CITY BIN FURY

Life www.jmu-journalism.org.uk

Liverpool

8th October 2013

By Nathan Pearce

A Twitter storm has erupted over the council’s decision to cut bin collections for more than 100,000 Liverpool homes at the end of the month.

Liverpool’s 80,000 terrace houses will continue having weekly collections of their purple bins but the city’s remaining 136,000 houses will face the new fortnightly collection of their waste.

Liverpool residents reacted angrily on Twitter to the news with some claiming favouritism for residents who lived in terrace housing.

Twitter user @DoubleUSee said: “If we all pay towards Council Tax and services, no reason why type of house/street warrants favourable treatment.”

Other Twitter users raised concerns over time scale, council tax fees, council spending and storage issues with large families.

Twitter user @alidan51 said: “There was anarchy on the streets when the bin men went on strike for two weeks so how is this going to work.”

Another user @Mark_85 said: “Makes you wonder if they’re doing this to save £1m a year, why did they buy Finch Farm for £13m.

Another Tweeter @WEARE

CASTRO said: “How about charging council staff for parking, get rid of the mayor’s car and scrap council hospitality allowance. #hypocrisy”

User @evertonmad1878 said: “so does that mean a reduction in council tax?”

Similarly, user @VAMOSMH said: “I look forward to receiving the discount in council tax due to the reduced service.”

The changes to the collections mean that purple household waste bins will now be collected fortnightly with blue recycling bins being collected in the alternating week.

The scheme aims to reduce council costs and increase recycling across the city when they come in to effect on October 28th.

A spokesperson for GrotSpots Liverpool, a local environmental group, said: “We are concerned that the introduction of fortnightly collections will lead to an increase in dumping, fl y-tipping and littering as residents’ bins are fi lled well in advance of their collection. When bins are full it is only a matter of time before people turn to illicit disposal methods.”

Liverpool Councillors initially voted in favour of an alternate weekly collections scheme in January despite Mayor Joe Anderson promising to keep the

weekly collections in the run up to the 2012 mayoral election.

The council hope that the new scheme will save around £1m a year and increase recycling by 10 per cent.

Councillor Steve Munby, cabinet member for living environment and localism, said: “It costs us about £32m a year on collecting, recycling and disposing waste in the city.

“But this is not just an exercise in reducing costs – it is about the environmental impact it will have. The evidence is clear that those councils which have managed weekly collections have the highest recycling rates. Our recycling rate has remained stagnant at about 26% for the last couple of years.”

The recycling rate for Liverpool is considerably lower than the county’s average of 37% and remains behind other major cities which have an average of 30.07%.

GrotSpots added: “We worry that the recycle bins will become contaminated with general waste and end up in landfi ll. If people have more general waste than their bins can take, the only outcome will be an increase in dumping.”

Liverpool households will receive information packs about the changes and new collection dates in the coming weeks.

The news this week...Local Spanish restaurant enjoying the sweet taste of success

More on page 5

Tune in as Claire launches new radio programme

More on page 2

Second near miss for Liverpool’s Wolfe Tones ladies Gaelic team

More on page 12

Sticking it to chewers

Liverpool is fi ghting back against irresponsible gum chewers with a new campaign aimed at reducing the sticky mess on our pavements. Full story on page 3. Picture by Laura Ryder

Twitter users row over plans to scrap weekly bin collections

‘Don’t blame us bin men!’

‘Therewas anarchy on streets when the bin men went on strike!’

Life|News|2

EditorsGemma SherlockChief SubShannyn QuinnNews EditorAimée HamiltonNewsHazel MillerJade MasriJames RoutledgeRyan McElroyAlisha DayaSarah MeeWilliam Shaw

Features editorSimóne FogginFeaturesNadine HighamKerryleigh GoughSport editorNiall DudleySports Paul McIntyre Liberty ChrismasPicture editor Laura Ryder

Liverpool

Team

JMU’s Claire ready to hit the airwaves

A JMU Journalism student is launching a new radio show on a community radio sta-tion in Knowsley this week.The show, ‘The Weekend Live Drive’, will be broadcast on

KCC Live, a community ra-dio station based in Knowsley Community College, which broadcasts across Liverpool to its target audience of ten to 24 year olds.

The new show which airs this weekend, starts on Friday from 3 – 6 pm.

Claire said: “The radio sched-ule change usually happens every year at KCC Live just so that the radio stays sounding fresh and so it is being rein-vented. The new show is being launched because it is at that time of day when the station has the most listeners, due to people driving home from places such as work.”

The new show will include features that the listeners can get involved with, including com-petitions and interviews with a variety of different people that the target audience will be inter-ested in.

Claire, who originally fi lled a two hour slot on a Thursday afternoon, has now been given nine hours of air time spread-

ing across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

She added: “I initially got in-volved with the station after completing a radio course one summer at Ariel Trust, located on Hanover Street in Liverpool. Doing live radio is something I had always wanted to do but didn’t think it would be possible.

Within a couple of weeks of applying to KCC, I was trained up and on air with my own show. Now it’s coming up to my third year being at the station and I’m still really enjoying it.”

KCC Live was launched on 1st December 2003 by Hywel Evans as the radio station for Knowsley Community College.

The station, despite having moved around over the years, is currently located in the Roby Campus and boasts an offi ce and preparation area and four studi-os, including two for live broad-casting and two for production, pre-recording, news and train-ing.

In 2010, the station won the prestigious Radio Academy Na-tions and Regions Award for the North West Branch, and won it for the second time in 2012.

They were also nominated for the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2011 Station of the Year and also attended the 2011 Ar-qiva Awards as an educational establishment.

LifeDomestic centres set to close downDomestic violence safe havens face closure after pleas for them to remain open fell on deaf ears.

Opposition councillors and do-mestic violence charities argued that the cuts could put women and children fl eeing domestic violence at risk.

The number of refuge places is being halved by the Chesh-ire West and Chester Council (CWaC), who plan to replace the centres with a single hub. It is thought the cuts will save an es-timated £55,000.

CWaC claim the changes will provide improved support, bet-ter accommodation and cater for a wider range of families. Refuges in Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich would close and new caps will be brought in limiting the accommodation available to domestic violence victims from outside West Cheshire.

Labour called in the decision and the safeguarding scrutiny committee spent four hours de-bating the plans. Cllr Louise Grittins, who has spoken out against the cuts, said: “Labour, along with the experts in the fi eld, believe cutting the refuge provision by almost half will put women and children’s lives

by Aimée Hamilton at risk.“We’re bitterly disappointed

that the safeguarding scrutiny committee saw fi t to do nothing except to ‘monitor’ the situa-tion.”

To the dismay of Labour, Cllr Margaret Parker, chair of the safeguarding committee, reject-ed calls for a private meeting where survivors of domestic vi-olence could have their say.

Labour leader Justin Mad-ders, described the meeting as a charade, he said: “The refusal to allow a private session was an appalling decision that has left victims who wanted to de-scribe their experience without a voice.”

Cllr Lynda Jones, executive member for commissioning, said: “I believe the new do-mestic abuse accommodation service will be a signifi cant im-provement for victims and their children. important that the safe-guarding scrutiny committee receives regular updates about how the new contract is com-missioned

Cllr Parker said after the meet-ing: “The new domestic abuse service was discussed in detail during the four hour meeting. I welcome the offer by Cllr Jones that regular updates on the pro-gress of the new service, will be sent to the scrutiny committee.”

MP elected Minister of Stateby Damian Leonard

PROMOTED: Liverpool-born Esther McVey

The Liverpool Community Health (LCH) NHS Trusts have been showing their support for Sign Language Awareness Week as they allow their staff the opportunity to learn sign language.

