Let the bells ring out for a NEW DECADE! Volume 32 Number 8 January 2020 50p where sold COLIN EASSON (Motors) Ltd Cottesmore Phone 01572 812291 For all your motoring needs: New and used car sales Service and MOT Accident damage repairs Discount tyres, exhausts and batteries Genuine Ford spare parts Petrol, diesel and full forecourt services Special Armed Services Finance Everything we do is driven by you ... 2 HELLO 2020 sounds a nice round figure. It rolls off the tongue. There’s something rather comforting in leaving the “teenie” years behind and CONTENTS heading for the Twenties. More mature somehow. More finite. The new MP—5 Hopefully 2020 will start well for new Your Year—15 MP Alicia Kearns and in supplying a Time to Remember –6 solution to the Brexit problem. Dearly Departed – 23 Let’s hope it’s also a Guid New Yahr Things To Come—27 for our remarkable Royal Family after PLUS their troubled 2019, and for everyone at Westminster where total stalemate WI Review—8/9 gridlocked Parliament for so many Chris Donovan—12/13 months. Great golf-38 Locally, Cottesmore Amateurs FC are Parish News—42 also hoping for a super season, and not only on the pitch (See story inside). Spring The “Link” team prays it will be a cracker for you too. This first magazine of the new decade contains drops all the information you might need about the turn of the year, times past in! and what’s to come. Enjoy. Regards JENNY LET US HAVE YOUR NEWS, STORIES & ADVERTS BY NOON ON THE 20TH OF EACH MONTH! Send your stories to the editor Jenny Laidler 29 Cresswell Drive (Tel. 811038) Email: [email protected] Our advertising rates are very competitively priced and we welcome new adverts, either one-off or booked for 12 months for the price of 11 months. For advertising enquiries contact Juliet Burgess Ray on 812898 or 07903 021063 Email: [email protected] 3 DIARY DATES JANUARY FEBRUARY 7th WI Village Hall 7.30pm Hatha Yoga 4th WI Village Hall 7.30p, Twenty Twenty 12th Dog First Aid at Village Hall. 10am- th 1.30pm. 7 WI Fashion Show, Village Hall, evening 13th Village Hall Management 17th Parish Council, Village Hall, 7.15pm Committee 7 pm 20th Parish Council, Village Hall, 7.15pm 18th Film Night, Village Hall, 7.30pm (budget setting meeting) 21st Film Night, Village Hall 7.30pm The Link team wishes all our readers a very happy and prosperous New Year. Brick Work Stone Work Roofing Flat roof Painting & Decorating General Building Work No job too small All work is guaranteed Free quotes Over 30 years’ experience Friendly, local & reliable Tel: 07951 663 364 Email: [email protected] 4 Government YOUR NEW MP talks involving Syria and Iraq TO swap international involvement for pastoral as well as platitudes might seem something of a advising dichotomy, but, having been elected for the governments Rutland & Melton constituency with a thumping on dealing majority, new MP Alicia Kearns can now with such approach both issues with equal fortitude. terror groups Hand-picked by her local constituency as Daesh association as the bright young successor to (ISIS). replace the long-serving Sir Alan Duncan, Alicia Part of her duly beat off the challenge from a gallant band role has been of hopefuls in last month’s General Election to to counter seal the seat by a comfortable margin. Russian She certainly maintained the Tory momentum disinformation as well as to attend UK-led peace and, being poised to inherit one of the safest talks on Syria. She has also worked at the UK seats in the land (so safe that it was reputed, Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Justice and falsely, that Boris Johnson was interested in been interviewed on security issues on BBC standing) Alicia still felt obliged to continue to Radio 4 and in the national Press. campaign hard while meeting as many Alicia was raised in rural Suffolk and Rutlanders as possible to get the feel of the Cambridgeshire and attended Impingham constituency and its people, not just on Brexit College before gaining a degree in Social & but on equally important matters closer to Political Studies at Fitzwilliam College, home. Cambridge. She came to the attention of the “I grew up in a tiny village so I can understand Conservative hierarchy by making a stirring the needs of rural communities and I know how speech at the Tory Party Conference in 2017. often they are forgotten in the allocation of She is married with a young son and is a keen Central Government funding,” she said. “My walker. “As a family we enjoy travelling around priorities are to protect the rural way of life and our wonderful countryside whenever we get the secure the funds we need to deliver exceptional chance,” she said. “There are still many parts of health care, broadband, roads and