Road rage

IN England we seem to spend half our lives stuck in traffic.

Stuck forever twiddling our thumbs at the traffic lights, stuck playing with the car radio, arranging our CD’s once again to try and defeat the evil forces of boredom caused by yet another traffic snarl up.

It’s a pain. And here in Ashfield the pain never ends, it seems to now be a daily blight for the good motorists of the district, who are forever stuck gridlocked.

Sutton has been a living nightmare this week as Outram Street grinds to a halt thanks to the High Pavement roadworks.

It is bad enough when a delivery truck blocks Outram Street for half an hour creating more tailbacks without this adding to the misery.

And we all know about the Kirkby traffic chaos with all routes into the town becoming a living nightmare any time its rush hour. Let’s face it, If you’re planning to drive from The Ashfield pub into the town past the Ashfield School is probably advisable to leave four days to ensure you actually get there on time.

Is it really any wonder businesses do not see Sutton and Kirkby as attractive propositions? Is it any wonder Sutton and Kirkby are dying towns mocked by many people? not for me it isn’t.

Unless the infrastructure in the two town’s are sorted out and major investment made by the relevant council authorities Sutton and Kirkby will arrest their sad decline.

So come on Ashfield District Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, sort out this mess once and for all.

A world of opportunity

THURSDAYS used to be a dull day in Chad land for my goodself and a day where nothing much happened other than the delights of a lunch-time session at the pub with the work chums. It has now rapidly become my favourite day of the week.

For on Thursdays I now present Stags Talk, Chad’s weekly podcast on all things Mansfield Town FC, which is a role I greatly enjoy and would not miss for the world.

Putting together the show isn’t too difficult with preperation being the key. Prepare well and a good show surely awaits, but prepare badly and I can more than likely await personal embarrassment at the hands of the unforgiving studio microphone.

The show begins life with my goodself trawling the Chad website for all the stories making the news at Field Mill that particular week, before I knock up a script for the panel to follow in the studio.

The script is a life-saver for me and helps me as the presenter keep control of the show, moving from topic to topic in an orderly and well structured fashion.

Oh and It also helps me to avoid awkward lapses in my memory, where I begin dreaming about what delights I’m having for tea before suddenly realising silence has descended and the other two panelists are staring blankly at me and wondering what we’re supposed to be discussing.

The show then ends its life as a fun and enjoyable debate of the comings and goings at the club and is surely a must-listen to podcast for all the club’s fans, well I think so anyway!

From a personal point of view Stags Talk is not only tremendous fun and a great chance to talk about football but also a wonderful opportunity to broaden my skills and embrace the new media and its endless possibilities.

Who knows one day I could have my own sports show on the BBC, but if I do I ‘ll certainly owe a big thanks to Chad for starting the ball rolling.

It’s a celebs life

SOME days working as a journalist at a weekly newspaper in a small town is quite frankly as dull as dishwater. On other days it’s one of the best jobs in the world . . . well I think so anyway.

 

And luckily for me today was one of those brilliant days, a day where I got to meet a true celebrity and a day where my friends said “wow, I wish I had your job.”

 

The celebrity in question was Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes as she opened the town’s impressive new Lammas Leisure Centre.

 

And I’m pleased to report Dame Kelly is not just a famous athlete and television celebrity, she’s also a thoroughly charming and delightful lady into the bargain. It really was a pleasure to meet her.

 

From a personal point of view meeting famous people is one of the great benefits of my job. So far in my short career in Chad land I have been fortunate enough to meet many sporting icons.

 

In my near five years on the rag I’ve interviewed a variety of football managers and players including Gareth Southgate and Billy Davies as well as athletes Roger Black, Lord Seb Coe and of course Dame Kelly.

 

Oh and lets not forget Becky Adlington, the pride of Mansfield and the best female swimmer over 800m in the world….EVER!!! What an honour it was to report on her success and have a place on her home-coming bus.

 

So as you see it’s not always never-ending anti-social problems, school clubs and tedious council meetings for us local media hacks, sometimes good stuff happens as well.