrote in a letter in July: “I remain concerned that re-defi ning marriage is unnec-essary given the established legal rights, which effectively mirror marriage, for same-sex couples through civil partner-ships. I presently intend to vote against the measure if it

comes before Parliament.”Right-winger MP David

Jones and Liverpool fan made clear his opposition in an email to a constituent in March. He said: “I believe marriage is an institution ordained to sanctify a union between a man and a woman. If a vote is called, I shall vote in accordance with my beliefs.”

David Cameron has argued with the support from the vast majority of Labour and Lib-eral Democrat MPs believes that the wording of the bill will ensure that the Church of England and the Church in Wales will not face any legal challenges to their strong stated opposition to holding same-sex marriages.

Labour Leader, Ed Millib-and, said: “I’ll be voting for equal marriage, Proudly,”

The vote will be at 7:00pm

Liverpool

LifeRocky Horror’s 40th showdown

Maloney X Factor tour date

What’s On...

Ben Forster as Brad and Roxanne Pallett as Janet

Life/Style/7

by Lauren Murphy

SCOUSER and X Factor fi nalist, Christopher Maloney, will return to the city tomorrow as the X Factor Live Tour 2013 comes to Liverpool.The singer, from Kirkdale, who took third place in the competition, last night tweeted: “Rite gonna get some sleep on the tour bus and when I wake up I’ll be in LIVERPOOL ‘is rite’ xx.”Accompanying Christopher on the tour will be Celebrity Big Brother winner Rylan Clarke, and X Factor 2012 winner James Arthur. Also performing live on stage in the countrywide tour will be Ella Henderson, Jahmene Douglas and boybands Union J and District 3.The tour, kicked off on 27th January in Manchester.

New Jersey Nights gets Empire crowd on feetby Josh Parry

With audience participation from the word go, singers Jon Hawkins, Duncan Heather, Ricky Rojas and Damion Scarcella brought the famous songs of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to a full house at the Liverpool Empire.

Set in a ’60s bar, the boys were supported by a trio of female backing dancers who acted as an on-stage audience in ‘New Jersey Nights’.

With slicked-back hair and impressive dance moves, the cast brought the audience to their feet with the Four Season’s number-one hit, Sherry.

From then on in it was a high-tempo showcase with hits such as ‘My Girl’, ‘Be My Baby’ and ‘Da Do Ron Ron’ the singers’ pitch-perfect voices reached even

the highest of notes in true Four Seasons style.

The only hitch in the show came when singer Duncan Heather was unable to sing a ‘D’ note- however it was handled with such good humour, and much ribbing from his fellow cast, that it could have almost been scripted.

Before the interval, the backing dancers proved they were fantastic

singers in their own right with a rendition of The Ronettes’ Be My Baby which left the audience wanting more. Aside from the fl awless dancing and the fantastic singing, what really made New Jersey Nights stand out was the cast’s natural rapport and interaction with the audience. By the end of the show, the whole of the Empire was on their feet.

by Hayley Minn

Cult musical The Rocky Horror Show will come to Liverpool Empire next week as part of its nationwide tour celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Directed by Christopher Luscombe, the show sees West End star Oliver Thornton, who has appeared in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Chicago and Starlight Express, as the lead character of Frank-N-Furter.

The tour also stars double-platinum selling artist, Rhydian, who shot to fame on X Factor, before starring in We Will Rock You and Grease, as Rocky, former Emmerdale and Waterloo Road actress Roxanne Pallett as Janet and Ben Forster, who won the ITV series Superstar and then went on to play the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar, as Brad.

The Richard O’Brien musical tells the story of a group of college students whose broken-down car forces them into the house of Dr Frank’n’Furter, where they meet his menagerie of sci-fi /horror send-up companions. It has a fi ercely loyal following who regularly don fancy dress to attend performances and screenings of the 1975 fi lm adaptation, and it is one of the only musicals known for audience participation, with

audiences bringing props with to shows.

Directed by Christopher Luscombe; the show, which fi rst appeared at the Royal Court in 1973, was voted “favourite Royal Court Play” in the venue’s 50th anniversary year and was an immediate success, transferring to three London theatres.