The awareness week is to take place from Monday 14th to Sunday 20th of October, and it aims to promote an increased understanding of the challeng-es that people with hearing disabilities go through on a daily basis, and to help support greater inclusivity.

A staggering 120,000 people in Britain use sign language as their fi rst language, whilst 1 in 6 people in the UK have a hearing disability.

Shelagh Wishart, Health Link & Advocacy Worker for Liv-erpool Community Health has been spearheading awareness week activities amongst the Trust’s 3,200 staff members.

She said: “The main way you treat a person in health care is through communication, but how do you communicate when someone has hearing diffi culties and you’re not taking the time to speak too slowly and allow them time to understand what you’re saying?”

Marathon to take over the WirralThousands are expected to take part in the Wirral half marathon this weekend.

Around 2,500 runners will be taking to the streets to run the races, which are organised by local events company, BTR.

The half marathon and 10K challenge is the fi rst of its kind to take place in the Wirral. BTR have received approximately, 1,742 entrants for the half mar-athon and 923 in the 10K.

Race Director at BTR, Alan Rothwell, said: “Many entrants will have run in the Chester mar-athon last weekend and will use the half or 10K distance as a re-covery run. As the event is new to the area it attracts many peo-

ple to the borough who would not normally visit.

“We have had entries from Denmark, Spain, Norway and Belgium.”

The Wirral Half Marathon and Wirral 10K will start in Birk-enhead Park and end in New Brighton.

The race will start at 9.30am in the Upper Park section of Birk-enhead Park and Ashville Road will be closed to vehicles from 7.30am.

Roads along the route will be closed to allow the safe op-eration of the events, starting at around 6am in the morning, with some closures remaining in place until about 2pm.

A full list of road closures can be found at www.btrliverpool.com/event/wirral-half/

John Lennon fans have been in-vited to Hollywood to celebrate what would be the Beatle’s member’s 73rd birthday.

The event will take place at the Capital Record Tower, where the stars of all four members of the Beatles are displayed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The event will begin with the Beatles song “Birthday,” which will be dedicated to both John Lennon and his son, Sean Lennon, who will be celebrat-ing his 38th birthday that day. It will end with the singing of “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance” with fans joining hands in a Circle of Peace around John’s star.

by Lauren Cordelle

Claire at work. You can tune into Claire’s show at 99.8 FM, visit: http://www.kcclive.com

Merseyside Conservative MP Esther McVey has come out on top in the Government reshuffl e.

The Wirral MP and former tel-evision presenter for GMTV and 5s Company gained the position of employment minister at the Department for Work and Pen-sions.

As a previous junior minister of the same department with re-sponsibility for disabled people, the Liverpool born MP will now hold the title of Minister of State.

Ms McVey’s upgrade was one of the most high profi le reshuf-fl es of the day, after many MPs were left empty handed after los-

ing their roles within the state.West Derby MP Stephen

Twigg was dropped from La-bour’s shadow cabinet in a re-shuffl e staged on the same day.

He lost his role as Shadow Education Secretary and will now serve as Shadow Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform.

Labour MP for Garston and Halewood, Maria Eagle will stay in the shadow cabinet, but has lost the transport portfolio to Wakefi eld MP Mary Creagh.

Ms McVey’s replaces Fareham Conservative MP Mark Hoban, who has returned to the back-benchers.

Her appointment will make her one of the most prominent MPs outside the cabinet and could open the door to further promotion.

She said: “My priority has been, and will continue to be, making sure people have the right help and support to get into and stay in work. We have already improved the help avail-able through initiatives like the Work Programme, and we are bringing in more intensive sup-port for the long-term unem-ployed.

“I also want to make sure young people who work hard receive all the support they need

to get on and get the best start in life. As a girl from Liverpool I have led the way in career sup-

port and guidance for girls with the Daily Post and Liverpool Echo.”

by Gemma Sherlock

SPECIAL DAY FOR JOHN

The race starts in Birkhenhead Park pic:twitter@LizzieAire

by Damian Leonard

by Damian Leonard

NHS SAY YES TO SIGN

DINGLE TUNNEL REPAIRby Harriet Midgley

Repair work has begun fourteen months after a disused railway tunnel collapsed in Dingle.

The tunnel collapsed beneath homes on Dingle Grove, Sun-dridge Street and Toxteth Grove on the 24th of July 2012. The tunnel, which runs for 1.2km, was being used by a car repair company when it collapsed last year causing tons of rock to fall.

Residents from eleven homes were evacuated after the proper-ties were declared unsafe. Since the tunnel’s collapse families have been living in temporary accommodation.

The fi rst phase of repair work has started and is expected to last around two weeks while the tunnel is safety tested from the entrance to the collapse site. The repairs will be undertak-en by engineering fi rm SES Contracting.

If the repair work goes to plan, residents can expect to be allowed home in twelve weeks.

LANTERNSHOWby Lauren Cordelle

The Halloween Lantern Carni-val will return to Sefton Park again this year for an evening packed with ghouls, magic and mayhem.

The event, a permanent fi xture in Liverpool’s cultural calendar, takes place at Sefton Park on Friday November 1st and is promised to be better than ever, despite details for this year’s parade being kept top secret by organisers with few guaranteed activities.

One guaranteed element of the carnival will be the Lantern Parade, when lanterns made by community workshops will form a moving river of light, put together by the Lantern Company.

Jo Pocock, Artistic Director of the Lantern Company, said: “The Halloween Lantern Carni-val will always be our favourite event.

Life|News|3

Race to the finish for Everyman’s £28m refurbishment

City gets tough on gum menace

By Jack Birch

An additional workforce has been put in place to ensure that the opening of the new Everyman � eatre goes ahead on time.

Extra builders from Northern Ireland-based contractors Gil-bert Ash have been recruited to keep the redevelopment of the theatre on course for early 2014.

Pippa Lea, the theatre’s PR manager, said: “� e building is very, very close to practical completion and should be � nished this month.”

Two months ago, many work-ers were sent back to Northern Ireland whilst the � oors were being laid for the theatre, as building work on other areas of the site were put on hold.

� ose workers have now been brought back to the Everyman site which brings the total number of builders on site to approximately a hundred. An amount the PR manager said “is the most we’ve ever had”.

� e original Everyman � ea-tre closed in July 2011, when it was decided it was in need of a revamp.

� e last major production before the £28m redevelopment was William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, starring David Mor-rissey, a former member of the Everyman Youth � eatre and star of � e Walking Dead.

� e new building will feature the familiar wrap around design but it will come with many more facilities.

By Damian Leonard

A campaign to clamp down on littered chew-ing gum is being launched by Liverpool City Council.

The council are teaming up with the Chewing Gum Ac-tion Group to encourage lo-

cal residents to ‘Bin It Your Way’, with litterers being fi ned up to £80 if caught.

Liverpool is one of 16 local authorities supporting the cam-paign, now in its eighth year.

Bus stops, bins and telephone kiosks are just some of the plac-es across the city where adverts

for the campaign will be placed. Reports from the previous

year’s campaign show that gum litter fell 54% nationwide. Results from Cardiff showed a 93% decrease and Notting-ham saw an 88% decrease.

CGAG campaign co-ordi-nator Kristian Bentham, said:

“We are committed to build-ing on the success of previous years and hope to see a signifi -cant reduction of chewing gum litter in the partner regions.”

The new advertising cam-paign is set up to engage view-ers, featuring professionally choreographed dancers, in the

hopes that they will encour-age people to dispose of their gum in a fun, creative way.

The dynamic, brightly colour-ed adverts will appear in a range of locations across participating local authorities and districts, including bus stops, lamp-posts and telephone kiosks.

