ONE STEP CLOSER

The news this week...Regeneration of Toxteth area and High Park Street reservoir isrevealed

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£1,200 computer is stolen from the children’s charity

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Former LJMUstudent comes third in UK bodybuilding Competition

More on page 11

Life www.jmu-journalism.org.uk

Liverpool

20th November 2012

A poster has been put up in a tattoo parlour in Anfi eld to promote the event ‘96 Tattoos for the 96’

tures were gathered in just one hour. Shortly before the petition reached

the 100,000 target, Mrs Williams said on Twitter: “A Big Thank you to everyone who signed the e petition.” She went on to mention the Hillsbor-ough Justice Campaign (HJC) who have helped Hope for Hillsborough (HFH), a group organised by her.

Sheila Coleman, from the Hills-borough Justice Campaign said: “We always felt that it would reach the necessary 100, 000 signatures and this is the fourth time an e-petition regarding Hillsborough has done that. This shows how much love and support there is out there for Anne Williams.”

Debi McMillan, also from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign said: “Everyone’s been incredible in their support yet again, and we would like to thank each and every one of them.”

Despite the original inquest impos-ing a 3:15pm cut off for all victims, Mrs Williams has always insisted that her son was still alive past that time and has gathered evidence from witnesses who desperately attempt-ed to save Kevin’s life, including former WPC Debra Martin who insists that he called out ‘Mum’ as she cradled him in her arms, before dying at 4pm.

Following the release of the Hills-borough Independent Panel’s report in September, fresh hope was given to the victims’ families and survivors of the disaster who have fought for justice, with criminal charges and proceedings now being considered.

Mother’s inquestpetition hits 100,000 target

A group of tattoo artists have or-ganised an event where they plan to tattoo 96 people in one day to raise money for the Hillsborough Justice Fund.

The design for the tattoos will vary in style but will consist of the fi gures ‘96’ in memory of the trag-ic incident where 96 football fans lost their lives at Hillsborough football ground in 1989.

Royal Ink in Anfi eld and their sister tattoo studio Picton tattoos

will run the event on December 16th.

All the tattooists working at the two studios, fi ve in total, will be involved on the day tattooing cus-tomers from 10am until 5pm.

The list to book in to have a tattoo done opened four days ago and the studios have already had a fantastic response, with 40 people booked in already.

Will Holmes, Manager at Royal Ink, Anfi eld, said: “We’ve had a fantastic response so far, we’ve

had emails from Australia with people saying they wish they could be here. Some people from out of town are already booked in. The good thing is Liverpool supporters come from all over.”

The studios are charging a minimum donation of £9.60 on the day but many are predicted to donate more.

Mr Holmes added: “We have had many people in the past getting the fi gures ‘96’ tattooed but we usually charge £30. Even

by Katie Croft

A grieving mother’s dream of bring-ing forward an inquest into her son’s death at Hillsborough has taken a step closer to reality.

Kevin Williams was one of 96 Liv-erpool fans crushed to death at the FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and his moth-er, Anne, has tirelessly campaigned over the past 23 years for her son’s case to be heard by the British justice system.

When she was diagnosed with a terminal illness Anne’s supporters called for a speedy hearing into a fresh inquest for Kevin and launched an online petition on the Directgov e-petitions website.

At 10:53 today the petition, urging the Attorney General to fast track an inquest, reached over 100,000 signa-tures, meaning it must now be con-sidered for debate by MPs.

The Attorney General has said that he will apply to the High Court for fresh Hillsborough inquests next month, but said that the speed of the inquests is not within his power. He has also gone on record as saying that that the inquests of all 96 victims will be held at the same time as “all the deaths arose from a single chain of events”.

The petition had been growing steadily with 60,000 signatures up until Saturday, when a co-ordinated campaign from Liverpool fans ahead of their home match with Wigan managed to gather 40,000 signatures in three days. The fi nal 1,000 signa-

though we have a low cost do-nation charge some people have already donated £40 and more.”

Representatives from Liver-pool’s Hillsborough Justice Fund and Liverpool FC supporters fund will be present at Royal Ink on the day.

Staff at Royal Ink estimate that the event will exceed in raising £1000.

All money raised on the day will be donated to the Hillsborough Justice Fund.

Tattoo artists’ Hillsborough fundraiser

by Joel Richards

Life/News/2

EditorsIan BollandMichaela ShawNews EditorTara LambNewsDavid WilliamsonHannah AshrafArild SkjaevelandHayley MinnFeatures editorAlice KirklandFeaturesRosie CameronSara Ainsworth

Sport editorRory O’ReillySports Eoghain McKaneAndrew McKennaPicture editor Lauren Kelly Copy EditorsJoe Lanigan SmithVanessa Gainford

LifeLiverpool

Team

Stone Agecluesfound in Sefton

New partnershipboosts job marketby Jamie Allen

Two Liverpool colleges have agreed a partnership with Peel Ports Mersey to provide job specifi c training for a new development that is expected to create up to 5,000 jobs. Peel Ports, who run the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal, believe that this new partnership will give a boost to the jobs market in the North West. A company spokesman said: “The agreements with Liverpool Community College and Mersey Maritime Group underline their common commitment to provide job-specifi c training and employment opportunities in maritime and other growth sectors within the Liverpool City Region.” The company hopes that the construction of a new development ,the in-river container terminal 2 will begin in early 2013. The scheme is expected to bring in up to 5,000 new jobs There are hopes that the majority of these jobs will go to a local skilled workforce. They said: “The focus of Peel Port’s partnership with Liverpool Community College and Mersey Maritime Group is to ensure that the local skills base matches employment opportunities as jobs come on stream.” Peel Ports hope that this will be the start of a bright future for the Port of Liverpool and the Liverpool region in general. Gary Hodgson, Managing Director of Peel Ports Mersey, said: “Investing in a highly skilled workforce is key to our business development strategy. “Partnering with local education providers we are laying really solid foundations on which we can build a sustainable and thriving future.” Maritime industry has played a large role in the history of Liverpool and the Mersey Maritime Group believes

that it is important to carry on this tradition. Jim Teasdale, Chief Executive of Mersey Maritime Group said: “The

maritime sector is part of the life blood of this region, and the sector is more successful now than it has ever been.

“It will further strengthen our ability to meet demand for engineering skills as the Port of Liverpool grows.” Peel Ports Mersey announced Lend

by Jamie Allen

A settlement dating back to the Stone Age has been uncovered in Merseyside by the Environment Agency. Experts are calling the discovery ‘signifi cant’ because it might give clues that will change what historians and archaeologists think about the Metholitic period of time. The settlements were found in Lunt Meadow, Sefton, and are believed to have contained a large amount of Flint and other utensils. Liverpool Museum archaeologist Ron Cowell told the Echo: “This fi nd, in archaeological terms, is quite signifi cant and potentially of national importance. It’s by far way above in importance that I have worked with in more than 30 years of archaeology.” The fl int which was discovered suggests that there was quite a large settlement of people with some of the material originating from North Wales and possibly Derbyshire. These settlers were thought to be the fi rst native people of Britain, Mr. Cowell said: “They did this during the period when the land was breaking off Europe into an island.” Three structures were also discovered that were confi rmed, through carbon date testing, to be from around 5800BC making them almost 8,000 years old. The area is currently undergoing a project to increase the amount of wildlife; Lunt Meadows project is due to be completed next year but is already showing signs of improvement with a number of other species starting to make use of the newly created habitats. Once the project is fi nished it will be run by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the Museum of Liverpool will catalogue any fi ndings from the project.

by Kate Molyneux A Liverpool student is searching for volunteers to climb Everest with him for charity.

Dominic Edwards is looking for 20 students at Liverpool John Moores University, to fundraise money to climb Mount Everest next year for Dig Deep charity.

The 20 students will face physical and mental challenges as they climb as a team to the Everest Base Camp. Dominic, who is a 21 year-old student at JMU, said he is excited to get started. “I can’t wait to start fundraising and I would

pitch this to anyone. It’s mainly the desire to get involved and if they have any experience in fundraising or events that would help.”

The Everest charity event will be a 21-day trek with an extra eight days for spare time. The three-week trek consists of two days of hiking, followed by one day of acclimatisation so that the volunteers can cope with oxygen levels and be able to stay together as a team.

Dominic added: “The type of person you need to be to get involved is outgoing but also knows how to understand other people’s

Mount Everest wants you

New container terminal development at the port of Liverpool will create 5000 jobs

Lease as the main contractor for the development and is expected to be fi nished and fully functioning by 2015.

needs. We don’t want people to run up the mountain, look down and say ‘hurry up everyone else.’ We want really good teamwork skills, and able to help others because to be honest you can only go as fast up the mountain as-quick-as the slowest person.”

The fundraising for the event will include street event techniques, a half marathon and also a humorous ‘Take Me Out’ night at Baa Bar in Liverpool. Each volunteer will need to raise around £2500 each: 40% will go towards the Everest climb, and 60% of the money raised with go to the charity

Dig Deep.This small charity helps

communities in Kenya to have clean water, improve sanitation and renewable energy, such as wells and other technologies.

There are still places to get involved and Dominic also added it will help students personally. “It’s a great opportunity and charity to get involved with. It will help to enhance my leadership skills, because my future job is to go into football coaching; but it is good for young students so they can enhance their CV and develop skills like managing events.”

