Lincolnshire this week.

After the excitement of the BBC Lincolnshire/Lincolnshire Echo Children in Need cycle ride from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse to Lincoln which incidentally has now raised over £30000 towards Friday nights TV extravaganza, Matt Baker, celebrity farmer, TV presenter etc etc passed through Lincs on his way from Edinburgh to London by rickshaw. He is pedalling by the way, not in the back.


Lincolnshire is far from the wealthiest area of the country yet local people dug deep once again, contributing more money than at any of the other overnight stops and waiting over three hours to welcome the exhausted Matt to Lincoln as he was delayed on route. I just reviewed the footage of the Lincolnshire ride noting our riders, Rod Whiting, Louise Wheeler and John Pakey from the Echo struggling on in splendid isolation whilst Matt has motorcycle out riders, cameras and masseurs with him. Rod did comment on his radio show though that this could often be an advantage as they could get on with their task away from the glare of publicity.

It’s sometimes a forgotten industry but we do still have a fishing fleet in the county and Boston fishermen have been in the news highlighting the parlous state of cockle fishing and saying that they have been limited to just 40 days cockle fishing in the Wash this year by EU restrictions. Worse still, the quotas are actually causing the deaths of the cockle stocks. Ken Bagley told local paper the Target:-

“They are bankrupting us. We can’t possibly make a living with these quotas and they know that.

“They care more about the sea birds then they do the fishermen. But what they are doing is hurting the birds and nature too.

“What is the point of leaving thousands of cockles out there to die and rot?”

The University of Lincoln has been in trouble this week, fined £10000 with £12759 costs after admitting leaving staff and students vulnerable to the effects of asbestos at Chad Varah House. This is one of the older buildings on the campus and I believe used to be part of the Lincoln Theological College before becoming part of our rapidly expanding uni. Bottom of the class there though chaps!

There was a bit of a keystone Cops feel to an event on the outskirts of Lincoln this week when traffic was brought to a grinding halt by the discovery of a suspected bomb in works to dual part of the bypass. The chaos was made worse by experts having to come over from Nottingham to deal with the situation and could have been a complete nightmare if it really was a bomb as the boffins would have had to wait for daybreak to begin work making it safe. As it was the “device” was discovered to be no more than scrap metal. Still with the price of scrap at an all time high perhaps that will pay for the petrol home.

Lady Thatcher is back in the news but this time it’s a portrayal of her by Meryl Streep making the headlines. Ms Streeps performance of Grantham’s favourite daughter has had the critics drooling:-

“Streep has found the woman within the caricature” Kevin Maher, The Times

“Awards should be coming Streeps way” David Gritten, Daily Telegraph

“is astonishing and all but flawless” Xan Brooks, Guardian

Maggie herself could have only dreamed of reviews like that.

Finally the English Golf Union and English Women’s Golf Associations have agreed a merger. The EGU already have their headquarters in our own, leafy Woodhall Spa and the combined operation will continue from the resort becoming an inland St Andrews for the English but warmer of course and with the advantage of Batemans beer (other beverages available)

Enjoy your golf or whatever, wherever you find yourself.