By Harriet Midgley

Nearly a quarter of the poor-est children in Merseyside are behind in the “three R’s” at the age of seven.

Global charity Save the Chil-dren released “Too Young to Fail”, a report stating that primary school children be-hind in reading, writing and arithmetic already have their life chances determined.

The report reveals that the poorest children in the North West - defi ned as those who re-ceive school meals are reading at a lower level than expected which will impact their future earnings, health and cost the country billions in revenue.

The charity added: “Across the North West the 4,000 chil-

Poorest Merseyside children lagging behind in schooldren that are behind at sev-en years old will have less than a one in six chance of getting fi ve good GCSEs through no fault of their own.”

Save the Children suggests that without efforts to help the poorest children, there could be higher rates of tru-ancy, anti-social behaviour and more people in prison.

Save the Children’s Chief Executive, Justin Forsyth, said: “Many children starting school this term already have the odds stacked against them. These children of the recession, born during the global fi nancial cri-sis into a world of low growth, stagnant wages and increasing living costs, where communities are feeling the effects of austeri-ty, need our help more than ever.

The cost of failing is a young child without a fair chance in life however hard they try.”

The charity is launch-ing a “Born to Read” pro-gramme to get children both locally and nationwide read-ing over the next for years.

Becky Hunter, a volunteer with the Merseyside branch said: “Sometimes it’s good for the children to get experience with other books. Sometimes we read in silly voices. Some children have never done that and they don’t understand how much fun a book is.”

Save the Children is aiming to recruit 20,000 volunteers over the next four years to assist children during their fi rst years at school giving them a better chance.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The new Everyman theatre will retain the trademark wrap-around auditorium and basement bistro Photo: Laura Ryder

WELL-READ: Books are vital to children’s learning

Families call for video inquiryby Aimée Hamilton

Families of the Hillsborough victims have called for action after it was revealed that police footage of the disaster may have been altered.

The information came to light yesterday at the third prelimi-nary hearing which was held by coroner Lord Justice Goldring at London’s Thistle hotel.

Pete Weatherby QC revealed the information during evi-dence, speaking on behalf of 21 of the families involved. He said: “The footage is understood to be related to one handheld camera operated by an offi cer on duty on the day of the semi-fi nal meeting between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.” He called for an audio visual expert to be among those giving evidence at the inquest, saying it was vital that the footage reviewed was as reliable as possible.

Wirral-born Liberal Demo-crat councillor, Gary Malcolm, who represents Southfi eld ward, tweeted this morning saying: “If it is true that the police footage at #Hillsborough was edited

then bang them up.”It emerged that a family mem-

ber’s material was of better quality than the recording ini-tially provided at the inquests. Mr Weatherby said that the dif-ference in quality meant that one victim had been misidentifi ed in the process of tracking move-ments through the crowd on the day of the tragedy.

Michael Mansfi eld QC, speak-ing on behalf of a further 74 families, also voiced concerns over the footage which was in the hands of the police.

Amy McGlone, whose father Alan died at Hillsborough, said: “It is the kind of thing we are seeing more and more evidence over. They should be looking in to this along with the altered statements.”

She added that she wanted to see the issue considered by the IPCC.

The inquests will be held in Warrington and are scheduled to start on March 31st. Lord Justice Goldring said: “I am absolutely determined that we will start when I’ve said we will start.”

Chester celebrates its rainbow communityby Jess Watters

Chester hosted its fi rst large-scale Pride festival in the city centre on Saturday drawing crowds of over 2,000.

Popstar and X Factor fi nal-ist Amelia Lily, headlined the event in the Town Hall Square which celebrated the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. The festival which was organised by Lion’s Pride LGBT Network was hosted by local drag queens Penni T and Wanda Why.

Helen Pickin-Jones, the pro-moter of Chester Pride said, “Chester has a small lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgen-der scene in comparison to our neighbours in Liverpool and Manchester, and we were nerv-ous about how many people would come along to Pride. We were overwhelmed with the at-tendance.”

X Factor contestant Chris Maloney performed on the Gen-der Blender stage in the Town Hall Square. He tweeted “thanks so much to Chester Pride and all the beautiful people that have

turned out today. Absolutely amazing! Xx”

The Gender Blender stage, hosted by Chester’s very own local drag queens also saw a Lady GaGa tribute act and per-formances from burlesque group Beguiled and drag superstars The Viaduct Starlets.

Helen Pickin-Jones said: “Our main stage proved popular with something for everyone. The opening performance by Vicky Jackson as Lady GaGa went down a storm really getting the crowd into the party mood. We really hope that Chester Pride becomes an annual event in our city.”

The artists network Funky Aardvark ran an interactive art experience in the Town Hall square where adults and chil-dren helped to create the t-shirt design for next year’s Chester Pride.

The square also held a market including face painters, gifts and treats. Inside the Town Hall was Chester Pride’s lifestyle area featuring information, advice and freebies from public servic-es and community groups.

A Merseyside man was arrested after a stolen loot of iPods, sat navs and designer sunglasses was discovered in Hoylake.

Police are looking to reunite the haul of goods, which also includes CDs and laptops, with their rightful owners.

Detectives were led to the “Aladdin’s Cave” after arresting a suspect on Friday after a spate of thefts from motor vehicles in the Upton area.

Police have appealed today for residents in the Upton area to come forward to reclaim their belongings.

In order to claim the re-covered property callers will be asked to provide proof of purchase/ ownership or infor-mation about identifying marks or features.

Call Merseyside Police on 0151 777 2246.

Two men have been arrested after a man died on the Formby by-pass on Monday morning in a suspected road rage incident.

The 49-year-old motorist died after his silver Renault Clio left the road near Hightown and crashed into a lamppost.

Despite being freed from the car by fi re-fi ghters, the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police suspect there may have been a “verbal altercation” between the driver and men in a red Volkswagen van at a set of traffi c lights moments before the collision.

A van matching the descrip-tion given to police was found in the Litherland area Monday evening and the two men were arrested.

Detectives would like to speak to anyone who witnessed any altercation or anyone who saw the vehicles before or after they stopped at the lights to call Marsh Lane CID on 0151 777 3835

Life|News| 4

Chester celebrates Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community ©Flickr

The Queen Anne wing of Crox-teth Hall has re-opened to the public after it was destroyed by a fi re over 60 years ago.

Work on restoring a fi re-hit wing of Liverpool’s Crox-teth Hall has been completed – meaning the Hall can be fully used for the fi rst time in more than 60 years. Croxteth Estate Trust fund has supplied £400,000 to help restore the South-West wing to its former glories.

Two of the rooms, next to the Old Dining Room, have been restored and brought back into public use in a £400,000 programme, funded through the Croxteth Estate Endowment Trust Fund. Work on its restora-tion was carried out by Nobles

The Hillsborough families have been awarded a Pride of Britain Award recognis-ing their 25-year fi ght for justice for those involved in the Hillsborough dis-aster.

ITV News presenter Mark Austin, who covered the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989, introduced the special recognition awards.

Chairwoman of the Hills-borough Families Support Group, Margaret Aspinall, who lost her 18-year-old son in the tragedy, re-ceived the award on behalf of the families.

The award was presented by Liverpool FC legends, Kenny Dalglish, Jamie Car-ragher and John Barnes, and local comedian John Bishop.

Margaret thanked the people of Liverpool for continuing to support the families in their search for the truth.

She admits: “I was determined to get justice.” Hillsborough families are fi ghting on ©Twitter

HONOURED: Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall as she accepted a Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Award ©Twitter

Cutbacks may force further redundancies at Merseyside Police according to Chief Con-stable, Jon Murphy, QPM.The Police Chief gave a lecture at the Redmonds Building, LJMU yesterday in which he highlighted the issues sur-rounding a shortage of staff in the force. “Other redundancies may have to be made due to local government cutbacks.”

