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8 www.shropshirestar.com SS Tuesday, September 18, 2012 Shropshire Star FEATURES PETER READ BY MORE THAN RHODES 128,000 PEOPLE EVERY DAY Why our top chefs are [email protected] COMPUTER musings. Up pops that Fine end to damn message on the screen again. Tell me, has there ever been a time when a new version of Java was not fine season ready to be installed? IF THE Taliban really were targeting for county mixing it in the ring Prince Harry in Camp Bastion, then alarm bells should start ringing. Harry Putting the weather aside, it arrived at the base on September 7. has been a wonderful British The attack took place exactly seven summer, with the glory and Report by days later. The Taliban, battered for a enthusiasm of the Olympics and decade by Nato forces and with its Paralympics, and with the height- leaders picked off in their dozens by ANDY RICHARDSON endless drone attacks, can still plan, ened patriotic feelings brought arm, equip and execute an attack on about by the Queen’s diamond [email protected] one of the most heavily-defended jubilee. locations on earth, and do it all within The two places in the county here’s a loud thud as Will Holland’s a week. If this is an enemy on the back which the Prince of Wales visited black boxing glove smashes into my foot, I’m General Custer. yesterday chimed well with his T upturned hand. My shoulder shoots interests in heritage and history, albeit in two different ways. back and there’s a sharp, needle-like pain I HAD a strange but well-intentioned Ludlow speaks of medieval as my humerus rotates in my shoulder email from a worried reader before splendour and fine traditional blade. my trip last week to the Gower architecture, a town which has Peninsula in south Wales. He Ludlow’s celebrity chef continues pounding away at warned me to avoid all ice cream moved with the times without my red hand guards. His trainer, Andy Hackney, issues and ice in drinks, and to shun sal- being spoilt by progress. It also ads. I replied that Wales was surely has a racecourse with which the commands. “J ab, cross,” he shouts. “J ab, cross. Quicker, come on. Jab, cross. Jab, cross.” My arm not that dangerous. I returned home Prince is very familiar. It is amaz- to find his response, explaining that ing to think it is almost a decade springs back and I get into position for the next blow. he had confused Gower with Goa. since he opened the Jubilee Stand “J ab, cross, left hook. Jab, cross, left hook.” Beads of there. sweat start to form on the top of Will’s shaven head Then it was on to the premises as the punches fall down like rain. MRS Rhodes in Telford of a charity which he “Okay boys, that’s it,” says Andy, and our hands fall stuck a tourist brochure under founded, and then to Ironbridge to our sides. I’ve simply been standing in an upright Chef Will Holland and his coach Andy Hackney work out on the heavy bag in the gym Gorge, which is celebrating a my nose and position, bent slightly forward, while Will has been remarked on the jubilee of its own, as it is 25 years doing all of the work. And yet I feel exhausted. Will, leaning tower of since it was designated a World in contrast, is jumping on the spot, as though skipping one of the castles. Heritage Site. The links between without a rope. His eyes are looking at the floor, as I explained that it Prince Charles and the cradle of though he’s somewhere far away: he’s relaxed, focused was distortion, the Industrial Revolution are and utterly composed. caused by the longstanding. As museum patron, On Thursday, Will will be among two dozen of the wide-angle lens. But apparently it is like home turf for him. nation’s best chefs at Rumble In The Kitchen, an all- Everywhere he went during his not. Did you know star celebrity boxing match featuring some of the UK’s Shropshire visit he was greeted that Caerphilly The Leaning by enthusiastic and welcoming best-known chefs. It will take place at The Royal Auto- Castle has a Tower of crowds. Had the Prince seemed a mobile Club, a prestigious century-old private mem- tower which leans Caerphilly bit distracted, it would have been bers’ club off Pall Mall, in London, where 400 guests at a more perilous understandable, with both his will each pay £250 a head to watch chefs fight. It will angle than the Leaning Tower of Pisa? generate tens of thousands of pounds for the charity I realise at this point that some readers sons currently facing very differ- will be shaking their