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Liverpool

5th - November - 2013

The news this week...LJMU graduate writes play for Everyman Playhouse

More on page 8

Britain’s tallest ship docks in Liverpool

More on page 4

North West Football awards recognise men and women in the region

More on page 11

FAIL!

Maybe you can buy my carIconic car on Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover is up for sale

By Hazel Miller & Niall DudleyPlans for two-year-olds to attend school were today branded a “disgrace” and “ludicrous” by Liverpool people.

According to Ofsted, the official body for inspecting schools, children should be in school from the age of two to eradicate

effects of poverty on their performance. The organisation has called for a network of academies ca-

tering for two to 18-year-olds to be set up around the country, so that children from less privileged backgrounds would be ready to start school at the age of five.

Full story on page 3

Thumbs down for school at the age of two

Full story on page 3

Life | News | 2

Liverpool

LifeTeam

EditorJosh Weale Chief SubGrace LindseyNewsAbi BramhallJack HorrocksClaire BynoeChantal Dickinson

Features editorNick SeddonFeaturesAimee JonesBethany WellsSport editorBill EvansSportsJess MacDonaldKarl Cryer

Do you have any news or feedback?Email us on:

liverpoollifenews@gmail.com

by Kerryleigh Gough

The Ice Festival is once again set to transform Liverpool ONE’s Chavasse Park into a Winter wonderland. The season-al event will officially launch on Thursday, November 7th. The event is to begin with Liv-erpool-based designer Philip Armstrong unveiling an exclu-sive designer dress made entire-ly of ice on the 6th November. The floor-length dress, which is said to have taken more than 40 hours to carve, was inspired by his Autumn/Winter collection.

It has a structured fitted bodice with a deep “V” neckline to the waist and a layered fish tail de-sign. The dress, which was creative-ly and carefully sculpted inside a giant freezer by Ice Box, a team of leading specialists in frozen art, is said to weigh an estimat-ed 700 kilograms. It will take a team of six people to move the ice dress into the Ice Bar on Chavasse Park for the unveiling. Phillip Armstrong said: “We are obviously used to working with fabric so it’s been amazing to work with the Ice Box team and see how their craftsmanship

with ice can bring our design to life in such a different way. I was thrilled to be asked by Liverpool ONE to be part of the launch of its Christmas activities and create the design for this to-tally unique dress.” Donna Howitt, Marketing Di-rector for Liverpool ONE, said: “At Liverpool ONE we are al-ways trying to ensure that no two visits are the same and the Ice Festival this Christmas sea-son will certainly ensure that! The Ice Dress will be a fabulous addition to all of the activity we have planned and we can’t wait to see the design come to life.”

Philip Armstrong, along with partner Tony Burke, designs dresses for some of the biggest celebrity clients such as Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez. He has marked the occasion by inviting Celebs such as Katy Perry, Alex Curran and Coleen Rooney to a party. Donna Howitt added: “The Ice Festival was a huge suc-cess last year, offering people a unique and memorable expe-rience in the center of the city. We received brilliant feedback, but we’re working to offer even more choice, creating an even better festival for 2013.”

COLOUR: The 2012 lantern parade marked the start of last year’s Ice Festival and Christmas. Pics by Abi Bramhall

Ice Ice Baby! Festival’s welcome return

University staff oppose changesby Kerryleigh Gough

Staff members of the Universi-ty of Liverpool went on strike yesterday over the institution’s proposed changes to their staff members’ jobs. More than 200 members of the Unison union went on strike outside the University of Liver-pool buildings over a decision designed to set “equality across

the institution”. The university has proposed to standardise conditions for all staff members including librari-ans, computer technicians, cleri-cal posts and grounds men. The ideas which were proposed would affect 2,800 workers and have been the centre of on-going talks between the university and union chiefs. The revised terms have caused

fear for non-teaching staff who believe the terms would force them to work more than 35 hours a week, weekends and evenings as well as bank holidays without over time or lieu days. The UCU union managed to reach an agreement in Septem-ber over the contracts. The University of Liverpool in-sists that the changes are fair and generous with three years pay

protection for those impacted. Liverpool University staff mem-bers went on strike last week, alongside staff from Liverpool JMU, Liverpool Hope Univer-sity and many other universities across the country, against the terms of pay to ‘campaign for a better deal’. In a separate dispute, Mer-seyside probation staff, who are members of the Napo union, a

trade union for probation and family court staff held a national 24-hour strike on Tuesday. The strike is due to what they believe is a government ‘plot’ to privat-ize the service. The strike started at 12 noon and ended 24 hours later. As part of the action, a rally by Napo staff is due to take place today around the Victoria monument in Derby Square.

Firefighters strike over Government pension plansby Jack Birch

Merseyside firefighters staged a two-hour strike on Monday in a protest against the government’s plans over jobs and pensions. The protest by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which comes just a day before Bonfire Night, last-ed between the hours of 6am and 8am, following a similar day of action on Friday. The FBU was responding to government plans to increase the retirement age of firefighters from 55 to 60, an age union offi-cials claim is too old. Les Skarretts, Brigade Secre-tary for the Merseyside branch of the FBU said: “The first thing we are trying to achieve is the removal of the ridiculous, what we call ‘normal pensionable age’.” He added: “We have compiled

two-and-a-half years’ worth of evidence that has been largely ignored by the government.” Mr Skarretts claims that the government’s own findings prove that the planned pension age for firefighters is too high. He said: “The research shows that 91% of firefighters would not be fit for duty by the time they reach the age of 59. This means that nine out of ten would be sacked before they achieved a pensionable age.” The FBU Secretary has said

that the union is also looking to tackle the pension contribution rates set on firefighters in the UK. He said: “It is one of the high-est in the public sector. It was set at 11% but is rising to 12.6% and will eventually reach 14%.” He added: “I don’t want the 48.2% of my salary that I have paid into my pension attacked in such a manner.” The union rep believes that the government’s plans are making the pension scheme in the Fire Brigade “unsustainable” and de-terring new recruits from opting in to the scheme. He said: “A quarter of the fire-fighters coming in are not join-ing the pension scheme as it’s just not attractive anymore.” Mr Skarretts said that dates for further action would be an-nounced imminently. UNHAPPY: Firefighters are taking action

by Simòne Foggin

Local businesses can look for-ward to new technology oppor-tunities, as The Astrophysics Research Institute moves to Liv-erpool.

The institute, which is part of Liverpool John Moores Univer-sity, has previously been located in Birkenhead. They now take up 11,000 square foot of the Liverpool Science Park on Brownlow Hill.

Software engineering firms across Merseyside are being en-couraged to get involved. Some of the technology used for projects may be used to fol-low up discoveries both here on earth and in space.

One of the main duties taken by the ARI is the remote control of Liverpool’s telescopes (some of the world’s largest) which are currently situated on the Canary island of La Palma. The LT1 has been in operation

since 2004, alongside its new-er, bigger, partner telescope the LT2. It has been used by over 2000 schools as part of an out-reach programme. For more information, go to www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk.

Astrophysics Institute brings new opportunity

MEDIA AWARDS COME TO CATHEDRALThe Liverpool Echo is favour-ites for the O2 Media Awards, being held in the Liverpool An-glican Cathedral, on Wednesday. Journalists from the Echo fea-ture in five award categories including: news, sport, pho-tography, specialist writing and young journalist of the year as well as two team awards, in-cluding Daily Newspaper of the Year. Sister paper the Liverpool Post is also up for two individual nominations. The event, being hosted by Rossiter Media, is to award and recognise the best journalists in the North-West.

by Nathan McCrae

An alarming report from the Centre of Social Justice has found that Britain is now a hub of websites selling “Legal Highs”. The dangerous, legal alterna-tives are created by changing the formula of regular illicit drugs, thus falling outside the Misuse of Drugs Act. Websites selling legal alternatives for drugs such as LSD, cocaine and marijuana have found their way online and can now be delivered straight to the doorstep. JMU Journalism spoke to a reformed legal high addict stud-ying in Liverpool to discuss the implication of these untested, dangerous narcotics. Wanting to remain nameless, he said: “It took over my life for two or three months, but now I’m at university I’ve sorted my-self out. “Kids, don’t know realise the effect, and because they have never been tested they’re so dangerous.”

