Island Outdoors: Cycling
In this issue, to celebrate to Isle of Wight Cycling Festival in September, we focus on mountain and road biking. Cycling fever hit the UK in June with the staging of the opening phase of the Tour de France. It is set to continue on the Island with the Isle of Wight Cycling Festival, which takes place from 15th to 23rd September. The festival celebrates the Island’s hundreds of miles of cycle routes, including off-road trails and quiet country lanes. This network is regularly maintained, well signposted and suited to all levels and fitness abilities. Mountain biking is a great way to keep...
Read MoreIsland Outdoors – Archery
There are two established archery clubs on the Island, with a third due to open in early 2008. The new club will be a Field Archery club using 3D foam targets and paper targets of animals. It will be based in fields and woods, using traditional bows such as the longbow. All of the clubs welcome beginners. Archery is a great family sport and is popular among people with disabilities, who often compete directly against able-bodied competitors. The clubs operate all year round, moving indoors for these chilly winter months. Shooting arrows at a target for accuracy from a set distance or...
Read MoreOne Mans Vision to Create a Dream Cricket Ground
Speculation was rife when people driving along the Blackwater Road on the outskirts of Newport spotted the huge mounds of soil in a field. Rumour had it that hundreds of houses were going to be built on the site of the old agricultural show ground. Instead the Island is going to have a new cricket ground with a capacity of up to 2,000 people, which has been designed so that the superb pavilion and the surrounding banks will give it the feel of a modern amphitheatre. Businessman Brian Gardner is the inspiration behind the Newclose County Cricket Ground. He realised the Island had needed a...
Read MoreGriff Warns He’s Up For The Challenge
Due to the new Indian Premier Cricket League, the restriction of overseas players in our professional game and an unexpected retirement, Sandown’s 22 year David Griffiths could become our most successful cricketer of all time. He’s just returned from a two month spell in Australia and is raring to go in what will be his very first season as a major squad player for Hampshire, one of England’s finest teams. Last season David played six times for the County’s first eleven and came up against a few of his boyhood heroes. Probably his greatest moment was bowling to Graham Hick and then...
Read MoreIsland Outdoors – Nordic Walking
Nordic Walking, in which poles are used to aid the step, was developed by Scandinavian cross-country skiers in the 1930s as a way of keeping fit during the summer months. The International Nordic Walking Association reckons it is “one of the fastest growing recreational fitness sports in the world”, and there are more than 3.5 million Nordic Walkers in Europe. It is growing in popularity in the UK, and here on the Isle of Wight an introduction to the sport will feature during the IW Walking Festival Celebration weekend, on 26 October. Nordic Walking is a full-body workout that...
Read MoreGolf for all at Westridge
It was a ‘golf for all’ attitude with which, 17 years ago, golf Pro Mark Wright started Westridge Golf Centre. Not that he could have demanded the sort of exclusivity commonly associated with the sport, given that it all started in a Portacabin. “Looking back I can’t help but be grateful to those who were there at the beginning. We didn’t have a lot to offer. There were not even any toilet facilities or hot water.” However, today, with gleaming club house, well-equipped shop and permission to expand to 18 holes, that egalitarian approach still holds. You can be a member...
Read MoreMarathon Mid-life Crisis
They both smoke, they’re both new to long-distance running, and they’re related. But, as Island Life finds, their approach to the London Marathon couldn’t be more different. A more unlikely pair of marathon runners would be hard to find. Oh there is nothing about these two that would particularly mark them out from the rest of 37,000 to run the London Marathon on April 26th. It is the partnership that is unusual. Meeting them is like having a pre-match team talk with Laurel and Hardy. Dave Ward and Jamie Berry are uncle and nephew. Dave, approaching his 50th birthday last year, decided...
Read MoreNow it’s Time to Slow Down
There was a wry smile on the face of Will Nicholls as he explained how he became a rally driver purely by accident – literally! Will, who lives in Godshill, has been one of the country’s leading rally drivers for the past decade, and even before that had immense success both here and in Europe. Yet it might have been a different story if he had not had an accident in his prized Ford Escort Mark I 1,300cc GT road car when he was still a teenager. He was lucky to escape virtually unscathed. But his car was damaged so badly that the only option was to re-build it into a rally car. That put...
Read MorePutting the Cherries on Top!
Following a successful career as a professional footballer that spanned nearly 16 years, Islander Lee Bradbury has now taken the big step into Football League management. Lee, who was born and raised in Cowes, was recently appointed the manager of AFC Bournemouth, a club currently in the ascendancy after several years in the doldrums. As the current season draws to a close Lee is attempting to begin his managerial career in the best possible way by leading Bournemouth – nicknamed The Cherries – into the Championship, the second tier of English football. Lee took time out from the rigours...
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