social care Rutland I have yet to discover.” A committed cat and to keep us content.” lover, she volunteers with the Battersea Cats Her career hitherto has been dedicated to and Dogs Shelter and also fosters felines. national security and keeping Britain safe. She *Tighter than usual deadlines last month meant is a counter-terrorism expert and during her we ere unable to include a full list of General career has worked for the Foreign and Election candidates, We apologise for the error. Commonwealth Office, where she led UK ELECTION RESULTS Alicia Kearns (Con) - 36,507 ELECTED Andy Thoms (Lab) - 9,583 Carol Weaver (Lib Dem) - 7,970 Alistair McQuillan (Green) - 2,875 Marietta King (UKIP) - 917 Anthony Watchorn (Ind) - 458 Total votes cast: 58,505 Turnout: 70.74% 5 August Bank Holiday on record (34C; 92F). Most WORLDWIDE -THE of Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, was evacuated after a nearby reservoir began to crumble. Ben Stokes and Jack Leach saw England home YEAR JUST GONE by one wicket in the Third Ashes Test at JUST a reminder about the main events of 2019 Headingley; the series was drawn 2-2. Bury FC (a (in chronological order) you might have missed. Football League member for 134 years) were Theresa May lost a vote on her Brexit deal in the expelled from the League after going into Commons by the largest margin in history. The receivership. 2019 marked 100 years since the Duke of Edinburgh (97) escaped serious injury in Versailles Peace Treaty and 80 years since the a car crash in Norfolk. Argentine soccer star start of the Second World War. Emiliano Sala, who had recently signed for American Sarah Thomas became the first Cardiff City, died in a plane crash off the swimmer to cross the English Channel four Channel Islands. “Fabulous February” was the times back-to-back (130 miles in 54 hours) to warmest winter month on record. raise funds for Breast Cancer. The world famous The political situation at Westminster hit an Thomas Cook travel conglomerate went bust. impasse as protesters marched through London, Hunstanton and surrounding villages were calling for a second Brexit referendum. “Forces evacuated due to North Sea storms. Teenage Sweetheart” Dame Vera Lynn was 102. “Tiger Swedish “eco-warrior” Greta Thunberg (pictured) Roll” (ridden by Davy Russell) won his second addressed the UN on climate change. successive Grand National. Former Olympian The Duke of York got James Cracknell (46) of Cambridge University embroiled in the became the oldest oarsman to participate in the Boat2019 Race. Golf superstar Tiger Woods made an amazing comeback after 10 years of obscurity to win the US Masters. A massive fire destroyed sections of Notre Dame in Paris. Manchester City achieved the double by winning the Premiership and thrashing Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup Final. ITV scrapped the Jeremy Kyle Show after a former participant committed suicide. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party won 32 per cent of the vote in the UK elections for the European Parliament, well ahead of more established Jeffrey Epstein scandal. parties. Liverpool became European soccer Lewis Hamilton (pictured) won yet another F1 champions, beating Spurs 2-0 in the final in world title. Madrid. President Trump arrived in June for a 3- The wife of an American diplomat stationed at a day visit amid howls of protests. Cambridgeshire air base claimed “diplomatic Mrs May continued as “interim” Prime Minister immunity” and quit Britain for the US in a hurry while Tories picked a new leader; Boris Johnson after a teenage motor cyclist died in a collision beat Jeremy Hunt for the job and became PM. with a car. Two months of rain fell in two days. The 100th Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) became the first man to anniversary of Alcock and Brown’s first run a sub-2 hour marathon. South Africa beat Transatlantic flight was celebrated in England 32-12 in the Rugby World Cup final. Newfoundland and Ireland. England’s women England football team beats Montenegro in the footballers finish 4th in the World Cup; England’s 1,000th England international since the first men cricketers won their World Cup with a last- game against Scotland in 1872. November 8 gasp victory over New Zealand. marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Jo Swinson became LibDem leader. Cambridge Wall. A General Election was announced for recorded Britain’s highest- ever July temperature December 12. of 38.7C (100.7F), followed by the hottest 6 7 We had a rousing end to the year with our Christmas Party, a talk on the Tudor & Stuart Christmas traditions by Douglas Clinton and then fun and games contributed by the members along with some delicious party fare.