NOW LAUNCHING - TRINITY HOUSE
Stately Apartments by the SeaOne and Two Bedroom Apartments
Located in Alverstoke on the South Hampshire Coast, Royal Haslar is one of Britain’s landmark buildings.
Built in 1753, the Grade II-listed former naval hospital is part of the very fabric of our nation. Assured its place in history, it is now protected for the future. Reborn as a luxury waterfront residential village offering outstanding period architecture and well-appointed, modern apartments.
Welcome to Royal Haslar - your sanctuary by the sea. Call today and book a private viewing of the coastal and parkland show apartments.
For detailed floor plans, apartment specifications, video tours and to register for the Royal Haslar newsletter, with latest updates and local news, visit the website:
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I’m starting with a positive note...have you noticed the evenings are getting lighter! January isn’t as bad as we fear!
2025 is the year of the snake! The snake symbolises elegance, wisdom, and transformation. Take from that what you will!
My cookie love continues. This months recipe is from my current food favourite Kali Jago. They are for Nut Butter & Tahini Oat Choc Chip Cookies. Kali is a plant-based chef, her food looks to find the balance between uplifting, healthy, fun and delicious. My kind of food! I warn you the cookies are rather addictive! You’ll find the recipe on page 8.
Are you a woman or do you know a woman between the ages of 40-60? These women may know about the Menopause Cafe, they may not. Inside you will read all about it. Women meeting once a month to support each other learn from professionals who attend and more. Being brave is seeking help not battling through alone. Read about it, spread the word about it and you may just save a life. Sounds extreme but it’s true. Some woman going through perimenopause and the menopause can have a hideous time of
it. Thanks to Davina McCall it’s spoken about a lot more. Let’s continue to talk about it. Educate everyone about it.
If your New Years resolution is to get fit and focus on your wellbeing then our advertisers inside can help with running, workouts, yoga and more.
And it’s Panto season! Find out about the latest offering from Crofton Amateur Dramatics inside along with other listings of what is going on locally this month.
I mentioned last month that The Friends of Crescent Garden swept the awards board! Find out all about their awards and about The Friends inside.
Inside you’ll also find the gardening guide, our festive recipe that you can make to give as gifts, great offers, sudoku, great advertisers, local news and much more!
NEED MORE CUSTOMERS THIS YEAR?
Why not kick start your business in 2025 with an advert in our February edition? Get in touch! Details below or scan the QR code.
I hope you enjoy this months edition. I wish you a very happy and healthy 2025!
See you next month with our new look!
EDITOR | FOLLOW
GET IN TOUCH
Call: 023 9250 2222
Email: adverts@gosportchoice.com facebook.com/GosportChoice instagram.com/gosportchoice
Read me, keep me or pass me on!
Website: gosportchoice.com
*Offer based on first enrolment. New members only. Not valid with any other offer.
Valid until 28th February 2025.
Zoom Workouts
NUT BUTTER & TAHINI OAT CHOC CHIP COOKIES
RECIPE BY KALI JAGO
The cookies feel very indulgent, but actually is refined sugar free and made with oats, gluten free if needed. Addictive!
Makes 12 cookies
• 200g rapadura sugar (or muscovado/ demerara/coconut)
• 200g nut butter (peanut or almond is good)
• 150g tahini
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 200g rough oat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 60ml unsweetened plant milk
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a stand alone mixer or food processor with the paddle attachment, cream together the sugar, nut butter and tahini on medium high for 1 minute.
Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, mix the oat flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. With the mixer off, add the oat flour mixture. Then pour in the milk over the oat mixture and begin beating on low. Increase speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds or until just incorporated. The dough should pull together as it moves around the mixing bowl. If the dough is dry and crumbly add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, mix until it pulls together, but before it’s sticky. Mix in the chocolate chunks.
Using a spoon scoop large walnut size pieces, roll with clean hands into a ball, place onto the baking tray and press lightly to flatten a slightly. Keep a minimum 1 1/2 inches between cookies, these do spread.
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool completely on the pan before moving otherwise they’ll break.
* To make the oat flour, briefly pulse rolled oats in a food processor or upright blender until you have a rough crumb.