This tour has already performed to rave reviews in Brighton and London. It runs at the Liverpool Empire from 11 to 16 February.

MusicEcho Arena

6th February:X Factor Live TourJames Arthur, Rylan Clark, Ella Henderson, Christopher Maloney, Union J and Dis-trict3 all hit the Echo arena on Wednesday 6th February for the Liverpool leg of the X Factor 2013 tour.Tickets: £32.50

Ella Henderson on Twitter

O2 Academy

12th February:Therapy?: The band play the O2 Academy as part of their head-line tour. Tickets: £15

1st December:Jake Bugg: You may have heard his debut single Lightning Bolt resonating from your radio re-cently and now Jake Bugg is vis-iting Liverpool on his fi rst UK Tour, supported by Valerie June. Valerie is visiting from a small town in Tennessee, and performs an amalgamation of blues, folk, soul, gospel, Appalachian and bluegrass. Tickets: £13.75

Family St George’s Hall

11th-23rd FebruaryThe Narnia Experience is “In Another Place’s” acclaimed interactive production which brings the story’s characters to life. After a highly successful production at the Old Christ Church in 2009 they will be transforming the whole of Saint Georges Great Hall into the fantasy land with trees being imported; Mr Tumnus and Mrs Beaver’s homes being created; the Professor’s study being built and the White Witch’s throne room constructed. And young and old will delight at the grand model of Aslan himself.

Do you have an event for our What’s On guide? Contact Liverpool Life on liverpoollifenews@gmail.com

© Mitchypop. Flickr

Oliver Thornton as Frank-N-Furter

ClubbingCamp and Furnace

Saturday 9th FebruaryBedrock Warehouse Party John Digweed will headline this Saturday at Camp and Furnace, alongside a DJ set from Friendly Fires, Greg Wilson, and other outstanding guests. Bass, funk, disco, techno and house will echo across the city’s quirkiest venue in the latest event brought to you by organisers ‘Freeze’.

Set list:Main Room:John Digweed (Extended set)Jemmy

Room 2 hosted by WaxxxFriendly Fires (DJ Set)Greg WilsonMark E - MercAdele Moss – mUmUThomas Tuft - 3B Records/Juice FMMr Paul - Waxxx / Discoteca Poca

ComedyLiverpool Empire Theatre

10th February:Harry Hill LiveHarry Hill’s TV burp scooped three BAFTA awards and two British Comedy awards, and now he brings all the hilarity of his observational style to Liverpool. Sausage Time is set to offer “incontrovertible proof that God exists” and brings back some of TV Burp’s favourite characters including Harry’s Nan and Stouffer the Cat. The Telegraph branded TV Burp “consistently one of the funniest shows on air” amongst other corresponding praise from the press.So expect a usual loony performance from the king of Saturday night TV, including an all-singing all-dancing fi nale and a giant sausage.Tickets: £34.50

Life/Style/8

WET WEATHER WEARSOUR TOP MENSWEAR PICKS FOR THE GREAT BRITISH WINTER

Just like Nanna used to knitKeep Warm and stay on-trend with this bobble hat and mittens combo from Topman. Total Cost: £24. topman.com

Stay BrightNo matter how dull it is outside, you’re sure to feel bright in this Topman Shibuya jacket. £65 topman.com

Wax LyricalFor heavier storms, this waxed

Barbour TO KI TO jacket is ideal. A limited edition, with signature

Barbour tartan lining.£399 weaversdoor.co.uk

Give it some wellyThese hard-wearing but comfortable wellies are ideal for long winter walks in the snow.£75 landaustore.co.uk

Keeps you SuperdryThis black superdry umbrella is

sure to keep you sheltered from all weathers.

