The 24-year-old Briton was first to go in the 13-horse jump-off and though his
The 24-year-old Briton was first to go in the 13-horse jump-off and, though his clear round looked fast enough to put pressure on those who followed, it seemed more than likely that one or two would overtake him.
Davenport watched every single one of them with growing excitement and a slightly dazed realisation that the £20,000 first prize was actually within his grasp. The England international Yorick Williams inspired the Brighton Bears to an 88-84 BBL Championship win over Sheffield Sharks last night, to draw level with the Sharks and London Towers at the top of the table on 11 wins each.
Williams hit 14 points in the final quarter, including four three-pointers. Williams gave Bears their first lead at 80-77 with a three, before a three-pointer from Sterling Davis, who led the Sharks with 26 points, tied the scores on 84-84. Andrew Alleyne and Steve Lepore closed out the win for Brighton Alleyne and Williams scored 25 points each. Chester Jets recorded their 10th win by beating Scottish Rocks 94-91, taking control with a 6-0 run to lead 94-89. After 30 years in state school teaching, for the last eight of which I was a headmistress, I receive £4.30 per week state pension.
She will have to find an suitable ladylike English implement (but not the golf club, which will be wielded by both male and female Scots – more effective than bagpipes!).ALISON BELL Hamilton, LanarkshireSir: As an American living in England, I own a baseball bat (actually softball) and if anybody else like Paul D Buisseret refers to baseball as “an incomprehensible American adaptation of rounders”, I will whack them on the head, burglar or not.DAVID McNICKLE St Albans, Hertfordshire. I was one of those thousands of women who paid a women’s stamp. Would you describe this as a fair return for the great deal of money I contributed over the years? Or would you describe it, as I do, as fraud on a massive scale?MADELEINE HARVEY Reigate, Surrey Batting on Sir: I think Professor Buisseret (letter, 16 December) should note that if he wants his daughter to follow his advice and find suitable English sports equipment (as opposed to an American baseball bat) with which to whack a burglar round the noggin then she will have to forgo the lacrosse stick, which is a well-known native American invention. However, your reporting of the incident illustrates the demonisation that great white sharks continue to suffer from emotive media coverage.You report the sea rescue spokesman as saying that the victims were “just boys having a good time”.
You omit to mention that the sharks were undoubtedly “just” behaving as they have been for far longer than we humans have freely chosen to use known predation areas for recreational purposes. Or are we to believe that sharks make consciously vindictive efforts to spoil our fun?MICHAEL ALLISON Blackpool, Lancashire Man of La Mancha Sir: Your correspondent Elizabeth Nash (report, 18 December) cites as the first words of Don Quixote: “In a village in La Mancha whose name I cannot recall…” What Cervantes wrote was: “En un lugar de La Mancha cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme…” This means something different: “In a place in La Mancha the name of which I do not care to remember…”SYDNEY BERNARD SMITH Dundalk, Ireland Women’s pensions Sir: Ann Postance-Bell (letter, 15 December) said she received the magnificent sum of £2.14 pension after a lifetime of hard work She might be interested in my experience. The staff already have a registered clinical qualification eg nursing, and undertake extended training to develop further skills in surgical care. Patient safety is, needless to say, a key priority for us.JUDY HARGADON Director New Ways of Working NHS Modernisation Agency London WC1 Shark attack Sir: Sympathies should of course be extended to those whose relatives died in the recent shark attacks on the Adelaide coast (report, 17 December). They are already requiring a BBC1 schedule that entices nearly everyone (say, 90 per cent) to tune to BBC1 for at least one programme across the week. A combination of minimum reach and maximum share for BBC1 would serve the public interest well. For the multi-channel digital age these are appropriate aspirations for a public broadcaster.PETER MENNEER (Head of BBC broadcasting research, 1979-92) Taunton, Somerset Nurses in surgery Sir: Your article on Surgical Care Practitioner roles (“NHS revolution: nurses to train as surgeons”, 6 December) has led to a significant amount of traffic in your letters page on the issue.We have followed the ensuing correspondence with interest and would like to correct an apparent misunderstanding.
We do not take people with five GCSEs and merely give them a two-year college course before letting them operate at the same level as senior registrars. The public benefit is, and should be, a mix of programme fare on BBC1 that distinguishes it from the mainstream TV channels that rely on advertising or subscription for their revenue.The BBC governors could even consider setting a maximum BBC1 share of audience as a target for management not to exceed. Audience maximisation for BBC1 leads to its programmes being indistinguishable from ITV’s, for whom large audiences most of the time are necessary for its income. The BBC’s income by contrast is guaranteed – the licence fee.
