Olympic silver hero Chris Bartley to pass by Llan

* Action from last year's Etape Cyrmu.

* Chris Bartley.

Organisers of the Etape Cymru, Human Race, have today announced that Olympic Silver medallist Chris Bartley will be riding the challenging closed-road sportive, which passes close to Llangollen, on Sunday 9th September 2012.
Bartley became the first Welsh Olympic medallist at London 2012 with silver in the lightweight rowing men's four.
The 28-year-old from Wrexham is one of a record 30 Welsh athletes at London 2012 - Wales' best representation at the Games since 1908.
The Etape Cymru is expected to attract over 1500 participants and with its 3000 metres of climbing is likely to challenge even the toughest sportive rider.
“I am really looking forward to taking part in the Etape Cymru,” said Bartley. “There are some really tough climbs in the route, so it is going to be a hard day in the saddle.”
Starting from Bangor-on-Dee racecourse the 92-mile closed road route passes by Llangollen, Carrog, and Minera, and takes in a host of the toughest climbs in the Clwydian range, including Panorama, The World’s End, The Shelf and the famous Horseshoe Pass.
Riders will once again have the chance to measure their climbing ability against the best in the sport by taking part in the Horseshoe Challenge.
Event ambassador, Geraint Thomas, also had a successful Olympics, adding another Gold Medal to his collection by winning the team pursuit alongside Peter Kennaugh, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke.
Thomas, who rode part of the Etape Cymru course earlier this year, becomes only the fourth Welshman to win multiple Olympic gold medals.
“The route of the Etape Cymru in North Wales is amazing,” said Thomas. “People from all over the UK are going to have a fantastic day out, it’s the kind of route that makes me proud to be a Welsh cyclist.”
 Thomas added: “The great local support that we’re famous for is going to make this a very special day on the cycling calendar. I wish the best to everyone who is riding the event, it’ll be tough but the closed roads are going to be a top experience.”
The official national charity partner for Etape Cymru 2012 is Macmillan Cancer Support. The partnership will see Macmillan join forces with Human Race for the event and funds raised from participants will be used to help Macmillan support not only people affected by cancer, but everyone their cancer has an impact on, from partners, to children, to friends and carers.
The local charity partner is Nightingale House. The charity provides specialist palliative care services, completely free-of-charge, to patients and their families across a wide area stretching from Wrexham, Flintshire and East Denbighshire to Barmouth and the border towns including Oswestry and Whitchurch.
Entry costs £55. For more information, please visit: www.etape-cymru.co.uk

Llan views sought on country blueprint

Denbighshire County Council is developing a new Corporate Plan for 2012-17.
This will define the authority's priorities and the outcomes it aims to deliver for its communities. 
During the past year, the council has undertaken a considerable amount of consultation and engagement with residents, its staff, and elected members.
This helped to identify priorities for the new Corporate Plan. O
Engagement work has included the following:
· A Residents’ Survey: 2,256 households responded to a survey which included questions about the biggest issues facing our communities.
· A Public Survey: 1,228 people responded to a survey on our website and in our leisure centres, libraries, One-Stop-Shops and council reception areas.
· Workshops with young people: run with the Denbighshire Youth Council and Student Councils in our High Schools.
The council says it has developed draft priorities to reflect what people have told it, and we would now like to know what others think before it finalises and publishes its new Corporate Plan. 
Proposed priorities are:
1. Developing the local economy and communities
2. Improving school buildings and standards for all
3. Improving roads
4. Protecting vulnerable people and ensuring they are able to live as independently as possible
5. Providing a clean environment
6. Ensuring access to good quality housing
7. Modernising the council to deliver efficiencies and improve services for itsw customers.
This consultation is open until Tuesday 11th September.
Further information is also available online at www.denbighshire.gov.uk/corporateplan. T
Final draft of our Corporate Plan will be presented to elected members on Tuesday 9th October for agreement.
If you would like to comment on the priorities suggested for the Corporate Plan 2012-2017, you can send an e-mail to corporate.improvement@denbighshire.gov.uk, telephone 01824 706161, or write to Corporate Improvement Team, Denbighshire County Council, County Hall, Ruthin, LL15 1PH.

Get in tune with Llan Male Voice Choir

llanblogger local profile

* Llan Male Voice Choir as it is today.

One of town's best-kept secrets, Llangollen Male Voice Choir offers free entertainment every Friday at the Hand Hotel – apart from a few occasions when they’re performing away or over Christmas.

From 7.30 until 9pm, everyone’s welcome at The Hand Hotel to do what comes naturally – grab a pint and listen to a proud, thirty-year-old choir going through their paces.

Polished songs, new songs being learned, old songs brushed up, and a wide repertoire of traditional and rousing songs for a Welsh Male Voice Choir are all there for you to enjoy.