Students from Manchester and Liverpool universities climbed Mount Snowdon as a fi nale to a week of charity events. The students braved Snowdon’s November weather to climb the peak as part of Charity Week. Jasmina Hamdaoui, of JMU Islamic Society said: “Charity Week is a fantastic opportunity to allow students across university to unite and get involved in raising funds for a worthy cause.”

Port of Liverpool’s largest intake in 20 years

Students on Snowdon. © Richard Eves

Life/News/3

Thieves who targeted a Liverpool children’s charity have stolen vital information needed to help families this Christmas.

The robbery came just two weeks after KIND launched its Christmas appeal. A £1,200 computer was taken from the KIND SEED Centre, based between the city centre and Toxteth, at around half past seven on Tuesday night.

Two phone calls were made to the police by locals who noticed a win-dow was smashed.

KIND works with disadvantaged children and families and aims to give them opportunities and experi-ences that some may take for grant-ed.

Stephen Yip, founder of KIND, said: “The only good thing is they didn’t physically get in. They smashed the window and because the computer is by the window they just pulled the computer out.”

The robbers broke through the street level window on Back Can-ning Street and pulled the computer through the bars on the window.

The computer was a top of the range Apple iMac and because of its slim nature was easily pulled through the metal bars.

Stephen Yip said: “Because they didn’t get in the alarm didn’t go off. You don’t expect people to come through the window when there are bars on it!”

The most valuable thing lost to the charity is the information which was on the computer.

KIND’s Christmas appeal gives food hampers and toy hampers to families in need over Christmas. On the computer was the families that have asked for help and that need help. It also contained the details of volunteers that have come forward to help KIND in their Christmas appeal and those wanting to donate.

Mr Yip said: “It’s rather brutal real-ly. It’s just a pain because it’s what’s on the computer that’s the most im-portant thing. We can fundraise for a new computer but we’ve got to try and get all this information.”

The charity is now concerned they will lose contact with these people so Stephen Yip has urged anyone who contacted them lately about the Christmas appeal to get back in touch.

Just a week before the robbery, KIND’s city centre store was closed down leaving the charity worried for the success of its 37th Christmas ap-peal.

Stephen Yip took to social net-working site Facebook today to ex-press his thanks to everyone who is helping them through this diffi cult time.

He said, “All at KIND would like to say a big thank you to everyone for their support regarding the break in at the Centre. When horrible things like this happen the only upside is we fi nd out that there are so many more good and Kind people in this world.”

For more information or to donate to KIND please visit www.kind.org.uk. If anyone has any information regarding the robbery please contact Merseyside Police on 01517774065.

Gemma Malyk, stock Supervisor at Liverpool Cathedral, with part of the largest collection of nativity sets in Liverpool. The cathedral has gathered more than 30 nativity sets from around the world. These include traditional children’s wooden fi gures and Fair Trade sets that refl ect the countries and Christmas cultures where they were created

by Madelaine Cornforth

Robbery blow to KIND campaign

by David Williamson

The National Union of Students will protest in the streets of Lon-don tomorrow, against the tripling of tuition fees, and youth unem-ployment.

The NUS has urged students to attend the protest as it’s a response to universities charging the full £9,000 per year in tuition fees, even after assurances from vice-chan-cellors that they would only do so in exceptional circumstances.

The NUS said: “The decision to hold the demo on a Wednesday was taken because this is when Prime Minister’s Questions are held, making it the best day to make an impact on policy makers and the press. “

The protests will begin near the King’s College London student un-ion building at 11 am, and a rally at Kennington Park is planned for 2pm.

In response to the violence that occurred during the NUS march in 2010, when rioters smashed the entrance to Conservative head-quarters, the police have closed Kennington Road, Upper Thames Street, Victoria Embankment and Westminister Bridge, in a bid to prevent any similar events.

Vince Cable is expected to face questions regarding tuition fees whilst giving a speech in Birming-ham tomorrow at the AoC confer-ence. The Association of Colleges (AoC) conference is designed to highlight issues the further educa-tion sector face and hold a debate on where the challenges are, and where they can improve.

Business secretary Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats have been scrutinised since the decision to raise the tuition fees after they had pledged in their election cam-paign to vote against any rises in fees, in parliament.

Students in fees protest

City council faces backlash over spin doctor advert

Liverpool City Council has come under fi re after advertising a £90,000-per-year position for a spin doctor amid huge public spending cuts.

The council has been forced to trim their budget by up to a third over the next four years but adver-tised for a new Head of Commu-nications, Customer Relations and Public affairs who would earn more than Mayor Joe Anderson.

With austerity measures meaning

person when there are already peo-ple there who are capable of doing the job.

“Instead of spending £90,000 on a spin doctor perhaps we should be spending £90,000 on other things.”

Cllr Morrison was joined by former Lib Dem Councillor Andrew Makin-son on the social networking site.

Mr Makinson tweeted: “Cut? What cuts? Who needs a library or Sure Start (centres which deal with im-provements in childcare and early education) when Liverpool’s Labour needs a new £90,000 a year Spin Doctor!”

Mayor Joe Anderson, who earns £66,000 after declining the suggested £79,500 salary for his position, ex-plained: “We’ve tried to hire someone for a smaller amount of money and have failed.”

He continued: “What we’ve done is we have amalgamated a number of jobs in terms of customer relations, communications and public affairs, put them all together and we are now trying to recruit somebody to fi ll that.”

Labour leaders also explained that the position had been unfi lled for the last 18 months.

that £143 million has to be saved from the council’s outgoings, offer-ing a £90,000 salary job has been criticised by some in opposing par-ties to the leading Labour contingent.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Cllr Tom Morrison tweeted: “Labour Mayor Joe Anderson is hiring some-one to make him look good while slashing vital services. An absolute disgrace.”

Cllr Morrison then went on to tell the BBC: “We already have a big press and marketing team at the council so I don’t see why we need to spend £90,000 on yet another press

by Sam McDonnell

by Danielle Baldwin

The people of Merseyside voted La-bour candidate Jane Kennedy as the new police and crime commissioner in last week’s historic poll.

The results showed that Ms. Ken-nedy had won the public vote by a majority of over 56% beating Con-servative candidate Geoffrey Gubb who only received 12.6%.

Jane will be sworn into her new role on Thursday which will allow her to control the annual police budget, set priorities within the force and have the power to hire and fi re the Chief Constable.

In her victory speech the former Wavertree MP said: “I make this one promise, that is to work very hard, to do the best job for Merseyside, for the police and for the communities

that they serve.“Now that I am elected, I will be

hitting the ground running. I hope to meet the offi cers of Merseyside police and am already planning to go out on patrol so I can fully under-stand the challenges which they face day in and day out.”

In the surrounding area of Chesh-ire, Conservative John Dwyer picked up the most votes after the voting process was repeated as no winner was produced the fi rst time.

He won with 48,591 initial and sec-ondary votes compared to Labour’s John Stockon who had a combined total of 37,350.

The retired assistant chief consta-ble said: “I’m honoured to take that post and I will start delivering on the mandate in my manifesto in the very near future.

“I won’t let you down. Thank you everybody for your support.”

Kennedy takes up police role

Charity scheme helps homelessby Sam McDonnell

A Liverpool charity’s scheme to rehouse homeless people has had a successful initial period, but one worker says that the government’s benefi t sanctions could have a major impact on the city’s most vulnerable.

The Whitechapel Centre in the city centre works closely with the council and other charitable bodies to help Liverpool’s homeless, but also as-sists those who come to the country to seek asylum.

The Whitechapel Centre’s Out-reach Team manager, Russell Ain-slie, explained: “We have got a good infrastructure for dealing with these cases in Liverpool. Our Single Home Response scheme has only been running for four months, but in that time we’ve accommodated around 30 individuals, and about a quarter of those have come through the asylum route.”

People who enter the country seeking asylum are accommodated through public funding in the Na-tional Asylum Support Service in Liverpool, but once a person is grant-ed asylum and a National Insurance number, there can be a wait before

they are allowed access to benefi ts and education, potentially leading to that person becoming homeless.

Mr Ainslie described what now happens in Liverpool to counter the possible problem: “Once they’re granted their National Insurance number they can no longer stay in the holding places but within days we accommodate them, and in good standard accommodation.

“We have a list of landlords that will accommodate people who have been allowed to remain in the coun-try. At this moment in time we’re placing people from Sri Lanka, Iran, Spain and the Czech Republic, and we’re placing people quite quickly.”

The Centre’s relationship with the local landlords is key, as Mr Ainslie explained that taking on homeless people through housing benefi t can leave a property owner with con-cerns.

He said: “To be honest I think the landlords are more willing to take people who have moved from abroad. As we’re a homeless day centre, some landlords will think that the people we send to their properties will have some underlying issues, namely drugs or alcohol.

“As for some of the people who we’ve housed who have been seek-ing asylum, we’ve had an account-ant, we’ve had a journalist. They know that the people using their ac-commodation have escaped violence rather than having abused drugs or alcohol.”

Mr Ainslie was also keen to point out that the latest government system of sanctioning the benefi ts of those who do not fulfi l the required criteria could lead to homelessness increas-ing in Liverpool.

The Outreach Team Manager said: “If they’re fi ve minutes late for an appointment there they will be sanc-tioned, which not only affects their JSA (Job Seeker’s Allowance) and their ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) but the housing benefi t also stops. People might fi nd them-selves homeless because they’re missing appointments.

“Now you or I might say that we’d make our appointments. We make sure we’re in work every morning at nine o’clock or we might be in seri-ous trouble, but people with drug or alcohol issues don’t think the same. This could lead to a lot of people in a year or so becoming homeless.”

