DORSET folk still enjoy a decent quality of life, experts believe, despite the outcome of an independent report which claims that government policy has failed to improve our living environment. While government money is channelled in to rail services,
THREE men lie prostrate on the damp grass. Two appear to be dead and the third is writhing in agony, clutching at the stump of a missing limb. A helicopter circles and lands nearby as a team of first-aiders prioritise the victims then transfer them to
SHE may have her knockers but Jordan is sure to pack 'em in when she visits Bournemouth. The 25-year-old glamour girl is coming to Borders next month to promote her book Being Jordan: My Autobiography. The book details her life and career to date as well
A KINKY thief has forced an Ann Summers sales rep out of business after stealing her entire stock of sexy lingerie and toys. More than 40 items totalling £700 vanished from the car boot of mother-of-three Jsanine Jenkin from Swanage. Whips, bondage gear
THERE'S a last chance this week to see photographs of the New Forest taken by 2001 Turner Prize nominee Richard Billingham. The landscapes, mainly taken at dawn or dusk using natural light and long exposure times, have been on show at the ArtsSway Contemporary
AN urgent appeal is being made for the daughter of a woman found dead at her home in Poole to contact the coroner's office. Kathleen Midgely, aged 63, is thought to have died of heart failure in her flat at Cranborne Court, Twyford Way, in Canford Heath
BOURNEMOUTH Rugby Club's under-13s will be rubbing shoulders with English rugby's World Cup heroes after qualifying for the Twickenham final of the Nottingham Festival tournament. The young Lions will offer up the pre-match entertainment before the England-Barbarians
CRAIG SHEPHERD has been given the chance to extend his international career. The 23-year-old Wimborne bowler has been named among 52 of the country's brightest youngsters for the England under-25 trial at the New Lount club, Leicestershire, on Saturday
TITLE-winning Crawley Town boss Francis Vines reckons Weymouth were not 'up to the chase' in the battle for the Dr Martens Premier Division championship. The Sussex side are celebrating clinching promotion to the Conference after a season long battle
FORMER Terras keeper Danny Potter is set to appear in the FA Trophy Final at Villa Park on May 23. The 25-year-old former Chelsea apprentice was the toast of Canvey Island after his penalty shoot-out save booked his Ryman Premier League outfit a place
HE'S only just turned 12 years old and young motocross rider Dean Cummings from Verwood is picking up trophies as big as he is! Dean has already scooped the Hants and Dorset Youth Motocross Junior Championship at Matchams Park near Ringwood, along with
COUNCILLORS have urged people to write in protest at plans to create a travellers' camp at a Weymouth beauty spot. Views of residents would add weight to the council's argument against siting a camp on a former landfill site at Lodmoor next to the RSPB
DORSET job centres and benefit payment offices are among sites being hit by a national two-day pay dispute. The action by the Public and Commercial Services union, which ends at 5pm tonight, is in support of a national pay dispute and has included walk-outs
AN ANONYMOUS poet is urging pet owners to scoop the poop on a picturesque Dorchester walk. The poem - To the Dog - calling on dogs to ask their errant owners to clean up after their pets, has gone up on the riverside walk near the White Hart pub. The
THE ROAR of 150 vintage motor engines brought crowds to Weymouth quayside. The fifth annual quay to quay rally organised by the Wessex vehicle preservation society brought vehicles over 70 years old from Poole to Weymouth. Rally organiser and chairman
A DAD is to jet thousands of miles to see the daughter he feared he had lost forever. Brian Langston believed he would never see or hear from his 19-year-old daughter Katie again when she walked out after his marriage broke down in 1989. Now the retired
IN common with many hundreds of people, our family spent Easter Day visiting Longleat. The children enjoyed it enormously, but for we adults, there was a bitter disappointment in store. I hate to break it to those of you who grew up in the 1960s and '
RECALLED Jason Tindall is hoping to put a season's frustrations behind him and take his chance in Cherries' play-off push. Tindall has made just three first-team starts this season and enjoyed his longest run-out since October last year as he was thrown
A POPULAR seaside entertainer who charged £1 for guessing holidaymakers' ages may have ended his life because of a gambling problem, an inquest heard on April 13. In a statement, Lee Bennett's son Peter told the Bournemouth hearing he believed his father
TERRORISM, speed cameras and domestic violence will top the agenda at a major police conference in Bournemouth next month. Thousands of rank and file officers will descend on the town for the Police Federation conference on May 18. And delegates have
HE'S a miracle youngster who has defied the odds and fought against serious health problems to survive. Now four-year-old Michael Ledden is at the centre of his mother's campaign to improve facilities for deaf children in Dorset. Mum Michelle, 34, is
BEE-KEEPERS are preparing for the invasion of a mite that could cause extreme damage to hives across Dorset after it was discovered in the north of the county. Over the past two years it has been a problem in Devon and Cornwall, but it has now struck
FOUR young holiday-makers were winched to safety by coastguard helicopter after getting stuck on cliffs at Swanage on April 13. The group had walked up a water trackway up Ballard Cliff, mistaking it for a footpath to Studland, when they ran into trouble