The odd fluff, when someone gets the timing wrong or sings the wrong part, it’s warts and all but it’s pure entertainment and everyone has a great, good-humoured time.

It’s by no means the biggest choir around, but that’s what makes it so informal and so much fun, and all you have to do is walk in and grab a chair.

You’ll be made to feel welcome, and if you’re inclined to break out into spontaneous applause, so much the better.

The choir often has visitors from all over the world who stay at the hotel enjoying the evening, and sometimes they join in – and they’re always welcome to – well, the gentlemen, anyway.

The Choir’s Musical Director, Rhonwen, makes sure the choristers have a great time – she spends a lot of the time giggling, but her directions are clear and easy to follow.

So forget the TV - Friday evenings are full of fun and good cheer at The Hand Hotel.

You don’t need a ticket, so come on down!

* Llan MVC in its early days.

For a free profile like this on your local group or organisation, contact us at llanblogger@gmail.com 

Browsers flock to toy and train sale at Pavilion

* People browse for bargains on the stalls.

* Examples of every form of transport was on sale at reasonable prices.

* One stall offered a range of Dr Who goodies.

Over 300 file in before lunch

A host of transport, including trains, boats, planes and cars, lined up inside Llan's Royal International Pavilion today (Saturday).

But finding space for them all was no problems as they were all scale models of the real thing.

Traders and browsers from across a wide area turned up to enjoy the annual North Wales and Llangollen Toy and Train Sale.

Visitors were able to cast their eyes over tables offering items from some of the top names in the toy world, including Dinky, Corgi, Matchbox, Britains, Efe, Lledo, Hornby Trains, Bachmann, Lima and many more.

Items on sale ranged from just a few pounds to rare crafted pieces costing over £600.

Organiser Chris Dyer, from Somerset, said the event was well attended and that around 300 people had bought tickets before lunch.

Chris added: “We all look forward to our annual effort at Llangollen, with its wonderful setting and great value, and our bookings from traders have been very heavy.

“The excellent parking facilities and the great in-house café all help the show, and this year for the first time in many years we did not clash with Thomas weekend on the Llangollen Railway, which suits the age profile of most of our customers.

“The sale has been another success and we are already trying to arrange a date for next year's event."

AM calls for "joined-up thinking" over Olympic training

* Ken Skates AM.

Assembly Member Ken Skates has called for more joined-up thinking in training the local Olympic athletes of tomorrow.

Mr Skates said the medal haul achieved by North East Wales athletes like Tom James, Chris Bartley and Jade Jones proved that shared access to elite training centres in the North West of England had been crucial to their success.

The Clwyd South AM said more thought needed to be given to developing elite training venues in North East Wales as well as giving talented young athletes greater access to world class training and support over the border.

Both the Welsh and UK Governments have said they want to capitalise on the success of the games and the AM said a cross-border strategy to develop elite sport in Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire would pay dividends.

Mr Skates said: “The huge success of our athletes from North East Wales at the Olympic Games has been an inspiration to us all. Many of them use training venues in the North West of England such as Jade Jones who trains at the GB Taekwondo Academy in Manchester on the World Class Performance Programme.

“The Welsh and UK Governments have both signalled the importance of future sporting success and to re-working their strategies for sport to encourage success at the Rio games in 2016. We need to think about how we can improve our sporting infrastructure in North East Wales and make it easier for local athletes to benefit from the facilities and training that can breed further success.

“A large part of this should be seeing the cross-border links that have developed and strengthening them. As a cross-border region including the North West we have some of the best cycling, rowing, martial arts, curling, skating, canoeing, sailing, climbing and football venues in Britain.

“All of our future medal winners need to train at world class venues and where they can be developed or enhanced at places such as Glyndwr University or the Racecourse I will be encouraging us to do that. However we also need to utilise the facilities on our doorstep across the border too.

“This will not only benefit our future Olympians from North East Wales but also help us attract talented young athletes from the North West of England to train here. As far as participation in sport is concerned, the border is irrelevant and co-operation is critically important.

“I would encourage councils, sports organisations and governments to work together more than ever before on facilities that people on both sides of the border can use together.”

Mr Skates said a regional strategy for elite sports development should be examined, with North East Wales working with Cheshire, Merseyside and Manchester.

A Wales North East/England North West strategy could deliver enormous improvements for the development of elite and grassroots sport.

Transatlantic couple board the Wedding Belle

* Kristie and Duvain on the platform.

* The steam engine with its special nameplate.

Bride is from Fort Worth, Texas

There was a definite transatlantic flavour to an event at Llangollen Station this afternoon (Friday).

After being married at the nearby English Methodist Church just a little earlier Duvain Ashe-Kenny took his new bride Kristie for a train ride on the world-famous steam railway through a rain-swept Dee Valley.

Kristie, 34, is from Fort Worth, Texas and the 39-year-old Duvain hails from Denbigh, although he is originally from Liverpool.

