Little Thetford .org

Jamie McCullough, 31, of Little Thetford has just been awarded his grey belt in the Pa-Kua sword discipline by examiner Falco Riegel from Hamburg, Germany. Two other trainees, Anne-Marie Woolley of Ely and Gerry Sutcliff of Southery, also gained their grey belts today. Master Rodolfo Oliva confirmed to us that these are the first three such awards in this discipline in the United Kingdom.

Jamie, who has Usher Syndrome; is deaf and is losing his sight, has been Pa-Kua sword training since 2010. He also took up running this year and joined the runners in the Ely Standard Grunty Fen fun run in September. Rodolfo is encouraging Jamie to try a 5 km run next.

Rodolfo Oliva teaches Pa-Kua sword classes in Cambridge and Ely. See Where, when and fees for details.

Comment from this page

Local Ely researcher Dr Peter Hoare has sent out an appeal to let him examine any Pliosaur bones locals may still own from the 1952‡ find in Stretham. At that time, Cambridge University’s Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences took what bones they wanted from the Ouse River Board excavation; locals were then allowed to help themselves to the rest. In the intervening sixty-years, experts have come to realise that the find—originally named Stretosaurus to commemorate its find in Stretham—is more important than at first reported. Contact Peter here.

Read more and/or comment

John McCullough

†Headline (melody) with apologies to James Wheldon Johnson
‡The Ely Standard and Cambridgeshire Times, Friday 13 June 1952

Cambs Times 24 reports that local entrepreneurs Jonathan and Rebecca James’ James Graven Group has leased the Witchford Road BP garage to BP Connect who will refurbish the forecourt, at a cost of £500,000, replacing the existing Budgeon’s store with a Marks and Spencer Simply Food outlet along with a Wild Bean Café.

In March 2012, Rebecca Smithers of the Guardian compared a John Lewis Partnership’s Little Waitrose and a Marks and Spencer Simply Food outlet giving the Wimbledon Simply Food store 8/10 compared with the Wimbledon Little Waitrose’s 5/10. Simply Food stores first opened in 2001 whilst Little Waitrose stores began operating from 2008.

See also Wild Bean Café

Comments?

Well. Not quite, but almost.

Plans for the new Octagon Park business complex off Angel Drove in Ely, reaching to the northern border of Little Thetford, are far advanced though there has not yet been planning approval which is scheduled for submission in October 2012. In addition, plans have been approved for the £31m route B southern bypass, an A142 diversion to Stuntney, which avoids the low railway bridge outside Ely railway station closed to traffic 35 minutes in every hour. This council approval, which has occurred despite English Heritage concerns, now also requires a planning application.

Tesco plan to build a larger supermarket on the Octagon site to replace their present building off Angel Drove. The new site will have wider aisles^note and three-hour parking. Healy Investments, developers of the Octagon site, say the site will also include “office and industrial units, pub, restaurant and a hotel”.

Some Little Thetford villagers do not welcome the news. They fear that the A10 Thetford junction, the only route out of the village, is already congested going north at peak-times and will only get worse as traffic is further encouraged to visit the Octagon shopping centre.

We should all hope that the behaviour of planning committee member Councillor Jan French, who is alleged to have promoted approval of Whittelsey’s Tesco plans against rival Sainsbury, is not endemic throughout East Cambridgeshire.

Comments?

John McCullough

^note We submit that, in context, our spelling of aisles is better than Cambs Times 24 spelling of isles!

A record number of runners took part in this years Ely Standard Grunty Fen half-marathon and fun-run. There were 800 half-marathon runners and around 100 fun-run runners. Our deaf-blind local artist and green belt Pakua trainee Jamie McCullough, who has Usher Syndrome, was one of the fun-run runners guided by his Pakua master, Rodolfo Oliva of Ely. Encouraged by Jamie’s success, Rodolfo says Jamie should try for a 5 km run next.

Comment from this page.

The hare coursing season is upon us and we have been asked by the County Constabulary to watch out for and report such activity. The Hunting Act of 2004 made hunting with dogs, including hare coursing, illegal in England and Wales from 18 February 2005.