FORMBYCRASHARRESTSby Jack Birch

RECLAIMSTOLENGOODSby Jack Birch

ROYAL WING’SGLORY

POLICE CUTS

Life|News|5

Spanish menu’s taste of success An independent eaterie which brought the tastes of Spain to Liverpool One, has won two major awards.

Catalonian themed restau-rant Lunya, located on College Lane, which also boasts a shop and deli, scooped the Independ-ent Business of the Year award, as well as an award for growth earlier in the evening, at the in-augural Merseyside Independ-ent Business Awards.

General Manager Mo Austin said: “We’re absolutely delight-ed and really, really proud to have won Independent Busi-ness of the Year.

“It’s a fantastic achievement and it highlights independent businesses which is exactly what we are all about. We’re ecstatic.”

Lunya, who are proud of what they do, were amazed at win-ning two awards that night, and explained that it was great rec-ognition for independent busi-nesses throughout and not just for themselves.

Ms Austin added: “We opened three years ago and we started up at the beginning of the recession. So we’re really proud that we’ve managed to survive the recession and not only that but we’re now doing really well. We’re thriving and we’re growing.

“Our success is down to being individual and being independ-ent because that’s what more and more people want now.”

The idea for such a distinc-tive restaurant came about over years of the owner, Peter Kin-sella, travelling to Spain as a health consultant and visiting the community of Catalonia, which consists of four provinc-es including Barcelona.

Ms Austin continued: “The owner, who’s actually in Barce-lona today, was never into food at all but he had a real passion for Spain.

“He was a health consultant,

Lunya was founded in 2010 and is based in a converted 19th century warehouse located on College Lane, Liverpool

SNAKES ALIVE! By Jack Birch

Haydock Park picked up an ar-ray of awards for offering the best catering among Britain’s 58 racecourses.

At the Piper-Heidsieck Na-tional Racecourse Catering Awards, the North West sport-ing venue also took the acco-lades for ‘Best Casual Dining Experience’ and the north re-

gional award.The ‘Best Casual Dining

Experience’ prize resulted from the new Country Kitch-en which opened earlier this year serving traditional rustic, home-produced food.

Taken into account by the judges were the variety of menus, standard of service,

cleanliness and attention to detail by staff members.

Haydock’s restaurants are not just used on racing days, but also during special events such as Christmas and New Year, where they would hope to get a fully booked sched-ule after their success in the Awards.

Haydock Park Racecourse food is a clear award winner By Damian Leonard

By Lauren Cordelle

The interior of Lunya, featuring many unique items derived from Catalonia in Spain

Hugh Baird College in Boot-le now has its own L20 Hotel School to help students pursue careers in the Hotel and Cater-ing sector.

The L20 Hotel School will give students the opportunity to experience the hospitality in-dustry fi rst-hand and those who attend will be working with the college’s own head chef, sous-chef, supervisors and manag-ers.

As well as full-time students new to the industry, the college also devotes its time to those who are already employed in the sector. The Pro Chef Train-ing programme welcomes chefs from across the UK looking to gain new skills and join courses during the year.

Students will gain advice from celebrity chefs, including winner of the BBC Great Brit-ish Menu Kenny Atkinson and internships at four-star hotel Double Tree by Hilton.

Check in to Hotel Hugh BairdBy Harriet Midgley

A former night editor of the Daily Mirror who also worked for the Daily Des-patch in Liverpool has died at the age of 84.

Manchester-born Ian Skidmore had a long career in journalism spanning the North of England. As well as the Daily Mirror and the Daily Despatch, he worked for Manchester City News and Yorkshire Evening Post.

He set up his own news agency in Chester in the early 1960s and went on to become a broadcaster with BBC Wales, where he presented radio and TV programmes for nearly three decades.

Mr Skidmore also penned a column for the North Wales Daily Post, and wrote more than 30 books in his lifetime, including an autobiograph-ical called Forgive Us Our Press Passes.

DEATH OF LOCAL WRITER

Residents of St. Helens can sleep a little easier tonight as a pet Boa Constrictor that was reported missing two weeks ago from Silkstone Street has been found.

The 4.5ft long reptile was discovered under some leaves in the backyard of the house.

Meanwhile, police were called at midnight on Tuesday after reports of a box contain-ing a snake had been thrown over a fence in Warrington.

Officers, along with the RSPCA found a 4ft brown and sandy coloured snake. The RSPCA had taken possession of the snake by 1.50am.

Mayor Joe Anderson OBE will be delivering a speech about his mayoral experience at The Roscoe Lecture series which is voted up by Liver-pool John Moores University.

The lecture entitled Mayors and Their Cities- the Chal-lenges and Opportunities, will be held tomrrow at 6pm in Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall.

The Liverpool City Leader will share with the public his experience for the fi rst time since becoming Liverpool’s fi rst directly elected Mayor in May 2012.

The event is open to the pub-lic and free to attend but reg-istration must take place for tickets, which can be obtained through the LJMU website at www.ljmu.ac.uk/events/

By Gemma Sherlock

LIFE AS MAYOR

The exterior of Hugh Baird College building, Liverpool

By Aimée Hamilton

Horse racing at Haydock Park Racecourse © Twitter

so he’d go abroad and across to Spain to consult with other companies and developed a real passion for the food, and it took off from there, he came home and opened this restau-rant.”

Other winners at the awards ceremony, which was held at The Black E in Liverpool, in-cluded family-owned property fi rm Bruntwood, arts and cin-ema venue FACT and crafts boutique Landbaby.

This year’s awards were launched by Morecrofts, one of Merseyside’s oldest independ-ent law fi rms, to mark its 200th anniversary year.

Demand for tickets to the event went off the scale and forced organisers to change the venue the month before it was due to take place to the Black-E

Life | Features | 6

STOPTOBER SOBERby Helen Healy

Macmillan Cancer Support is asking people to swap their cocktails for mocktails this month in their Go Sober for Oc-tober campaign. Anyone over the age of 18 can take part and the only rule is to go T-total for the rest of the month with proceeds going towards peo-ple affected by cancer. Along with helping others this cam-paign can also benefi t yourself; a month of swapping wine for water will do wonders for your health. Increased energy levels,

clearer skin and a better sleep- ing pattern are all improvements that participants can look for-ward should they take the chal-lenge. Judith McGuigan, Liver-pool, is currently taking part in Go Sober for October, said: “As I’m at university, doing Sober Tober is quite diffi cult because all my friends are going out, but it is worth it to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.”Signing up to the campaign is simple, willing participants are asked to enter their details on the Macmillan website: https://www.gosober.org.uk/sign-up/

A new book has named and shamed Warrington as the re-gion’s grot-spot…But we want to know which are the top spots on Merseyside. We asked you for your thoughts on underap-preciated gems within the dis-trict. Jimmy Devin, 58, West Derby

said that his nomination was West Derby village.He added: “In Liverpool, West

Derby Village is very historic and beautiful, the church and the old stocks where they used to put people and throw things at them are still there and the old court house. “Diane Robinson from Liver-

pool came to Warrington’s de-fence, she said: “Warrington is not a bad place but Widnes is a bit…I’m not keen on Widnes.”She added: “Liverpool is the

greatest city in the world apart from Nuremberg, Germany.”Luke Hibbert, 19, Wigan voted

Speke Hall and encouraged us to go.He said: “It’s really nice, it’s

like an old Tudor hall where you can look round and look at paintings, it is really historic.” Michael Farley, 18, also from

Wigan had this to say: “The bombed out church in Liver-pool, I like going there.”Alex Devlin was adamant that

the Krazyhouse in Liverpool was a hotspot but confessed her love for Woolton Village.She said: “Woolton Village is

nice, because of its scenery. I’ve had some good memories there; one was a really good date.”Crap Towns: The 50 Worst

Places to Live in the UK by Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran is available to buy on amazon.co.uk today!