Find out everything Kali Jago at: kalicooking.com
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WE HAVE MOVED
From 31st December we will be at
175 Stoke Road, Gosport, PO12 1SE
Tel: 023 9258 5333
175 Stoke Road, Gosport, PO12 1SE
Tel: 023 9258 5333
Beyond The Fringe
Hair & Beauty
JANUARY IN CRESCENT GARDEN
Trees are my favourite living things; essential for our well-being, dominating the landscape in many parts of the world and beautiful shapes, both of leaves and the entire tree.
My favourite tree is the beech (Fagus sylvatica), of which there is a fine example on the western lawn of Crescent Garden. It has smooth grey bark and massively spreading branches ending in finely divided twigs, giving the winter tree an elegant and shapely appearance, which is what I so love about it. Those delicate and spreading twigs bearing the leaves in summer mean that the tree’s leaves are very fully spread to catch every lumen of light falling on them. Very little light, therefore, reaches the ground beneath a beech tree hence the bareness of the soil under a beech tree seen only too clearly in Crescent Garden, where we would very much like to have a grassy sward beneath it!! The root system of the beech is shallow and wide spreading, so the other item interrupting any smooth grassy sward is the protrusion of large, near the surface roots. So be careful as you walk under the beech tree. The only thing you might see growing beneath the tree are fungi in the autumn (see last month’s
Gosport Choice). The fungal hyphae below the ground form mycorrhizal associations with the tree roots to aid the tree in its uptake of food and water.
The beech in the garden is actually a copper beech, Fagus sylvatica purpurea, with purpleybrown leaves, rather than green. This form was first seen as a mutation in Thuringia in Germany in 1690 and it is assumed that about 99% of all copper beeches in the world are descended from this one tree.
Beech is native to a wide area of Europe extending from Norway in the north to south west in Spain and east into Turkey. Beech is classified as native to Britain, but only south of a line from north Suffolk to Cardigan in Wales, but non-native in the north. Recent research suggests, however, that it is not truly native even to southern Britain as it only arrived in Britain in 4000BC, possibly brought by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food. The tree has been introduced to many parts of Britain and the world where it was not native and does well. These ‘nuts’, seeds in prickly cases, are certainly edible to both humans and animals rich in protein and fats. In medieval times pigs would be driven into beech woods in Autumn to feed on beech mast as a mass of the nuts was called. Pliny the elder noted that beech nuts ‘when given to swine, makes them brisk and lively, and renders the flesh tender for cooking’. The nuts have been ground to make flour and were also used in some European countries during WWII as a substitute for coffee, which was unobtainable. The nuts are more abundant after a hot dry summer, so there was not a great crop in Autumn 2024. Although the tree likes a bit of warmth it prefers a humid atmosphere, but free draining soil, so it is surprising that it does so well in Crescent garden where it sometimes sits in a small lake for part of each winter. It is at its best
growing on the side of hills or in clumps on top of chalk downs; certainly not in wet clayey valleys.
The smooth grey bark often tempts people to carve patterns or names on it and beech wood tablets were used in the past to carve runes and early Indo-European writings. It is claimed that the word ‘book’ comes from an old Germanic word for beech, Buche. The wood of the beech tree is hard, fine grained and heavy, though it cannot bear weight, so is no good for major building work, but is extensively used in the manufacture of various objects and implements. Because it holds a lot of moisture it can be bent by steaming and is used to make the legs and backs of Windsor chairs and bentwood furniture. It is also used for parquetry and staircases, wooden mallets and workbench tops. The soot from burned beechwood was boiled to create a
pigment called bistre, a brownish yellow pigment used by artists such as Rembrandt and Vermeer as underpainting when they created some of their most memorable works. On young branches last year’s leaves do not drop, but remain until pushed off be new spring growth. This is particularly noticeable where beech has been cut into a hedge as at the southern side of Crescent Garden alongside Terrace Walk. This property can make beech a good screening hedge, even in winter, so even if you haven’t room for a large beech tree in your own garden, how about a beech hedge? Even if you can’t manage that do get out into the countryside and admire beech trees in their beautiful winter bareness.
