Hayley, 15, started the day by winning the 60m hurdles and jumping 1cm short of her personal best (PB) in the high jump. Good performances in the Long Jump and Shot Putt left her in second place going into the last event: the 800 metres where an inspired Hayley beat her rival by 12 seconds and gain the gold in a PB of 3291 points that puts her at No 1 in the UK.

Hayley’s day was complete when she was presented with her gold by world champion Jessica Ennis.

Dancers and staff from the Royal Opera House were warmly welcomed to Grays with a full house at the Thameside Theatre. The Royal Ballet Uncovered introduced the audience to Frederick Ashton’s delightful comic ballet La Fille mal gardée. Lecturer Pauline Green began the evening with a fascinating talk on the music and plot of the ballet. She was followed by Anna-Maria Genuise, a senior costume technician at the Royal Opera House who showed some of the costumes used in La Fille mal gardée and explained how ballet costumes are made to withstand the rigours of dance.

Ballet Master Christopher Saunders then worked with Royal Ballet dancers Ricardo Cervera, Laura Morera and Philip Mosley to demonstrate some of the dances from La Fille mal gardée, accompanied by pianist Kate Shipway.

The audience was full of praise for the wonderful evening and the dancers and Royal Opera House staff were delighted by their reception.

Royal Ballet Principal Laura Morera said:

“We all had a great evening at the Thameside Theatre and we enjoyed meeting some of the people of Grays. Some people think that ballet isn’t something they’re interested in or that they can’t afford it, so events such as this are a really good way to show that there are lots of different ballets out there and that it doesn’t have to be expensive. La Fille mal gardée is a brilliant ballet, really light-hearted and fun and it was great to be able to bring some of that atmosphere to Grays.”

The Royal Ballet Uncovered followed several Insight evenings held by the Royal Opera House at the Thameside Theatre last November, and was part of the work of the Royal Opera House Thurrock and Thames Gateway.

To find out more about other projects and events being run by the Royal Opera House across Thurrock, contact 01375 413388 or email getinvolved@roh.org.uk.

Shell Brand and her friends are desperately worried about what will happen to their horses, which have been on the land for a number of years. They have agreements to stay and tend for their horses but many of the agreements appear to be in verbal form. This is one of these stories that has several strands from the past, the present and the future.

To begin with, let us hear Shell’s side of the story and take it from there.

Headteacher Tess Walker was fulsome in her praise for film director Kathryn Bigelow who had just become the first female to win Best Director.

Ms Walker said: “This shows what heights women can achieve. There is no reason that all the girl’s in this school cannot make their mark in life.

Guest speaker was Director of Pixelwork, Lucy Harris whose multi-talented career has ranged from working as a chef for Hollywood stars, founding a digital communications company to running the groundbreaking Thurrock’s Next Top Boss.

Led by Chairman of the Orchards Community Forum, Mike Stone, over 400 residents have signed the petition. The council have plans to introduce the first council housing in the borough in a scheme called Project Enterprise but the residents believe that there is simply no space.

Mr Stone spoke to the Health and Well-Being Overview and Scrutiny Committee last night (tuesday).

The council had informed the meeting that all four car parking areas were only busy at the weekends.

Mr Stone pointed out that they were busy all the time.

YourThurrock interviewed Mr Stone and fellow residents in Grove Road. If you look carefully (1.09) you can see a council officer go to her car in the packed car park!

The acrimonious atmosphere was further darkened as once again accusations were made that officers were leading meetings and attempting to subvert the democratic process.

After a three hour meeting, Chair of the Health and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Wendy Herd, used her casting vote to refuse a Labour application for a review of the tendering process for the Housing Repairs Contract.

Last month, Labour had requested a “Call-In” on the contract decision but this had been refused by Interim Chief Executive Bob Coomber on a technicality.

Chair of the Labour Group, Carl Morris had requested this because: “Transparency is key. This was a contract awarded to Morrisons, a company that was marked lowest on quality and cheapest on price.

“There are still many unanswered questions that a further review panel could throw light upon. It could be that the whole process is correct and we have a blueprint for the future.

All the Tory councillors stressed that there had been a great deal of rigorous scrutiny in the procurement procedure.

The touchpaper was lit when Cllr Herd stated that she would have to take guidance from Bob Coomber on a matter.