£24.99 superdry.com

Put the boot inThese leather Superdry boots will keep your feet warm and dry in the cold.£84.99 weaversdoor.co.uk

By Josh Parry

Give winter the cold shoulderThis thick knitted jumper from Burton features shoulder and elbow patches.£25 burton.co.uk

Life/Style/9

Time to celebrate Year of the Snake

Lauren Kelly reports on the Chinese New YearThe people of Liverpool are in vited to take part in a weekend of extravagant and fun events as the Chinese community of Liverpool celebrate the Chinese New Year across the city. Lasting 15 days, Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festival of all Asian traditional holidays with the dates changing each year in accord-ance with the Lunisolar Chinese calendar. Families all across Asia and the rest of the world will gather to-gether this weekend to exchange presents, have parties and indulge themselves in traditional Chinese cuisine and clothing. On Sunday the always spec-tacular parade will take place in Chinatown as a special lion, unicorn and dragon dance will make its way through the crowds, who can enjoy the selection of food and gifts available at the Chinese market. Chinese New Year’s Day will say goodbye to the Year of the Dragon and welcome the Year of the Snake, the sixth of twelve

signs in the Chinese Zodiac years. Whilst Dragon years are characterized as dramatic, full of lavish and unpredictable events, astrology predicts the year of the Snake will be fi lled with a new sense of peace. Ancient Chinese wisdom says that snakes are a sign of wisdom and people born in the year of the Snake are the most intuitive, hardworking and ambitious in everything they do. However, the Snakes are often believed to be sneaky because of their tendency to fi nd loopholes in order to get what they want. This weekend the city’s streets and museums will be turned into a dancing, singing and performing extravaganza as activities are planned to take place on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday a special Tai Chi demonstration, one of the most intense forms of martial arts will be held on Nelson Street between 12:30 and 3pm. Or alternatively there is the option to pop over to Williamson Square and watch Arts Academy, China Pearl’s

performance, a warm up and introduction for the main event on Sunday. For the Chinese at home, Chinese New Year is the most exciting festival of the year, exchanging gifts and spending quality time with family. Qi Jiang who is studying MA International Journalism at LJMU told Liverpool Life that she is feeling very homesick at the minute because she is missing the celebrations. However she and her friends are trying to bring a little bit of home to Liverpool and have bought festive gold and red decorations for their house. They are also all getting together on Saturday and are going to make a variety of Chinese foods just like she would do at home with her family. One student, Cai Jiajia, said: “I am actually looking forward to the celebrations as my brother is fl ying to Liverpool from China. I am going to take him and the rest of my friends to Chinatown to see the dancing dragon and the fun fair.” LJMU students who will be celebrating the Chinese New Year in Liverpool

Life/Sport/10

Liverpool Taekwondo club set for Olympic coaching

by Tara Lamb

Liverpool Academy Taekwondo group has been selected for a national coaching pro-gramme that could mean Olympic success in years to come.

The group, based in West Derby Road, Tuebrook, has been selected to pilot the new Talent Athletes Programme initiative beating thousands of WTF (Olympic-style) taekwondo clubs all over the UK.

The ‘Talent Club’ initiative comes on the back of great success for taekwondo in the UK after Jade Jones won the fi rst ever taek-wondo gold medal at the London Olympics last summer.

Since the introduction of Sport England

funding in March 2011, the sole focus has been on athletic development.

Its purpose now is to drive athletic per-formance improvements and develop future taekwondo champions and Olympic stars for Rio in 2016.

Great Britain Taekwondo aim to work with Liverpool Academy Taekwondo to build a structure that provides high quality training environments for talented athletes on a daily basis.

GB Taekwondo coach education lead, Craig Richards, said: “GB Taekwondo has recognised the great work carried out by the Liverpool Academy and have selected them as one of two clubs within the UK to pilot the talent club initiative.

“It is now the ambition of the GB talent development programme to drive athletic performance through enhanced club envi-ronments.

“Peter Hankin (chief coach) and his team have a great reputation for running a fantas-tic club, and the athletes the Academy have on our cadet and junior GB talent squads are viable proof of this.”

Richards also outlined the pathway for future competitors based in Liverpool, and signalled how important it is that they are able to work with high quality coaches, as early as possible.

He said: “We look forward to working closely with the Academy to help enhance a structure that provides high quality train-

ing for Liverpool’s talented taekwondo ath-letes.”

Master Peter Hankin, sixth Dan and chief coach at the Academy, said: “This is fantas-tic for the Academy and also for the city.