BRITAIN BECOMES A ‘LEGAL HIGH’ WEB HUB

Life|News|3

By Bill Evans

The founder of the fi rst non-al-coholic bar in Liverpool has been named the UK’s top social entrepreneur for her work in helping people with drink and drug addictions.Jacquie Johnston-Lynch is

the fi rst ever winner of the Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepre-neurs Programme award.

The award is for people who run social enterpris-es, schemes that put profi ts back into their community.

Jacquie Johnston-Lynch said: “It’s such a wonderful acco-lade, not just for me but for the whole team who make The

Brink such an incredible place.”Three quarters of The Brink’s

staff, are recovering alcohol or drug addicts and the bar has made over 1,800 inter-ventions for people who had a drink or drug problem since its opening in September 2011.

Miss Johnston-Lynch said: “In addition to this we commis-sioned a study which has given The Brink a monetised value of £6. That is to say that for every £1 invested in the Brink we are saving the state a further £6 in costs to the health service, the police and to Social Services.”Miss Johnston-Lynch received

a £10,000 cheque for winning the award and the prize mon-ey is going to be invested in

some minor refurbishments to the bar located on Parr Street, a new marketing plan and ad-ditional training for people with addiction problems to enter the hospitality industry.

Miss Johnston-Lynch said: “Due to the confi dence that SSE instilled in me, I am now moving on to set up some new projects. I will remain a linked up advisor/consultant to The Brink but will be developing some new initiatives very soon.”

Graham Lindsay, Group Di-rector, Responsible Business at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Jacquie receives our heart-felt congratulations for win-ning this inaugural award.”

PROUD: All staff from The Brink are recovering addicts

By Niall Dudley

The Liverpool Riverside council seat, held by Paul Brant before his shock resignation, will hold its by-election on May 5th.

Labour have selected 29-year -old Michelle Corrigan to fi ght for the seat. She works for health and social care charity, PSS and runs social enter-prise “This Little Bird” as a volunteer.

She was announced as a candidate shortly after the Trade Union and Socialist party con-fi rmed that “veteran socialist and life-long trade unionist” John Marston would stand for them.

These are the only two candidates to be announced so far. The Riverside by-election was called after Paul Brant who was also part of Mayor Joe Anderson’s cabinet, stood down in October.

He has yet to give any reason for his departure apart from saying: “An issue has arisen in my life which will demand my full intention over the next

By Sarah Mee

A car from one of the most recog-nised album covers in the world has been found and is being sold. The iconic Abbey Road album

by The Beatles features the Liv-erpool-born band walking across the famous crossing, with cars in the background lining the street.

The 1967 Triumph Herald quietly sits behind John, Paul, George and Ringo as they walk from right to left across the road.

Vintage car dealer David Gold-ing, 49, purchased this very car earlier this year after hearing ru-mours it was the same one as seen in the Abbey Road album cover.

He told Liverpool Life: “What caught my eye initial-ly was that it was believed to be the car in the album cover.

“I thought I’m going to take a chance on this.”

Now the fi fth owner of the car, the car dealer himself started a long and challenging pursuit

to fi nd the original owner to confi rm that it is the one pic-tured in the iconic album cover.

He said: “It was a big chance to take but I actual-ly went to his house on the off chance he’d be there.

“Unfortunately he wasn’t but a neighbour actual-ly came out of the house and told me he’d sadly died.

“I managed to fi nd a con-tact number for his wid-ow and I rang, but she put

the phone down on me!”After writing her a letter ex-

plaining who he was, David eventually succeeded in talking to the widow and the children of the car’s original owner. She told him they had owned the car for a number of years.

The light blue Triumph Her-ald is up for auction on eBay, which ends this Saturday. Speaking on where he’d like the car to go, Mr Golding said: “I’d love it to go to a museum so more

and more people can enjoy it.He added: “What caught my

eye initially was that it was believed to be the car in the album cover. I thought I’m go-ing to take a chance on this.

David has advertised the car for auction on e-Bay and has already received a huge amount of interest so far.

The sale coincides with the fi rst-ever festival commemorat-ing ‘Beatle-mania’, due to take place in Dublin this weekend.

How you can bid for the Beatles brum

DIFFERENT CLASS: The ages that children start school across the world. © PR Shots

MAY ELECTIONFOR BRANT’S SEAT

By Niall Dudley and Hazel Miller

Continued from p1

Plans for two-year-olds to attend school were today branded a “disgrace” by Liverpool people.

According to Ofsted, the offi -cial body for inspecting schools, children should be in school from the age of two to eradicate effects of poverty on their per-formance.

The organisation has called for a network of academies catering for two to 18-year-olds to be set up around the country, so that children from less privileged backgrounds would be ready to start school at the age of fi ve.

Baroness Morgan, who chairs the education standards watch-dog, called it “The next big,

bold, brave move” in the educa-tion agenda.

She added: “Poor under-fi ves are still 19 months behind their affl uent peers when they start school at fi ve.”

However the idea was given a thumbs-down in Merseyside, where the proposal was dis-missed as traumatic and dis-tressing.

Jane Moore head of School Teacher Education at Liverpool Hope University gave her reac-tion to Ofsted’s suggestion:

She said: “It’s completely lu-dicrous as an idea. It doesn’t follow any evidence we have from the best performing coun-tries like Finland where formal education starts later than here.”

Danielle Clarke-Walsh, Dep-uty Nursery Manager of The Little Explores Nursery in Liv-erpool, said: “It’s a disgrace.

Two-year-olds should be learn-ing through play, not sitting at desks in a classroom. They need to learn personal and social skills.”

Danielle believes that some parents might like the idea if they are working full time, but it will heavily affect nurser-ies across Liverpool if parents send their children to school so young.

She added: “In my opinion, a school setting is far too indus-trial, toddlers need some free-dom.”

Geraldine O’Neil, a mother from Liverpool said: “Categori-cally, no. You can’t educate two-year-olds at school. If it was my child I would approach the Eu-ropean Union of Human Rights because it’s just wrong.”

Peter McPartland, a father from Liverpool said: “It’s a bad

idea. Being a father, it was hard enough sending my daughter off to nursery at the age of four. At that age, it’s all about play and enjoyment, not learning facts and fi gures. It’s better for chil-dren to be at home rather than in a classroom.”

A Liverpool-born teacher who now lives in Norway, teaching primary school pupils who start school at the age of seven, said that if children do need extra help it should be in an informal environment.

Jennifer Deboo, who studied in the UK, added: “As a parent myself, I would want my chil-dren to go to a school nursery. Nurseries are designed to get children ready for school.

“Children who are not achiev-ing in areas such as speech, language and communication skills could benefi t from a bit

more help at a younger age, but only in a relaxed environment, not a school situation. A lot of European countries start formal schooling much later than us and achieve more. In Norway the starting age is seven years old, and the pre-school years are very play-based, which in my opinion is much better.”

Trainee primary school teach-er Amy James said: “This is far too young; children need to have time developing at home with their parents. They are still at an age of discovering the world and learning the basics. School would be too traumatic. At two years old they are still highly de-pendent on their parents.”

Meanwhile Sophie Ashton, a student in Liverpool, agreed and said: “They’re too young; they have only just learned how to speak.”

