Latest News Stories
Stinging Nettle Eating Championships
Sixty-five brave, if not rather mad, contestants battled for glory, last night, at the World Stinging Nettle Eating Championships.
Each competitor is given a pile of freshly picked nettles - carefully measured and cut into two foot lengths. The winner is the one who can strip bare and eat all the leaves on as many of these stems as possible in one hour - the stalks are counted and a winning 'length' is then awarded - one prize (a trophy and a crate of beer) to the men, and one to the women.
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Hovercaft 50th Anniversary
Fifty years ago today saw the first ever Hovercraft take to the water/air. But there were no thoughts of retirement or time for a party on the Solent today as the Hoverspeed fleet was flat out flying revelers from Southsea to Ryde for this weekend's Isle of Wight Festival.
For the first time ever a smaller Griffon hovercraft, a demonstrator from the Southampton factory, was needed to help ship freight to and from the Island....more
Biddys and Codgers
It was supposed to be a humorous way of describing the pensioners who are enjoying retirement in the seaside town of Selsey in Sussex by the sea.
Instead, the decision by a taxi firm to describe them as 'biddies and codgers' in an advertising campaign, sparked uproar yesterday. One dictionary describes biddies as 'interfering old women' and codgers as 'old or eccentric men'.
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Britain's most unsellable house
Behind its five-bar gate and across its pebbled drive, Malcolm Godden's old farmhouse in Wolfmere Lane looks, at first, worth every bit of its £440,000 valuation by estate agents Cubitt and West.
Dating from the 19th century, and benefiting from a smart new extension to provide a garden room and study, it once boasted views across open farmland in what will soon be part of the new South Downs National Park.
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Calais Immigrants
An Afghan migrant stows away on a passing lorry, yesterday near the ferry port in Calais, France, in an attempt to reach the UK.
Fellow Afghans first attempted to slow down the truck and distract the driver as he slowed near a road junction, while the stow away, who had been hidden behind a wall, ran under the trailer and climbed on its rear axle...more
Miniature Clocks
As chilly Britain prepares to spring into summer this week-end by putting the clocks forward an hour, spare a thought for Malcolm Hall.
As well as being a collector of clocks, he is also one of the worlds greatest exponents in the art of making miniature ones for dolls houses.
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World War Two Medals
A war veteran who fought for Britain during the Normandy landings has finally been given his World War 2 medals 60 years after he served in the army - because he forgot to fill out some paperwork at the time.
Patrick Holland, who turns 93 today, should have been given the medals back in the forties but he didn't get round to sending off the documents when he returned home because he was so relieved to have made it home alive.
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Dummies
A rugby team was not just selling dummies on the pitch - but sticking them in the stands yesterday.
Nottingham RFC - known as the Green and Whites - imported 1,000 blow up dolls for their crucial League One fixture with Exeter Chieftains in a bid to snatch a vital win. Before the game started the club was lying fifth in the table.
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