“Liverpool has a long history of sporting excellence and now taekwondo is able to list itself among the city’s sporting honours.

“We look forward to working with GB Taekwondo and hope that one day the Academy can help in developing a future Olympic Taekwondo champion, just like Jade Jones who struck gold at the London Games.”

Jones made history after winning Olympic gold, and the 19 year-old will compete in the Swedish Open later this week.

Olympic Gold Medallist Jade Jones in action during World Youth Games in 2010

by Rory Kelly

Tranmere Rovers manager Ronnie Moore is ready to give teenager Cole Stockton an opportunity in the club’s fi rst team, as Rovers embark on a promotion push in the next two weeks.,

Striker Stockton, 18, will be asked to lead the attack in the ab-sence of the suspended Jean-Lou-is Akpa Akpro for the next three matches – unless Rovers’ luck in the long search for an experienced target man in the loan market takes a turn for the better.

Moore says he is willing to give Stockton his chance on the strength of the youngster’s en-couraging performances in a suc-cession of substitute appearances and occasional starts in his fi rst season as a professional.

“We are trying to fi nd an expe-rienced, tall striker who can take the weight off the forward players who are not so physically strong – the likes of David Amoo and Michael O’Halloran,” Moore said.

“It may be Cole can do the job. Every time he has played he has done well. If I don’t get anyone in on loan this week, then Cole will start the game at Leyton Orient on Saturday.”

Moore also said that Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro has let the club down after his red card in their 1-0 de-feat to Carlisle.

The Frenchman faces a club fi ne after kicking out at full-back Frank Simek

Moore said: “What a stupid thing for Akpa Akpro to do. He will be fi ned, he let everybody down.”

Stockton to be centre of Rovers attack

by David Williamson

England captain Steven Gerrard has been voted the Football’s As-sociation’s England player of the year.

The 32 year old took the ma-jority of over 180,000 votes from supporters, which is the highest number of votes cast since David Beckham won the award in 2003.

The midfi elder received his award from Sir Bobby Charlton at the FA England awards ceremony at St George’s Park.

Gerrard said: “It means a lot to me when you look at the quality and standard of players in this squad. For me to be picked out to win an individual award is a bonus and something I’m really delight-ed with.

Gerrard joins striker Wayne Rooney and midfi elder Frank Lampard in receiving the award twice.

Jordan Henderson picked up the England Under-21s Player of the Year prize making it a double suc-cess for Liverpool at the awards. Henderson led his team to win six games in six, and qualifi cation for Euro 2013.

It was the fi rst time the prize had ever been handed out, and the Reds youngster faced competition from his Anfi eld team mate Mar-tin Kelly and Manchester United recruit Wilfried Zaha.

Meanwhile, England’s women’s team picked up the Team of the Year award.

FA Awards for Reds pair

Adlington waves goodbyeby Rory O’Reilly

Double Olympic champion Re-becca Adlington confi rmed yes-terday that she has retired from competitive swimming, but has pledged to stay in the pool for the rest of her life.

The 23 year-old’s career has come under immense speculation after claiming two bronze medals in last summer’s Olympic Games. At a press conference yesterday in London, the Mansfi eld-born swim-mer confi rmed she was bringing to an end a glittering career that has brought her Olympic, World, Eu-ropean and Commonwealth titles.

Adlington recalled her 400m and 800m gold medals in Beijing and said she was convinced this was right time to call it a day.

“Beijing changed my entire life, everyone wanted to learn about me. It was the best moment of my entire career and I am so glad my

(800m) world record still stands. But it’s time. I certainly can’t compete with that (younger swim-mers). I can’t do the same level of work, I need far more time for re-covery,” she said.

“I am so glad my world record still

stands - but I certainly can’t compete with younger swimmers”

Last summer, she feared she had disappointed the nation after claiming two bronze medals in London but the reception at the medal ceremony for the longer race moved her to tears, the crowd at the Aquatics Centre chanting her name.

“I certainly can’t compete with [younger swimmers],” added Adlington. “I can’t do the same level of work, I need far more time for recovery. It’s time.”

