Ventnor Blog

Chris Charles at the BBC sport yesterday made his predictions for who may be crowed Sports Personality of the Year 2008 and it’s great to see that Newport lass, Kelly Sotherton is being given a 9-1 chance of picking up the trophy.

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Do you know a female sailer who you think deserves recognition for her perseverance, determination and skill? Or someone who has overcome difficulties in order to succeed?

If you do, you have until the 1st August to nominate the lucky lady for this year’s Liz Earle Ladies Day Trophy.

The award is now in it’s third year, recognises and celebrates those special qualities. The short list will be determined by Double Olympic Gold medallist Shirley Robertson and Elaine Bunting, the Features Editor of Yachting World, Liz Earle Marketing Director, Michelle Warner. From all those nominated, they will pick out five nominees for the final line up. (more…)

Congratulations to Ric and Maggie Hilton from the Enchanted Manor in St Catherine’s, Niton, who last night picked up yet another award for their luxury B&B.

Maggie and Ric made their way up to London yesterday to pick up the award from The AA for the Funkiest B&B in the UK!

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Great news reaches us this week that Ventnor Beach has once again been awarded Blue Flag Status!

This is fabulous news, not only for visitors to our lovely beach, but it should have a great knock-on effect for the whole town.

There has been a huge amount of effort put into winning the award, so everyone involved should be heartily congratulated! (more…)

Great news for Ventnor beach.

Following it’s report of the state of beaches and water quality in the UK, there’s a big sigh of relief down here in Ventnor, as the Marine Conservation Society give it a recommendation.

This means that we have ‘highest water quality and good sewage treatment’.
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Last Saturday, Lesley Genge from the Ventnorian in Spring Hill was invited along to the Campaign To Protect Rural England’s Annual General Meeting.

The reason behind the invite was to recognise Lesley for her sterling anti-litter work, after reading on VentnorBlog about her efforts to keep the streets of Ventnor clean and tidy.

Lesley was awarded a certificate to hang in the shop and a cheque for £100 towards VentBag.

Angie has lots more details in her article about the CPRE Anti-litter Awards over on the Permaculture Blog.

Don’t forget that this Thursday and Friday sees the return of the MacNaughton Howe Arts and Crafts exhibition.

Festival entries are open to anyone living within a five mile radius of the Winter Gardens and there are tons of classes, so expect to see a wide variety of work at this year’s festival.

It will be open to the public between 1pm-6pm on Thursday and 10am-5pm on Friday, with the award ceremony taking place at around 4pm on Friday.

If you fancy checking out the local talent, get yourselves down to the Winter Gardens.

You may’ve heard it on IW Radio News this morning, but if you didn’t, Coast Magazine have just announced their top ten towns by the sea for 2008.

And guess which town comes in at No.7?

Yes folks you’re right, it is of course Ventnor, or better known by BBC Radio Solent as the New Centre of the Universe!

Ventnor, rightly so in our opinion, has received a great deal of coverage in the Nationals over the last few years, popping up in the Guardian on a fairly regular basis.
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On Monday night this week, The Ventnor Botanic Gardens was the venue for this years Island Disability Awards.

Hosted by Isle of Wight Council chairman Councillor Roger Mazillius and High Sheriff David Langford, ten awards were presented to businesses and individuals in recognition of how they have helped disabled people or overcome their own disabilities.
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Many thanks to Angi for writing up a review of the event and providing details of the winners. Ed

The Festival has been rated by all involved as a big success. The competition took place in a very relaxed atmosphere under the kindly eye of adjudicator Christopher Brown.

He also gave a choral workshop on the final evening which was a great success and enjoyed by all the singers who took part. It was a shame though that there weren’t more spectators both at the competitions and at the choral workshop.
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As we reported back in October The IW Chamber of Commerce held their business awards ceremony last Friday.

For those interested, we’re pleased to announce below the winners in all categories, but would like to make special mention to A J Wells, who managed to pick up no less than three awards, CCTI BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD , the UKTI INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AWARD, the Royal Bank of Scotland GREEN BUSINESS AWARD and also received a highly commended in the Systima Technology MANUFACTURING BUSINESS AWARD category.
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For anyone who remembers the excellent Hedgehogs and Honeybeads film that was shown last year at Quay Arts and then again at the Ventnor Winter Gardens, great news arrives this week.

We hear that the film, Directed by Martha Moopette and choreographed by Rosalind Noctor was entered into The Art Bereg Film Festival in Russia this year and shortlisted. (more…)

BUSINESSES, schools and community groups on the Isle of Wight that have been shortlisted are being invited along to the annual healthy eating awards ceremony which is being staged at the Royal London Yacht Club in Cowes on 30 November. (more…)

News reaches us today that Head Chef at The Royal Hotel, Alan Staley, picked up the coveted ‘Chef of The Year Award’ this week at the Island Life Food and Drinks Awards.

The awards ceremony took place at Westover Park on Sunday night in front of the Island’s glitterati and we’ll be putting out a podcast later in the week of our chat with Alan.

During his 11 year residency at The Royal Hotel, Alan and his team have picked up 2 AA Red Rosettes and clearly continue to wow customers and critics alike.

Look out for a feature about the The Royal Hotel soon on VB.

Congratulations to Alan and the team at The Royal.

More great promotion for our wonderful town.

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