By Simone Foggin

A famous Frank Green painting featuring football in Liverpool, is to be auctioned off at Bon-ham’s, Chester on November 6th.

The painting which illustrates the end of an era at Liverpool Football is expected to fetch as much as £12, 000 on the day.

Last Day at the Kop was painted in 1994 and was or-chestrated to feature the last day that the old kop, which featured standing areas only, was used.

The match show was Liver-pool’s 1-0 defeat to Norwich City. After that the stand was demolished and replaced by an all seat stand.

What country?

What age? Northern Ireland.Cyprus, England, Malta

Scotland, Wales.Austria, Belgium,

Croatia, Czech Republic.

Bulgaria, Estonia,

Latvia.

4

5 6 7

OLD KOPPAINTINGTO BESOLD

By Niall Dudley

Merseyside Police are consider-ing merging departments with their neighbours from Cheshire in an attempt to save money.

Merseyside has already saved £61 million mainly through reducing mainly police offi cer and civilian staff numbers by around a 1,000 since 2011.

Both the forces are in a 90- day evaluation of plans to share the services of six crucial de-partments. The reviews are still in an early stage and it is not clear yet how many possible jobs would be lost through this merging.

Some of the largest depart-ments could be merged includ-ing forensics.

JOBS THREAT IN POLICE MERGE

Uproar at Ofsted plan for toddlers

Dry bar’s founder wins entrepreneur award

KINGSLAND SWITCH ON X Factor rejects Kingsland Rd have been confi rmed as the latest addition to the bill at St Helens Christmas Lights switch. It will take place at 4pm on Saturday 16th November.

Life/News/4

Contactless payment system for Merseyrail

Red squirrels survive killer parapox virus

Merseyrail has launched its first contactless payment system in a bid to ease congestion at Liver-pool stations.

This is the first contactless system outside of London and will make buying tick-ets easier and more secure.

Commuters can use their debit or credit card to pay for tickets up to £20 without the need to use their PIN number.

With 98% of Merseyrail’s current customer transactions under £20, all customers need to do is touch their contact-less credit or debit card over a reader to pay for their travel.

The first phase of the system has launched with MasterCard and VISA, with the introduction of American Express next year. Merseyrail hope to fit most of its stations with the new technology.

Merseyrail managing direc-tor Maarten Spaargaren said: “This development is a very positive one for our customers and means that they can now make payments quicker and easier than ever before, in full knowledge that they are doing so safely and securely. We’re

keen to keep pace with an in-creasingly technological world and delighted to be trailblaz-ing this digital advancement.”

Next year Liverpool will have its very own transport smartcard, similar to the Oys-ter card that London commut-ers use, called the Walrus card.

The Walrus card will en-courage more people to use public transport, and make it easier for commuters to trav-el on the bus, train or ferry.

Neil Jones, a regular Mer-seyrail user from Liverpool, said: “I use the trains here every day and I wondered when they were going to up-date their system so it was eas-ier to use. This will save me so much time in the morning and a big city like Liverpool needs technology like this to help things run more smoothly.”

Most Merseyrail stations will be fitted with the contactless tech-nology by the end of this month.

DOCKED: New winter home for tallest ship GIVE A CHILD A HOME, SAYS COUNCIL

A new campaign in Liverpool encourages people to consid-er adoption as part of National Adoption Week.

The new recruitment scheme aims to find new homes for young people in care using the slogan: “Adopt a future-togeth-er we can make a difference.”

Posters promoting the cam-paign are being used across Merseyside in Merseyrail underground stations, in GP practices and libraries.

The city council is current-ly looking for people to per-manently care for 37 chil-dren, some of them siblings.

Councillor Jane Corbett, Cabinet member for chil-dren’s services, said: “Becom-ing an adopter is life chang-ing, for everyone involved.

It is the single most important thing that will ever happen to a young person and it completely transforms their life chances.

And for the adopter, there truly is nothing more re-warding or fulfilling.”

People looking to adopt must be:• Over 21 and mature enough to meet the de-mands of parenthood • In reasonably good health and fit and well enough to care for children into adulthood •Able to offer a secure home with a spare room for one or more children • Have the time and ability to parent an adopted child • Can be single, married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting• No discrimination on the grounds of class, race, culture, sexual orientation or disability

To talk to someone about adoption or anything about the National Adoption Week campaign, call 0151 233 3700 or log onto the website http://l iverpool .gov.uk/adopt ion

Britain’s biggest tall ship the Stavros S Niarchos has berthed in the Albert Dock as it prepares to spend its first ever winter in Liverpool.

The vessel normally heads to the Canary Islands in the winter to give people the chance to crew the ship however demand for this has died down.

However, this is to Liver-pool’s gain as the 200ft long ship will be moored appro-priately next to the Mer-seyside Maritime Museum in Canning Dock. This puts in a prime position to be seen from Liverpool One and across the waterfront.

After its stay in Liverpool, Stavros will head to West Scotland on a series of cruises.

Owned by the Tall Ship Youth Trust the brig will be open to all the public for free for over the weekends of No-vember 23rd-24th, December 7th-8th and the 21st-24th.

This is of course not the first time it has visited Liver-pool. In April 2012 it sailed into Liverpool’s cruise liner terminal ahead of repairs at Cammell Laird. Like it will now the vessel was open

to the public back then and had many visitors during its time there and now Liverpool hope to repeat its success. The Youth Trust will be hoping it receives the same attention on its second visit to the city this winter.

Built in 2000, the ship was primarily designed to provide younger people with the opportunity to undertake voyages as character building exercises rather than pure sail training.

The tall ship’s striking name is in honour of the late Greek shipping tycoon whose foundation provided generous sponsorship.

The Youth Trust is actually planning to sell the vessel after putting it up for sale in 2011. The cost to run it has gone beyond what they can afford but it will continue to be in operation until they can find a buyer. They don’t expect a quick sale, however after their experience of sell-ing its sister ship the Prince William.

The Merseyside Adventure Sailing Trust, MAST plans to use the fact the ship has docked in the city as a chance to promote its plan to make Liverpool the northern centre for tall ship sailing trips.

ENDANGERED: Red squirrel

By Shannyn Quinn

By Niall Dudley

MOORED: The 200ft Stavros S Niarchos arrives in Liverpool. Photo: Jess MacDonald

By Shannyn Quinn

By Hazel Miller

Merseyrail runs nearly 800 trains a day and carries more than over 100,000 passengers on a week day, whose services span Southport to Ellesmere Port and Wirral to Kirkby.

This news comes after a pro-test at Liverpool Lime Street on Tuesday fell flat after only two people turned up to show their support towards public ownership of British railways.

‘Action for Rail’ is a campaign that aims to work with passen-ger groups, rail campaigners and environmentalists who are against cuts to rail servic-es and staffing, to promote the case for integrated, national rail under public ownership.

Today marks the 20th anni-versary of the Railways Act, which paved the way for the privatisation of the UK’s rail network. This coincides with re-search carried out for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which says that train operating com-

panies are ‘entirely reliant’ on public money to run services.

Campaigners protested at over 30 UK rail stations, including Birmingham New Street, Lon-don Kings Cross, Newcastle and Liverpool Lime Street, handing out postcards to the public and urging them to fill out their de-tails and return them to local MPs. Those in support of Action for Rail believe publicly owned railways would put people first, cost less to run and have lower fares. Publicly-owned railways would mean every penny made would be reinvested for the benefit of passengers and tax-payers,The Union Centre Gen-eral Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Twenty years on from the Railways Act, we have a system of corporate welfare with train companies reliant upon the pub-lic purse to turn a profit. Virtu-ally all of this ends up in share-holders’ pockets, rather than being used to improve services” TECHNOLOGY: Stations set for new payment system

Endangered red squirrels on Mer-seyside can survive the parapox vi-rus that grey squirrels infect them with.