Since claiming the 800 metres freestyle silver medal at the 2006 European Championships, Adling-ton has won titles at Olympic, world, European and Common-wealth level. There have also been lows, fourth in the 800m at the 2009 worlds in Rome was devas-tating to Adlington, coming a year after Beijing.

She soon acknowledged she had not done the endurance training required for distance swimming because of all the invitations that had come her way since Beijing.

to her drive, single-mindedness and talent.

Her down-to-earth personality and remarkable career achieve-ments have made her a national treasure.Rebecca Adlington waves to fans at the Olympics

JMU aiming for champions trophy

by Ryan McCann

by Ian Bolland

by Tara Lamb

Life/Sport/11

JMU Men’s Gaelic football team will travel to Birmingham this weekend with the hope of regaining the British Universities Championship. Manager Eoghan Kerr believes it is imperative that the team travel back to Liverpool with the trophy they have won a record number of times.

JMU have dominated British Universities Gaelic football for the last decade and have been crowned champions fi ve times in the last seven years. Last year, however, local rivals Hope University claimed their fi rst ever

title in an emotionally-charged fi nal against JMU.

Kerr said: “Hope are defi nitely our main rivals and have been motivated by our success over the last ten years or so. The rivalry is fi erce and we have to ensure that there isn’t a shift in power. We want to remain the strongest team and the team that everyone fears and the only way to do that will be to win the trophy again.”

“It’s very important to everyone involved, players and managers. For the last decade or so, JMU have dominated Gaelic football in Britain and we owe it to ourselves

and the great players of the past to challenge for this year’s cham-pionship. We were very unlucky not to win it again last year after going nine points up in the fi nal. Throwing away that kind of lead is criminal and we‘ll be wary not to make the same mistakes again.”

JMU have been drawn in a group alongside a much fancied University of Glasgow outfi t and the dark horses for the tourna-ment, St Mary’s London. The other group is made up of Hope University, Northumbria and Napier, who won the title in 2010.

Preparation for the tournament has been hampered by the recent snowfall, but team captain Kieran Harte told Liverpool Life that every team has been affected ahead of the championships and excuses cannot be made.

Harte said: “The preparation has defi nitely been hindered by the snow and constant bad weather, but all the teams are in the same boat. We just have to go down there and do our best in every game and hopefully we can regain the British title. But we are really looking forward to it, it’s always a great weekend and this

year will be no different.”The three-day event begins

with the group games on Friday and the top two teams after the 30-minute blitz games will progress to the semi-fi nal stages the following day. On Sunday, the two fi nalists will go head-to-head in the biggest game on the British Universities calendar, and Harte has no doubts that his JMU side have the ability to go all the way.

Harte added: “I’ve been here for three years and I’ve no doubt that this squad is as good as the previous panels I’ve been involved with.

Tigerslose 21 games on run

Bad weather makes pitch unfi t for play

Liverpool St Helens Rugby Union will face a hard slog both on and off the fi eld as they won’t have played home games at their Moss Lane home for over a month.

Their fi rst XV currently sit sec-ond in a play-off spot which is a point behind Sale with a game in hand. However, bad weath-er including rain, snow and hail stone has halted their push for promotion in the North One West League.

There is also concern at the loss of income the club will suffer fi -nancially due to their second team also playing most of their matches away from home.

Their last outing at Moss Lane came in a 15-13 win over Wilmslow on 12th January but games against Vale of Lune and Rochdale were postponed because of unfi t pitches. Liverpool St Helens will now spend the whole of February on the road playing games away from their Moss Lane ground. This means that they won’t have a home game until 2nd March against Leigh.

The second XV last played at home on 5th January with a 15-10 win over Wilmslow but will not play at Moss Lane again until 2nd March against Vale of Lune.

A statement from John Williams

on their website said: “It is hard to be critical of those who give their time to organise and admin-istrate any sport at this level, not just Rugby, but the situation could have been mitigated by reasona-ble consideration of the needs of member clubs, particularly in the Bateman Premier League, which sets a new set of fi xtures half way through the season. To have all their February fi xtures on the road seems a bit harsh.”

Ray French, president of Liver-pool St Helens Rugby Union said: “I can normally see the funny side of everything but on this occasion I cannot.”