70ml glass of Archers Schnapps:

1.6 UNITS

238CALORIES

BODILY EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL

BRAIN: Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the brain. Could also have long term affects on your memory.

HEART: Drinking too much can damage the most vital pump in your body and increase your risk of heart disease.

STOMACHE: Short term effects sickness and nausea are common, long term effects include stomache cancer.

LIVER: Excesive drinking can increase your chance of liver disease and other irreparable health issues.

BLOOD PRESSURE: The most common cause of high blood pressure is too much drinking.

Don’t be snotty we’re not grotty

‘Woolton village is nice, because it’s got nice scenery’

“It’s really historic.”

by Gemma Brezinski

Just some of the amazing scenery in the Woolton Village © Flickr

A beautifully historic church in West Derby © Flickr

Fantastic woodland scenery in the Woolton Villiage, the perfect place for a stroll © Flickr

Jimmy Devin, 58Luke Hibbert, 19 Michael Farley, 18Alex Devlin & Haley Roberts

Daffodils in West Derby © Flickr

The books top 10 worst places to live © Wikipedia

Liverpool

LifeLife | Features | 7

Whats on...MUSIC

THEATRE

9th OCTOBER – Echo Arena BBC Radio 1Xtra Live

Popular radio station Radio 1Xtra are back for the 6th year running, bringing big named acts such as Robin Thicke, Nelly, Iggy Azalea and John Newman to the Echo Arena for a night of urban music. The night of music will be broadcast on BBC Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra and also on the red button. Tickets are available online and at the Echo arena for £12.50

12th OCTOBER – Cavern Club Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery tour is back, leaving the Cavern club at 2pm on Saturday afternoon, taking you all the places associated with John, Paul, George and Ringo as they grew up and formed the band that took the world by storm. You will defi -nitely be kept entertained along the way with the Beatles Guide and the famous Beatles tunes. Tickets available at the Cavern Club for £15.95

16th OCTOBER – O2Academy Revolution

Revolution is the most rocking place in the city centre for an explosive mid-week action. Expect all music from emo and punk to live DJ sets. This Wednesday there is an emergen-cy services uniform party. Tick-ets are available online for £4.

11th OCTOBER – Empire Theatre

An Evening with burlesqueDirect from London’s West End, camp colourful and tasteful, this amazing art form is brought to real life before your eyes. Liverpool Empire will be the hosts of this teasing, mis-chievous, magic show. Tickets are available from Empire Box Offi ce from £24 - £26.

!5th OCTOBER - Echo Arena

Jesus Christ Superstar, by Tim Rice and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber comes to town along with Melanie C, Tim Minchin and Chris Moyles. Sir Webber said: “Last year’s tour was the fi rst-ever UK arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar and it surpassed our expectations. The response from audiences across the UK and Ireland was over-whelming and the show was everything I had hoped for.” Tickets are available from £33.50

28th OCTOBER – 9th No-vember

Empire Theatre Blood BrothersAfter Blood brothers saying their fi nal farewell to London’s West End, this is their fi nal

tour of the UK. After the set of brothers got separated at birth, go along to see how their lives turned upside down. Tickets available from the Empire Theatre box offi ce.

16th - 17th OCTOBER

Empire Theatre. Jason Manford hosts his latest show on the road ‘First World Problems’. Known for his northern charm and comic misunderstandings the comedian has been busy recently with his win on the ITV programme ‘Born to sing’ Tickets available from £27.40

ARTS10th OCTOBER, 7pm

Vermeer and Music: Art of Love and Leisure FACT cinema The National Gallery is taking its Vermeer exhibition into Mer-seyside cinemas this week. This fi lm will show more than half Vermeer’s stunning paintings in high defi nition glory on the big screen. The fi lm also visits Washington and Amsterdam. Tickets will be available before the showing, please arrive 15 minutes before show time.

1st November – Sefton Park

Lantern CarnivalHalloween Lantern Carnival is visiting Liverpool, hoping to light up the darkest corners of Sefton Park. Hundreds of local people from across the city are planning on coming together with their handmade lanterns for a procession through the park as well as musicians and dancers. This is a treat, not to be missed.

11th OCTOBER

WalkerArt Gallery. The early development work of one of the most infl uential artists of the 20th century, David Hockney will be exhibited as part of the Modern Masters series. It will feature paintings and prints from the early development of the iconic british artist.

FOR THE KIDS13th OCTOBER – Echo Arena

Join B1, B2, Amy, Lulu and Morgan in the Bananas in Pyjamas – Banana-riffi c tour! The brand new all singing all dancing will have plenty of fun and participation. Tickets available from £13.50 at the Echo Arena.

19th OCTOBER- 3rd Novem-ber – Chester Zoo

Get up close and personal at Chester Zoo with hundreds of bats and an animatronic taran-tula, for their Halloween fright night for children and their families. Book online before the 14th October to save your place for a fun fi lled Halloween.

A night of diverse musical talent to raise money for people affect-ed by the violence in Syria is going to be held at St. George’s Hall. Named the ‘Sounds of Light’, the charity concert set up by World Appeal will be held at 12 different venues up and down the country with Liverpool be-ing the second stop off on Oc-tober 24th.

Host and comedian Omar Regan will kick off the evening with co-host Na’eem Raza and live performances on the evening will be from multi-plat-inum Muslim singer songwriter Maher Zain, American musician Raef and BRIT school student Harris J.

The message behind the con-certs is simple: Make Bread Not War. An estimated 6 million people are currently in need of food assistance in Syria and by holding the concerts World

Appeal hope to raise as muchmoney as possible

Last year the tour raised nearly 800K and CEO of World Ap-peal, Othman Moqbel spoke on the Appeal website of the char-ities continuing need to support the people of Syria: “Sadly, the confl ict in Syria has become much worse, which is why we will continue to support the in-nocent victims of this desperate situation.

All the money we raise from the tour will go towards sup-porting this cause.”Some of World Appeal’s work includes providing food packs to homes and villages, setting up shelters for refugees and most impor-tantly provided lifesaving med-ical aid. Tickets for the concert are priced at £20 per adults, £10 for children and a family offer is also available for £50.

All proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the appeal. Tick-ets are available at http://beta.humanappeal.org.uk/tickets/

World Appeal sings for Syria by Helen Healy

St Georges Hall, the venue for the event © Flickr

The work of Birkenhead born photo journalist Tim Hether-ington is currently on show at the Open Eye Gallery on Liver-pool’s waterfront.

The powerful exhibition called ‘You Never See Them Like This’ is made up of over 25 im-ages captured over the space of one year by the photo journal-ist. The collection is especially poignant as Tim Hetherington was killed on April 20th 2011 whilst working alongside col-leagues in Misurata, Libya.

The visuals are from Tim’s 2010 book ‘Infi del’. They bring to life a US contingents time whilst based in the Korengal Valley in the North East of Af-ghanistan; from the intense con-fl ict they faced, to the draining time spent alone with their own thoughts.

The shots give a different insight into the men, showing them at their most vulnerable and having to come to terms with the situation they are faced with; death and destruction on a daily basis.

Themes that Tim explores in this exhibition include sexuality and the sense of loss and fear. Tim also captured the soldiers at their most peaceful - asleep. Speaking to his creative collab-orator Sebastian Junger, Tim spoke of his experience which has now become an infamous quote: “They always look so tough…but when they’re asleep they look like little boys. They look the way their mothers prob-ably remember them.”