Research carried out by the University of Liverpool has re-vealed that a red squirrel that con-tracted the fatal disease, fought it off, and was released back into Ainsdale where it was found.

The research also found that some squirrels had developed antibod-ies to the pox virus, which sug-gest that they were infected with the pox and then survived it, but researchers are still unsure as to whether this means that the squir-rels have developed immunity.

Rachel Miller, Red Squir-rel field officer at the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire and North Merseyside, said: “ It could be a few years down the line until we know for sure if red squirrels have any long-term immunity or not, as there is much more re-search that needs to be done.”

The discovery is a big step in the on-going investigation to see if the red squirrels can build immunity af-ter the species was nearly wiped out in 2008 after a pox virus outbreak.

The outbreak at the Formby Na-tional Trust Reserve caused the population of red squirrels to de-cline by over 80% but numbers seem to be increasing with sight-ings reported across the region.

In early October, a red squir-

rel was seen crossing from Stan-ley Park into Anfield cemetery and two possible sightings were recorded in Calderstones Park, south Liverpool, which could mean that the population of red squirrels could be increasing.

Merseyside’s reserve area for squirrels is in Formby, Ains-dale and Altcar with regular sightings of red squirrels in the northern areas of Liver-pool but there may also be small

populations in the woodlands of Fazakerley, Croxteth and Stadt Moers Park near Huyton.

Red squirrels originally lived all over the UK until grey squirrels, who are unaffected by the para-pox virus, were released into the UK from North America in 1876.

‘Walrus’ means less stress on the go for region’s commuters

Life/News/5

by Patrick Arnold

The Florence Institute for Boys has won the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors award for National Building Conservation less than one year after reopening.The building, in Dingle, was

built in 1889 by then Lord Mayor Bernard Hall in memory of his daughter, Florence, who died in Paris at the age of 22.It was a safe haven for the

young boys of Liverpool who had somewhere to play and

SEA ODYSSEY: Little Girl Giant travels around Liverpool in last year’s street spectular © Flickr by sw77

learn valuable life skills they otherwise may have lacked.The building lost its funding in

the 1980s and was forced to close before a resident movement helped start the revival of the building in the 1990’s.In 1999 the building

was the target of an arson attack which made efforts to rebuild it intangible and the project was dropped.By 2005 a second movement

had started to try to bring the building back to life with greater success, reopening in late 2012.

Top conservation award for Florrie

We’ll be backthe future to further enhance our reputation as a capital of culture.”Many locals have welcomed

the return of the giants.Writing on a Merseyside

Facebook page, Ann Carlile, said: “I would love them to come back as I never got to see them last time. Surely it would be of financial benefit to the city to attract so many people? Wouldn’t more people equal more money spent during the event in shops, eating places and on transport?”If Royal de Luxe returns

to the city, it would be the third major street event in Liverpool since it was voted Capital of Culture in 2008.

by Nadine Highman

The Giant Spectacular could be set to make a remarkable return to the streets of Liverpool Liverpool City Council is in talks with the company behind the Sea Odyssey to bring another spectacular piece of street theatre to the city.The French company, Royal De Luxe, are in discussions with Liverpool to create another event to help commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War One next year. A Liverpool City Council

spokeswoman said: “We have never made any secret of the fact that we are holding discussions

with Royal De Luxe as we would love to work with them again. “We are one of many cities they

are talking to about potential ideas and the chance to stage an event in the future, but no decisions have been made.”An independent report

concluded that the event, which saw a giant ‘little girl’, her 50ft uncle and her dog Xolo travelling around Liverpool, attracted crowds of 800,000 .It also generated an

estimated income of £46m for the local economy.The report also highlighted

this event, which marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, to be

the most successful event in Liverpool’s history – ahead of fellow French company La Machine which brought its 50ft mechanical spider, La Princesse, to the city in 2008.At the time, Mayor of

Liverpool Joe Anderson agreed with this claim, saying: “This was the biggest

event in Liverpool’s history.”Liverpool is the only city in

the country that can deliver such a giant cultural event, which has also resulted in giant economic benefits for the city.”Sea Odyssey put Liverpool

on a world stage and I am determined that we will put on more of these types of events in

intention of getting rid of them.The mum-of-two described

the moment she found out she had the reaction: “Steve was out and I was in the

garden when I got the fright of my life. I stepped into the flight path of a bee and it collided with me, on my collarbone. I started to feel very short of breath, and tried to contact my husband. Finally, I managed to alert my neighbour, who saw that I was very unwell,” she said.Luckily, paramedics arrived

quickly and prevented anything serious happening to the 62- year-old. Lynn now carries an EpiPen®, a medical device

used to deliver doses of adrenalin, with her at all times in case she gets stung again. The former animal nurse

trainer, added: “My GP decided that it wasn’t safe for me, as we live remotely and there is no way that Steve will give up his bees. So I was referred to Broadgreen Allergy Clinic. The treatments will last three years in total, so I am only part way through.”Lynn is being treated with

immunotherapy, a procedure which involves the patient being injected with the venom they are allergic to in order to build up a tolerance to it.Broadgreen Allergy Clinic uses

immunotherapy for a range of allergies including grass and tree pollen, dust mites, and cats, dogs and horses.Tina Dixon, a consultant

physician in allergy at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital said Broadgreen, and the Royal, have together provided similar treatment for more than 30 years.She added: “We provide venom

immunotherapy for Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales and some patients travel even further.“The only alternative

treatment is avoidance, and keeping emergency treatment, antihistamine and injectable adrenaline, available.”

Liverpool council in talks to have giants return next year

OH, HONEY: Couple with their homemade honey

by Niall Dudley

Liverpool doctors are treating a woman for a potentially life threatening allergy. But they face a challenge. She is allergic to bees and her husband, Steve Rose, is a beekeeper.Years of being exposed to

husband Steve’s pollen- covered clothes has left Lynn Rose undergoing extensive treatment at Broadgreen Allergy Clinic in Liverpool in order to prevent the life threatening reaction.The couple keep 200,000

bees in their garden near Corwen, North Wales and Steve has absolutely no

Wife feels sting of husband’s beekeeping

by Nadine Highman

A potential break-through in breast cancer treatment is being pioneered in Merseyside. It is hoped that the new

hormone-based treatment will help to extend the lives of women living with the disease.The treatment is designed to

work with existing therapies to block the production of oestrogen.Professor Carlo Palmieri,

leading the research, said: “Most breast cancers need oestrogen to grow and there are two ways in which the body can make it.“Currently, we’re only able to

use a hormone drug to block one of these places, but with

Breast cancer breakthrough

the introduction of Irosustat we’re hoping to prove that we can also block the other one.”The research into the drug,

called Irosustat, is being led from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre along with the Linda McCartney Centre at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.Oncologists at a handful of other

cancer centres across the country are also testing the new drug.The news comes as this year’s

conference for the National Cancer Research Institute, held in Liverpool, draws to a close.The event brings together

medical and cancer experts from all over the world, in a joint effort to take the lead in the continuous battle against cancer.

Life|Style|6

Public displays ofapplication

Busy women across Britain are participating in the new PDA - public displays of application. Alisha Daya and Gemma Sherlock find out where the ladies of Liverpool are applying their make up!

Amy Shillto thinks make-up is necessary for living in Liverpool

Eden Jacobs thinks women are ‘make-up obsessed’ Emma Underwood applies her make up on the train Lucy Morgan wouldn’t apply her make up in public

With Christmas just around the corner, dark night’s drawing in and stress at work taking its toll, it seems stress is about to invade our lives once again.

But don’t panic! National Stress Awareness Day is here to help us recognise what makes us stressed and the ways to de-stress and relax.