Rita Rundle
Crescent Garden, Crescent Road, Alverstoke alverstokecrescentgarden.co.uk
As you sit and sigh, feel the breath bring you back to yourself
CHAIR YOGA CLASS
Experience the many benefits of breath and movement whilst comfortably sitting in a chair.
Suitable for all levels of ability.
Wishing all our customers a Happy New Year!
Installing high quality bathrooms in Stubbington, Hill Head, Lee, Gosport and surrounding areas for over 20 years Visit samwaysbathrooms.co.uk email sambath@live.co.uk or phone Lisa on 01329 315694 to start planning your 2025 bathroom transformation. Over 20 years of transforming bathrooms
W L S
Do you have important legal documents in place to protect your interests and make life easier for you and your family, whatever the future brings?
If you have received a diagnosis of dementia, or are concerned about becoming ill and unable to cope with paying your bills, wouldn’t it be helpful for a family member to be able to step in and deal with your finances? If your family member needed to make decisions for you, instead of just acting on your instructions, they would need your formal written authority to do this.
Formal authority can be given by creating a Lasting Power of Attorney. This document will allow your family member to take over managing your money, either temporarily or long term.
You can also create a Lasting Power of Attorney which allows your family member to make decisions for you about medical treatment, if you are unable for any reason to make your own decisions. This is not the same as an Advance Decision, which is a document which sets out your decision to refuse medical treatment in the future, under specific conditions.
If you are caring for an elderly relative, or are likely to be doing so in the future, a Lasting Power of Attorney will mean that you can provide the support your relative needs and access services on their behalf, without the difficulties, stress and resistance you would otherwise encounter.
Having a Will gives you peace of mind that your money, property and personal possessions will be going to the people you have chosen to benefit. An out of date Will can cause problems within the family or mean that a chosen beneficiary receives nothing.
If you have any unanswered questions about Wills or Lasting Powers of Attorney, Christine will be pleased to help, so do please get in touch for a free, no obligation, chat.
Call Christine Davies Solicitor on 07860 772274 or email: christine@winterbornelegal.co.uk
Christine is a Fully Accredited Member of Solicitors for the Elderly and a Dementia Friend. Christine will visit you in your own home and aims to provide a warm personal touch to every meeting.
Christine Davies Solicitor
HIDDEN TREASURES HIDDEN TREASURES
51-53 HIGH STREET LEE ON THE SOLENT
We urgently require your broken and unwanted gold, jewellery and antiques.
Any amount, any condition- top CASH prices paid!
PRE 1947 COINS (SILVER) WANTED
WANTED gold - silver - jewellery of all kinds medals (any militaria) - cuff links - studs - tie pins pocket watches - wrist watches antiques - moorcroft - clarice cliff - old postcards
WANTED - rolex, breitling, omega etc
Please call in to see us. Monday - Saturday 10am-6pm. Alternatively, call to arrange a home appointment TELEPHONE: 023 9255 3428 MOBILE: 07767 304495
Why switch to a
A smart meter can help you track your energy use
Getting a smart meter can help put you in control by tracking what you’re spending on energy. You don't have to be a tech wizard to use one, and you don't need internet access to have one.
A smart meter will send your gas and electricity readings direct to your supplier, so you shouldn’t have to take and submit meter readings. Bills are based off of what you actually use.
Eligibility may vary
FACTS ABOUT SMART METERS
• They do not need an internet connection
• They are easy to use
• Only your energy supplier can access the information
• You can still have a smart meter if you rent your home
• You can have a smart meter if you are a prepay customer
IN THE GARDEN
• Prune grape vines
• Take down your bird boxes, remove old bedding and clean out
• Deadhead winter bedding (violas, pansies, polyanthus) to prolong flowering
• Water plants and bulbs in containers if sheltered from the rain by their position
• Protect plants that are vulnerable to wind and cold
• Give panels, trellis and decking a fresh coat of preservative or stain
• Clean up fallen leaves
• Plant bare-rooted trees
• Spread a layer of compost around shrubs and along the base of hedges
• Take hardwood cuttings from deciduous shrubs, such as forsythia, willow & viburnum
• Check your stored dahlias periodically for signs of disease or rot
GREENHOUSE
• Put any compost you have bought in the greenhouse now to warm up for sowing with next month
• Tidy up!