After his death a HBO doc-umentary about Tim life was made.

‘You Never See Them Like This’ runs until 24th Novem-ber.

by Helen Healy

Newspaper breaking news of war journalist Tim Hetherington’s death © Flickr

Exhibition dedicated to young war journalist killed in action

Life |Fashion |8

Liverpool Fashion Week is returning to the Liver

building on Monday 14th Oc-tober, bringing with it a new trend – a no sunbed policy. With this new strategy, only models who have never used a sunbed can model in this highly admired event.

This new trend brought to light by Liverpool City Council, is following the ‘Look to die for. Bin the beds’ campaign, which aims to cut the number of young girls and women using sunbeds.

Liverpool is in the top six worst cities in England with sunbed use in young girls aged between 11 and 17. In Liverpool, 50% of girls be-tween 15-17 use sunbeds on a monthly basis and nearly 40% use sunbeds weekly, compared to 11% nationally.

When Liverpool Fashion Week comes into conversation many people think of big hair, big brows, rollers and 12 inch heels. However, the aim of this year’s fashion week dif-ferentiates enormously from this theme.

Amanda Moss, director of Liverpool Fashion said: “Liverpool Fashion Week is edgy, off the wall and elegant. If you are thinking big hair, lip gloss and 4 layers of false lashes symbolic of the WAG/reality TV culture then think again. That is not what Liver-pool Fashion Week is about. Our fabulous city is making its stamp on the world’s fash-ion stage with our eclectic and diverse collections from some of the most talented people in the industry. Liverpool is the one to watch.”

According to the organisers and directors of Liverpool

Look to die for

Fashion Week, the wellbeing and the health of the models that are taking part in the show is the most important thing.

Fashion Week in Liverpool is the fi rst week that has put a full ban on the use of sunbeds, due to the health risks they have on the show’s models. It also is a way of encouraging young girls in the city that sunbeds are not a necessity to look good, and that the same results can be achieved safely from fake tan.

There is a zero-tolerance policy, which means that all models will have to sign a pledge that says they have not used sunbeds in the time running up, during or after the exquisite show.

Liverpool fashion week is running from the 14th Oc-tober to the 19th and tickets are available online and start from £10.

By Kirsty McColgan

Liverpool Fashion week introduces ‘Bin the beds’ campaign in bid to encourage females to stop using tanning beds

Take it off and donate it!As October is Breast Can-

cer Awareness month, Pearl Boutique are running a charity campaign where you can donate your unwanted bras to the shop

The 13th of October is a no-bra day and so this is a perfect opportunity to donate your bra, as you will not be wearing one that day as part of the breast cancer awareness day.

The ‘Bra Bank’ Scheme is run by the Flamingo Founda-tion and each year as many as 20,000 bras are collected.

Women all over the world can benefi t from the bras you

will donate and as there are thousands of unwanted bras that woman have maybe out-grown or got bored of - they will be put to good use.

It’s things like this that UK woman take for granted which can be a real life changer for others.

Bra benefi ciary Monica Keale explained: “The bras have given me the chance to stand on my own two feet.

“I have started my business and it helps me feed my fami-ly. The bras sell very well.”

No-Bra day is October 13th and Pearl Boutique on Aig-burth Road will be taking bra donations until 1st December.

By Kirsty McColgan

Sunbed fact #1

Using a sunbed once a month or more could increase the risk of skin cancer by

Sunbed fact #2

Using a sunbed for the fi rst time before the age of 35 increases the risk of skin cancer by 59%

Sunbed fact #3

U Tans fade, the damage from a sunbed can remain

How to fake itApplying fake tan is much easier than you think.

So with these tips say goodbye to streaks, patches

and tan hands and say hello to tanning perfection!

Don’t: D

o:

Worry if you make a

mistake - you can erase it

with whitening toothpaste.

Get dressed straight

away, give your tan time to

dry. One you do get dressed

wear loose clothes

Apply fake tan to broken

skin as this can cause

nfl amation.

Moisturise your skin after

showering to ensure that tan

doesn’t gather in dark patches

around areas such as the

hands, knees and elbows.

Patch test any tanning prod-

uct 24 hours before you use it.

Use a tanning mit to avoid

orange hands and help create

an even smooth tan.

Photo: Rob IgoPhotography/Flickr

Life |Food|9

• Mix together 1/3 cup of the best cocoa you can fi nd with ¾ cup of sugar and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. • Stir in 1/3 cup of boiling water and bring to the boil. • Simmer and continue stirring for 2 minutes. • Stir in 1½ cups of milk (whole is the best) and heat until very hot. DO NOT BOIL!• Remove from the heat and add in ¾ spoon of vanilla extract. - Serves 4.

WinterWarmers

As the winter months creep in, Liverpool Life is here to give you all the top tips to keep you toasty. With the nights getting shorter very soon, why not try some of these recipes?

First of all, start by preheating your oven to 180C/gas 6. Cut one large butternut squash

in half and scoop out the seeds, and then chop into smaller pieces to peel. Chop the fl esh of the squash

into bite size pieces (roughly). Halve one medium sized red onion, then quarter each half. Scatter the squash and onion

onto a roasting tray, and drizzle over fi ve table spoons of olive oil. Roughly chop two tablespoons

of sage leaves (one large sprig). Scatter over the vegetables and season. Roast for ten minutes,

shake it about, and bake for a further ten minutes.Meanwhile, slice one courgette

thickly and toss with one table spoon of olive oil. Take the roasting tray from the oven and push the partly cooked squash and onion to the side. Put the courgette slices on

the tray and season. Roast for a further 10 minutes until all vegetables are tender.Remove the tray from the

oven, sprinkle one table spoon of either balsamic and sherry vinegar over the vegetables and toss. Crumble over 100g of cheese.

Roasted winter vegetables with Lancashire cheese

Peel and � nely chop an onion, two garlic cloves, carrot and celery stick – don’t worry about the technique, just chop away until � ne. Halve a red pepper, remove

theseeds and roughly chop. Place your largest casserole-type pan on a medium high heat. Add 2 glugs of olive oil and all your chopped vegetables. Add hot chilli powder (one

heaped teaspoon for � ery, one level for mild), pinch of cumin and cinnamon with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir every 30 seconds for

around 7 minutes until so� ened and lightly coloured. Add a tin of drained kidney

beans and tinned tomatoes. Add 500g minced beef, breaking any larger chunks up with a wooden spoon. Fill the empty tomato tin with water and pour this into the pan. Pick the leaves from a

bunch of coriander and place them in the fridge. Finely chop the washed stalks and stir in. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and turn the

heat down to a simmer with a lid slightly askew for about an hour, stirring every now and again to stop it catching� is is fantastic served with

� u� y rice. Just divide the rice and chilli into big bowls or serve in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves. If you don’t fancy rice it’s

equally good with a nice hunk of fresh crusty bread, over a jacket potato or with couscous.Put a small bowl of natural

yoghurt, some guacamole and a few wedges of lime on the table, and sprinkle the chilli with the coriander leaves.Now sit down and enjoy.

Gemma: Pork roast dinner

Simóne: Baileys hot choc

Paul: Scouse

Alisha: Vegetable soup

Shannyn: Lasagne

Ryan: Turkey dinner

Liverpool Life’s favourite winter warmers...

Traditional chilli con carne

Words: Gemma Brezinski and Kirsty McColgan

Create the best cocoa

Life |Sport|10

Ex Everton midfi elder Mick Buckley has passed away at the age of 59, just three weeks short of his 60th birthday.

He was known for his defen-sive prowess and represented England at youth and Under 23 level, scoring the winning goal in the fi nal of the ‘Little World Cup’ against Germany in 1972.