He added: “You’ll also fi nd that street begging will increase because people aren’t receiving benefi ts. We found in Liverpool that there’s been an increase of street begging because people have had their benefi ts sanc-tioned.”

Liverpool City Council also has concerns over government austerity measures having a direct impact on the city’s homeless.

Mayor Joe Anderson explained in the Guardian that Liverpool has one of the highest dependencies on wel-fare, with one in fi ve adults being out of work.

Mayor Anderson said: “While we have made every attempt to miti-gate the cuts to frontline services, the scale of the cuts has meant we have had to reduce our provision in libraries, leisure and youth services. We have removed support for mod-erate-care adult services and reduced supported housing for vulnerable groups including single homeless people and victims of domestic vio-lence, and made reductions in shel-tered housing for older people. We are at a point where we are directly affecting people’s lives and the plac-es where they live.”

Life/News/4

Petition to free jailed guardby Jess Etherington

A Merseyrail train guard who was jailed after being found guilty of manslaughter following the death of teenager Georgia Varley is the subject of an online campaign to have him freed.

The 16-year-old was on her way to a night out in Liverpool from the Wirral and was intoxicated on vodka and the party drug known as M-cat when she fell between the platform and the train at James Street station.

Train guard Christopher McGee had given the signal for the train to depart despite being able to see that Georgia was leaning against the train. He was jailed for fi ve years for what the judge described as his “gross negligence”.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court heard the details of the fateful night of 22nd October 2011.

Birkenhead Sixth Form student Georgia, from Moreton, Wirral, had been at a house party celebrat-ing a friend’s 18th birthday and was on the last train to Liverpool,

heading for Garlands nightclub with friends for a night out.

McGee, a 45-year-old train guard from Wallasey, has been sentenced to fi ve years’ imprison-ment, and had been working for Merseyrail for 20 years before the incident.

The court case made nation-al news and the sentencing has sparked controversy as well as arguments between locals and people from around the country, with many taking to web forums and social networking websites to voice their opinions.

A Facebook page entitled ‘Free Christopher McGee’ has received over 1,600 likes since it was cre-ated and an e-petition to have him released has been set up.

Many are also taking to Geor-gia’s Facebook tribute page writ-ing that they believe the sentenc-ing has been too harsh.

This comes days after Georgia’s heartbroken father Paul Varley made a plea to the press and public to leave the family alone and let them grieve in peace.

Student boost for children’s charity

by Jess Etherington

A Liverpool John Moores stu-dent who was scouted to be the next Miss Cumbria put on a charity night last week in Liv-erpool Students Union to raise money for children’s charity Variety.

Rebecca Lamb, 21, who stud-ies LLB law and Criminal Jus-tice, organised children’s games such as Jenga and pass the par-cel, with prizes being donated by local businesses and clubs.

She said: “I was scouted and

selected as a fi nalist in Miss Cumbria and this is the char-ity they fundraise for. After re-searching into the charity, I can see how they do such amazing work therefore I have put a lot of effort and tears into organiz-ing this charity night.”

The third-year student had a target of £200 and managed to raise £110 on the night. She is hoping to raise the rest by walk-ing around her hometown of Tarn in her pyjamas asking for donations.

Rebecca praised Liverpool

The killer of a Wirral teenager has been jailed for life, with the judge ordering that he should serve a minimum of 22 years in prison.

Liverpool Crown Court heard today that Adam Lewis, from Moreton, raped, tortured and killed 17-year-old Hannah Wind-sor, who was his girlfriend of 10 months at the time.

The murder happened at Wirral beauty spot Bidston Moss, where the 18-year-old was sleeping rough, after he went on the run from the police for a separate ar-son attack.

Lewis pleaded guilty to murder, two charges of sexual assault, bur-glary, and arson. He denied two charges of rape.

A medical team from Aintree Uni-versity hospital will be targeting train users and shoppers to help raise awareness of head and neck cancer week.

� e team and their Macmillan Mobile information bus will be at the recently refurbished Liverpool central station tomorrow, o� ering free-screening and health advice. Later in the week, they will also travel Crosby Village, Southport and St Helen’s.

� e nurses and consultants will also o� er a drop in clinic at Ain-tree University hospital through-out the week.

Professor Simon Rogers, Clinical Director for the Head and Neck Unit at Aintree, said: “We want to raise awareness of the symptoms to look out for. Early detection is key and gives patients the best chance of e� ective treatment.”

� e drop-in clinics and mobile bus will be there to give informa-tion and support.

Edge Hill University will be given a £31m makeover to create a new media and sports complex.

The Ormskirk-based University has spent £150m in the past ten years on new facilities, including this project.

The university intends to build a £16m media centre, with profes-sional TV studios with full broad-cast capability.

There are also plans for a £15m outdoor sports complex, which will also be open for community use.

The build will include sports courts as well as hockey and foot-ball pitches.

There will be a swimming pool and a viewing gallery for certain sports. The outdoor complex aims to be fi nished by September 2013.

Today, vice-chancellor Dr John Cater talked about further plans for Edge Hill University.

He said: “With a planned in-vestment of another £200m in the present decade, including new sports facilities, additional science laboratories and more on-campus en suite residences for 2013, we intend to continue this trend.”

He added that the £16m media centre would be just half-an-hour of the Salford Media City base of the BBC and ITV.

Teenagekiller jailed

Aintree hospital’s cancer awareness

Edge Hill in £31m makeoverproject

Students Union for their help in organizing the night.

She said: “The RAG society have helped me a lot especially Jamilia. Nadine has also helped out by allowing the event and donating prizes. I am very grate-ful to them, I would not have been able to put on this event without them.”

The Miss Cumbria fi nal takes place over the 1st and 2nd of De-cember and Rebecca says she is nervous to participate but excit-ed for the catwalk aspect of the competition.

Applications drop at universitiesby Dani Baldwin and Sanna Zahid

Merseyside youngsters are still applying for places at universi-ty, despite a recent survey which shows that applications from the region have fallen by a fi fth.

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) also suggest that the number of applications to Liver-pool universities have dropped by over 10%, with 31,614 students applying to study at University of Liverpool, ranked third in the North West.

The decline has been put down to the trebling of fees at most insti-tutions, which saw the annual fee for many courses rise from £3,000 to £9,000 a year in 2012.

Wavertree MP Luciana Berger said: “This is a massive decline. I voted against higher fees because I feared the level of debt that stu-dents would be confronted with when they left university would be a deterrent – and that’s what these fi gures show.”

Despite this, Liverpool Life has spoken to current and prospective students who are still keen to con-tinue with their higher education studies.

Luke Lyons, 18, who is from Liverpool and currently attends the city’s community college, said: “I’m going to study an RAF course so I get a bursary which covers the course fees but it’s something that I really want to do so if I had to pay for it myself I’d still do it and just save up.”

Fellow student Tanayah Khaleel,

16, who is also from Liverpool, agreed: “My parents want me to go to university and I have to go to get a good career in nursing so I don’t think the fees have put me off.”

Elsewhere, Josie Summer, a fi rst year student studying history of art at Liverpool John Moores univer-sity (LJMU), said: “The fees are pretty ridiculous but to get any job, even a poorly paid one, em-ployers are looking for graduates.”

Oliver Craig-Dennis, 18, a fi rst year student at University of Liv-erpool , added: “My course is funded by the NHS so luckily I don’t have to pay the fees but if I did have to I still would have come to university just to experience the uni life.”

Other students agree that the fee increase will deter college stu-dents and feel that their university education is not worth that amount of money.

James Blackburn, a third year Criminal Justice student at LJMU, said: “I wouldn’t have come to this university if I had to pay those fees, not for £9000. I would have gone to Oxford or Cambridge.”

Jennifer Gargon and Rebec-ca Grace, both 18, are fi rst year hospitality management students. They said: “It’s defi nitely not worth it for what we pay because we’re only in for two days a week. We pay £6000 a year but you have to do it to get a job, I suppose.”

Ali Almohammed, 21, who is studying business management at JMU but is paying the lower fees, said: “I would have had to think a lot more about my decision to go

to university if I had to pay £9,000 for it.”

Andrew Cooper, 21, a second year student at University of Liv-erpool, said: “I doubt that I still would have come to university if I was applying now.

“From my experience here I would say that it isn’t worth the money. College leavers are better off getting a job.”

The Department for Business denied the fall was caused by the fees increase. They claimed the

move had made the funding sys-tem ‘fairer and more progressive’.

A spokesman added: “Most students will not pay up front to study, there are more generous loans, grants and bursaries for those poorer families, and loans are only repaid once graduates have jobs and are earning over £21,000.”

On Merseyside, the biggest falls were in Liverpool Wavertree and Halton (down a fi fth), while Se-fton Central, Wirral South, Elles-

mere Port and Neston, Liverpool West Derby and Wallasey all fell by around 15%.

It appears that potential students from middle class backgrounds are as reluctant to apply to uni-versity as youngsters from more working class homes.

Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: “Families across the country are seeing their dreams of going to university disappear.”

University of Liverpool’s increase in fees has lead to a decrease of applicants ©Twitter/Livuni

Rebecca Lamb hosted charity event that raised £110 for Variety ©Twitter/Rebecca_LLB

Suspended sentenceLiverpool youth product Adam Hamill has escaped a jail sentence after he attacked two female para-medics last month.