Stanford Councillor Terry Hipsey erupted. He said: “You sat there, an hour ago and demanded transparency from the Chief Executive of Basildon Hospital, Alan Whittle and his team but when it comes to taking your own medicine, it is a completely different matter.

“Contracts from a few years ago such as Vertex had a high degree of member involvement. Now we have none.

“I am here to represent my constituents but it seems that we are not allowed to say what we think lest we are up on a discipline charge.”

The only problem for Aveley is the glut of games. Leatherhead face them in the League Cup semi final on thursday, followed by more league games on saturday and tuesday.

Full report on match to follow.

Thurrock suffered their second consecutive defeat and a big blow to their play off ambitions. Their performance was much better than the recent visit to Bath City and could have won the game in the first half but the accuracy and creativity of their forwards failed to penetrate the Braintree defence.

Paul Olima in a strikers role today came close to opening the score in the 17th minute, Thurrock worked the ball down the left and the through ball to Olima found him on the edge of the box, he turned inside a struck the ball firmly goal bound, keeper Craig Holloway was more in the way than actually saving the shot as the ball rebounded off his arm and against the post and out for a corner.

Braintree took the lead against the run of play when Kenny Clark tried to clear an incoming cross, the ball went high into the night sky and Thurrock keeper Joe Woolley came out to collect/punch but his attempt was mistimed as he was challenged by Sean Marks. The ball came from Marks head and rolled conveniently across the goal line.

Thurrock responded in a positive way and levelled the scores just three minutes later, this time a break from defence found Lee Flynn and Fola Orilonishe working the ball down the left flank. Orilonishe weaved his way into space and fired over his cross which was met by Olima’s head and the ball soared into the top of the net.

The game continued at a frenzied pace in the second half and the action was cycling from end to end. On 65 minutes another piece of poor defending by Thurrock allowed George Purcell to strike home the winner. It started with a corner, the ball was bouncing around the area and it was Purcell who was the quickest to react and score with what was to be the winning goal.

Despite throwing on all three substitutes and pushing more men forward Thurrock had little effect trying to breach the stubborn Braintree defence.

Thurrock travel to St Albans City on Saturday, for their third of eight games to be played in March. It’s not been a good start of the month, manager Hakan Hayrettin is still upbeat of reaching the play offs but needs to find a strike force that will get the goals flowing again.

Mayor Maureen Pearce handed out the awards to the hard working members of cafeterias and restaurants that have transformed school dinners to be a culinary but healthy hubs in the schools.

YourThurrock spoke to Hassenbrook’s Colin Flynn and Stifford’s Jill Rydings to find out what the awards meant to them.

It wasn’t long before Fly Half Ben Madden made a fine individual effort, handing off five tacklers, before crashing over under the posts, duly converted by Scrum Half Aaron Burns. With Tees forwards dominating every facet of play, including the formidable combination of Keefe, Keefe Jnr and Pease in the front row of the scrum, Tees won a scrum against the head and No. 8 Dan Kemp, scooped up the ball and dashed the fifty metres to outpace the defence and score under the posts.

With Tees leading 19-0 the home side picked themselves up and, led by the Fly Half Jim Moore, took a quick penalty and ran wide, passed some languid tackling, to score for a deserved try. Thurrock immediately retaliated with forward pressure at a scrum close to Chingford’s line, which resulted in a push over try for Lee Herrington. Chingford again attacked Thurrock and crossed the Tees line for their second but, the final word was left for Tees Ali MacDonald, who showed his class by first outpacing the defence, to chip ahead and recollect to go over out wide and effectively seal the game.

A fine display from the whole side, with Adam Towler, Paul McCarthy, Rees Collins and Karl Warren deserving a special mention for sound performances.

The accident happened just after 10pm on friday night on the Southend bound section of the A13 near to Wennington.

According to sources, it is understood that a blue Renault Clio may have veered off the road, clipped a “protection” vehicle before striking the worker.

A spokesperson for Essex Ambulance confirmed that three vehicles were called to the scene. The man was transferred to Basildon Hospital.

Further details to follow.

Update:

A 43 year old driver was arrested on suspicion of careless driving and drinking and driving. He was bailed until May 4th.

Since launching in September 2008, the on-line newspaper has produced over 2000 filmed news items covering every aspect of life in the borough.

YourThurrock Editor Michael Casey said: “We are delighted to make the final and take it as a huge compliment.