A DEVELOPER hoping to build 1,000 new homes near Wareham has denied his plans will kill off the town centre. Residents fear creating a new community, complete with out-of-town supermarket, school and pub at Worgret Manor will "sound the death knell" for
WAR - 1940s style - is about to break out in Studland as its role in the D-Day landings is marked with re-enactments at Fort Henry. Over 100 local history enthusiasts will storm the beaches, man anti-aircraft guns, train as GIs and parade as German troops
TWO Poole women aiming to make history in a race to the North Pole started their mammoth trek on April 13, despite their team-mate being forced out of the running by cold weather injuries. Philippa Thompson and Clare Kavanagh, who both work for the RNLI
DORSET'S over-45 team travelled to Sidmouth where they took on league leaders Devon and in an incredibly exciting encounter the local players were finally defeated on countback. Having drawn the match, Dorset had won one less game so the home team ran
MARK Hargreaves scored his second seafront victory in a week to declare himself ready for the London Marathon. The George Hartwell Boscombe Quarter Marathon was the Bournemouth AC veteran's sixth win this year, reports Nigel Harding. He clocked 34 min
CHRIS Evans is used to doing his fair share of running. The former Terras and Bridport stars spends every Saturday afternoon jogging up and down the wing for Portland United in the Sydenhams Wessex League. Over the course of 90 minutes, the Welshman clocks
EX-MAGPIE Gary Green's appearance with Winchester City in the FA Vase Final at Birmingham City's St Andrews ground next month may bring down the curtain on his career. The 40-year-old midfielder, who was twice voted Player of the Year during his five
DORCHESTER Reserves boss Phil Simkin is promising to put midfielder Simon Critchell's fractured big toe through the fitness test from hell ahead of tonight's Dorset Premier League game against Wareham Rangers at the Avenue Stadium (7.45pm). The ex-Weymouth
COBHAM SPORTS 1 DORCHESTER UNITED 0 UNITED were denied the Dorset Premier League draw they deserved last night when Martin Hillier had his late penalty brilliantly saved by the Sports keeper. Missing seven regulars because they were either injured or
MARTIN Hewson has been named as the new captain of Portland Red Triangle Cricket Club. The front line batsman, replaces John Ryan who was forced to stand-down earlier in the year because of work commitments. It's Hewson second spell in charge of the islanders
SENIOR welterweight Tex Houston takes on Bridport's Ben Follett in a return bout at Weymouth Amateur Boxing Club's end of season dinner tournament on Friday. Houston - who has won 13 out of 30 bouts - stopped Follett (boxed 11, won five) in the final
SMALL firms across Dorset and Hampshire have seen no improvement in late payment by Britain's PLCs - with many other PLCs now breaking the law over payment disclosure. Major corporates - including some of the UK's household names - are still taking as
PIRATES new boy Jason Lyons pledged to the Wimborne Road faithful that he is determined to rediscover his best form. The experienced Australian international and former Grand Prix rider has struggled to hit the heights since joining Poole RIAS from Belle
DORCHESTER town centre has been turned into a litter dump, says a clean-up campaigner - just a week after it was given a spring-clean. Volunteers took to the streets as part of a campaign to clean up the county showpiece. But a major town centre site
A WAR of words has broken out after a councillor was accused of staging a publicity stunt in the run-up to the elections. Councillor Mike Byatt, who has been active in the campaign to save the controversial green space at Markham and Little Francis in
THE man who Royal Princes Willam and Harry affectionately called 'Uncle Ken' steamed straight into the kind of controversy that is a marketing executives dream when he wrote a personal account of his years as Princess Diana's private body guard. The book
A COMMUNITY self-help group is celebrating after winning funding for an after school club. The Dorset ADHD Support Group has been awarded £7,000 by the Community Foundation for Bournemouth Dorset and Poole. The money will be used to help the group run
A COMMITTEE which works to protect Dorchester's rich heritage is being urged to continue working while a decision on its future is made. The Dorchester Heritage Committee is faced with uncertainty after Dorset County Council, one of its main backers,
A DAD is to jet thousands of miles to see the daughter he feared he had lost forever. Brian Langston believed he would never see or hear from his 19-year-old daughter Katie again when she walked out after his marriage broke down in 1989. Now the retired
TOP soccer referee Paul Durkin will be the guest of honour at the opening of a new village sports pavilion. Builders are putting the finishing touches to the new pavilion on the Puddletown Recreation Ground. It will be opened on May 3. The building, which
BUILDERS have begun constructing the £2.2 million extension to Lymington Recreation Centre more than a decade after it was first mooted. "It's been a long time coming but finally all the problems about planning and the resources have come together," said
THE next mayor of Blandford will be sure to turn heads when he arrives at civic engagements. Keen motorbiker Cllr Gerry Chapman, currently deputy mayor, plans to turn up to some events on the back of his FJR 1300 Yamaha motorbike in full leathers. Both
A FRIGHTENED Highcliffe schoolgirl fled from a man who exposed himself to her at Walkford Common on Sunday. The incident happened at about 9.30am as the 16-year-old walked from her home across the common beside Ringwood Road towards the town centre, where