Stress is the body’s physical reaction to events that make you feel threatened or upset in some way. It can affect our performance at work, school and home and it is also known to contribute to some serious physical illnesses.

Whether it’s an argument with a friend or a deadline at work, everyone has felt the effects of stress.

In the UK alone, the number of people treated in hospital for stress rose by 70% last year- making it a total of 6,370

admissions. Financial difficulties, relationship

problems and major life changes can all cause stress, which in turn can lead to lack of sleep, inability to concentrate and even depression.

Work-related stress seems to be the most experienced according to the LFS (Labour Force Survey), causing 40% of all stress related illnesses.

National Stress Awareness Day wants people to be aware that stress can be treated before it affects our body’s responses to it. Promoting psychological wellbeing of people in the workplace is this year’s aim- helping people perform at their peak.

Depending on the individual, there are different factors which can influence your

stress level tolerance. A strong network of supportive friends and family; a optimistic attitude; a good knowledge on what you’re dealing with, and self–confidence are all elements which can help to avoid stress- or at least keep your levels to a minimum.

Stress is sometimes unavoidable but there are plenty of effective techniques that experts believe can help deal with it. Meditation, yoga, breathing exercises and regular exercise are all methods that can help us relax. Even something as simple of watching a film or going for a stroll has also been proven to be effective.

Along with these relaxation techniques, feeling good and having a positive attitude can make you achieve more, not just at work, but also all other aspects of life. So, what are you worrying about? Relax!

Seasonal stress stoppersby Alisha Daya

Ways to unwind

Go for a drink with friends

Play a sport

Practice yoga and mediation

Watch TV or a film

Some of us never leave home without doing it, some of us don’t do it at all and some of us like to do it in public – we’ve all seen it.

What are we talking about? Makeup.Multitasking women all over are using their

morning commute wisely, doing makeup on the move.

A survey by feelunique.com found that 60% of all British women regularly apply their make up on public transport due to time constraints in the morning.

Whether it’s a quick touch up of mascara or top-ping up some powder, women all over the country have been found guilty of PDA. But is this true about the ladies of Liverpool?

Eden Jacobs, 19, JMU Law student, who does not wear a lot of makeup herself, noticed that la-dies of Liverpool can be quite make-up obsessed.

She said: “A lot of Liverpool ladies enjoy putting makeup on. I don’t think they care where they put it on,

as long as they have got it on.”It seems that some women are unwilling to let

time affect their beauty regime in the morning with one third of women confessing they would rather arrive at an important meeting late but perfectly made up than on time with no makeup, Female First found.

Emma Underwood, 20, from Liverpool, doesn’t wear make up every day but admits that she needs

to put it on when leaving the house. She said:

“Sometimes if I am in a rush I will put it on when I am on the train. You don’t want to go into work without anything on.”

She also believes that some Liverpool ladies go too far with fake tan and “Scouse Brows”.

However, some women don’t wear a lot of make- up but feel it is necessary when living in a city like Liverpool.

Amy Shillito, 22, bar manager, originally from South Manchester, said:

“I think a lot of women in Liver-pool wear too much makeup but I think it’s true to their culture, a bit like Essex.”

Whether or not it’s acceptable to put make-up on in public, it’s clear that women in Liverpool feel the need to wear it.

Lucy Morgan, 22, TK. Maxx worker in Liv-erpool, said: “I wear my makeup every day but sometimes don’t have a lot of time to put it on in the morning.

“I would never dream of doing it on the train even though makeup is a big part of Liverpool life. Everyone likes to feel glamorous when they go out.”

Life/Health/7

Amongst the candle-light lies an over-used mat that has seen its fair share

of poses, stretches and relaxed limbs. On it, poised to instruct her class, stands Janet awaiting the breathing to die down from her eager students.

The steady sighs fill the room, bare feet gripping the floor and the waves of arms stretched as high as possible.

However, unlike many of her students, Janet is old enough to be a grandmother. The 68-year-old instructor teaches every Tuesday and Thursday at Bebington Civic Centre.

In today’s society, exercise is like a cult, different activities become fashionable but yoga has always been there, it will wax away in popularity but it never dies, Janet recalls.

Yoga has developed into an elite exercise but it has been a way of life for the Wallasey born teacher, who has been dedicated to the art for 34 years:

“It’s filled a space in my life.

“I knew there was something more to life that just generally living and yoga gave me the answer to that. It wasn’t just a physical activity, there was a lot in the philosophy that ran true with me and explained how life works,” said Janet, who lives in Oxton.

The definition for yoga is: a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline and includes breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practised for health and relaxation. Originated in India the various traditions are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

It is the spirituality of the yoga process that has helped Janet compete with life’s challenges. When family passed away, she turned to yoga for guidance and support:

“I’ve always had inner strength and I think it comes from yoga. The joy of practising when I get up in the morning sets the tone for the

day. It keeps me content, the day doesn’t feel right if I don’t practise, it feels like something is missing.”

Feet fall out of the “tree posture” from one of the pupils, but nothing is said, the class continues with the calming serenity of Janet counting the breaths in and out.

Her experience shines through the room and it’s her attitude towards people’s health and what they can manage that keeps her dedicated yoga enthusiasts coming back for more.

Sleeping bags ruffled, more candles lit and bodies now lying on the mats, the relaxation comes. As the class winds down, so does Janet:

“I take each day as it comes, I don’t look to the future. I just accept what life brings along. Yoga is inspiration, confidence to be yourself, and courage to keep following the path.”

Teaching for 34 years and still going strong, Janet is to carry on for as long as people want.

Since discovering a small yoga book almost 40 years ago, 68-year-old Janet Irlam has never taken her feet off the mat.Gemma Sherlock finds out more

The

lady

moveswith the

Pick of the weekBoy George Exhibition

DJ and photographer Boy George has publicly exhibited his photo/graphic artworks at the Camp and Furnace.

Working alongside club culture painter TradeMark, the exhibition explores identity, specifically the notion of the constructed identities adopted by anyone trying to live outside the heterosexual mainstream.

The show will feature portraits of subcultural gay icons like Divine, Jackie Curtis, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Leigh Bowery as well as contemporary photo-graphs of some of the original gay punks and Philip Sallon.

The event will be held at the camp and furnace from the 31st of October till the 25th of No-vember and will start at 11am and end at 5pm.

Lantern ParadeHundreds of children from around the city will light up Liverpool this Friday with lanterns they have created as part of workshops with the Lantern Company.

A parade proceeding through Paradise Street in Liverpool ONE will be led by an outstanding lantern that will depict Liverpool’s iconic skyline. It will last for two hours, making its way through South John Street and Church Street.

Christmas pantomime performances will take place and plenty of familiar faces will be seen, including the 2012 ‘Voice of Merseyside’ Harriet Marsland, who will be singing Christmas classics, and former X Factor finalist Ray Quinn.

Cardle onthe roadMulti-platinum singer, songwriter Matt Cardle announced that he is set to launch his ‘Porcelain’ tour in April 2014.

Having already successfully had two top ten albums and four sell out tours of England and Ireland, the 2014 tour will take place over 18 venues across the UK and Ireland in support of his new album.

The X-factor winner is set to perform at the Liverpool O2 Academy on 10th April 2014.