• Sow leeks, onions, broad beans, hardy peas, spinach and carrots under cover
• Sow greenhouse tomatoes for early crop
• Sow Swiss chard under cover
VEG PLOT
• Prepare your soil
• Chit early seed potatoes
• Cover rhubarb with forcing jars for early harvest
• Harvest your winter veg; sprouts, leeks, parsnips, swede, turnips, celeriac, cabbage, cauli, kale
• Seek out the slippery little slugs! Check under lower leaves of crops for slugs and snails.
• Keep your cauliflowers protected
Stubbington based pond creation and landscaping business, fully insured and specialising in wildlife friendly gardens including:
· Wildlife Ponds · Wildflower Planting & Flowering Lawns
· Fish Ponds, Streams & Waterfalls
· Pondless Water Features
· Paving & Decking
· Pergolas, Wooden Bridges & Seating
· Garden Maintenance
Check me out on YouTube, Facebook & Instagram - Viking Garden Creations
WHAT YOU GET WITH VIKING GARDEN CREATIONS
A PROFESSIONAL, FULLY PUBLIC LIABILITY INSURED TRADESMAN THAT TAKES PRIDE IN EVERY LANDSCAPING, GARDENING AND POND CREATION JOB THAT'S UNDERTAKEN.
A BUSINESS WITH A CONSCIENCE. VIKING GARDEN CREATIONS HAS INVESTED IN THE NEWEST, HIGHEST QUALITY CORDLESS GARDEN TOOLS, SO WORK CAN BE CARRIED OUT WITH LESS NOISE, DISRUPTION AND POLLUTION TO YOU, YOUR NEIGHBOURS AND THE LOCAL WILDLIFE.
A LOCAL SOLE TRADER THAT PROVIDES A FRIENDLY SERVICE THAT'S TAILORED TO YOU AND YOUR GARDEN'S NEEDS. JOIN MY GROWING LIST OF HAPPY REGULAR GARDEN MAINTENANCE CUSTOMERS,
ALONGSIDE MY LARGER GARDEN, POND AND WATER FEATURE CREATION PROJECTS.
A BUSINESS THAT DOES IT'S UPMOST TO PROMOTE WILDLIFE FRIENDLY GARDENS, EITHER DIRECTLY WITH THE WORK I CARRY OUT, OR BY TALKING WITH MY CUSTOMERS ABOUT WHAT THEY CAN ALSO BE DOING TO HELP OUR LOCAL BIRDS, POLLINATORS AND MAMMALS.
I ALSO HAND BUILD MY OWN RANGE OF BIRD BOXES TO SELL. PLEASE VISIT
WWW.VIKINGGARDENCREATIONS.COM AND CLICK ON THE 'BIRD BOXES' LINK FOR MORE INFO.
Pollinator Friendly flower bed with Oak Sleeper retainers
WHAT’S ON
CROFTON AMATEUR DRAMATICS
SOCIETY (CADS) ‘Robinson Crusoe’ is our pantomime to be performed on 23rd-26th January 2025 at the Crofton Community Centre, Stubbington. Thursday/Friday at 7:30pm, and Saturday/Sunday performances at 2:30pm. Tickets £5 children and £10 adults. Available by booking online using TicketSource, or 01329 661143, or info@cadsamdram.co.uk, or buy them at the door at each show.
GOSPORT JAZZ CLUB - JAN
Rugby Club, Dolphin Cres, Gos, PO12 2HE
15th Tony Waller's Prohibition Jazz Band 29th Speakeasy Revival Orchestra 8-10.30pm M £10 G £12 - gosportjazz.org.uk
LE CERCLE FRANÇAIS DE
GOSPORT Thursday 9th January 7:30pm Bay House School AGM – followed by cheese & wine. The Mayor of Gosport, Councillor Richard Earle and Councillor Kirsten Bradley have been invited to attend. New members will be most welcome – telephone Martin Lazell on 01329 314750 for more details.