The 24-year-old midfi elder, who is currently on loan to Champion-ship side Huddersfi eld Town from Wolverhampton Wanderers, was arrested after assaulting the wom-en outside revolution bar in Liver-

pool city centre on October. He pleaded guilty to two counts

of assault and was sentenced at Liverpool Magistrates court today.

He was given a 12-week sus-pended sentence, as well as being ordered to compensate each of his victims with £350. He was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Life/News/5

by Kate Molyneux

Giant otter pups, the fi rst of the endagered species to ever be born in Chester Zoo, have been giv-en their fi rst swimming lesson.

This is their fi rst public appear-ance since being born in Septem-ber; as they took to the pool with their mother, Icana and father,

Xingu, in order to learn to swim.Chester Zoo’s Curator of

Mammals Tim Rowlands said: “It might surprise some to learn that a species so well adapted to living around wa-ter actually needs to be taught how to swim at fi rst, but that’s exactly what happens and it’s a real family effort.”

The baby otters are taken by their dad by the scruff of the neck to the deep end, and pulled in for a short swim; the mother then drags them around under water for their lesson.

The giant otters, which can grow up to 6ft in length and weigh around 5st 5lbs, are an endangered species and

by Madelaine Cornforth

Ambitious plans to regenerate High Park Street Reservoir and its local area have been revealed.

The Grade-II-listed reservoir, set in the heart of Toxteth, has been empty for the past 15 years.

Cass Associates, a Liverpool based architecture and landscape planning business is behind the master plan to redevelop the building and its surrounding area.

Richard Cass, founding part-ner of Cass Associates, said: “The reservoir’s been sat there effectively redundant for about twenty years or so now so it obviously doesn’t make any contribution to the area at all.”

The aims are to make the lo-cal area more attractive for the locals as well as to attract new investments in to the region.

The company plans to turn High Park Street in to a tree lined boulevard with a new shared pub-lic space outside the Reservoir and Town Hall. They also want to use the derelict space for new housing and a car park for future and current business development.

For the Reservoir itself, Cass

Associates propose to use the rooftop to produce local vegeta-tion as well as create a ‘rooftop retreat’ for local people to vis-it. They are also planning to use solar panels on the roof of the structure to generate solar energy.

Along with this, there are also plans to remove part of the reser-voir roof in order to create a large open courtyard for craft fairs, open markets, music and dance events and group activities and functions.

Cass Associates are currently looking for sources of funding and partnership in order to make these plans, and consequently the area, come to life. They recently opened up the reservoir for people to have a look around and to critically gen-erate some interest in the project.

Richard Cass said; “Most peo-ple, generally speaking, can not really go inside it and it’s not until you go inside it or possibly on the roof that you realise what an exciting opportunity it is.”

However, Richard believes this is not just a one off project for Toxteth; He sees it as some-thing much greater. for Liverpool

He said: “We see it not just as a project on its own but as a means

to a wider regeneration initiative and we think that’s very impor-tant that it shouldn’t just be seen as a single building project but it should actually be used as a cata-lyst to some much wider improve-ments over a much wider area.

“There is quite a lot of land surrounding the reservoir which is just disused land and build-ings and they do cause serious blight and of course they don’t create any benefi ts for anybody.

“So the plans that we’ve drawn up take a look at the whole area and we’ve come up with a strategy for taking the whole area forward with the reservoir as the focal point.”

Cass Associates are also the ar-chitects behind the Toxteth Firefi t which will be a new youth centre, community centre and fi re station.

Mr Cass hopes that this pro-ject will have a huge positive impact on the area and will bring more activity for lo-cal people and the local area.

Liverpool City Council pulled out of a £25 million regeneration project in the area. This, there-fore, means that these plans will be seen as a welcome boost for the residents of the area.

New vision for Toxteth reservoir

Plans for High Park Street Reservoir

by Sam McDonnell and Paul Collins

Energy price rises have already taken their toll on people in Liv-erpool according to some local so-cial enterprises, amid Government plans to force suppliers into offer-ing the cheapest possible deals.

Secretary of State for Energy, Edward Davey, told Parliament today that under new guidelines, customers would be offered four possible tariffs by companies rather than the ‘confusion’ of the hundreds currently on offer.

Mr Davey said: “Our new pro-posals will make things much clearer and easier to understand, so that bill payers can get the best deal and feel the benefi t in their pocket.

“I am determined to ensure all consumers get a better deal on their energy bill and get the cheapest tariff they can.”

Some Liverpool social enter-prises, however, believe that the damage may already be done.

Danisha Martin, advisor at Health Energy Advice Team Kens-ington, added: “We do have a big rise in people coming into our of-fi ce. We get customers struggling to pay their fuel bills. Mums, lone parents, pensioners; I think it’s affecting everyone to be honest.”

According to Local Solu-tions, one in three households in Merseyside was classed as being in fuel poverty, even before prices rose this year.

Julie Kelly, a fuel debt advisor at Local Solutions, said: “Fuel poverty has become a big issue in the city. There should be more help out there to tell the truth. If you’re going to increase your prices, at least make social tar-iffs available for the vulnerable.”

Fuel prices taking their toll

Otter pups go for their fi rst swim

ture conservation of the species.” In the wild their numbers

have been reduced due to hunting and habitat destruc-tion and the otters are usually found in remote areas within some freshwater lakes, rivers and creeks: It has been esti-mated that only 1000 of these otters are left in South America.

are not usually bred in zoos.Chester Zoo is very

pleased with the result.Tim said: “Achieving our fi rst

ever successful breeding is a real landmark for us and now, with the excellent new facilities and real skilled keeping staff we’ve got at our disposal, we hope we can play a pivotal role in the fu-

A hand-written letter by John Lennon sold for £15,000 in a Los Angeles auction, including a rare nude drawing of the late Beat-les star and his wife, Yoko Ono.

This came after the famous Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band album artwork went for over £50,000 in a London auction last Tuesday; one of 18 works owned by architect Colin St John.

The original artwork, pro-duced in collaboration with pop artist Jann Haworth, depicts Sergeant Pepper along with the Beatles and dated back to 1967.

James Rawlin of Sotheby’s said: “Sir Peter Blake’s collage is a tangible slice of rock histo-ry. Sgt Pepper had a huge impact on the cultural landscape. It was the fi rst concept album when music, story, image and studio expertise all came together.”

Beatles artwork sells for thousandsby Dani Baldwin

Life/News/6

by Jessica Etherington

A horse and donkey sanctuary on the Wirral is feeling the effect of the recession with more animals coming into their care. Talluhlah’s Donkey and Horse Sanctuary currently cares for 12 donkeys and 15 horses, as well as rehoming dogs and rely on volunteers as they ask for no money from the public. Marion Thomson runs the sanctuary which is based in Prenton and

some the horses that have come in to their care as ‘horrendous’ but praised members of the public who have offered to volunteer in helping to care for the horses and donkeys.

She said: “There are a lot of nice people out there who offer to help. A lot of people, like me, let their heart rule their head.

We have managed to build six stables of our own and need as many people to volunteer as possible.”

Marion also relies on friends who have stables in their gardens for some of the animals to live in.

Williston and has a passion for the animals, which means that the sanctuary has a no kill policy. She said: “We keep the horses forever. We fi nd people outgrow their ponies and they just sell them on, so they end up on the horse market and sadly most of them go for meet. “Anyone who is thinking of buying a horse for this should pick up a copy of black beauty! Horses have feelings just as much as people do.”

Marion described the treatment of

by Josh Killner

Twitter has become a hub of con-troversy over recent weeks, after the site played host to a number of defamatory tweets from users. Over 1,000 tweets are being investigated, and over 9,000 retweets, which falsely linked Lord McAlpine to a paedophile ring in a North Wales care home. The claims were sparked by a Newsnight report which did not name Lord McAlpine but referred to a senior Conservative from the Thatcher era, which led to McAlpine being linked online, particularly on social networking site Twitter. Only yesterday, Alan Davies made a public apology to the former Tory politician, after the BBC come-dian retweeted his name linking McAlpine to child abuse claims.Davies told his 444,000 followers on Twitter: ‘I’ve just written to Lord McAlpine to apologise for retweeting his name in relation to false allegations following a BBC investigation.’ Sally Bercow, wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow, could also face prosecution from McAlpine’s lawyers after she sarcastically tweeted: ‘Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*.’McAlpine’s legal representatives are currently in the process of suing anyone who falsely linked him to allegations of child abuse at a care home in Wrexham, North Wales. The BBC has already agreed to compensation of £185,000 for wrongfully implicating McAlpine. On the ITV show This Morning, during an interview with David Cameron, Philip Schofi eld handed the Prime Minister a list of names that had been linked to the alleged paedophile ring. This list was made visible to the television cameras as Schofi eld passed Mr Cameron the paper, and McAlpine’s name could reportedly be seen. The list was only visible for a matter of seconds, but McAlpine’s lawyers claim that even if viewers had not seen the list, they could have easily gone on the internet and found the false allegations linking him to child abuse. The question has since been raised as to whether McAlpine should be suing Twitter, after all these allega-tions were made so easily available to see because of the social net-working sites accessibility. Mr. Starmer also added that it could be appropriate for more popular tweeters to face prosecution if they tweet something “grossly offensive” to thousands of people, but those with only a few dozen followers might go unpunished.

Sanctuary in plea for more helpers

Through Talluhlah’s Bar in New Brighton, Marion has rehomed six dogs to forever homes, many of the dogs needing new homes after their owners passed away.