Life/Arts/8

As a teenager, Daniel Matthew was working at a labouring yard in Leeds completely unaware that his experiences and the people around him would one day form the inspi-

ration for his first play, Scrappers, which has just opened at the Everyman Playhouse.The play, developed whilst Matthew attended the Young Everyman Writers project, tells the story of a small group of scrap merchants fighting to keep their beloved yard afloat. “My boss was quite a hard man around town and he helped through that period of my life. I thought about this world where people work in these yards and that whole lifestyle where everyone takes the mick out of each other and everyone

enjoys each other’s company. I thought wouldn’t it be a shame if that way of life finished,” said Matthew who originally studied Drama at Liver-pool John Moores University. “These men are a symbol of the city and a symbol of change. “It’s about the idea that you can be really talented but you don’t have to move away. You can run into a really talented person in somewhere such as Fleetwood or Hartlepool or Grimsby or whatever small town it is,” said Matthew.The play sees further input from local gradu-ates in the form of set and costume designer Mari Lotherington, who won the Everyman and Playhouse Design Prize, which is presented each year to one student from the Liverpool Institute of

Performing Arts (LIPA). Matthew also talked of how the support from his LJMU lecturers helped to shape the play.“The idea for setting it in Fleetwood came from my university lecturer Ros Merkin, I needed a small town to set it in and she recommended it.

I did drama at university and realised that I wasn’t actually very good at acting! But there was a module in playwriting which I took

on and got good grades in. Ros Merkin recom-mended the Young Writers programme at the Everyman.”Ged McKenna leads as scrapyard owner Ken, whose character was inspired partly by Matthew’s old boss, combined with aspects of people who

work in the fishing industry.Also starring is David Judge as Ryan, who Matthew loosely based upon himself, and John McGrellis as his sidekicks Morse.Molly Taylor stars as Jodie, a female character who Matthew states serves mainly as a symbol in the play. Daniel describes the experience of watching his words come to life on stage as surreal.“The director Matthew Xia was great, I worked closely with him so he has done it very near to what I actually imagined (the characters) world to be like.”Scrappers runs until Saturday 16th of November. Tickets are available from the Box office:0151 709 4776.

LJMU Drama graduate Daniel Matthew has opened his first play at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre. Liberty Chrismas talks to him about the inspiration for his play ‘Scrappers’

David Judge as Ryan and John McGrellis as Morse in Scrappers - Liverpool Playhouse Studio (c) Christian Smith

Bonfire night, a night celebrat-ed by the launch of bright and colourful fireworks and the warmth of bonfires. On the 5th of November millions of people across the United Kingdom will gather to watch large firework displays or hold their own with friends and family. For the UK, the night celebrates the failed Gunpowder Plot by Guy Fawkes. The event took place on the 5th of November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the House of Lords in London.Bonfire Night is widely celebrated in Britain, whereas other coun-tries choose to celebrate using similar methods but on different dates and for different reasons. In the Alpine and Central Europe

bonfires are lit to celebrate the end of winter usually taking place on the Sunday following Ash Wednesday in Alemannic German speaking regions of Europe and in parts of France. Zurich celebrates by burning the winter in effigy, a tradition since 1902, involves burning a statue of a snowman. Austria celebrates on Easter with bonfires spread across the country. Bonfires are lit in celebration of the Commonwealth Day and the Queen’s Official Birthday in Australia. A number of festivals take place at the same time which sees thousands of young people gathering to celebrate. Canada’s historical link with Brit-ain the provinces of Newfound-land and Labrador means that people celebrate Bonfire night on

the 5th of November, same as the UK and is one of the rare times that small rural communities come together. In India bonfires are lit on the sec-ond week of January every year. People gather around a bonfire and eat peanuts and sweets during the festival of Lohri to commem-orate the conquest of good over evil. Families who have a new-born son usually build a bonfire outside their house to celebration this event. Halloween night is also the night when bonfires are lit in Ireland. Bonfires are also lit on the 30th of April to celebrate the festival of Bealtaine and on St. John’s Eve, 23rd of June, to celebrate Midsummer’s eve. In Israel bonfires are lit on the eve of Lag BaOmer, a Jewish holiday

celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. The bon-fires are lit to commemorate the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who according to tradition died on Lag BaOmer. The Northeast of Italy celebrates the Panevin (bread and wine). Celebrations are held on Epiph-any’s eve on the 5th of January. A straw witch dressed with old clothe is placed on a bonfire and burned. The straw figure repre-sents the past while the direction of the smoke from the fire deter-mines whether the New Year will be good or bad. In Poland bonfires are lit during the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pentecost day and Saint John Night.

Bright lights on Bonfire Night

SIZZLING: Bonfires are expected in the city

With Bonfire Night sweeping the city, Jade Masri looks at how the evening is celebrated across the world

From the page to the stage

Liverpool One restaurant Byron is offering free burgers to those taking part in the month. Once you register at Movember.com, and raise £25 in sponsorship, you’ll be rewarded with a free hamburger for everyday of Novem-ber. Since 2010, Byron have contributed over £120,000 to the cause.

Life/Lifestyle/9

Liverpool Life’s Moustache Hall Of Fame

milestone

Charlie Chaplin One of the most recognisable people who ever lived,Chaplin was a movie legend who’s distinctive look involved a now iconic toothbrush mous-tache.

Freddie MercuryFrontman of the legendary British band Queen, Mercury is considered by many as one of the greatest musical showman ever. His moustache wasn’t bad either!

Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat)

Most iconic

Most charismatic

Most bountiful

Known for his flamboyant performances as outrageous characters, actor Sacha Baron Cohen brought Borat to life in 2006, complete with glorious moustache.

Most gravity-defying

Salvador DalíA surrealist painter who inspired modern artists such as Damien Hirst, the incompara-ble Dalí sported a gravity-de-fying moustache that reflected his eccentricity.

David Suchet (Hercule Poirot)

Most deductive

Suchet has brought to life Her-cule Poirot since 1989, and has sported the famous detective’s inimitable moustache through-out.

Businesses get their

A Mo-numental

It’s that time of year when peo-ple throughout the country and around the world grow their fa-cial hair with joyous abandon.

Yes, it’s ‘Movember’.And what’s more, it’s the pop-

ular event’s 10th anniversary. With campaigns in 21 differ-

ent countries, 1,127,152 partic-ipants and a record amount of £92.0 million raised in the last year, it is hard to believe that the prolific Movember campaign began with just two men in the pub 10 years ago.

Travis Garone and Luke Slat-tery from Melbourne, Australia sat down for a drink in 2003 and begun discussing the fate of the moustache, joking that they should be the ones to bring it back.

from there, they roped 30 of their friends into joining them and, inspired by a friend’s moth-er fundraising for breast cancer, decided to turn the challenge into a campaign about prostate cancer.

From there the unique idea grew, within a year a website and group had been officially established, 450 ‘mo bros and sisters’ joined the campaign, and $54 Australian Dollars were

raised for Prostate Cancer Foun-dation of Australia (PCFA), thelargest cheque the foundation had ever received. By 2005 the PCFA had become Movember’s official men’s health partner and over 9,300 participants helped to raise $1.2 million dollars for the charity.

Within 3 years the Movember campaign had spread to Spain, the USA, Canada, Ireland, the UK and New Zeland and funds had reached an all-time high of over £14 million which went to both the PCFA and the ‘beyond-blue’ depression and anxiety initiative. In 2011 the campaign reached was ranked in the top 100 out of 5 million NGOs in the world by the Global Journal based on impact, innovation and sustainability.

Throughout their campaign, the charity has followed the same fundamental rules that they set out when they started in 2003: to run a fun, accountable, caring, collaborative, humble, innovative, remarkable, chang-ing agent.

Additional reporting by Liberty Chrismas

Movember gets off to a fluffy start with its ten-year anniversary. The moustachioed Paul McIntyre reports

Movember on

Most like a caterpillar

The middle child of the five Marx Brothers, comedian and film star Groucho was known for his trademark look – nose, cigar, glasses and, of course, moustache.

Groucho Marx

Most 1970s

Burt Reynolds

One of the biggest movie stars of the 1970s, during which he starred in ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, Reynolds sports a moustache with panache.