John Moores University Men’s Gaelic football team are hoping to bring back the trophy they have won fi ve times already. and come back as winners.

Teen cross country win by Tara Lamb

Harriet Knowles-Jones has won her tenth successive race to be-come the Northern Counties Cross-Country girls champion af-ter winning the event in Liverpool.

The race, which took place at Knowsley Safari Park, saw run-ner’s ankle deep in snow as they battled out for the championship.

Harriet, from Lymm, won under 15’s category by an impressive 39 seconds.

It is the latest in a series of wins for the youngster, which includ-ed the prominent McCain Cross Country Challenge series in Liv-erpool, Cardiff and Bristol. She also competed in the Aviva Eng-lish Schools Championship last July where she came sixth in the 1500m fi nal.

Harriet is the product of a family with a notable sporting pedigree. Both her parents were internation-al runners and her sister, Emily, 16, is a GB swimmer and Olympic trialist.

Harriet said: “In the short term my hope is to do well at the next three major races – the In-ter-County, the English Schools’ and the National Championships – which are coming up in the next few weeks.

“In the long term my aim is to be selected to run for Great Britain at senior level.”

Daniel Evans took home the crown for the boy’s category, win-ning with a 17 second margin.

The 14-year-old has had a fan-tastic few years which saw him crowned winner at the McCain race in Bristol, as well as fi nish-ing 2nd in the English Schools’ 1500m. He was selected for the

England team as a result, and subsequently came third in a home international competition.Daniel said: “It was a quick race and it wasn’t until I got to the loop at the top of the hill – the � nal 400m – I knew I was going to win.“It was a good feeling I was happy. � e pressure was o� and I was very relieved. I had wanted to win this race and it was great to succeed.”

Mersey Tigers remain bottom of the league, without a win in any of their 21 competitive games this season.

This weekend saw them lose two away fi xtures at London Lions 88-79 and Jelsen Holmes DMU Leicester Riders 84-54.

The Tigers poor season has been a disappointment for the 2011 treble wining side which saw them crowned British Bas-ketball League Champions, Cup Champions and Trophy Champions.

Two years on and this double loss on Friday and Saturday has kept them bottom of the league as they have failed to pick up any points this season.

Their next match will be a home fi xture on Friday at Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park against Glasgow Rocks where they hope to produce a miracle performance to win.

The last time the two teams met was just before Christmas which saw a high scoring match in which Glasgow Rocks won 109-72.

Jones wins © Flickr/AdamKR

LFCcharitygames for all Liverpool FC Foundation, the club’s offi cial charity, has launched a new football pro-gramme that will see fun and competitive tournaments avail-able for thousands of children across the city.

The programme, Football For All, held its fi rst tourna-ment with over 160 youngsters taking part at the Goals Cen-tre in Liverpool. Over 17 local schools were involved.

As well as playing matches, the children were joined by Liverpool FC’s offi cial mascot, Mighty Red, who posed for photos and presented the win-ning medals.

Mark Haig, LFC Foun-dation’s head of operations, said: “Our Football For All programme encourages young people of all ages, ethnic groups and disabilities to use sport as a facilitator to inspire positive change.

“The competitions are a per-fect opportunity for young peo-ple to come together and play in a fun and competitive envi-ronment, which is profession-ally managed, and is another exciting development of our Liverpool FC Foundation.”

The Football For All pro-gramme will provide sporting opportunities for local boys and girls and will consist of regular tournaments as well as a weekly school football league.

The next tournaments will be held at North Liverpool Acade-my on the 18th, 19th and 22nd of February.

by Tara Lamb

LifeSPORTLiverpool

MATCH FIX ALLEGATION BAFFLES REDS

5th February 2013

Liverpool FC are at the centre of match fi xing claims, as reports suggest their Champions League match against Hungarian side Debrecen was part of the match- fi xing scandal recently uncovered by Europol. On Monday, Europol revealed that an organised crime syndicate in Asia had fi xed more than 680 matches worldwide, with one Champions League game played in England being involved. Danish newspaper, Ekstra Bla-det, has suggested that the reports show that Debrecen goalkeeper Vukasin Poleskic had been bribed in their Champions League meet-ing at Anfi eld.