Marion said: “We make sure the dogs don’t get passed from home to home. It has been a bad summer for animals on the Wirral.”

The sanctuary wants the public to know if anyone is struggling with a horse or donkey of their own, they can ask for help and the sanctuary will try their best to assist.

Anyone who wants a horse but

cannot afford one can adopt one of the horses at the sanctuary which, will be kept in their care but can be groomed, fed and looked after by the adopter.

The sanctuary are hoping to offer horse riding lessons after Christmas and will be selling calendars at Talluhlah’s Bar to raise money for the animals.

Anybody who is interested in adopting an animal or volunteering can contact Marion on 07557410817.

Twitter users atheart of storm

Waxing lyrical for Children in Need By Katie Croft

BBC Children in Need 2012 raised a staggering £26.8m, setting a new charity fundraising record with people from the Wirral contributing over £2m to the total. A variety of events took place in Liverpool throughout the week to raise as much as possible for the charity. The charity mascot Pudsey the Bear was seen walking through the city centre with his collection bucket while men from shops around the Met Quarter were busy volunteering themselves in a male waxing marathon. For the third year running staff at Urban Calm on the upper tier of the Met Quarter, Whitechapel hosted the event to raise as much money as possible. While beauticians at the salon are no strangers to ripping off the waxing strips, their clientele today proved to appear a little more unusu-al, and a bit more hairy than normal. The event ran all day with staff volunteering to take part from other stores in the Met Quarter including Armani Exchange, Hugo Boss and Aspecto. Maria Nicolaides, manager at Ur-ban Calm said: “We’ve got a lot of the lads involved from the shops in the Met Quarter, they have a choice if they want their chest, back, legs or arms waxed, they’ve all got spon-sorships forms and we will collect

the money next week when they can prove they’ve had it done.” Andrew Witty from Armani Exchange has already raised £50 for the cause through being sponsored by family and friends. Mr. Witty put his fears behind him and had his chest waxed. He said: “It felt good having it done for Children in Need but was extremely painful.”Gary Wilson, from Aspecto also got involved by having his back waxed he said: “It was a lot more painful than I to take part.” Meanwhile over the Mersey on the Wirral Primary and Secondary school children took part in a fast- paced chess marathon raising over £150 for Children in Need.Wirral Junior Chess teams gathered at Rubens Coffee shop in Heswall last Saturday where the fundraiser took place. The chess teams involved were made up of students of all abilities aged seven to sixteen from La-dymount, Dawpool, Our Lady of Pity, St. Anselm’s, Calday Grange grammar school and Upton Convent. More than thirty members of the Wirral Junior Chess team turned up on the day to compete against each other until everyone had a game. Families and friends were there to support the children and some par-ents even gave it a go themselves. In total the UK managed to beat last year’s record of £26.3m.

by Sam McDonnell

A JMU graduate has won the inau-gural John Moores Critics Award for her UK entry. Linda Pittwood, who now works at the National Museums Liverpool, won the £2,000 prize on Friday a� er submitting a critique of the John Moores Paint-ing Prize exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery. Judges commented on Linda’s cri-tique, saying: “� e entrant wrote a fresh and lively review of this year’s painting prize, which combined formal invention with insight.” � e Chinese winner was “an intense and analytical” piece by Xu Jie, with runner-up Wu Shen Zhi receiving £1,000 along with UK counterpart Grace Harrison.

Linda takesart prize

Waxing for charity; Staff at Urban Calm Salon show their support donning Pudsey ears

Recession hits Donkeys and Horses: A sanctuary on the Wirral requires more volunteers or many animals risk being left behind

Liverpool

Life

Music21st December:

Gun 2 Roses come to the Cavern Club Liverpool. Guns 2 Roses are widely regarded as the biggest GNR tribute band in the world

Price- £11.50

8th December:

Peter Andre up close and person-al. Liverpool Echo Arena. Peter Andre has returned to the studio ready to storm the charts with his eighth album. The tour will see Peter performing live with his band and perform all of his hits including ‘Mysterious Girl’ and ‘Behind Closed Doors’.

Tickets- £31.35

10th December-

Dappy:

02 Academy Liverpool. Fresh from the huge success of his re-cent track ‘Rockstar’, and follow-ing a sell out tour in 2011, Dappy confi rms winter UK tour dates!

Price: £16.50

Family22nd Nov- 22nd December:

Liverpool Christmas market on Lord Street Travel the world – in one city! More than 50 of the fi nest craft and food stalls from across fi ve continents makes Liverpool’s Christmas Market a must do expe-rience – with treats from as far as China and South America.

22nd November:

A Christmas carol Entertain-ing family musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ festival novel. Coming to the Unity Theatre.

30th November-

Cinderella Cinderella promises good traditional pantomime fun for all the family

7.30pm (Fri &Sat) / 2.30pm (Sat & Sun) / Tickets: £9 (£7 conces-sions), Family £30.

At the Liverpool Empire.

24th- November- 23rd Decem-ber:

Lantern magic- Coming to Chester zoo; Bring your family and friends for an unforgettable journey through our wonderful gardens and past our brand new life sized animal lantern display.

Child tickets- £8.99 Adults- £9.99

Arts16th Nov- 20th January:

Tracing the century at the Tate museum: Drawing a catalyst for change- Tracing the Century has at its heart artworks based on the human body and the in-ner self, opening up the conver-sation between fi guration and abstraction that characterised art in the twentieth century.

Tickets £5

24th November-

The Baltic Arts & crafts fair: A hive of digital and creative businesses housed in a range of unique industrial spaces both new and old, a new and emerg-ing area to be proud of and well worth the 5 minute walk from the bustle of Liverpool ONE.

8th- 9th December-

Winter arts market : Coming to St Georges Hall; A 2-day festive celebration of arts and crafts where you can discover work from over 120 artists, designers and makers at this enormous crafty weekend!

Theatre Mrs Brown Rides again Mrs Brown was a typical Dublin Mammy, whose hilarious ad-ventures and witty insights had audiences howling for more. This was the cream of Irish comedy, and stared a full cast of the best of Irish performers.

Tickets- £21.45.

Coming to Liverpool Echo Arena

25th November,

Liverpool Empire-

Hairy Bikers Larger than liveThe Hairy Bikers can’t wait to go on their fi rst tour in over two years - only this time it’s going to be bigger, bolder, funnier, and packed with more food and laughs than ever before.

Tickets- £28.90

Former Spice Girl Mel C has praised the Liverpool Music Awards and feels it will go from strength to strength. � e singer turned West End actor presented Best Female Singer to Rebecca Ferguson at the inaugural event last Saturday evening, and spoke of how she feels Liverpool is the best city for musical talent. She said: “� ere’s no place like home. I highly doubt you will ever � nd another city in the world where you would see the amount of talent that you have seen on this stage tonight.” � e red carpet ceremony at � e Dome Grand Central honoured local musical talent with local acts such as � e Hummingbirds and Tea Street Band picking up awards for ‘Ones to Watch’ and ‘Best single of the year’ respectively. Mel C added: “I think it’s abso-lutely amazing. I � nd it amazing that it hasn’t happened before now because we’re such a city that just pumps out so much great musical talent and we have done since � e Beatles so it’s wonderful. It’s great that it’s started.” Although she admitted she doesn’t get back to the city as much as she’d like to, the singer says she is ‘full of pride’ every time she vis-its her home town.

She added: “Just coming into town to go shopping and seeing the Liver birds; there’s no better city in the world and I have been to most of the great cities in the world. “It’s wonderful and not only that to be from Liverpool it is a city that is known the world over, and we have got such a great identity as a city and there’s not many that can say that.” She also feels that the Music Awards should become an annual event and she gave the organisers an early message with regards to next year’s event: “Next year I’m playing. Presenting’s ok but I want to sing!” One artist who was in awe of the former Spice Girl was Rebec-ca Ferguson. A� er winning Best Female Act, the 2010 X Factor runner up received the award o� a woman who she revealed was one of her idols growing up. Rebecca said: “I’ve just got an award o� a Spice Girl! � ere are so many people here tonight that have inspired me. “I’ve been blessed to be able to travel the world the past two years and there’s no place like Liverpool. You’ll never � nd the dignity and pride in our city and I feel so lucky to be a part of it.”

Santa dash is coming to town

What’s On...

Mel C and Rebecca Fergurson Liverpool Music Awards Twitter ©

Life/Style/7

by Sanna Zahid

A festive fun run is coming to Liverpool with the target to beat the Guinness World record for the ‘Largest Santa gathering’ which currently stands at 13,000. Backing the ITV Text Santa Ap-peal this year to help raise funds for charities including; Age UK, Anthony Nolan, Carers UK, Ma-rie Curie Cancer Care, Together for short lives and Whizzz Kidz. Alan Rothwell the event organ-iser is con� dent to be beating the world record saying “13,000 Santas in one place is a big ask but if anyone can do it then Liver-pool can. It’s great to have ITV on

board this year and I’m con� dent between us we can create a bit of history and help beat the Text Santa fund raising total of last year which was a very impressive £4.1

million pounds.” � e Liverpool Santa Dash is now is its 9th year and will be taking place on Sunday 2nd December. Mini Dash tickets are £10, 5k Fun

Run tickets are £20. Participant's entry fees will cover all your race administration and logistics even

your Santa suit.

Joel Richards caught up with some of the stars at Liverpool Music Awards

Why there’s no place like homefor Melanie C

Organisers hoping for over 13,000 people to dress up as Santa for this year’s Santa dash

Do you have a story for our What’s On

guide?

