Editor's Blog: World Cup
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Sutton Valence School was the place to be on
Friday - or more precisely their cricket ground over the road. The
annual summer sporting highlight of the school's first XI versus
the Lashings World XI. Former pupil David Folb brings his
glittering array of stars back to his alma mater each year and the
event never fails to disappoint.
Although I did spare a thought for West Indies legend Gordon
Greenidge who had come direct from the airport having arrived from
Barbados that morning to quite parky weather conditions. Greenidge
is an absolute hero of mine having opened the batting for the
wonderful Windies from the 1970s right up to the early 1990s so it
was a real privilege to meet him.
His side struggled a bit against the youngsters, losing four
quick wickets but recovered to scrap home with the penultimate ball
of the match.
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It seems the World Cup has got us all hooked and there’s a sense
of mass hysteria about this festival of football. The feast gives
us a considerable number of storylines and picture opportunities
locally with pubs and shops flying the St George’s flag, people
having their faces painted, special promotions and interesting
little local snippets such as the Maidstone sports firm being asked
to supply the snooker table using by the England squad at their
hotel in Rustenburg – not a bad claim to fame is it?
Then there are the inevitable killjoys such as
the Southern Housing Association which has written to each of its
tenants in Holborough Marshes near Snodland to order them to remove
flags – or face action (it isn’t specific about what it will do but
we would like to see them try). It’s similar to a diktat featured
in our sister paper the Kentish Gazette a few weeks ago in which
Canterbury City Council ordered licensed taxi drivers not to
display the flag, leading to the inevitable u-turn in the face of
public opprobrium.
Today’s KM has an 8-page pullout on last Friday’s highly
successful KM Mini World Cup. Anyone there would agree what a
fantastic event it was with 32 teams competing in a similar format
to the World Cup proper. But while the games were played
identically to the programme in South Africa, the outcome was
anything but predictable with North Korea – aka East Farleigh –
triumphing in an exciting final against the ‘hosts’ South Africa –
or Loose primary. Most of all, it was a terrifically fun day
enjoyed by everyone who took part. The smiles on the faces of
children featured in today’s paper are evidence that it will stay
in their memories for years to come.
On the news front this week we are getting increasing reports of
incidents of thieves targeting metal, as the value of scrap soars.
There was evidence of this a couple of years ago when demand from
countries like China pushed up the price. The new crimewave
appeared to wane but it seems to be back again, and today’s KM has
a round-up of the latest reports which include a pair risking their
lives to attempt to steal copper from the roof of Blockbusters in
Maidstone. Last week we reported how police raided a site in
Yelsted near Detling and recovered 600 catalytic converters.
Apparently, commercial vehicles are particularly at risk with
criminals getting under vans and removing the converters using
circular saws. There’s big money involved apparently.
Our back page main story today reveals the latest cricket star to
be brought to Maidstone by David Folb and his Lashings team – West
Indies great Gordon Greenidge – a personal hero of mine so I’m
looking forward to meeting him later.
Friday, June 18 2010
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