CROFTON PROBUS CLUB
Meet for Lunch Last Wednesday of the Month Lee-on-the-Solent Golf Club 12pm. For retired & Semi-retired professional /businessmen. If you miss the camaraderie and social connection of the workplace come along to a trial meeting before joining? New members welcome. 07508711299 morton.wouter@gmail.com
With 3 sites in the local area, all of our Garages are high ranking members of ‘The Good Garage Scheme’ and ‘Checkatrade’. Our Garages provide onsite MOT testing. Mon - Fri: 8.30 - 5.30 Sat: 8.30 - 12.30
3585 999
Solent Airport MOTs, Unit il1-3, Illustrious Daedalus Park, Daedalus Drive, Lee on the Solent PO13 9FX (Stubbington Motors is now at Solent Airport MOTS) Elkins Motors, 99b Mays Lane, Stubbington PO14 2ED Locks Heath Garage, 212 Hunts Pond Road, Locks Heath PO14 4PG
HVR CUSTOMS
Specialists in VW’s, we also cover many other makes and models in the full or part conversion of camper vans, kombi vans and caddy’s. We manufacture and design custom built camper interiors for Volkswagens and other makes.
Full & Part Conversions
VW Transporters, Campers, Kombi’s and Caddy’s
0333 3585 999 (Option 3)
HVR Customs, Unit il3-4, Illustrious Daedalus Park, Daedalus Drive, Lee on the Solent PO13 9FX
CARS AND VANS ALWAYS IN STOCK FOR SALE!
Specialising in transporters and small low mileage cars. (The cars are ideal for first time drivers.)
AWARDS GALORE FOR CRESCENT GARDEN
In recent years the Friends of Crescent Garden have worked hard to achieve annual Green Flag Awards and Green Heritage Awards, as a historic garden. They swept the Awards board again in 2024!
• Our latest in a long line of Green Flags (in the photo proudly held by the Green Team in the Regency Crescent Garden itself)
• Gold in the South & South East In Bloom "Small Parks" section
• Golds in Gosport In Bloom for:
"The Mayor's Community and Neighbourhood Group Award"
"Best Public Attraction"
"Best Wildlife Garden"
"Best Bee & Butterfly Garden"
A big thank you, especially to the Green Team who work so tirelessly & in all weathers in the garden & to all the Committee & Friends who support us & help us to win such prestigious Awards!"
The Friends of Crescent Garden formed in 1991, is now a thriving community group of members.
The Friends of Crescent Garden work hard to preserve the historic character of this evocative small Regency Garden and to keep the garden at the centre of the local community. To ensure the sustainability of the Garden’s Regency character, only plants introduced before 1850 are used. The maintenance of the garden is carried out in partnership with Gosport Borough Council and the Friends of Crescent Garden, who share the labour and the funding as a team effort.
The Friends of Crescent Garden is a thriving community group of members. There is an annual Garden Party, a plant sale, and an AGM attended by the mayor. The Friends also arrange regular visits to other gardens of interest.
The Friends of Crescent Garden have three main ambitions for the future:
▪ To maintain Crescent Garden to the highest possible standards in partnership with Gosport Borough Council.
▪ To keep Crescent Garden in its place at the heart of the community it serves, as a welcoming, historic, and refreshing community.
▪ To concentrate on the sustainability of the enterprise. This requires the active good will of not only the Community and Council, but particularly the volunteers, whose recruitment and management are of the utmost importance.
If the Garden remains volunteer-friendly and environmentally friendly, there is every hope it will continue to flourish.
Crescent Garden, Crescent Road, Alverstoke alverstokecrescentgarden.co.uk
FRIENDS OF
The Friends is a thriving community group of members who help preserve the historic character of a small Regency Garden in Alverstoke.
The Garden has won several Green Flag Awards, regional and national awards, and two recent gold medals and a silver medal.
WHY NOT BECOME A FRIEND OF CRESCENT GARDEN?
Our membership subscriptions and fundraising activities pay for the Garden’s upkeep, a professional gardener, plants and electricity etc. Help us in this respect by becoming a Friend, or participate in our fundraising events, such as the Plant sale, Michaelmas Fayre and talks. Membership is only £6 a year, £10 for joint membership.Members receive a six-monthly Newsletter, and they can buy tickets for our popular summer Garden Party.
JOIN THE GREEN TEAM!
Why not become a volunteer gardener and join the friendly Green Team on Wednesday mornings; this is totally optional, and you don’t need to become a member.