Contact Liverpool Life on liverpool-

lifenews@gmail.com

Climbing to confi dence

Life/Style/8

Jayne is a 14-year-old who regularly scales rock-climbing equipment which would scare the living daylights out of most teenagers – and yet Jayne is blind. She is one of over 200 young people who have been taught to climb with the aid of a south Liverpool organisation set up by local youth worker Andy Coltart.

On This Roc is a social enterprise established in Liverpool which has resulted in a series of diversionary projects.

Using the sport of indoor rock climbing to engage people in healthy activity and equip people with important life skills, OTR believes that climbing can help build confi dence, patience, and trust and see the importance of teamwork and a sense of personal and group achievement.

It all started when Redeeming Our Communities hosted an event at the Liverpool Echo Arena three years ago, which brought in police, church representatives and others and encouraged those present to make a difference together in their communities.

That was in June 2009 and present in the crowd was Andy Coltart who was frustrated having witnessed Merseyside youths drift into criminality due to a lack of activities and opportunities.

Andy had already been playing around with ideas on how he could help out and make a difference so instead of scratching his head in frustration, the church based

youth worker decided to act. He contacted his local police, with whom had already created a working partnership, and shared his thoughts and ideas with them.

This became the start of On This Roc. As the project took form, it started fulfi lling Coltart’s ambition - taking youths away from potential criminal activity. OTR became an immediate success and ended up engaging people from outside their targeted groups, as they arranged special events that attracted people of all ages in the community.

During the past two years OTR has worked with the police and youth offending service, charities, schools, community groups, uniformed organizations and even the army.

In its relatively young history OTR has established a partnership with Merseyside Police to provide climbing as an activity to engage young people. They have established award-winning projects like Crime2Climb that tackles anti-social behaviour and provide a pathway to employment for ex-offenders.

Keith Porter, Neighbourhood Inspector at Belle Vale Police Station, said: ”Thanks to the activities provided by Andy Coltart, the individual becomes empowered through

communication, team work and confi dence building. Belle Vale Neighbourhood Policing teams have participated in several projects with Andy, with each case each individual involved are less likely to engage in anti-social behaviour.

This is a massive credit to the work and engagement of Andy and his team.”

The Crime2Climb project is aimed at 17+ year-olds who are not in education, employment or training and who are in, or likely

to be in, the criminal justice system.

OTR urges that they are happy to work with police d e v e l o p i n g

diversionary projects and that even though it can be climbing based, there are happy to look at other aspects as well.

Andy said: ”It’s the communities that inspire us. A community that is welcoming and supportive and encouraging can be a life-changing environment to be part of.

“There are so many broken communities and broken people in the UK and beyond. We believe that building individual’s confi dence and self-esteem will help build better communities.”

He added: “We wish to use the activity of climbing to teach transferable life skills, social responsibility and embed ethical

values that will create more active community members. Building individuals’ confi dence and self-esteem to equip them to play an active part in the life of their community.

“Through climbing young people develop a range of life skills including communication, teamwork, patience, trust, perseverance and problem solving

As well teaching over 200 people how to climb, OTR has helped as many as 45 young people to achieve certifi cates in the National Indoor Climbing Achievement Scheme.

Many of them are now members of their local climbing centres. They have also started visually impaired climbing.

Recently they appeared on live on BBC Children in Need with its Visually Impaired/Blind Climbing Team. This group of brave teenagers won 11 medals at the 2012 British Mountaineering Council’s Para Climbing Series, as well as having two members selected for the GB Para Climbing Team that went on to compete in the IFSC Para Climbing World Championships held in Paris.

Jayne, 14, said: “I’m blind and I can climb, so what else can I do?”

Andy said that the most rewarding part of running On This Roc is seeing people achieve things they thought were impossible in a climbing centre and then realizing that this applies to life too.

EIVIND KLEIVEN

visits a community project that empowers

young people

Youngsters at the community project are taking part in Crime2Climb and keeping themselves off the streets Picture: Eivind Kleiven

One of the project’s youth workers watches on as the youngsters reach new heights.

“This is a massive credit to the work of

Andy and his team”

Life/Style/9

by Joshua Killner

The word “omnishambles” was launched to fame after being used by Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy The Thick of It and has this week been named the word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Introduced in 2009 by writers of the BBC show, the word is used to describe a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, and is characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations.

Malcolm Tucker, played by actor Peter Capaldi in the comedy series, is the Prime Minister’s fi ctional foul-mouthed director of communications.

Many of the shortlisted words have been coined following some of the biggest events of the last 12 months, including: “Eurogeddon” the threatened fi nancial collapse in the Eurozone, “mummy porn” a genre inspired by the record-breaking 50 Shades books, and “Mobot” inspired by Mo Farah’s unique Olympic celebration.

Social media also had effect on vocabulary in 2012, with the acronyms ‘YOLO’ You only live once, and FOMO, Fear of missing

New words on the street

out, also being suggested.Fiona McPherson, the Senior

Content Editor for Oxford Dictionaries, said: “Well, it was a word everyone liked, which seemed to sum up so many of the events over the last 366 days in a beautiful way. It’s funny, it’s quirky, and it has broken free of its fi ctional political beginnings, fi rstly by spilling over into real politics, and then into other contexts.

“One thing that became apparent quite early on in our decision-making process was that 2012 has been a year of contrasts, which meant that our decision was no foregone conclusion. There were lots of candidates which made our shortlist, and there were plenty of lows for the language to accommodate as well as highs.”

Lexicographers in America had other ideas though, after they decided that the word of the year should be ‘Gif’, meaning “to create a gif fi le of an image or video sequence, especially relating to an event.”

There is no guarantee omnishambles, or any of the other shortlisted words, will make it on to the pages of the dictionary.

Not being ones to miss out on a creative opportunity, we at Liverpool Life thought it would be fun to put together our very own ‘word of the year’ shortlist:

Tekkers – Slang for technique, it was coined by Andy Ansah whilst working as an assistant on the television programme ‘Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker’. Soccer Am then used the word to create a skills-based segment on their Saturday morning football show, leading to the word going nationwide.

Awkward – In 2012 it appeared to become a necessity to say this word, whenever an awkward situation arose, adding to the awkwardness.

Justice – Lots of people believe Justice should be shortlisted, following the results of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in September.

Amazeballs – Popularised by blogger Perez Hilton, it’s used to describe something that is beyond amazing.

Smirting – This is the act of fl irting with someone whilst feeding your smoking habit, and commonly takes place in the smoking area of clubs and bars.

Mustard – This is not just a condiment you’d enjoy on a hot dog, this word is also used to describe something that is good, for example: “Last night was mustard.”

Mortal - The word describing a state of intoxication. “I was mortal last night”

And from the Guardian Dictionary of Concise University Slang...

Bare: Bare is an adjective meaning “a lot of”, or “obviously”. “I can’t come to your party, I’ve got

bare work to do.”

Chundergrad: Chundergrad is a general term for anyone studying a bachelor’s degree, regardless of their vomiting history. It is thought to derive from the partying tendencies of those studying for their fi rst degree. “Having a job is seriously going to affect my partying quota. I had better make the most of my years as a

chundergrad.”

Desmond: Nickname for a lower second-class degree (2:2), after the former archbishop

Desmond Tutu. “I had better stop watching repeats of Arthur on iPlayer instead of revising, or I’m going to end

up with a Desmond.”

Libes: Affectionate term for the library. “Meet me in the libes, I’m on the second fl oor.”

Regretamine: A play on the narcotic ketamine, which will no doubt be stolen by the anti-drugs lobby and used in an advert in due course. Regretamine may refer either to the drug itself, or to the adverse effects it produces in an individual. “I woke up to fi nd I’d

repeatedly vomited in my laundry basket instead of the toilet. Major regretamine.”

Got any suggestions of your own? If you’ve any favourite words, let us know at liverpoollifenews@gmail.com and we will print a selection next week.

Jump to it

Get knitted for this year’s mens

A/W trends

yt

by Emma Callum

The weather is getting colder and that can only mean one thing- it’s offi cially jumper season for men. The high street is stocked full of different colours, patterns and fabrics, from the smart look with pockets to quirky, fun prints.

Go for the layered look with a shirt underneath a cable knit cardigan, or a bolder print with jeans for a fun approach to warmer dressing this winter.

With the Christmas spirit inspiring many stores, cartoon and animal prints are taking over the high street, bringing some festive feeling to menswear. Another trend that is still popular is the heritage look, which sees jumpers being decorated with elbow patches and pockets to add a more sophisticated look to something that appears every autumn/winter.

It’s easy to fi nd your perfect match in Liverpool’s vast shopping district, from the high street’s Topman or online store ASOS, to smaller boutiques like Weaver’s Door and Resurrection. All offer a huge range of styles, whatever your budget. For something truly unique why not take a trip down Bold Street and pick up your very own one off vintage piece of knitwear.

Take inspriration from celebrity jumper wearers such as Greg James, Dermot O’Leary and Louis Smith who stay on trend with the latest smart yet comfy knitwear fashions. These days it’s even acceptable to wear a printed sweatshirt to both the pub or the club.

So from cable knit cardigans to supersoft jumpers, there’s plenty of ways to wrap up warm and stay on trend this season.