Most comedic

Richard PryorAn all-time great stand-up comedian, Pryor was lauded for satirising race relations in hysterical fashion. And he did it all while sporting a terrific moustache.

Most 1980s

Tom Selleck

One of the 1980s most definitive performers, Selleck was the titular character in the wildly popular ‘Magnum, P.I.’. And of course the heartthrob is most remembered for his glorious moustache.

Most fear-inspiring

Ian RushThe greatest goal scorer in the history of Liverpool FC, Rush was almost as famous for his moustache as he was his preda-tory finishing in front of goal.

Also doing their bit for Movember is local spa Urban Calm . They’re getting the girls involved, removing their tash and donating £1 to the charity ‘Mens Prostate Cancer’ for every lip wax they do throughout November.

Businesses are now joining in with the fun of Movember, with special offers in return for donations to the cause.

WE NAME OUR TOP LIP-FURNITURE

Life|Sport|10

HARD KNOCKS By Will Shaw

Concussion has be-come the latest topic for the unions with-in the world of sport

to debate. The subject entered the

realms of football on Sun-day when a collision between Everton’s Romelu Lukaku and Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris left the Spurs goalkeeper knocked out, however he remained on the pitch for the rest of the game.

Although a CT scan high-lighted no signs of concussion, the Professional Footballer’s Association and the world player’s union Fifpro have called for players to be re-moved from the field of play following a loss of conscious-ness.

Unlike football it has always been widely accepted that con-cussions are more apparent in rugby union.

The sport is currently tri-alling a policy which allows players who have suffered head injuries to return to the field of play after a five minute medical assessment.

The trail has sparked much debate, with some respected members of the rugby com-munity suggesting that players with brain damage are being sent back onto the pitch.

© RIP Ben Robinson: Facebook memorial page

“I don’t think anybody is given a mandate to have an experiment

on player’s brains”

Barry O’Driscoll, ex-medi-cal advisor for the Internation-al Rugby Board who resigned due to his concerns about the treatment of concussion, said to BBC Sport: “I don’t think anybody is given a mandate to have an experiment on play-er’s brains like this, especially now that the arena they are go-ing back into is brutal.”

It is not only the profession-al game where player safety is paramount as seen in 2011, when Ben Robinson collapsed during a school rugby match.

In September this year, a coroner’s report found that the death was due to a secondary impact concussion, where a blow to the head causes swell-ing to the brain before it has fully recovered from a previ-ous injury.

Despite the fact that Ben Robinson’s death may have

been prevented if the 14- year-old was substituted fol-lowing the initial collision, the RFU have elected to go ahead with the trial, which gives players the opportunity to play on regardless of their physical and mental state.

It appears that English rug-by is making an attempt to en-hance player safety after Geoff Parling was withdrawn from the squad that faced Australia at Twickenham on Saturday, due to a mild concussion.

Headway is a brain injury association that aims to pro-mote the understanding of all aspects of brain injury and provide information and sup-port for those affected.

The charity has previously called for boxing to be banned across all levels of the sport due to the serious injuries it may cause to participants.

They also responded to the Lloris incident and explained how they were hugely con-cerned that a professional football club should take such an irresponsible and cavalier attitude to a player’s health.

Luke Griggs, spokesperson for Headway, said: “You are not a hero if you play on af-ter suffering a concussion; all you are doing is risking your health. Football has to react to this and bring in stricter meas-ures to ensure no similar risks are taken in the future.”

It is not only a domestic is-

sue either with American Football being a front runner when it comes down to brain injury and its consequences.

In August, a settlement of £490m was agreed between the National Football League and former players, who claimed they were sheltered from the dangers of concus-sion.

There is mounting medical evidence to show that repeated concussion can lead to brain disease and neurological prob-lems later in life, within NFL players.

The settlement has been broken down to support medi-cal examinations, research and injuries which occur within the next three years.

The majority of the payment though has been given to inju-ry compensation. A total of just over £420m will be split across those who have died from chronic traumatic en-cephalopathy as well as those suffering with Alzheimer’s

disease and dementia. Although this may seem a

very distant position that foot-ball and rugby currently find

themselves, more brain relat-ed injuries may give players a stance to take on sports gov-erning bodies in the future.

Above: ©Alke.com pro-vide sporting safety carts

To the left: ©Headway website, the brain injury association stepping in

Brain injury charity ‘Headway’ is demanding that sporting bodies take knocks to the head more seriously after recent incidents have left players in critical conditions

Blues community impresses at awardsEverton were big winners at the yearly Northwest Football Awards, which were held in Manchester last night. The football club claimed four awards, including an award for the best marketing campaign.

There was a particular focus on the club’s work in the com-

munity, as Everton Ladies’ re-ceived the women’s award and the ‘Make it Everton’ campaign came out on top in the market-ing category.

Everton in the Community’s ‘Safe Hands’ programme took the Community Initiative of the Year award and the Community Club of the Year award along with other Northwest football groups.Neighbours Liverpool also did well.

Liverpool FC’s Jerome Sin-clair won the Rising Star of the year award and recently-retired defender, Jamie Carragher won Player of the Year for the Pre-mier League.

The club itself won the spon-sorship category for their asso-ciation with international bank-ing group, Standard Chartered, while its HIV awareness drive helped it take home the CSR campaign prize.

The accolades didn’t stop at the club, as Liverpool digital agency Rippleffect also took an award in the business category.More than 500 attended the cer-emony at Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Notable faces at the awards

MERSEYTIGERSLOOKING FOR WIN

Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen failed in his bid to become the first owner of an English trained winner of the Melbourne Cup this morning, after his horse Brown Panther could only finish eighth.

The colt, trained by Cheshire-based Tom Dascombe, was prominent throughout the race under jockey Richard Kingscote in the two mile flat race at Flemington, before weak-ening in the final stages and finishing a creditable eighth in a field of twenty-four runners.

The event is often compared with the Grand National and is referred to as “the race that stops a nation” in Australia. It is a public holiday in the state of Victoria and the track often sees huge attendances, with 104,169 taking to the course today.

It was a pleasing perfor-mance from British runners, with visiting horses filling four of the first five places, including Mount Athos, owned by local businessman Dr Marwan Koukash, which finished third.

However, the British run-ners were unable to finish in the place that matters and the 6/1 favourite Firoente held off the challenge of York-shire-trained Red Cadeaux to score under Damien Oliver for Australia.

The result means that a British runner has still to conquer the Melbourne Cup in its 152 year history.

Ramsey’s late goalsecures Arsenal winArsenal stand five points clear at the top of the Premier League table after a 2-0 win over Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium over the weekend.

Arsenal dominated Liver-pool and their attackers, San-ti Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey secured a comfortable win. Liverpool’s vulnerable de-fence started to crumble, this meant that consequently, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge saw very little of the ball.

The Valencia on-loan de-fender, Aly Cissokho, struggled throughout the game, failing to cover Mikel Arteta as he passed the ball on to Bacary Sagna.

Sagna then crossed the ball,

by Nick Seddon

Life|Sport|11OWEN’SHORSEFINISHESEIGHTH

by James Routledge

Community Initiative of the Year: Bolton Wanderers Community Trust, Everton in the Community-Safe HandsCommunity Club of the Year: Everton in the Community; Highly Commended: Morecambe FCCSR Campaign of the Year: Liverpool FCContribution to Sport in the North West: The Neville familyBest Club Marketing Campaign: Everton FCBest Club Sponsorship Engagement/Partnership: Liverpool FCBusiness Services to Football: RippleffectProfessional Services to Football: Brabners LLP; Special Award: Mark Hovell of Mills & ReeveFootball Journalist of the Year: Martin Ogden (Telegraph)The Fabrice Muamba Award for Medical & Sports Science Professional: Rob Swire (Manchester United staff)Rising Star of the Year: Jerome Sinclair (Liverpool FC)Manager of the Year: Sir Alex FergusonWomen’s Player of the Year: Toni Duggan (Everton Ladies)Player of the Year (Conference): George Horan (Chester FC)Player of the Year (League Two): Jack Redshaw (Morecambe)Player of the Year (League One): John Welsh (Preston North End)Player of the Year (Championship): Jay Spearing (Bolton Wanderers)Player of the Year (Premier League): Jamie Carragher (Liverpool FC)Unsung Hero: Barrie Hipkiss (Chester FC)Lifetime Contribution Award: Sir Alex Ferguson

by Laura Ryder

The Mersey Tigers are set to face the Teeside Lions this weekend.