For information on how to become a Friend, or a volunteer gardener on Wednesday mornings, which is completely optional, visit our website www.alverstokecrescentgarden.co.uk or email membership@alverstokecrescentgarden.co.uk
MENOPAUSE TOGETHER GOSPORT
Now over two years old, Menopause Together
Gosport was the idea of Claire Gurling who after suffering with severe menopause symptoms and after being introduced to another lady experiencing the same, decided to start a local support group for others struggling with this journey.
This year we became a small charitable group and over 450 members strong in a private Facebook group and face to face group meetings, providing safe places to discuss symptoms they are facing, or just a place to sound off to others that understand.
The menopause and perimenopause is not just about hot flashes and brain fog, it can manifest in any number of ways including:
● Heightened anxiety
● Difficulty sleeping
● Night sweats
● Palpitations
● Headaches and migraines
● Muscle aches and joint pains
● Changed body shape and weight gain
● Skin changes including dry and itchy skin
● Reduced sex drive
● Vaginal dryness and pain, itching or discomfort during sex
● UTIs
● Sensitive teeth
This list is not exhaustive, and is what doctors should be gauging your menopause situation on, rather than relying on blood tests, which can give a false reading, or as is often the case you are told it is normal and left feeling lost and vulnerable, only to discover that ‘normal’ is in relation to someone experiencing the menopause or perimenopause.
For some it is a walk in the park so to say, but for many others it can become a debilitating situation, having an impact on relationships and working environments. Our group can help arm you with the correct information to get the best results from your GP, give you the opportunity to discuss your situation with others who understand and give you a sense of belonging and knowing that you are not alone in this journey. We often have a practice nurse at our meeting and in fact Nicola is one of our trustees, and specialising in menopause. As well as Facebook, there are face to face meetings that take place twice a month, every first Saturday at Stoke Road, Methodist Church 1000 - 1200 where we have around 30 plus members every month and every third Wednesday at Lee Hub 1800 -1930, a smaller group, but still as informative. For anyone anxious about coming along we can arrange for you to be met at the door by one of our friendly members to support them taking that first step into a supportive group, please reach out if you feel you need support.
Find our group and page on FacebookMenopause Together Gosport
FRIENDS OF ST MARK’S CEMETERY NEWS
We had success again at the ‘South & South East in Bloom’ awards this year by going one better than last year and achieving a GOLD award in the Churchyards category. So, congratulations to all the volunteers who made that possible. We did not enter the ‘Gosport in Bloom’ competition this year but intend to do so in 2025. We feel confident we will feature in the prizes. PS: Diane won a tractor in the Gosport Awards raffle. We haven’t seen her using it yet…
We had another very successful Heritage Open Days in the first part of September, with Paula and Penny running the guided tours as usual and being helped by our trusty gang of volunteers. Visitor numbers were up from last year and we were able to attract some more ‘Friends’ and volunteers. We are always slightly surprised when local people, who have lived in Gosport all their lives, admit that they did not know of the existence of St Mark’s cemetery. Without exception they appear greatly impressed with our ‘secret jewel.’ Our Visitors’ Comments book in the registry box by the front gate continues to log their kind remarks about our work in maintaining this lovely place.
At this time of year it is always a pleasure to see that flowers and flowering shrubs still produce a delightful display. We even found a purple
mushroom!
We had arranged a team leaf-sweeping session at the end of November but, on the appointed day, it snowed! So we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew to the Anglesey Hotel for a cup of coffee or hot chocolate!
Our Next Challenge
Our research team, led by Hilary, have decided to undertake another challenge – this time to update the large database of historical records that are already held on the cemetery and its ‘residents’ and to make this information more accessible for the general public. Huge amounts of work had already been undertaken by Penny, Roy and others, which lead to the publishing of the two editions of Roy’s excellent book ‘Gosport’s St Mark’s’. This second edition was published in 2018 and, since then, more detail and information about the ‘residents’, their families and their connections with Alverstoke have inevitably come to light. Over the next few years we aim to publish this, perhaps in a third edition of Roy’s book. We are always delighted to hear from anyone who can bring more information to the team, including family stories or photographs of relatives buried here, so please get in touch if you think you might be able to help.
