- Kicking off 2015 with a bang made from a mix of blue-screen, live-action and Ray Harryhausen style Claymation, is the inaugural, and hopefully first of many, Beeston Film Festival. Good friends of the Beestonian, OXJAM organiser and web designer James Hall and local film producer John Currie have been working ruddy hard to bring this to Beeston over the last year. They’ve trawled through over 40 hours of film from 150 filmmakers all over the world. John said “It is going to be wonderful to have a film festival on our doorstep; people in Beeston and the wider Nottingham area will be able to come along and enjoy the wonders of local and international film. As a film lover, I’m thrilled that we’re able to do this.” We think it’s fair to say that it was our good influence that has helped bring this brilliant event to Beeston. It was during Lord Beestonia’s own Café Roya Film Club that he introduced James and John, setting in motion that year of hard work. That being said, we can’t take too much credit, as our own film “Beestonia: The Movie” is opening the festival and we don’t want to be accused of nepotism. The festival will be held at White Lion Bar & Kitchen, kicking off at 13:00 on Saturday 24th January and will conclude on Sunday 25th at 22:30 treating Beeston to some of the best independent short films. If you want to come along, and we highly recommend you do, you can see the full festival schedule and buy tickets, priced at £4 for adult and £3 for students per day, on their website; www.beestonfilmfestival.com. Christian Fox Reelin’ them in since 2011 Beestonian The Issue no. 34 Festival The Beeston Film
Beeston Film Festival / SIR Martyn Poliakoff / Uni Sports / Chris Packham / The Flying Boot / Mapping the town / Beests / Codeword / Grey Matter / Beeston Parkrun / Nordic Walking / Bow Selector / Beeston Beats: Alan Windsor; Phil Langran / Historic Walking
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
-
Kicking off 2015 with a bang made from a mix of
blue-screen, live-action and Ray Harryhausen
style Claymation, is the inaugural, and hopefully
first of many, Beeston Film Festival. Good friends
of the Beestonian, OXJAM organiser and web
designer James Hall and local film producer John
Currie have been working ruddy hard to bring
this to Beeston over the last year. They’ve
trawled through over 40 hours of film from 150
filmmakers all over the world.
John said “It is going to be wonderful to have a
film festival on our doorstep; people in Beeston
and the wider Nottingham area will be able to
come along and enjoy the wonders of local and
international film. As a film lover, I’m thrilled that
we’re able to do this.”
We think it’s fair to say that it was our good
influence that has helped bring this brilliant event
to Beeston. It was during Lord Beestonia’s own
Café Roya Film Club that he introduced James
and John, setting in motion that year of hard
work. That being said, we can’t take too much
credit, as our own film “Beestonia: The
Movie” is opening the festival and we don’t
want to be accused of nepotism.
The festival will be held at White Lion Bar &
Kitchen, kicking off at 13:00 on Saturday 24th
January and will conclude on Sunday 25th at
22:30 treating Beeston to some of the best
independent short films. If you want to come
along, and we highly recommend you do, you
can see the full festival schedule and buy tickets,
priced at £4 for adult and £3 for students per
day, on their website;
www.beestonfilmfestival.com.
Christian Fox
Reelin’ them in since 2011
BeestonianThe
Issue no.
34
FestivalThe
BeestonFilm
had the pleasure of meeting this issue’s Bestonian, Martyn Poliakoff,
two months ago at a celebration for the 100th Birthday of noted scientist
Professor Dan Eley. The first thing you discover upon meeting Martyn,
I’m slightly hesitant to say, is that he is absolutely brilliant in every way.
From the fact that he resembles a mad professor with his shock of white hair
like a cumulous cloud around his head and thick bottle rim glasses, to his
quite ingenious mind – Martyn’s scientific career has spanned decades and
focussed on gaining insights into fundamental chemistry and on developing
environmentally acceptable processes and materials – to finally his
completely viral mass appeal – Martyn is the narrator of the wildly
successful Youtube series The Periodic Table of Videos which are widely
regarded as entertaining, educational and delightfully funny.
Professor Poliakoff has a long
history with Beeston as well.
He’s been an active member
of Beeston Continuum since
its inception and he’s always
popping up in science related
articles in the Beestonian as
well.
To think that such a great
mind came from Cambridge,
where he was born and
studied, and decided to come
to Beeston (admittedly he
came to Nottingham
University, but hey) says as
much about the greatness of
this town as it does him.
Martyn is a real asset to this
community and someone of
whom we all should be proud.
So it really doesn’t come as any surprise then that after being knighted for
his contributions to chemical science in January who should receive the
even higher honour of being named Issue 34’s Bestonian? Of course it is
Martyn Poliakoff. I genuinely can’t think of anyone more deserving of such
recognition.
Poliakoff issued a video statement about his knighthood, so surely it
follows that we’ll not be waiting long for a video acknowledging his new
honour as well. Well done Sir, or should I say… Sir.
