May 2009 Archives

HOLLYWOOD film star Vinnie Jones will be spending a day helping out his old football club.

The former Wealdstone Football club player has agreed to spend a day helping to raise money for the club on June 11.

During the day he will host a golf day at Stockley Park Golf Course in Uxbridge with tickets priced at £65 each.

The ticket price includes breakfast on arrival, 18 holes of golf and then a meal at the end of the day together with the prize giving.

Vinnie has agreed to play one hole with each four four ball.

After the golf he will be hot-footing it over to the club's base in Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip, to take part in a relaxed club evening. Tickets are £20 and include a light buffet.

For more information and for tickets call Dennis Byatt on 07811 045828 or email him at dennis.byatt@blueyonder.co.uk, call Leo Morris on 07931 167417 or call Jezz Albert on 07903 805861.

Tickets are also on sale behind the bar at Ruislip Social Club, Grosvenor Vale.

TRADERS who fought to get parking restrictions in their road say business is still bad because customers are unaware they can now park there.

Shops in New Pond Parade, West End Road, Ruislip Gardens, campaigned to get parking metres installed in their road to stop commuters from taking up all the spaces.

The metres were installed about a month ago but Simon Roadlight, manager of Ruislip Auto Components, says the road is dead because customers have not realised.

He said: "We have got lots of spaces but no customers because they haven't realised they can park for free for half an hour now."

GARDENS across the area will be open to the public for a weekend to raise funds for charity.

Midsummer Weekend 2009, sponsored by Gibbs Gillespie and Ducks Hill Garden Centre, is taking place on June 20 and 21.

Twenty gardens in Moor Park, Northwood, Ruislip, Eastcote and Ickenham will be open all weekend to raise funds for various charities.

Tickets are £7 and many of the gardens will offer attractions such as tea, refreshments, plants for sale, raffles, live painting and a jazz band.

For tickets call Warren on 01923 451 616 or Tony on 01895 677 925 or go to www.localopengardens.com for more information.

A CHURCH is holding a flower, art and craft exhibition to raise funds for a children's charity.

Ruislip Methodist Church, in Ickenham Road, Ruislip, is holding a project to raise £15,000 in 18 months for Action for Children.

More than £5,000 has already been raised and the church is now holding the flower, craft, art and photographic festival on June 12 and 13 from 10am to 4pm to build up their funds.

There will also be a music concert on June 20.

A FASHION show helped to raise more than £300 for one of the Mayor of Hillingdon's chosen charities.

The show held at Days Hotel, in Long Drive, South Ruislip, on Saturday (23), was organised to raise funds for the charity Ear 4 U.

Ann Sargent, 57, of Larne Road, Ruislip, set up the charity to offer help and advice to people with hearing problems.

She said: "We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the show.

"DJ David Hamilton was the celebrity guest and my friends and family took part in the show."

Miss Sargent's 82-year-old mother took part, along with her 11-month-old nephew, members of the Ickenham dance troupe Prime Movers, and two employees of D-Spot Café, in Victoria Road, Ruislip Manor.

All the clothes were supplied by Edinburgh Woollen Mill, in High Street, Ruislip.

There was music by Soul Mates and the new Mayor of Hillingdon, Councillor Shirley Harper-O'Neill was the guest of honour.

She has chosen Ear 4 U as one of her charities, after becoming involved with getting it up and running back in September last year.

Miss Sargent said; "When Shirley chose it as one of her charities I was amazed. She said she was really pleased with the work I was doing.

"It has been a registered charity for 39 days now and we have already raised more than £1,000.

"Lots of people with hearing problems have been in contact with me already and about five people are now wearing the correct hearing aid because of Ear 4 U.

"I feel quite proud of myself to have got this far so quickly."

For more information email annesargent@live.co.uk or call 01895 672706 or 07890 315156.

A KEEN boxer and avid football fan died after crashing his car into a tree in Ruislip.

Adam Reid, 23, of Ryefield Avenue, Hillingdon, was driving north along Breakspear Road South at 1am on Friday (22) when he lost control of his Mini Cooper and crashed near the junction with Tile Kiln Lane. He was taken to Hillingdon Hospital and died shortly after.

Many friends and family members have attached flowers and messages to a fence at the spot where he crashed.

One note written by Luke Clarke says 'Will never forget you mate. I'm glad we sorted things out before this tragic accident. You was a good man and I will miss you. May you sleep peacefully mate. Always thinking of you. R.I.P buddy.'

There is also Chelsea FC memorabilia, boxing gloves, a teddy bear, a Northolt FC shirt and photos of Adam attached to the fence.

His friend, Nancy Medland, has also set up a tribute page on Facebook called Rest In Peace Adam Reid, which already has more than 80 members.

One message written by Ty Harman reads 'No matter what is said or done, nothing will bring you back to us mate, but thank you for being a part of our lives, sharing your wisdom, your humour, your good nature and for just being you all the time. Only time will help ease all our broken hearts. Your memory, however, will always be with us. Through thick and thin, through hard times and good times, you will always be with us my friend. Heaven may have won the battle for you for now, but our time will come when we will meet again and you will laugh at us for the tears we cried for you. R.I.P Adam, gone for now, but never forgotten, always in our hearts.'