In 1977 he suffered injuries and with growing pressures from rising stars such as Andy King and Trevor Ross, he left the Toffees and joined Sun-derland for £80,000. Buckley enjoyed a successful career in the North-East playing 121 times for the Wearsiders before moving to Carlisle and Middlesbrough. After hanging up his boots, Buckley strug-gled with an alcohol addiction which led to the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of his home.

The Everton Former Players Foundation and their Trustee Reverend Harry Ross helped Buckley to get back on track with the Sporting Chance clinic, a specialised environment where men and women of sport can get help with issues in their lives.

Warrington Wolves suffered a 30-16 defeat to Wigan Warriors in the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Wolves stormed into a 16-2 lead, dominating the fi rst quarter of the match giving both players and fans a hope of ending the 58 year wait to become champions but Wigan ended their chances and roared back to win the Super league title.

After appearing to land his hand on the face of Wigan half-back Blake Green, Ben Westwood was charged with a grade B punching offence. Westwood’s second-minute punch left the 27-year-old requiring oxygen and the vision in his right eye was badly impaired for the rest of the match.

Tranmere Manager Ronnie Moore has said his players are up for the fi ght to get the team out of the League One relega-tion zone.

Moore, speaking after his sides 1-0 loss away to Swindon Town on Saturday, said: “The players are up for it, there’s no doubt about that.”

“I’m not happy. Getting a side ready and then coming out and getting beat is not a nice feeling. I’m not used to it, and not as often as it’s happening at this present moment.”

BLUES MOURN MICKBUCKLEYBy Elen Crean

LEAGUE LOSERSFIGHTBy Cillian McGinn

Delay for meetingWolves taste defeat 30-16The Rugby League council’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) that was scheduled for the 9th of October has been postponed.

The meeting that was due to present fi nal plans to reorganise the domestic game has been postponed until after the World Cup which starts on the 26th of October, hosted in England and Wales.

At a meeting of the 14 Super League clubs on Monday, many voiced concern at the new proposals set out in July.

Under the new proposals, a new league comprising of two divisions of 12 teams would be introduced from 2015, with automatic promotion and

By Elen CreanBy Elen Crean

Westwood now faces an anxious wait to see if he will be available for England’s opening World Cup match against Australia later this month. Green’s injuries weren’t too damaging as he went on to win

Man of the Match award for his efforts in the fi nal.

Wigan became the fi rst side since St Helens in 2006 to win the Challenge Cup and Super League title in the same season.

Following the end of Rugby League season, club sides will be sending their players on international duty with the Rugby League World Cup to kick off on the 26th of October.

The competition is to take place from the end of October all the way through November 30th with fi nal taking place at Old Trafford in Manchester.

The games are being divided amongst 4 different nations. England and Wales will host the majority of the games while France will host two games in Parc des Sports in Avignon and Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan. The Republic of Ireland will also host one game at Thomond Park in Limerick.

England, Wales, and Scotland are all set to take part as they take on countries from all over the world including New Zealand and Australia.

The Home nations have all

By Cillian McGinn

League players’ home challenge

relegation returning in place of the current licensing system.

Championship clubs would also receive more central funding.

Possible reasoning for the postponement of the EGM may include a majority of Super League clubs having indicated an interest in further consultation on the detail of the proposals in order to reach the best solution.

These discussions will continue to positively progress but all parties involved are unanimous in their belief that the key focus for Rugby League at this moment is staging a successful Rugby League World Cup 2013 and this should be the focus of the sport.

avoided each other in the group stages, although England have been drawn in the same group as Ireland.

England fans will be pleased to see the Irish in their group as Ireland have such a poor record in the competition.

Unfortunately for England they have been drawn against 9 time winners and competition favourites Australia.

Scotland have also been dealt a diffi cult hand and stand alongside Tonga, who have named an extremely strong squad hoping to show collectively they’re as good as their potential.

Many will fancy reigning champions New Zealand, who named four NRL Grand Final winners in their squad along with other big names such as Manu Vatuvei and Shaun Johnson. The Kiwis will be without Sonny Bill Williams, who told selectors he wasn’t available due to other commitments. Rugby League World Cup trophy to be presented at Old Trafford this year ©Flickr

The two captains Adrian Morley and Sam Tomkins

Life Sport 11

Gerrard praises ‘world class’ HartSteven Gerrard has given goal-keeper Joe Hart his full support following criticism over his re-cent performances for Manches-ter City.

In light of England’s upcoming World Cup qualifi ers with Mon-tenegro and Poland, Gerrard has revealed that there is nobody he would rather have between the posts than Joe Hart, whose re-cent form has been questioned.

In an interview with Sky Sports the Liverpool and England cap-tain said: “Being in form, being out of form – it happens but Joe has set such a high standards and put in world class performances that people expect that all the time which is impossible.

“At the moment he is going through a bit of a tough time, but he has got the character and ability to play his way through it, for me when I have Joe Hart behind me I feel safe.

“I feel good and for me I just want to echo what the manager said and back him and I have no doubt Joe Hart is a top keeper and I hope he is behind me for the next two games.”

Gerrard also reassured Eng-land fans that both Wayne Roon-ey and Daniel Sturridge will be fi t for the game against Monte-negro after missing the last qual-ifi er through injury.

The England midfi elder, said: “Speaking to Daniel there was

no one more frustrated than himself not being available for England, he was really frustrat-ed he had the niggle in his quad but that has cleared up.

“If you have Wayne Rooney fi t and available on good form and smiling, there is every chance you are going to get two top per-formances and usually if Wayne is in that form and playing well then the team he is playing for, whether it is for Man United or England, don’t lose many matches.”

Gerrard insisted that it is a huge boost for us to have Roon-ey and Sturridge available and that they will be key players for unlocking Montenegro and Po-land’s defences.

Gerrard, who scored in his 15th consecutive premier league season on Saturday, has guaran-teed England fans that the team will give it their all in these cru-cial World Cup qualifi ers and is certain that they will be going to Brazil this summer.

He said: “I think the hurt of not qualifying under Steve Mc-Claren, was probably the lowest moment of my England Career.

“The important thing is not to freeze, and put too much pres-sure and over-hype the game when you’re out there because you will freeze and won’t pre-form and that is when we will be faced with problems, if we relax we have the players in the squad to get two important wins.” VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: Steven Gerrard has backed England teammate Joe Hart

With Ashley Cole poised to miss England’s crucial World Cup qualifi er against Montenegro on Friday, Leighton Baines looks to stake his claim to be instated as England’s permanent left back.

Leighton Baines is on course to help England secure their position in Brazil this summer with Ashley Cole set to miss out on his country’s decisive double header through a rib injury he suffered during Chelsea’s 3 -1 at Norwich City on Sunday.

Cole’s absence gives the in-form Everton defender a foot in the door he has waited so pa-tiently for; to land a permanent left back position in the upcom-ing World Cup qualifi ers.

There has been a certain de-gree of bewilderment on Mer-seyside as to why Baines is not already Roy Hodgson’s fi rst choice. Cole has been, and still is, a top class full back but for the last two seasons Leighton Baines has eclipsed him.

The Kirkby-born defender has been in continuous battle with Cole for the left back berth un-der Roy Hodgson and for the fi rst time has an opportunity to state his intention to become

England’s permanent number three, after Cole’s long and un-interrupted reign.

Baines has won 19 caps since making his debut against Egypt in March 2010 but has started only four competitive matches for his country.

The 28-year-old will be ac-companied in defence by fellow Goodson team-mate Phil Jagiel-ka with youngster Ross Barkley expected to be among the sub-stitutes.

The Everton trio will look to forget their fi rst Premier League defeat of the new campaign which came at the hands of Manchester City on Saturday.