“We have come a long way in a short space of time. Our commitment is to convey the message that this is a dynamic borough, changing fast with many challenges and opportunities. Using social media as well as good old fashioned journalism

“We were especially pleased with our coverage of the recent “No Confidence” council meeting where we had two filmed interviews and nine detailed news items up on our site by 4am.

“I would personally like to thank (It’s not the Oscars-Ed): Mike Jones, Lucy Chipperfield, Pixelwork, Sally Casey and all the people who have ensured that each day is full of news.”

The Awards take place on Friday March 19th at the Civic Hall, Blackshots.

After the recent disappointing result to East London, Thurrock needed to bounce back against Saffron Walden this week to keep themselves in the promotion race. And bounce back they did.

Right from the first whistle Thurrock put the Saffron Walden defence under pressure, and it was not long before Jacob Agoro opened the scoring. Thurrock utterly dominated the early play and could have easily been further ahead before the home side got themselves back in the game with an equaliser due to poor defensive marking in the midfield.

Thurrock was back ahead soon after when Andre Rudder ran the ball deep into attack and laid off to Matt Gautt who had made excellent position inside the circle. They continued to dominate offensively and another flicked goal from Agoro as well as a rebound opportunity pounced on by Andre Rudder gave Thurrock breathing space.

Andrew Sargeant stood strong alongside Luke Danbrook who was welcomed back into defence. Despite their best efforts and some outstanding saves by goal keeper Keith Mager, making his debut, more poor defensive marking in the midfield enabled Saffron to stay in touch with the Thurrock side.

The highlight of the day was Man of the Match Matt Gaut who ran the Saffron defence off their feet with two more brilliantly worked goals. The last not only sealing his hat trick by also bringing up his thirtieth goal for the season, an outstanding return for the hard running striker.

It was a superb attacking game from Thurrock who completely overwhelmed their opponents to run out eventual 6-3 winners.

Thurrock take on Crostyx next weekend at home with push back at 2 pm.

Mens III
OLD LOUGHTONIANS ACADEMY 1 v 3 THURROCK III

Thurrock were fired up for this NE14HOCKEY sponsored Division 9 game and went ahead after only five minutes when a cross by Liam Birch was collected by Michael Fleming and hammered past the keeper. Loughts were spurred into action and came back strongly, however Thurrock ’s defence marshalled by Chris Smith held firm. Thurrock regained the upper hand and a strong run on the right by Lawrence Smith pulled the Loughts’ defence wide before passing to Lawrence Jackson who quickly moved the ball on for Jimmy Venus to add to Thurrock’s score.

Soon afterwards Jackson was unlucky to put his shot inches wide from a pass by Venus. Thurrock continued to play the better hockey and Fleming made the score 3-0 when he intercepted a pass and dribbled into the area before smashing the ball into the net. Loughtonians began to get more into the game and forced a series of short corners, however keeper Andy Gaut, despite carrying an injury, made some good saves to ensure that Thurrock reached half time without conceding. In the second half, the home team increased their strength with a couple of substitutions and pressed forward.

After 10 minutes a skilful pass allowed the speedy forward to collect the ball on the Thurrock 25 metre line and move into the D before flicking the ball into the net. Thurrock were in no mood to give up and increased their effort with Man of the Match Oliver Smith making some decisive tackles on the right to restrict the attacking threat. Loughts had most of the play but were unable to dominate a determined Thurrock side as Sam Webb held firm at right back to cut out a string of attacks and clear the ball up the field and ensure that Thurrock inflicted the first defeat of the season on the home team.

Next week Thurrock play Romford at Palmers 12.30 start.

With just eleven games to go, Grays are on a measly eighteen points, nine points behind second from bottom Forest Green Rovers and fourteen points from safety.

Boss Julian Dicks has indicated that the team are preparing for life in the Conference South and will be going part time next season.

Problems are further compounded by the goalposts shifting somewhat regarding where the team will be playing next season.

Later last year the club announced that they had reached an agreement to stay at the New Rec for two more years but last week announced that they were in emergency discussions as to where they can play next year.

Relationships with the local community hit another low when the Chairman of the Supporters Trust, John Taylor resigned after, according to sources, being subjected to a barrage of foul mouthed abuse by the new owner of the club, Andy Swallow.

The club were also forced to take down a statement on their new website that threatened under-performing players with physical violence.