Superdry £54.99River Island £28Pull & Bear £25.99 Topman £38 Asos £21

Danny Burke, 21, LeicesterStyle inspiration- Richard Ayoade“I like the geek chic and tweed look”

Liverpool Life took to the streets to ask the men of the city who their style icon is. This is what they said:

Kieran McCann, 19, BlackburnStyle inspriation- Liam Gallagher“Liam’s a cool guy and takes inspiration from the 60’s and 70’s”

Jack Finch, 21, ManchesterStyle inspiration- Tom Hardy“I like to dress more practical than fashionable”

LJMU Fury lose brave fi ght in fi rst competitive game

Life/Sport/10

American football team Liverpool Fury began their season this week with a disappointing defeat.

The Fury, whose players are made up of Liverpool John Moor-es students, lost their opening match 28-13 against the Stafford Lions in the Big Northwest Di-vision of the British Universi-ties American Football League (BUAFL).

A spirited effort to keep within reach of a win was not enough to hold off their opponents from the Midlands division.

The Fury were looking to start the season well after missing out on the playoffs last season and they were given a tough start against the Stafford Lions who were looking to bounce back after an opening day defeat against the Derby Braves.

Quarterback Matt Smith ran for a touchdown against the Fury’s defence but it was a big play that really ended their chances of grab-bing a win. The Fury’s quarter-back was tackled in the end-zone twice for a safety, which scores two points for the opposing team.

Turnovers and basic mistakes allowed the Stafford Stallions to open up a 22-0 halftime lead.

A better second half from the home side allowed the Fury to get back into the game but their earlier performance had left them-selves too deep a hole to climb out

of. The team will be pleased with

the way they fought back in the second half and will have to cut out mistakes in order to get a win in their next game.

The Fury will hope that they can turn their form around for the upcoming season, predicted to

sit near the bottom of the league the team will be hoping they can prove their critics wrong and earn a playoff place.

American football has gained massive popularity with the Brit-ish public over the last few years due to the NFL’s decision to host some regular season games over to

the UK at Wembley Stadium. Last month saw the arrival of

the New England Patriots and St Louis at Wembley with huge stars such as the Patriot’s quarter back Tom Brady playing in front of the thousands of British fans.

The BUAFL gives a chance to any student within the UK inter-

ested in the game to start playing the game.

Many fans have left words of support on the team’s facebook and Twitter profi les, showing sup-port for the team is high.

You can follow the Liverpool Fury on Twitter @LiverpoolFury

By Jamie Allen

Despite a good second half performance LJMU Fury failed to grab a win on opening day

Ladies draw with city rivals in Gaelic fi xtureLiverpool John Moores Gaelic la-dies team were furious on Sunday as the referee called the game a draw against University of Liv-erpool despite both teams saying otherwise.

There is a healthy rivalry be-tween sports teams in the two Liverpool universities, and there is no exception amongst the Gael-ic teams.

In spite of a waterlogged pitch JMU proved the better side on Sunday ending the fi rst half with an eight point lead thanks to top scorers and county players Niamh Marley and Aoife Mon-tague. Both teams were obviously rattled and nervous in the second half, foolishly giving away a lot of balls to the opposition and missing points that they could have usually scored with their eyes closed.

However, after what must have been a very encouraging pep talk from team manager Michael Hig-gins, the Uni Of girls made an im-pressive comeback after a spout of competitive play, helping them score 3 goals in the second half.

The match ended as a draw but it wasn’t long before the JMU management were challenging this result, and the referee’s abil-ity to count the scores claiming that in fact JMU had won by a point, a result which would have put them top of the Division 1 table.

JMU manager Nathan Deery has since entered a complaint to the offi cial British University Gaelic board about the result.

By Lauren Kelly

Liverpool face BSC Young Boys on Thursday night at Anfi eld as they look to qualify from the group stages of the Europa League.

Liverpool can secure a safe pas-sage to the round of 32, provided they beat the Swiss outfi t and Ital-ian club Udinese are defeated by Anzhi.

His team will want to build on a comfortable 3-0 win at the week-end against Wigan and they will be expecting to take control of the game from the start. The reverse fi xture saw Liverpool run out 5-3 winners in the opening group game in Berne.

There was also some good news this week as Lucas Leiva returned to fi rst team training after being out with a thigh injury for the past three months, he had returned from a cruciate knee injury but suffered the thigh injury against Manchester City in August.

The team will have one eye on the weekend’s fi xture as they make the diffi cult trip to South Wales to take on Brendan Rodg-ers’ former team Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.

The team will be hoping for the fi rst back to back wins in the Pre-mier League this season against the Welsh side.

Liverpool prepare for Europa League game

By Jamie Allen

Fans get ready for Betfair Chase at Haydock

Now that one of the greats of jump racing has retired, the way appears to have cleared for another horse to write his own chapter in racing history.

Long Run has been a favourite for his races ever since his 2011 Gold Cup Triumph, but in the Betfair Chase and King George, he has been thwarted by the leg-end and crowd favourite, Kau-to Star supported by the lethal trainer/jockey combination of Paul Nicholls and Ruby Walsh.

Horse racing fans will have the chance to say farewell to one of the greatest race horses as Kau-to Star will be paraded at Hay-dock Park ahead of the Betfair Chase on Saturday.

The four time winner, who had his penultimate victory of his il-lustrious career recently retired after being pulled up at this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.

It’s felt, that if there was ever a time for Long Run to start dominating the most prestigous events in jump racing, then he has to start by claiming victory in the Betfair Chase.

Long Run is 11/8 to win the race that he was so convincingly beaten in last year.

Silvianaco Conti, who was in good shape during his last out-ing at Wetherby, seems to be his main rival to the crown, with

2010 Gold Cup winner Impe-rial Commander missing out through injury when preparing for what was supposed to be his comeback.

There appears to be two main contenders, and if Wally-Cohen wants to ride a dominant Long Run, Haydock on Saturday is a good day to start.

By Jamie Allen

Long Run at Haydock

Bodybuilder Luke placed third in UKA former JMU student has fi n-ished his fi rst season as a body-builder as the most successful competitor in his division in the North West.

Luke Porter, 22, who left John Moores in 2011, also placed third in the junior British Natu-ral Bodybuilder Federation na-tional fi nals. This is combined with a second place fi nish in the Northern division of the BNBF and taking the winner’s prize in the Natural Physique Associa-tion Midlands novice competi-tion.

Luke, now a trainee teacher at Liverpool Community Col-lege, said “For me, the BNBF fi nals are the pinnacle of British natural bodybuilding. I was ec-static with the results and what I brought to the fi eld, and now it’s all about 2014 and challenging for a British title in the weight classes with the big guns.Luke

emigrated to Germany from the Wirral at the age of 12, but returned to his native Prenton to study PE at Liverpool John Moores when he was 18.

He explained: “It may sound like a cliché but as a child I grew up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly Stal-lone fi lms, and always wanted to look like that. I was always into exercise but started training seriously for bodybuilding when I was 19.

“That led me to Rocky’s Gym in Birkenhead, and gaining a lot of advice from the owner John Gillan and ex Mr Britain Peter Peers. That’s where the training really started.”

Luke described the rigours of keeping in shape for competi-tive bodybuilding, and said that he only takes part in shows are drug tested as he feels it keeps

Sterling refutes alleged attack

by Sam McDonnell

Liverpool footballer Raheem Sterling has taken to Twitter to deny alleged attack claims. It has been reported that Sterling was interviewed by Police in connection with an alleged attack on a woman. Sterling tweeted “Haha the stories get better and better hahah”

The 17-year-old, who made his England debut in last week’s defeat to Sweden, was reportedly questioned under caution after he went to the police by an appointment. In a statement Merseyside police made it clear that he had not been arrested and that investi-gations into the alleged assault were continuing.

A spokeswoman for Mer-seyside Police said: “Mer-seyside Police can confi rm that a 17-year-old male from the Woolton area was interviewed under caution, following a report of an assault on Friday 2 November.

“A 27-year-old woman received slight injuries during the incident in the Liverpool 8 area. At this time, the inves-tigation is on-going and no formal action has been taken.”

Raheem Sterling is expected to sign a new contract with Liverpool and has been a vital part of Brendan Rodgers Liverpool squad and they sit in the bottom half of the table following their 3-0 win over Wigan. Their next match is in the Europa League against Young Boys as they look to qualify from their group.

Rovers aim to get back on track

High-fl ying Tranmere Rovers look to get back to winning ways at home when they face Walsall at Prenton Park tonight.

The League One leaders sit two points clear of Sheffi eld United on 37 points, despite not picking up a home win in the last three games. Defeats to Doncaster and MK Dons, plus a draw with Preston North End at Prenton Park have somewhat grounded expectations after Ronnie Moore’s men made an unexpectedly strong start to the season.

Moore’s squad to take on 17th place Walsall tonight looks less than full strength, with Abdulai Bell-Baggie, Joe Thompson and Paul Black all joining long term casualty Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro on the casualty list.

Centre halves Ben Gibson and Ash Taylor missed training yester-day after both completed the full 90 minutes in the defeat to MK Dons on Friday, but the defensive

pair are expected to start tonight.Jake Jervis’s loan spell from

Birmingham City has come to an end so Cole Stockton could earn a start, although the Rovers boss has several other options up front with Jake Kirby and Max Power pushing for a place in the starting 11.

Ronnie Moore said “They’re all important games. Prenton Park has been a fortress for us. The games that we’ve lost have been so close and so tight to call. It’s not like teams are coming here and murdering us.

“I’ll guarantee you that Walsall won’t have as much possession as MK Dons had on Friday night.”