CF
Lord B adds: congratulations Sir Martyn. Glad to see your work with
Beeston hasd been recognised, although Christian seems to believe it’s
something to do with your day-job. Whatever. Arise!
ou may not immediately
consider Nottingham a
‘sporting’ university. In a recent
Which? University survey for ‘top sporty
unis’, Nottingham didn’t even make the
top 12. But think again. Our pedigree is
much stronger than you realise.
The university has had top 10 finishes in the national British Universities
and Colleges Sport leagues for twenty consecutive years plus the highest
number of teams of any UK university. Remember the London 2012
Olympics? Well, Olympians among our graduates include Timothy Baillie
and Etienne Stott who won Gold in men’s canoeing, and other medallists
in hockey and rowing. If you were paying attention you’d have seen the
university was ranked 7th for sport in The Times Good University Guide
2014.
And all of this is for good reason. Nottingham offers over 70 student
sports clubs alongside an all-inclusive membership programme with
unlimited facility and fitness centre access, firmly following the ethos of
‘sport for all’. Whilst the university might not currently have the wide
reputation for sporting achievement it deserves, a new £40m state of the
art David Ross Sports Village, opening late 2016, should change all of
that.
The new complex will incorporate existing sports centre while adding an
array of modern facilities, including a 200-station fitness suite, two huge
sports halls, an indoor sprint track, a climbing wall and an all-glass squash
court. Dan Tilley, Director of Sport said: “The investment is part of our
ambition to create an outstanding, inspirational and accessible sports
infrastructure for all. We want to encourage people of all abilities to get
involved in sport and activity, with the chance to train alongside some of
the country’s leading athletes”.
Many of the new facilities have never previously been available at the
University, and at three times the size of the current centre, the lively and
inclusive environment of the Sports Village should increase participation
in sports at all levels and provide the support people need to develop and
excel, from casual players to elite athletes.
Construction of the new facility is due to commence March 2015 and
expected to be ready for the 2016-17 academic year, and is generously
supported by Nottingham Law alumnus David Ross.
For more information or to get involved with fundraising, visit
www.nottingham.ac.uk/sport
Guest Contributor, Lee Chrimes
BESTonian:
Martyn Poliakoff
I YConstruction of
the new facility is due
to commence March
2015 and expected to
be ready for the
2016-17
The University of
Beestonia
should hate Chris Packham, I really should. The guy is
handsome and incredibly well-preserved for his age, has
a dream job, and is love and admired by legions of
women, men, and most pertinently, my wife. She
suddenly decides that she must accompany me to meet him
when he comes to Beeston, after my scheduled reporting
partner drops out. I at first find this strange; she never seems that
keen to accompany me when I go off on jobs such as spending a day at
Rylands sewage treatment works. I then remember that the coiffed telly
naturalist has an effect on some that makes them want to spy on him with
binoculars, fervently taking notes of his behaviour.
The event is ran by Beeston Wildlife group, whose very own Mike Spencer
writes a column in these pages. It’s the second time they’ve lured Chris up
to give a talk, something of a coup for a relatively small group like BWG.
Yet he arrives full of smiles, and we grab him for a few questions before he
gives the talk. We asked our Facebook group to supply us with questions:
Broxtowe Borough Council’s crest has on it bears, bees and badgers.
Could you put them in order of preference? (Caroline, Beeston):
Well, it would have to be badgers first. They are much maligned
and I am in vehemently opposed to the badger cull: it is a
stupid, short –sighted thing. They are our largest wild
carnivores in the UK, and wonderful creatures with a
complex social life. Bees – bumblebees especially - are
also under attack from colony collapse and
neonicotinoids (a group of agricultural pesticides which
have been strongly linked to bee deaths, banned in many
countries but not in the UK) and need all the support we
can give them. Bears? Well, I don’t think many people in
Beeston would be too happy with one of those strolling
through the town at night. They’re best left on the crest.
Will you marry me (many, many people. Possibly including my wife)?
(Blushes slightly) I’m keen to remain unmarried, it would too much of an ….a,
well an incumberance such of that wouldn’t be good right now. But thank
them anyway!
Honking Geese flying overhead never fail to stop me in my tracks, look
up and smile like a loon. Apart from Always Being Right, what
occurrence in nature makes you stop and smile (Tamar, Beeston) ?
It’s anything. I always enjoy the everyday things you typically overlook. If you
travel somewhere and go away for the weekend to the coast to watch birds,
it’s like going to an art-gallery: you know you’re going to see birds. But if you
stumble out in the
morning, absent
mindedly heading
somewhere, and you
see something that
may be there every day
bit doing something
remarkable, then that’s something I
enjoy a lot more. I have tawny owls
near me, and at the moment they
are displaying, so every night I hear
them going crazy at each other in
the garden each night. It’s a call I’ve
been hearing all of my life but I turn
the tv off, and sit by the window
listening to this frenetic tawny owl
calling…I just really love hearing that sound. The geese flying overhead is
another, I agree: it is so unexpected when it happens.