Poleskic is alleged to have been offered money in an attempt to en-sure that there were more than two goals scored in the match. The game ended 1-0 to Liver-pool through a Dirk Kuyt goal de-spite having seven shots on target which he could have conceded. Poleskic was also allegedly paid to fi x Debrecen’s Champi-ons League group game against Fiorentina, which saw the Italian side win 4-3. Debrecen fi nished bottom of the group that year with zero points collected in all of their group games. The Montenegro goalkeeper was banned for two years from all football in 2010 for failing to re-port match fi xing activities.

His ban ended in June 2012 and he has returned to the game to play for Debrecen this season. Rob Wainwright, head of law en-forcement at Europol, has claimed that their 18-month investigation has found that more than £6.9 mil-lion has been made in profi ts and £1.72 million given in bribes to

players and match offi cials from the Singapore-based crime group. Mr Wainwright said: “It would be naive and complacent of those in the UK to think such a criminal conspiracy does not involve the English game and all the football in Europe.

“This is the fi rst time we have established substantial evidence that organised crime is now oper-ating in the world of football. “It is clear that the focus of this investigation has been on other countries, not the United King-dom. However we were surprised by the scale of the criminal enter-prise and just how widespread it was.

“This is a sad day for European football.” There is no suggestion that any-one connected with Liverpool acted improperly in any way and English clubs involved have yet to be contacted by Europol. The FA says they are ‘not aware of any credible reports into suspicious Champions League fi xtures in this country’. Liverpool fans have been having their say on the fan site Red and White Kop. LiverpoolKopKings said: “An-other mud dragging experience is in the offi ng in my opinion. I just wrote to the club urging them to make a meaningful thought-out announcement, to distance our-selves from this.”

KopLord said: “I went to this game and it was dire. If the match fi xing would have been about scoring the least amount of goals possible then I would be wary.” Dr.Beaker said: “Nine hundred and odd games and which one gets the headlines?”

By Tara LambSturridge ruled out of clash with Brazil’s stars

by Tara Lamb

Liverpool striker Daniel Stur-ridge has been ruled out of England’s international against Brazil tomorrow (Wednesday). Sturridge was substituted af-ter suffering a thigh injury in the closing stages of Liverpool’s draw against Manchester City on Sunday. Sturridge attended training with the England squad at St. George’s Park but withdrew himself from the match on Monday after a conversation with Roy Hodgson held only yards away from the national media. Hodgson initially looked stern with Sturridge but ended with a

friendly handshake. Accord-ing to the FA, Hodgson was simply encouraging Stur-ridge to get fi t quick and that he remained in his plans, particularly with important World Cup qualifi ers coming up next month against San Marino and Montenegro. Captain Steven Gerrard is looking forward to the clash against fi ve-time World Cup winners Brazil but has his eye set on the World Cup qualifi ers coming up which will see them fi ght for a place in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Gerrard said: “To play Brazil at Wembley is fantas-tic but there’s already a little

bit in the mind that’s waiting for the Montenegro game be-cause it is going to be a key game. “With all due respect to San Marino, it’s a game we’d be expected to win comfortably.

“Montenegro is a massive game but if we can keep everyone in that list of 25 fi t then I’m really confi dent we can go there and get three points. “I look at this squad and I think you’ll agree it’s the strongest 25 Roy has named, so let’s hope we can improve from the summer and qualify for the World Cup.” Liverpool defender Glen Johnson is also included in

the 25-man squad alongside Everton players Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka and Leon Osman, who retains his place in the squad after his fi rst call-up in the previous friendly against Sweden. Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling has dropped down to the Under-21 squad where he is joined by four of his fellow Liverpool team mates to face Sweden at Walsall’s Bescott Stadium tonight. Jordan Henderson, Jonjo Shelvey, Jack Robinson and Andre Wisdom, as well as Sterling, will be hoping they can maintain the run of form which saw the Under-21’s go the whole of 2012 unbeaten.

England line up in a friendly against Brazil in Qatar’s capital, Doha in 2009. © D@LY3D/Creative Commons

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