The couple, who will now make their home in the US, met three years ago at a Thanksgiving Day party in Keller, Texas.

Because Duvain was living in Wales at the time they conducted a long-distance romance.

On the 3pm train from Llangollen, which bore a “Wedding Special” nameplate on the engine, they were accompanied by friends and relatives who occupied a specially reserved carriage.

The newlyweds, who later enjoyed a wedding reception at the Royal Hotel, chose Llangollen for their big day as Kristie can trace her roots back to the area.

The bride wasn’t the only visitor from across the Atlantic today.

Earlier, 89 American and Canadian passengers from the cruise ship Prinsendam, which docked at Liverpool, boarded the 1pm train for a trip along the line to Carrog.

llanblogger man's Moors Murders memories

* Ian Brady.

Late update (Saturday):
We are sad to note that Keith Bennett's
mother, Winnie Johnson, died yesterday
following a long illness.  

Llanblogger editor Phil Robinson gives his personal recollections of the Moors Murders – a case which is sensationally back in the headlines today after it was revealed killer Ian Brady may have finally revealed details of where one of his victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, is buried.

Any mention of the Moors Murders takes me right back to Manchester in the mid-1960s.

Because that is the place where I was born and spent the early part of my life.

More specifically I came from Gorton – now a fright of urban decay full of social problems almost indistinguishable from other inner suburbs of that sprawling north western metropolis, but back then a tough but reasonably pleasant self-contained and close-knit satellite town on the edge of the city.

Gorton is the place notorious for its association with the Moors Murders when, from 1963-66, local girl Myra Hindley and her Glaswegian boyfriend Ian Brady went on a killing spree comparable in its awfulness with the homicidal crimes of Jack the Ripper around 80 years before.

The evil pair were responsible for the murders of five youngsters who were sexually tortured before being killed and buried on Saddleworth Moor, just a few miles outside Manchester in the foothills of the Pennines.

Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on July 12, 1963, and John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November the same year.

Keith Bennett was taken on June 16, 1964, after he left home to visit his grandmother.

Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964, and Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.

Brady was jailed for life at Chester Assizes in 1966 for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

Hindley was convicted of killing Lesley Ann and Edward and shielding Brady after John's murder, and jailed for life.

In 1987 the pair finally admitted killing Keith and Pauline. Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline's body was found.

Keith’s body was never found – to the devastation of his mother Winnie Johnson who has fought a 40-year battle to persuade both of her son’s killers to reveal where his body lies.

Greater Manchester Police are now investigating whether Brady has written a letter to be opened on his death revealing the location.

Jackie Powell, 49, who was appointed Brady's mental health advocate in 1999, was detained in south Wales on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful exercise.

But detectives examining documents seized from Ms Powell's home have so far found no evidence to suggest Brady disclosed the location of Keith's body. And Ms Powell has since been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Unlike the Ripper killings, there was never any reign of terror when it came to the Moors Murders during which people waited in fear for the next victim to be claimed.

Back then we knew absolutely nothing of the heinous crimes until after the killers were caught, immediately following the slaying of Edward Evans at a council house in Hattersley to which the couple had moved following the demolition of their slum home in Gorton.

But that didn’t stop the rumour mill turning at full speed as soon as the arrests were made – hardly any of the wild stories being true it later transpired as the full and ghastly tale unfolded at the trial.

Fact was much stranger and horrific than fiction.

I remember it all so clearly because at time my family and I lived only a few terraced streets away from where the murderous couple were based and I was well within the age range from which they were selecting their victims – that selection taking place within a small radius of the area where I played and went to school.

My mother worked with the mother of Pauline Reade and shared her sorrow when her daughter first went missing.

When I look back there is a definite “there but for the grace of God ….” feeling about it all.

When I started work as a reporter on the local paper the murderers had been behind bars for just a couple of years and the subject was still a hot topic of conversation around the office.

A tale often told by my colleagues concerned the local unpaid freelance who was first to dash in and tell the news editor that a string of child murders had taken place and were being linked to a local couple.

Notorious for his flights of fancy, he wasn’t believed and was only proven right when the regional and national press broke the story soon afterwards.

I was reacquainted with the case when a paper for which I later worked for asked me in 1987 to cover the return of Myra Hindley to lonely Saddleworth Moor to give guidance to the police on where some of the bodies had been buried.

She came in by helicopter and it was quite a scrum trying to get anywhere near what was happening, I recall.

Who knows whether there is any foundation to the latest twist in this long-running and dreadfully sad saga.

But I hope there is if only for the sake of Winnie Johnson.    

* There is another Llangollen link with the Moors Murders.

At the trial at Chester in 1966, Brady was represented by Emlyn Hooson QC, later to come Lord Hooson.

Between 1987 and 1993, he was the President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.