heads at the ent trials and pressures. Harry is Galvin’s Chance, an inspirational ‘into work’ pro- appalling ignorance of journalists but in a combat zone and, if the Tal- gramme targeted at creating jobs, appenticeships, col- I had never heard of it. iban is to be believed, was the tar- lege programmes and sustainable employment for get of an assassination attempt. people aged 18-24. William and his wife have been STILL on history, I wrote recently the subjects of a squalid intrusion Fiercesome about the war 200 years ago this year which no-one likes to talk into their privacy. TV star Marcus Wareing, the one-time protégé of Yet Prince Charles was relaxed about. It was the War of 1812 Gordon Ramsay and twin Michelin-starred London between Britain and the United and happy. Maybe being in Shrop- restaurateur from The Berkley and The Gilbert Scott, Monica Galetti –Michel Roux Will Holland –trains to the Marcus Wareing –another shire and among Salopians agrees States (they started it). Shrewsbury will be another celebrity boxing. So will Monica Jnr’s right-hand woman theme from Rocky chef pulling on gloves Tourism Association has written to with him. point out that American flags cap- With temperatures dropping Galetti, the fiercesome female chef who appears as Will says: “Clinton and Andy have both been amaz- rant in Ludlow’s Corve Street, where he clocks up up Michel Roux Jr’s right-hand woman on MasterChef tured during the raid on the White and autumn at the door, the visit ing. They’ve turned me into a boxer. The thing is, to 100 hours each week. House of 1812 are proudly on dis- by Prince Charles to Shropshire The Professionals: apparently, she her right hook is as when you step into the ring for a full contact bout, “It’s been a tough schedule,” he says. “But I feel play in the regimental museum at was a great way to round off a painful as her withering remarks to aspirant cooks. you know that you’re going to get hit and you know absolutely amazing. The guys in the kitchen think I’m Shrewsbury Castle. And no, pard- season of many glittering high- Will, however, is likely to be among the favourites. that you’re going to get hurt. Psychologically, that’s mad. My sous chef, James Walshaw, has been doing ners, whatever the Special Relation- lights. He’s one of the biggest, fittest, strongest boxers taking really tough. You have to get into the frame of mind shuttle runs with me, which kill us both.” ship suggests, you can’t have them part. He said: “I was volunteered for this about four where you know you’re going into a hostile environ- Will travelled to London last week for his weigh-in, back. months ago by my boss, Alan Murchison, the Miche- ment where the other guy is going to try and kill you. tipping the scales at 80kg. His opponent on Thursday lin-starred restaurateur. Robbery a “Being punched in the face hurts, being punched in will be Matt Wilkin, Australia’s first Master Somme- WHAT sort of fanatical idiot doesn’t “Alan’s a seriously fit guy and he was asked if he’d the stomach hurts, but that’s all part of it. You have lier and Will has a distinct height and reach advantage, realise that the United States govern- take part in a charity boxing match. He told them ‘no to put your body on the line and trust yourself. When at 6ft 2ins, he will tower over his 5ft 8in opponent. ment has no control over an anti-Mus- major blow way’, and volunteered me instead. When I came to I step into the ring on Thursday, part of me will be However, he is likely to concede around 8kgs. lim video put on the internet by a US Andy’s gym I couldn’t do ten push-ups. Now, I’ve lost afraid. But you have to over-ride that fear and trust “It’s going to be tough,” says Will, and with that, citizen? Probably the same sort of 10kg, I’m out running to the theme tune from Rocky at he rasps another right hook into my upturned hand. idiots who think the best way to protest The burglary at the John yourself, you have to rely on your training, your speed, 7am every morning and I’m doing suicidal workouts.” your tactics and the work you’ve done in the gym.” If I were a betting man, I’d have a fiver on him to win. about a French magazine picturing Davies Boxing Centre close to the Kate topless is for us to start boycotting riverside in Shrewsbury was a Andy Hackney, his trainer, adds: “The difference in Will is better known to people in Shropshire as ● All proceeds from Will’s bout will go to French products in the shops.

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