Denbighshire Leisure boss lands leisure industry award

Jamie Groves, Managing Director of Denbighshire Leisure (DLL), has been awarded a prestigious national award for his contribution to the UK leisure industry. 

The best in the business from across the physical activity sector were celebrated last week as the winners of the UKActive Awards 2023 were announced at Leeds Royal Armouries in a special ceremony last Thursday. 

DLL was honoured during the evening when Jamie Groves, MD, was awarded the prestigious Jan Spaticchia Award Special Recognition Award for his outstanding contributions to the leisure industry across the UK. 

The purpose of this award is to recognise someone's outstanding contribution to the physical activity sector. This award was added to the UKActive line up to honour people who have made a continued and significant impact across the breadth of the sector, and Jamie’s set up and continued work on the UK Leisure framework was recognised by the Industry. 

Jamie said: “I’m truly honoured to have been given this award. I am incredibly proud of the amazing work that DLL has led on over the last ten years, The hard work, determination and dedication of the whole Executive Team has helped us get to where we are today and I am very grateful for all of their support, especially since the launch of the company in 2019. As a company, it’s our values, dedication and respect that makes us stand out and I couldn’t be prouder to receive this award on behalf of the whole of DLL.” 

Jamie was awarded this accolade for his "dynamic and inspirational leadership", for transforming DLL from a single local authority service into a flourishing commercial business, recognised for sector-leading facilities and practices and also for founding the UK Leisure framework.  Jamie conceived the idea for the UK Leisure Framework (UKLF) and turned it into a reality.  

UKLF, which is owned by DLL, operates in partnership with Alliance Leisure Ltd, and allows for the direct appointment of a development partner for scoping, design, refurbishment and construction of leisure centres, play facilities, recreation facilities and sports facilities across the UK.  However, the framework is not just focused on delivering bricks and mortar facilities, but adopts a full service approach, supporting all the elements that contribute to a successful, sustainable development including design, business planning, funding, construction and marketing. 

To date the UKLF has helped deliver over 96 developments and has a pipeline of development projects with a total value of £2 billion. 

Twenty Club's radio play is a light programme of laughs

* The Twenty Club cast of My Wife's Family on stage at the Town Hall.

Llangollen Twenty Club's goes live "on-air" with its autumn production of My Wife's Family at the Town Hall from this Thursday.  

While it's quite a departure rom their normal type of play, those tuning into this clever little piece set in a 1940s recording studio are promised a more-than-light programme of laughs.

It's actually a play-within-a-play with the on-stage action set in the 1930s.

A switched-on club cast of around a dozen take their cue from the absurdities of a dysfunctional family, who come to stay at the country residence of Jack Gay - played by an extremely competent Ian Wright - much to his dismay as he detests his mother-in-law, Arabella Nagg - a fearsome Emily Swindley - who presents herself to be a force with which to be reckoned.  

As the make-believe actors gather round the old-fashioned studio microphones, battered scripts in hand, it's all about a clever interplay of words between them - usually about how awful they think their fellow family members and friends are - and that's where the humour lies.

A whole bevy of Twenty Club favourites are on parade playing characters on both levels of play.

They include Kevin Williams, John Clifford, Steve Hughes, Tracey Kempster-Jones, Caroline Anthonitsz, Bev Maier, George McGill, Mike Connolly, Jayne Dickson and Lizzie Clifford. 

It is a little dip into middle class 1930s country life but magnified and with some strange characters and lost babies and broken pianos, with the pace fast and quick-witted.

Cleverly directed by Chrissie Ashworth, production values are high with a set strongly evocative of a period radio studio, some impeccable BBC cut-glass accents and costumes bang-on for the era.  

My Wife's Family is aired at Llangollen Town Hall from Thursday November 2 to Saturday November 4 at 7.30pm with a matinee on the Saturday at 2.30pm.

* Tickets are £12/£10 from: ticketsource.co.uk/llangollentwentyclub or at Llangollen Courtyard Books or The Oggie Shop.

Things come round again for Mazda rotary motor

Mazda MX 30 R-EV launch by Steve Rogers

The famed rotary engine is back but powering an electric motor not a Le Mans winning super car.

Mazda has dusted off the cobwebs and given its rotary engine a new life as an electric generator for the hybrid MX 30.

The rotary engine is renowned for it lightweight, compact design as well as being smoother than conventional piston engines and served Mazda well powering the 1967 Cosmo and several RX models.

The downside is a terrible thirst but that will not matter this time because the 830cc rotary engine is being used as an electric generator to charge the battery, so instead of driving the wheels it drives the electric motor.

Unlike its electric MX 30 sister the R-EV will never give you range anxiety because it has a 50 litre fuel tank to keep the engine running when called on to charge the batteries.

In simple terms this is a plug-in hybrid with, thanks to its lightweight construction, a better than average 53 miles electric range that can be topped up to 80 per cent in 25 minutes from a 36kWh fast charging unit, and 90 minutes using a 7.2kW home charger.

Mazda is a bit out of kilter with the rest of the car industry deciding to continue developing petrol and diesel engines alongside hybrid and electric, and given the Government’s decision to put off scrapping the combustion engine until 2035 the decision seems to be justified.

Mazda’s UK boss Jeremy Thomson told me the company is committed to becoming carbon neutral but pointed to the fact that demand for electric cars is cooling off as people worry about the the cost of electricity, battery range and the charging infrastructure which, he said, is posing a serious risk to EV uptake.

So, where are we on charging stations? Way behind target.