Do you believe in bringing back mammoths by cloning (Edward Jenkins)?
No. I’m fascinated by the science but no is the answer. It would be
trying to get an animal back that has long been extinct, and we
should be spending that effort in trying to stop the animals
we have from going extinct.. Otherwise we’ll have to spend
a lot more money and effort bringing what we have now
back from extinction in the future.
Chris then gives a fascinating, highly amusing, utterly
compelling talk to the full Pearson Centre. His passion
for nature is unbound, and his calls to get kids out in the
countryside; to spend more time considering the beauty we
have; and the way we should ‘re-wild’ the UK by introducing
lost carnivores such as wolves makes you want to strap on a pair
of all-weather boots and get hitting the muddy paths. It finishes, bizarrely,
with slides detailing his pet poodles poo habits, which have the audience
in scatological stitches. A great evening, and credit to BWG for organising
it.
While I think it is premature to rename our local gem ‘Packham Nature
Reserve’, Packham does follow in David Attenborough’s footsteps as a
great communicator of nature and conservation; and a passionate
advocate of that simple, free pleasure: getting out in nature. Get out there:
a Really Wild time awaits.
LB
ILord Beestonia
submits your
questions to Chris
Packham...
Packham 'em in
Bears? Well, I don’t
think many people in
Beeston would be too
happy with one of those
strolling through the
town at night.
o one can have failed to have noticed
the sudden rise in popularity of cycling
in all its forms, as both a sport and
leisure activity. It cannot be a coincidence that
this rise began shortly after Bradley Wiggins
stunning win of the 2012 Tour De France. But,
as they say, for cycling in Britain, ‘the best was
yet to come!’
The 2012 Olympics and Paralympics,
saw the greatest ever success for
Team G.B. Who can forget Sir
Christopher (Chris) Hoy’s
dominance in the Velodrome?
The names of the medal
winners, both male and female
have rightly passed into history
and their golden legacy is to be
treasured.
In all sports the success of current athletes can
only be built upon the generations who have
gone before! For cycling, there is one man’s
name that should be written large across the
page: Raymond (Ray) Charles Booty, a.k.a. ‘The
Boot’.
Ray was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, the son of a
Ministry of Transport vehicle examiner. The
family moved to Peterborough and then, when
Ray was 15, to Stapleford. On leaving school the
following year, Ray joined Ericsson's, the
electronics firm, whose headquarters were in
Beeston. He studied for his higher national
diploma. A neighbour got him interested in
riding a bike seriously, and it was in the colours
of Beeston's Ericsson Wheelers Cycling Club that
he rode to his great time-trial victories.
It is said that Ray achieved for road cycling what
Sir Roger Bannister did for track-running, - as
Bannister broke the 4 minute mile record, - Ray
broke the 100 miles in 4 hours record.
Ray was a ‘road cyclist,’ who began competing
in events for the Army Cycling Union during his
time in the army and later for Ericsson’s
Wheelers Club. Ray proved himself a ‘born’ road
cyclist and endurance rider. He held ‘The Season
Long, - Best All-Rounder,’ title three times
between 1953 and 1957, given for average
speeds of 50 m.p.h. over 100 miles.
In 1954 Ray won the Manx International Road
Race and in 1958, a Gold Medal in The British
and Commonwealth Games, Road Race in
Cardiff. However, Ray’s best achievements
came in ‘time trials’ and endurance.
Between 1954 and 1958, Ray competed in the
12 Hours Championships, - distance covered in
12 hrs. Ray won the Championship every
year and twice set the record, - 1956,
= 265.66 miles and 1958, = 266
miles.
Ray competed in the 100 miles
National Championship
between 1954 -1959 and again
was Champion for the
whole period. He first set
the record in 1955 with a
time of 4hrs. 4mins. 30secs.,
braking this in 1956 with a time of
4hrs. 1min. 52secs.
On a blazing hot August Bank
Holiday Monday, - 6th Aug. 1956, - Ray
entered The Bath Road event. This was a time
trial ‘out and back’ over a distance of 100 miles.
The course was from Reading, - through Theale,
Pangbourne, Wallingford, Shillingford and
Abingdon, returning to Reading via the A4. He
had already cycled from Nottingham the day-
before to take part in the event.
The ‘Boot’ completed the course in an amazing
time of 3hrs. 58mins. 28secs., beating the future
professional rider Stan Brittain by 12 mins.
With the Bath Road event, Ray had broken the
elusive 4 hour barrier. Modern cycling athletes
ride purpose built light-weight cycles, - Ray
achieved his records ridding a Raleigh bicycle
with an 84 inch fixed gear.
On the 3rd Sept. the same year ‘The Flying Boot’
had his chance to beat his 4 hour record. This
time he was competing under Road Record
Association Rules. This is a ‘straight-out’ 100 mile