Former Tranmere defender Andy Taylor will be in the Walsall line up as Dean Smith hopes his side can better their return of 20 points from 18 games.

Walsall manager Dean Smith said:“It’ll be tough again but not many people expected us to get anything at Crawley on Satur-day.”

by Sam McDonnell

Sterling after scoring against Reading

by Joe Lanigan Smith

Luke Porter has fi nished his fi rst season as the best body builder in the North West

Life/Sport/11

Mersey Tigers slumped to their ninth straight defeat of the season and cemented their place at the bottom of the British Bas-ketball League after Saturday’s loss to Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Tigers.

The Tigers were convincingly beaten 79 – 40 playing away to top of the league Riders, and remain the only team in the BBL not to win a game.

Mersey Tigers welcome third-placed Surrey Heat to Liverpool on Friday night, hoping to turn their fortunes around and secure a vital fi rst win.

Mersey Tigers coach Tony Walsh praised his players and said : “Martin Cavol linked well with all his new team mates and produced some excellent passes and shotsRudy Etilopy again gave a solid performance.”

MerseyTigers still look for fi rst win

Former Everton midfi elder Tim Cahill has expressed a desire to return to the Merseyside team in January but only on a short-term basis.

The player, who left Goodison Park this summer to play for the New York Red Bulls, has seen his season in the States come to an end, after his team were knocked out of the Major League play-offs by DC United.

The 32-year-old Australian is keen to carry on playing and highlighted that he would love to return to the club where he spent eight memorable years, saying: “There is no shadow of a doubt, I’d love to come back.”

He has always remained a fan of both Everton and the Premier League, using his Twitter ac-count to show support. In recent days he has told his followers: “Just getting up to watch the Blues, hope they can stay in the top four.”

It is thought that the signing would be a huge boost to Ever-ton, who are trying to continue their great start to the campaign. The Australia international, who scored over 50 goals for the Tof-fees, would offer the stability which was missing this weekend when the Blues surrendered a one-goal lead in the 2-1 loss to Reading.

With so many matches and a large number of the Goodison players representing their coun-tries on international duty, fans believe that Cahill would offer invaluable experience and bol-ster the midfi eld, which has also lost captain Phil Neville to a seri-ous knee injury.

Cahill saw some of his greatest moments whilst in the blue of Everton, including getting them to the Champions League and UEFA Cup before being the fi rst Everton player for 18 years to be nominated for the prestigious Ballon D’Or individual award when he was selected in October

2006.Everton are sitting 5th in the

table following a shock defeat to newly promoted Reading. They have also recalled Ross Barkley from his loan spell at Sheffi eld Wednesday following the injury to captain Phil Neville. Their next match is at home to Norwich as they look to come back from their shock defeat.

Everton remain in good form despite the setback to Reading. They remain unbeaten at home thanks to stand out performanc-es from Marouane Fellaini who recently came out and confi rmed his future as an Everton player following rumours of the Bel-gian looking for a move away. He said : “If the manager asked me to play at right back, I would. Everton are my team and I want to win every game.”

He also went on to say that he belives the Everton side are good enough for fourth place, and good enough to qualify for a champions league spot.

by Scott Rumsey

by Sam McDonnell

“I was always into exercise but started training when I was 19.”

the competition completely nat-ural.

He said “I train fi ve days a week, for 40 minutes each time. It may seem like a small amount of time, but with intensity I can’t do anymore. I train to the max-imum my body can handle and more, leaving everything in the gym. I have got my two brothers into this mentality and hopeful-ly they will be gracing the stage soon, and they will blow me out the water.”

Eating habits are as important as gym work, and to be success-ful Luke has to commit to a strict eating routine.

He said: “We put in 12-20 weeks of dieting for one day, and trust me; the meals are very boring after 22 weeks on repeat. I decided against doing the NPA fi nals in September due to start-ing back teaching. I get quite grumpy when dieting and didn’t want it to affect my teaching.”

The BNBF is a non-profi t making organisation run purely for the good of natural athletes. It has now been running for 12 years and has been testing the urine for every single class win-ner at every competition.

Every single Britain fi nalist has been polygraphed before being allowed on stage and have had have had 2 Overall Pro World Champions & 3 Overall Amateur World Champions.

Natural bodybuilding is dif-ferent to standard bodybuilding where those who compete in the natural competition have to both take a drug test and a pol-ygraph to prove that their work is the product of hard work and training and completely free of drug use.

As part of the rules they are not allowed to use performance en-hancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids, insulin, diuretics and human growth hormone. If the bodybuilder meets the require-ments of the sanctioning body that they are competing in, then they are considered to be a natu-ral athlete. There are numerous sanctioning bodies that provide their own rules and regulations that govern the competition pro-cedures and event qualifi cations.

Midfi elder Cahill eyes New Year loan return to Everton

By Ian Bolland

Local boy Tony Bellew took a giant stride towards another shot at the world light-heavyweight title after overcoming Roberto Bolonti in his bout at the Capi-tal FM Arena in Nottingham on Saturday.

The 29-year-old put in a con-trolled, yet dominant, perfor-mance and showed some posi-tive signs as he claimed his 19th career victory by a unanimous points decision (120-106, 119-107, 120-106).

Bellew, who is diehard Ever-ton supporter, came out to the Z-Cars theme tune, and had ringside support from former Everton player Jack Rodwell, and current squad members Tim Howard and Sylvain Distin.

Not only was the WBC Silver title on the line but the week-end’s bout also acted as an elim-inator to fi ght for the governing body’s world title, currently held by American fi ghter Chad Daw-son.

Bellew said before the fi ght that he intended to go after Bolonti, and he was true to his word. In the fi rst round he im-mediately got on the front foot, and forced the Argentinian to the canvas with a right-handed shot, despite claims that he was caught on the back of the head.

Bellew kept up the early pres-sure and a left hook caught Bo-lonti off balance, forcing him to the canvas for a second time in the third round, and this time it could not be disputed.

Despite the Bomber’s early dominance, it wasn’t all plain sailing as a left hand from the

Argentine managed to open up a large cut above Bellew’s right eye, which caught the attention of the referee, meaning a more cautious approach from then on by the Scouser.

But Bellew showed that he could think well on his feet, as he still managed to land a couple of good shots on his 31-year-old opponent, using his superior reach to his ad-vantage, and boxing intelligently to protect his right eye, even if it took something away from the spectacle.

After the sixth round, referee Victor Loughlin appeared to warn Bellew that if the gash above his eye opened any further, he could be forced to call in the ringside physician to potentially stop the contest.

Bolonti offered little more to breach Bellew’s defences, and after worries about Bellew’s cut began to fade, he began to quick-en up the tempo with a fl urry of punches to put Belonti up against the ropes in the ninth round, and a stinging uppercut in the 10th liv-ened up an otherwise quiet crowd.

Bellew paid tribute to his corner man and his opponent after the fi ght. He said: “I’ve got the best cut man in the game with Mick Williamson. Once the cut come I took my foot off the gas a little bit.

“Credit where credit’s due, he’s [Belonti] got a tough chin. Bollon-ti was a really tough guy, and the cut was awful.”

Bellew’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, confi rmed that they will push for a fi nal eliminator for a world title fi ght.

He said: “We’re going to be top fi ve in the WBC. That was an eliminator for the world title and we’ll now push for a fi nal elimina-tor with Chad Dawson.”

Earlier that night marked the debut of Liverpool boxer, Calum Smith. The super-middleweight and newest signing to the Match-room camp made his pro debut. The former Team GB star beat Dan Blackwell over 4 rounds with

The Bomber overcomes Bolonti despite suffering gash above eye

LifeSPORT20 November 2012

Liverpool

CHANCE AT THE TITLE: Tony Bellew poses with his belts ©TonyBellew/Twitter

“Bollonti was a really tough guy, and the cut was

awful.”

Fowler relaxed about hanging up boots

Robbie Fowler has spoken out about his decision to retire from football. The 37-year-old was one of the speakers at the LFC Former Players Association’s yearly din-ner.

The event was held in the An-fi eld trophy room last Monday to raise funds for charity. Fowler spoke after the dinner about his future: “I think it’s fi nished for me now. Realistically, I’ve gone now.”

Robbie Fowler scored 120 goals in 236 games for Liverpool in his fi rst spell at Anfi eld, before leav-ing for Leeds United in 2001. He was then re-signed by Rafael Benítez in 2006, and went on to score 8 goals in 30 appearances. After leaving Liverpool for the second time, he has played for Blackburn, two Australian clubs and a spell as player-manager for Muangthong United in Thailand. In March this year, he was training with Blackpool, but never ended up signing a deal.

He also spoke about deadline day of this year when he joking-ly tweeted a picture of his boots to in the hope of being re-signed by Liverpool: “I knew Liverpool wanted a forward, and you always have a little bit of a dream don’t you? I was interested in going back. I knew it was never going to happen obviously. But I actually tweeted a picture of my boots on the bed. A few hours had passed, no phone call, gutted. Then one minute passed eleven, I tweeted a picture of them in the bin.”

Asked whether he would con-sider going into managing, Fowl-er stated: “I would, yes. You play for a long time, 15-20 years, and just to suddenly stop is a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Coaching and management is obviously the next step. To be involved in foot-ball and to be around it, then it’s the next step for me. Ideally, you would like to be involved in Liv-erpool - but I know for me it’s a long way off.”

By Arild Skjaveland

Fowler at the LFC Former Players Association dinner

BELLEW IN WITH WBC TITLE SHOUT