From a recent e-cops newsletter …

What to look for!
We ask you to look for males walking in a line across a field; they usually wear country style clothes or camouflage, but sometimes its jeans and trainers. They will have long dogs (Whippets / Lurcher / Greyhound types) there will be one or more of the dogs; they will be on a slip lead until released after a hare.
Try and see if there is a vehicle with them, this is sometimes left at the road side; the males are dropped off with the dogs then collected further on. The vehicles are usually 4×4’s or cars with 4×4 capabilities, for example a Subaru Forester type but we have caught them in the past in all sorts. We need the make, model and colour and if possible as much of the registration number as you can.

Who and when to call!
All hare coursing in progress, this means that there are dogs and males on land, needs to be phoned to the police on 999.
Any sightings of vehicles occupied with males and long dogs please contact 101.
Or any other information that may be of use on 101 or to your local officer.

To sign up to receive your own copy of the e-cops newsletter, visit this page.

Comment on this post here.

We are sure you will have noticed the new road signs introduced on 31 August along the 8/10th’s of a kilometre section of the A10 road that passes [Little] Thetford corner.

These signs, which order motorists to observe a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour, followed a long period of consultation; almost resulting in the whole of the A10 between Ely and Cambridge being so speed limited. In the end, the Cambridgeshire County Council plans [DOC*] were labelled as unnecessary and only two sections—Little Thetford and Milton—have had such restrictions applied. … Read more and/or comment

* A [DOC] file can be opened directly if you have Microsoft Word or similar on your computer. If the file will not open, consider using a free Google Docs account to open the file

We reminded you a few weeks ago to get your entry in by 5 September for this years Ely Standard Grunty Fen half-marathon. Entry is by filling in the form on their web site. As we said earlier, please do tell us if your are entering and send us your photographs.

Apologies to the Ely Standard who inspired the title of this piece with their headline today: “No grunting, no groaning – it’s that time of year for the Grunty Fen Half Marathon which could break a record“

Robert and Judy Young are proud to announce the birth today of daughter Alison Taylor’s on-line boutique, Tweed Vixen. A beaming Bob said that this is a “very exciting time” whilst Judy is speechless with dignified appreciation. Daniel Taylor, 39, who supports the enterprise by designing the marketing material said that this was “[a long time] in planning followed by a terrifying six-weeks culminating in a launch that went as planned. [I am] nervous but very happy”. Alison said she was “nervous but excited” and went on to explain that they launched the ladies wear today; the men’s wear is in the planning stage and will launch very soon. One of Alison’s Twitter followers @NaomiMc commented “Yay yay yay RT @tweedvixen: British Country Style with an Urban Twist, TweedVixen Boutique is Open!”.

Alison’s long-time interest in British Tweed¹ led her, in August 2010, to create Tweed Vixen’s blog to considerable international acclaim; her writing generating a large and devoted following. Encouraged by her supportive father, Alison submitted a business plan to the bank which was subsequently approved. Alison designs her own Tweed Vixen range of clothing and accessories, such as this 100% Scottish Lambswool Camel Crew Sweater and this Sterling Silver Feather Necklace as well as carefully selecting additional quality products to compliment her own range.

We all wish Alison the success her hard work deserves.

¹ Tweed, n. Etymology. A trade name originating in an accidental misreading of tweel, Scots form of twill n.1 (or a misunderstanding of an abbreviated tweeled twilled adj.1), helped by association with the River Tweed. OED Second edition, 1989; online version June 2012. [subscription required]

See also
Tweed Vixen web site
Tweed Vixen on Twitter
Tweed Vixen on Facebook
Tweed Vixen on Pinterest
Tweed Vixen Blog

Add your own comments at the bottom of the page here.

It is not too late to enter this years Ely Standard 22^nd Grunty Fen half-marathon which takes place on Sunday 9 September 2012. This event is chip-timed. The organisers are accepting on-line entries only this year. Entries must be received by Wednesday 5 September 2012. Fill in your entry here.

Please do let us know if you will be entering this year by commenting at the bottom of this page. We would really appreciate your photographs of this event. Send them to us here.

Would you be willing to display the poster? If so, download it from here (PDF) then print it.

See also
2011 page on this web site
2010 page on this web site. Note that it includes a map of the 2010 route. Please check the up-to-date route map on the official site.
Ely Runners – a community amateur sports club
Ely Standard 22^nd Grunty Fen half-marathon and 1 mile fun run

*Photograph: Copyright © 2003 John McCullough. Some rights reserved. A version of this image first published on Flickr Oct 2006 with the following caption: “New York marathon, 2003. Jenny Crain was the second U.S. finisher, placing 16th overall in 2:38:49. Look at the skin wrinkling on her knee!”