Despite the weekend’s result, Roberto Martinez has undoubt-edly impressed in his prelimi-nary stage as new Everton man-ager, with Baines indicating he was relishing learning under the Spaniard.

“It’s a work in progress but we’re working towards being a much better team,” Baines told the Daily Post.

“I’m enjoying that aspect of it. I’m learning and hopefully we will continue to build on what we’ve started.

We’ve been working on dif-ferent things and people have

Leighton Baines to deputise for injured Cole

begun to enjoy watching some of them. We’ve just got to tight-en up on other aspects and keep developing.”

Baines added: “We’ve still got things we need to improve on. We gave the ball away too quickly high up the pitch to al-low us to get momentum.

“So every time we started to creep forward we’d lose it and that’s one of the things we’re trying to work on; being better

in possession in the opposition’s half. It’s about sustaining at-tacks.

“Not doing it against City meant we kept ending up on the back foot again and susceptible to the counter-attack.”

Last season, Baines made more tackles, more intercep-tions, completed more passes, more crosses, blocked more shots, had more assists, created more chances, had more shots

and scored more goals than Cole.

The trend has continued in the fi rst seven games this season. It can be confi rmed, however, that Baines falls short to Cole in one key area. He does not win as many headers.

Therefore, when Baines starts for England on Friday, nobody should be suggesting he is there as the understudy. He is where he belongs, he is there on merit.

DEPUTY: Leighton Baines will look to take advantage of his opportunity to start

by Lewis Bell

Luis Suarez has always been one for the dramatic and Saturday was no different. He announced his return to Anfi eld with a goal as he and strike partner Daniel Sturridge helped Liverpool ease past Palace.

HARRY WANTED LFC BOSS AS HIS SECONDHarry Redknapp has revealed that Brendan Rodgers was his fi rst choice assistant manager had he been named England manger.

In Redknapp’s autobiogra-phy, Always Managing: My Autobiography, he discussed his chances of becoming Eng-land manager at the time for-mer Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson was selected and how he admired Rodgers style of football at Swansea.

He said: “If I had become the England manager I would have taken Brendan Rodgers as my No 2.

“He had players at Swansea passing it like Franz Beck-enbauer. You know how his teams are going to play before you kick off. They are going to pass, they are going to take risks; but England do not have that identity.”

The former Tottenham man-ager added that he admired Rodgers’ desire to stick to his ideals, he said: “Look at Brendan at Liverpool now – he still knows how he wants to play. He got rid of Andy Car-roll because he wasn’t in that plan.”

Redknapp went as far as speaking to Rodgers about the possibility of working with him in the England set up.

He said: “When Tottenham played Swansea on April 1, 2012 I pulled Brendan after the game and said that if all the speculation about me and Eng-land was true, would he con-sider coming to the European Championships in the summer as my part-time coach?

“I told him I wanted England to play with as much technical ambition as Swansea. He was up for it.

“If I got the job, he said, he would speak to the people at Swansea to get their permis-sion. ‘It would be a great expe-rience for you, Brendan,’ I told him. ‘I want England to play like you play. Pass the ball, play and play and play’.”

KENNY RETURNS TO LFC BOARD

CHOICE: Brendan Rodgers

by Elen Crean

Kenny Dalglish is returning to Liverpool after accepting the invitation to join the board of directors at Anfi eld.

Dalglish ended his second spell as Liverpool manager in 2012 after a dissapointing league campaign. He will take up his role as a non-executive board director immediately after discussions with club owners Fenway Sports Group, managing director Ian Ayre and manager Brendan Rodgers.

Dalglish said: “It is an honor and privilege to be asked to return to Liverpool as a director of the club. I have always said if there is anything I could do to help this club I would make myself available - when the call came I had no hesitation.”

Fenway Sports Group princi-pal owner John W Henry also commented: “We are delighted Kenny has accepted our offer to join Liverpool.”

by Lewis Bell

Manchester City put an end to Everton’s unbeaten Premier League start with a performance that was both elegant and lucky in equal measure.City had too much attacking su-premacy going forward.

Liverpool 3C Palace 1

Man City 3Everton 1

by Lewis Bell

by Cillian McGinn

by Lewis Bell

DEFEATED BUT PROUD

Liverpool Wolfe Tones ladies have seen their season end on an unfortunate note following defeat in the All Britain Junior Final.

The Wolfe Tones were com-peting in their second fi nal in as many years and were unable to go one better than last season losing out to Dunedin Connol-lys from Edinburgh at Páirc na hÉireann, Birmingham.

The Wolfe Tones lost by points scoring 2:07 to Connollys 2:09 with goals coming from Captain Brenda Barr and Carmel Hack-ett.

Wolfe Tones manager Tony Riley, 41, from County Meath, said he was disappointed by the result but was very optimistic about the coming season.

Mr Riley said: “It’s tough to

Liverpool under 21s had an en-gaging 90 minutes at Langtree Park beating Spurs 5 – 0 last night.

Alex Inglethorpe’s young reds opened the scoring with a goal from the penalty spot after fullback turned winger Ryan McLaughlin was brought down in the area after cutting in from the left. Morgan the man to coo-ly convert. The Reds added a second through Cameron Bran-nagan, who was put through by

Liverpool’s youth shine

Gerrard backs Hart under pressure P11

Liverpool Under 21’s coach Alex Inglethorpe

Beaten: Wolfe Tones Gaelic football ladies team defeated in the all Britain fi nal against Dunedin Connollys

Rodgers was wanted by Harry P11

by Cillian McGinn summer signing Aly Cissokho with a delightful chipped pass over the defence. Cissokho was making his return from an ankle injury that’s kept him out of the fi rst team for the last 4 weeks

Liverpool added a third just before the break through McLaughlin after Brad Smith, on his return from long term injury crossed the ball for the Northern Irish man to poke in.

Liverpool didn’t ease up in the second half with both Brad Smith and Joao Carlos Teixeira adding to the score.

Smith, who was on his return to the side, scored a wonderful left footed effort from the edge of the box which found the top corner.

Joao Carlos Teixeira, who was making his return to the U21’s following an unsuccessful loan spell at Brentford, added Liverpool fi fth with a superb solo effort.

After collecting the ball in the Spurs half he carried the ball into the box and chipped the ‘keeper.

Contenders: Liverpool lie fourth in the table in the under 21 league after their win

Rugby World Cup heads to Britain P10

by Cillian McGinn

Wolfe Tones suffer fi nal misery

take defeat like this, missing out by only a few points.

The girls have worked so hard over the season and especially over the last few weeks. They really deserved it but it just wasn’t meant to be.

“We are looking forward to next season, we have been here now two years in a row, maybe it’ll be third time lucky for us.”

Wolfe Tones captain, Bren-da Barr, felt her side showed a good account of themselves even though they didn’t get the result they wanted.

She said: “The girls can stand proud after their performance today.

Obviously it’s unfortunate to lose, but you look at the effort the girls gave right through the 60 minutes, they were fantas-tic.”

Barr only had good words to say about Connollys perfor-mance, going on to say: “They have only been active a year and they reached the fi nal, it’s

fantastic for them and for ladies GAA here in Britain.

“We were in the same position as them last year but they done great to go that one step further.

“Congratulations to them, they deserve to enjoy their night.”

Laura Farrell, who played half forward for the Wolfe Tones on Saturday, said she was frustrat-

ed with the result; “I’m gutted to lose the fi nal, especially after losing last year as well.

“We didn’t play badly, I thought we were great just one or two things didn’t go our way and we just missed out on the result.

“We’ll have our Christmas break now and get ready for the new season next year.”

‘The girls have worked so hard, they really deserved it but it wasn’t meant to be’