There were no passengers in the car with Adam when he crashed and it is believed there were no other cars involved in the accident.

The post-mortem was held at Uxbridge Mortuary today and teh cause of death was multiple injuries.

Witnesses should call the Collision Investigation Unit at Alperton on 020 8998 5519.

Post your tributes below.

HUNDREDS of youngsters have had to give up gymnastics and others are having to travel as far as Kent to train while their club's base sits empty and unused.

The dome building in Victoria Road, South Ruislip, was closed on April 3 after the former owners of Hillingdon School of Gymnastics backed out of a court case with Hillingdon Council who were trying to recover £97,000 in business rates it claimed the club owned.

More than 2,000 people used the club every week, but most of them now have nowhere to go and some are having to travel long distances to train.

Brandon Box, 10, of Towergate Close, Uxbridge, has been going to the club since he was five and is now a member of the boys' squad.

The Hermitage Primary School pupil said: "When I heard it was closing I was sad because I have been going for a long time.

"I thought they were joking at first but when they kept saying it I knew it was true.
"I like gymnastics because it's fun and it keeps me fit and strong. I would love to go to the Olympics one day."

Brandon's mum, Jane Box, 41, said: "Some of the parents can't even get their kids to training anymore because of the distance.

"Brandon loves gymnastics but he hates the journey to Kent because it takes the whole day.

"He used to train for 11 hours a week but now he does five hours, and that's on a good week.

"We could take him elsewhere but the boys' squad want to stick together and we want to support the club.

"Brandon isn't into football really and he's not the most academic boy in the world so for him it's a confidence thing so he can feel he is good at something.

"If he wasn't going to gymnastics he would be sitting at home in front of the computer.

"Where they train now is quite small so all the recreational gymnasts can't come anymore and all the parent and toddler groups have had to stop.

"The dome on South Ruislip isn't a long term option but meanwhile it's sitting there empty and hundreds of gymnasts are struggling to train. Even if we had it for six months it would better than nothing."

Former and current parents, coaches and gymnasts of the club are now looking to set up a not-for-profit company to run the club.

To become a member of the new company or for more information email johncox@dewarhogan.co.uk or call 01895 631 535.

When I looked on the Queensmead website for my next class I realised the only one I could do that week was 20-20-20. I had no idea what that was so I read the description. Basically it consists of 20 minutes aerobics, 20 minutes upper and lower body tone and 20 minutes floor work and stretching.

When I saw it was a class full of women and just two men, I thought it would be an easy one. However, when I saw the instructor I realised it was the same one who takes the Cardio kick class at Highgrove and I remembered I was in a lot of pain the day after that class.

This particular instructor likes to make you do the same exercise over and over again until your muscles pretty much can't take it anymore. After about 20 minutes of aerobics - you never would've guessed - we moved on to the upper bodywork. I thought that was hard enough but the next exercise we did was a killer. We had to do three sets of 16 side lunges on each leg. I could feel the lactic acid building up in my thighs, but I didn't realise how much they were hurting until the next day. I couldn't walk for three days after the class!

The floor work wasn't as bad. It involved a lot of sit ups, which always tends to hurt my neck more than my stomach.

I enjoyed the class but I didn't like the fact we worked certain muscles a lot more than others. There was also quite a lot of choreography involved as well, which I detest!

So, I have come to the end of my blog now. I didn't realise at the time of booking the 20-20-20 class that it was my last class. I said from the beginning that I would try out all the evening and weekends classes and I have - with a few exceptions.

I have done the Stretch and tone class and also the Step class so I don't think the Step and tone class is really going to be any different from these two. I haven't done Core stability, but that's because ever time I tried to book the class it was full. I also haven't done Pilates (which is a disappointment because I was quite looking forward to that). Even though it says on the website it's a class for all intermediate to advanced, when I called to book they told me the classes were run as a special course.
I also haven't done Ju-jitsu because it isn't included as part of the membership package...and to be honest with you, even though I did kickboxing for four years, I didn't feel comfortable with being thrown on the floor repeatedly.

However, 14 classes overall isn't too bad. It has been fun testing out the classes and writing this blog. I am going to try and keep up the exercise, so the classes I think I'll go back to will be the ones that involved a bit of kickboxing.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and if you want to have a look back at all my blogs, just type in fitness blog in the search bar to the right. Keep up the exercise!

A NEW range of armed forces action figures was launched at RAF Northolt.

The base in West End Road, Ruislip, was the venue for the launch of the toys last Wednesday (6), produced in partnership with the MoD.

The event, which was opened by the station commander, Group Captain Guy van den Berg, was attended by more than 100 media and commercial representatives.

The toys were well received on the day of the launch by the servicemen and women at the event and the station commander expressed his delight that the station had been chosen for such a major event.

A 3-year-old boy was taken to hospital with head injuries after being knocked down by a car.

The London Ambulance Service were called to High Street, Ruislip, at 12.15pm on Monday (11).

The boy was taken to Hillingdon Hospital as a priority.