After a few weeks without playing, the Merseyside team who were treble winners in 2010 and 2011, being BBL Champions, BBL Trophy and BBL Play-off winners will now take on the Teeside team at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park.

The team, previously called Everton Tigers lost all their matches in the 2012-13 season, were consequently expelled on July 2013.

The Mersey Tigers are hoping to put their unfortu-nate past behind them and win their forthcoming fixture against the Teeside team.

Tickets are on sale and cost, £2 for adults and £1 for under 16’s. Children below the age of five and Liverpool Tigers Players will be able to attend free of charge.

Jay Spearing at the awards ©Twitter/@BoltonWebsites

by Laura Ryder

AFC Liverpool end aninspiring winning streakAFC Liverpool’s five-game winning streak was final-ly broken as Alsager Town beat them 2-1 on Saturday.

Two goals by Dean Smith in the last two minutes of the first half secured victory for the match’s hosts, despite Steven Jones putting AFC

Martin Murray setfor fight in Sydney

Martin Murray hopes that victory over Gareth Wood will enhance his recognition within the Mid-dleweight boxing community.

Murray, 31, St Helens, will fight Wood for the interim WBA world title on 11 Decem-ber and is looking to build on his impressive record which has seen him win 25 profes-sional fights with one draw.

The fight will be in front of Wood’s home support in Sydney, although this should not faze the Brit who has twice fought impressively for a world title on foreign soil.

by Will Shaw

Murray©Facebook/Martin Murray Boxing

by James Routledge

Full list of winners

include former FA chief exec-utive Mark Palios, who was on the judging panel, and Sir Alex Ferguson, who made an appearance via a pre-recorded video to receive the lifetime achievement and manager of the year award.

WORLD CUP MOVEThe Rugby League World Cup is set to move into its final stages next week, with a Quarter Final tie being played at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones stadium. The tie could feature Eng-land, should they fail to beat Fiji in their final group game in Hull on November 9. The hosts find themselves in second place of Group B, fol-lowing a commanding victory over Ireland in Huddersfield on Saturday, defeating the visitors by 42 points to nil.

by Nick Seddon

finding Cazorla who gave Ar-senal an early lead after 19 minutes placing the ball past Mignolet and into the back of the net despite his initial header striking the woodwork.

The loss of players such as Jose Enrique and Glen John-son was a noticeable blow for the Reds as they continued to struggle throughout the game.

Some Liverpool support-ers may feel that they may have been robbed of a good chance as Martin Atkinson de-nied the Reds the opportuni-ty to level with the Gunners.

Suarez’s free-kick that Sturridge crossed to Jordan Henderson who tapped it in was refused as the referee in-

sisted on pulling play back. The free-kick was tak-

en too quickly and the ref-eree pulled play back to give Sagna a yellow card.

After 59 minutes of play, Ramsey doubled Arsenal’s ad-vantage as he scored from 25 yards, firmly putting the ball past keeper, Simon Mignolnet.

Liverpool who now stand third in the league will be dis-appointed in their performance and will have to learn from their tactical failures from kick off.

Arsenal next play Borussia Dortmund away on Wednes-day in the Champions League, followed by Manchester United in the Barclays Pre-mier League this weekend.

Liverpool in the lead early on.Alsager Town had won

just one match in their last ten games until this victory.

AFC will face West Dids-bury & Chorlton tomor-row at home in Valeria Park. They are currently 3rd in the North West Counties league.

North West football awards round upP11

LifeSPORT05-November-2013

Liverpool

CONCUSSION SCARE HALTS RUGBY CLASHBy James Routledge

A University rugby match was called off after an accident left the referee unfit to contin-ue overseeing the game last Wednesday.

The British Universities and College of Sport (BUCS) Offi-cial suffered a concussion with-in the first ten minutes of the BUSC Rugby Union game after a wayward kick sent the ball into his temple.

Sixty minutes into the game, the team captains of Liver-

pool John Moores University (LJMU) Mens 1st and the Uni-versity of Cumbria Mens 1st rugby teams decided he was unfit to continue refereeing and decided it was best to call of the game.

Will Shaw, the fullback for LJMU who kicked the ball, said, “I went to put the kick in the cor-ner but didn’t catch it quite right and the ball veered off and hit

the referee in the head.“Later on in the game I no-

ticed the referee wasn’t quite with it. As we were about to scrum we realised he wasn’t all there and gave him time to come around.

“But then our captain spoke to their captain and they agreed he wasn’t in a fit state.”

There is uncertainty over whether or not the results of the

game, which was held at Vale of Lune in Lancaster, will be counted because it didn’t finish.

The score stood at 32 – 7 to LJMU before it was cancelled and the team captain argued that the score should stand as it is.

Richard Miles, LJMU team captain, said: “We dominated the whole game. Cumbria never looked like they were going to come back into it.

PUNT: Full Back, Will Shaw, playing for Liverpool John Moores University against Liverpool Hope earlier this year.

“With a 20 point lead and only 20 minutes to go, we defi-nitely deserve the points!”

His team will next play against the University of Ches-ter on the 13th of November at New Brighton FC Rugby Union’s venue in Reeds Lane, Wirral.

The rugby team are current-ly 4th in the Rugby Union’s Northern 3A league table.

Tranmere players show support for ThompsonBy Nick Seddon

Players and fans of Tranmere Rovers joined in support of player Joe Thompson on Sat-urday, following the announce-ment that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

A minute’s applause was held in support of the winger before Rovers’ away game with Pres-ton on Saturday, with 9,000 fans from both clubs offering their best wishes.

Tranmmere’s players wore special t-shirts during their warm up before the game, dis-playing the midfielder’s name and squad number on the back.

The winger underwent medi-cal tests after feeling ill, which confirmed that he had contract-ed nodular sclerosing Hodgkin’s disease.

In a statement on their web-site, the League One side stat-ed they would fully support the 24-year-old player, who is due to start a six-month course of

chemotherapy.Mick Horton, Chief Execu-

tive of the club, said: “We are stunned by this news and all our thoughts are with Joe and his family.

“Joe will get all the love and support we can give him as he undergoes his treatment.”

Horton asked that the privacy of the player was respected, add-ing that supporters will receive information as it is known.

Ronnie Moore, manager of the side, added: “Joe is a fan-tastic young man and he will be missed around Prenton Park while he has treatment.

“He has the full support of all the coaching staff and his team mates and we will do everything we can to help him make a full recovery.”

Tom Cleverly wrote on twit-ter: “Sad to hear the news about joe Thompson. Started out at united with me all those years ago! #getwellsoonjt”

Ben Foster wrote on twitter:

“Just read the news about @tranmererovers Joe Thompson, really awful news, Wishing you luck pal. Makes you remember

what’s important eh.”Thompson signed for Tran-

mere from Rochdale in August 2012 for £75,000. While at

Rochdale he won Apprentice of the year for league two.

He played 20 games for Tran-mere scoring three goals.

RESPECT: Tranmere squad show their support on Saturday. © Twitter/@GarethJones

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