We hope you will find time to visit the cemetery during the winter. You will be most welcome. In the meantime, we wish you a very merry Christmas from all the volunteers and a peaceful New Year. We look forward to seeing you again in 2025.
Peter Newell Volunteers Coordinator peter.newell47@btinternet.com
Rear
OUT AND ABOUT WITH GOSPORT ROAD RUNNERS
Whether you’re new to running or have loads of experience, the start of a new year is a time to take stock and map out your goals for the next 12 months. If you need motivation at the start of your running journey then joining Gosport Road Runners is a good first step. At the club you meet other people, make friends, become fitter and improve your mental wellbeing. There is no pressure on you to achieve quick targets and you will have the support of like-minded runners who have also chosen to lead a healthier lifestyle. Consistency matters more than individual moments of brilliance for progress so it’s good to have ambitious but achievable goals and enjoy the process as much as the outcome. Sometimes just getting out the door and starting is all that matters and doing things as a group can make it so much easier than striking out alone.
The 39th staging of the Gosport Half Marathon took place on Sunday 17th November. This event, hosted by our club had a field of 1,371 runners and the winner was Will Grace in a time of 1:08:01 and Jen Granger won the women’s race in 1:20:16. Two excellent times.
Start of the 2024 Gosport Half Marathon
The final finisher crossed the line in 3:18:20 and congratulations to Will Witt an over 80 year old runner from City of Salisbury Athletic Club who finished in 3:8:24.
Before the main event there were two races for younger people under 17 years old and 207 local youngsters took part. There was a mass warm up to music before their events with a prehistoric feel to their race day as a selection of dinosaurs were in attendance – fundraising mascots for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. It was a fun morning and the young people had a great time.
We had a new Race Headquarters at the King’s Academy, Bay House Sports Hall this year which was a big improvement on previous years when we had used the school buildings.
The Sports Hall is a fantastic facility for our event and the feedback from the runners was very positive.
The race is a great community event with approximately two hundred marshals and volunteers from eight local youth groups and our club and we also have the runners running to the beat of the drums from The Big Noise Samba Band.
If you would like to know more about our club and all our activities, please refer to our website gosportroadrunners.org.uk
ROWING AT HILL HEAD SAILING CLUB
All along the Solent and in our harbours and rivers you may have seen people out rowing in traditional boats. Gig Rowing, historically a West Country sport, has been growing in popularity over the last few years, and the Solent region has proved perfect for getting on the water in these lovely boats.
Hill Head Sailing Club is nestled by a natural harbour at the mouth of the River Meon. It is a typical local club, run by the members and full of people who simply enjoy being out on the water.
The club borrowed two scout rowing boats to do some trial rows and found that there was a group of members keen to develop a rowing group.
Part of the club’s history is an old, clinker-built wooden boat called Alston - named after one of the club’s founders. The Alston has been lovingly maintained by members over the years, keen to keep hold of this part of the club’s history. Two members took on the task of converting The Alston into a rowing gig, adding thwarts, footrests, rowlocks and a rudder.
Before long, The Alston was proving a popular boat to row, solid and very seaworthy. It was so
popular, in fact, that a crew rowed her all the way round to Langstone Harbour to take part in the Tudor Challenge - a 10 mile race around the harbour hosted by Tudor Sailing Club. With rowing proving so popular, Hill Head Sailing Club’s Rowing Committee applied for and was successful in being awarded a grant from Sport England to purchase a brand new modern fibreglass Bursledon Gig. These gigs are used by a number of local clubs and benefit from being very versatile - they can by rowed by between two and four people plus a cox, and are ideal for local waters.
Hill Head Sailing Club took delivery of their new locally built gig, in September. To mark this new venture for the Sailing Club, Mayor Cllr Pal Hayre presided over a naming ceremony for Bramble, with the boat being blessed by Revd Steve Dent.
Hill Head are now looking forward to training hard over the winter so that they can take part in local regattas next year, as well as simply enjoying being out on the water on those lovely crisp winter morning and is developing their rowing calendar for next year.
The club is keen to welcome anyone with an interest in rowing to contact the Rowing
Captain Julie Thorpe at rowing@hillheadsc.org.uk for a trial row.