To date there are 44,000 but to reach the Government’s target of 300,000 by 2035 the rate of installation has to be trebled to 10,000 every three months. That sounds a tall order.

On that basis the MX-30 R-EV is a very useful addition to the range. Sales of the electric model have been slow and that is no doubt down to its low 124 mile range which does not leave much in reserve in the event of a long journey, but not a problem here.

The new model shares the same footprint as the sister car and offers something different to the opposition. It has the same pillarless design and rear hinged doors, just like a Rolls-Royce Phantom, giving it a clean profile.

It is a novel idea and worked well on the RX-8 sports coupe all those years ago but as a family car getting in and out of the back seat is a bit of a trial and six footers will be scrunching up for the lack of legroom. It’s also a bit claustrophobic because of the small amount of glass.

Inside has the premium feel we have come to expect from Mazda which has definitely upped its game in recent years. The vegan feel to the cabin is carried over from MX-30 with recycled materials. The cork linings are a nod to Mazda’s beginnings in 1920 as a cork manufacturer.

The dashboard is devoid of switches with a top mounted touchscreen taking care of main operations best dealt with by the rotary controller conveniently positioned behind the gearstick. Another screen at the base of the centre console takes care of the permanently displayed heating and ventilation controls. That works well too.

As with MX-30 the R-EV is all about driving enjoyment so expect an easy going, agile feel with a reasonably sharp uptake when the fast pedal is floored. What can throw you is the lack of engine noise, even though there is an engine under the bonnet. There is a bit of a hum, and that’s it.

It is a sophisticated set up with three drive modes one of which recharges the battery on the move but for a hassle free long drive leave it in normal and top up the fuel tank as and when. Top speed is limited to 87mph in an effort to extend the battery range and given our maximum speed limit should be enough for comfortable overtaking.

The range is split into three models, Prime-Line, Exclusive and Makoto with prices ranging from £31,250 to £36,000.

We can safely say that the arrival of R-EV will guarantee a lot more MX 30s on our roads.

Fast facts

MX-30 R-EV Makoto

£36,000

Rotary 830cc + motor 168bhp

0-62mph 9.1secs; 87mph

37.2mpg combined (50mpg driven)

21g/km. First road tax £55

Insurance group 23

Boot: 332-1137

 

Firefighters rescue man from River Dee, says story

The Denbighshire Free Press is reporting that an injured man was rescued by firefighters from the River Dee in Llangollen.

Llangollen Fire Station said the crew got called at 5.34pm on Saturday to a man who had fallen in the river with an injury. 

* For the full story, see: Llangollen: Firefighters save man who fell into River Dee | Denbighshire Free Press

Inner Wheel hosts whist drive and light supper

 

Local author's new tale of blood in old Wrexham

An award-winning local author takes us back to Victorian Wrexham for his latest mystery. 

Blood Among the Threads is the 13th in David Ebsworth’s series of bestselling historical fiction novels. 

They include his popular Yale Trilogy, with many scenes also set in Wrexham in the 17^th and early 18^th centuries. 

In this new release, Wrexham has been hit by a series of accidental deaths which increasingly seem more than simply accidental. But can those deaths truly be linked to the huge coverlet on display at Wrexham’s magnificent 1876 Art Treasures Exhibition? And is there, literally, blood among the coverlet’s threads?

Born in Liverpool, David Ebsworth has lived in the area since 1981. 

Formerly a union organiser, he took up writing after he retired in 2009 and now writes every day without fail. 

* Author Dave Ebsworth.

His previous novels cover lesser-known episodes from the Spanish Civil War, 6^th Century Britain, the 1879 Zulu War, the lives of Elihu and Catherine Yale, the 1815 Waterloo Campaign, and from the tale of a Liverpool-Welsh suffragette family during the turmoil of 1911 (The House on Hunter Street). 

In addition, he has recently published his non-fiction Wrexham Revealed, a companion for self-guided walking tours of the city’s history.

He said: "I was intrigued by all those major events which took place here in Wrexham during 1876. That was the year when the Football Association of Wales was first organised at the Wynnstay. And then, from July until November, there was the enormous Art Treasures Exhibition on the ground where Argyle Street currently stands. 

"It attracted tens of thousands of visitors from all over Britain and abroad. After that, the first National Eisteddfod ever to be held in Wrexham – and, as it turned out, a very famous one. And much more besides. It seemed to me that it would be neat to bring these things to a wider audience by using all these events as the backdrop for a murder mystery – so here it is."

* Blood Among the Threads by David Ebsworth is due to be published on November 1.

Latest local roadworks alerts

Latest local roadworks alert from one.network are:

Junction With A5 At Bryn Derwen Terrace to River Dee Junction, Corwen, Denbighshire 29 October - 03 November   Delays likely - Diversion route   Name: Diversion   Location: Junction With A5 At Bryn Derwen Terrace To River Dee Junction   Description: Streetworks / License - Streetworks   Responsibility for event: Denbighshire County Council   Current status: Planned   Brook Street, Llangollen, Denbighshire 30 October - 01 November   Delays likely - Road closure   Name: Brook Street, Llangollen   Location: Brook Street   Description: Streetworks / License - Streetworks   Responsibility for event: Denbighshire County Council   Current status: Planned   Brook Street, Llangollen, Denbighshire 30 October - 01 November   Delays likely - Diversion route   Name: Diversion   Location: Brook Street   Description: Streetworks / License - Streetworks   Responsibility for event: Denbighshire County Council   Current status: Planned