From the 18th-21st of August, Saxpac played at Victoria Park for the Southport Flower Show.

On Wednesday the 17th, one day prior to the Flower Show, we were given a tour of the whole park by the organiser- Arnold Gorse. We got to see all of the amazing gardens and stalls as well as the ‘arena’, where shows were held daily; the ‘bandstand’ and the ‘Piazza Stage’, where we had a daily slot. We shared this stage with the Wigan Ukulele Band and the Southport Rock Choir.

On the Wednesday evening we played as people (organisers and stall owners) entered the park for the Gala Dinner. We had an amazing first day!

Each day we played at one of the main gates as people were entering and exiting the park, receiving many compliments as they went by! We also had a 45 minute slot on the Piazza Stage each day. We were approached by several visitors telling us how good we were!

When we weren’t playing, we got a chance to walk around the park, seeing what things the various stalls had to offer. We saw the beautiful gardens, admired the home-grown vegetables grown for the several different competitions, watched the Dog and Hawk Shows and even met some celebrities: Ainsley Harriot – TV chef and Miss England, to name a couple.

All in all, we had a great time at Southport Flower Show and we hope to be re-invited to play next year!

Lancashire Table Tennis Association Junior (U/18) & Cadet (U/15) Trials

September 10^th – 11^th 2016 – Garstang

Brothers Max & Rhys Davies were nominated by the Southport Table Tennis League to compete in the Lancashire County Trials held recently in Garstang. They played in both the U/18 and U/15 categories against the best players in Lancashire and Cumbria with the objective of being selected to represent Lancashire in the County Championships.

With a couple of players pre-selected due their high national rankings and 2 Junior Teams competing for Lancashire there would up to 6 places for boys and 5 for the girls to fight for – the players play in a series of round robin matches which results in a county ranking from 1 to 30!

Unseeded Rhys got off to a good start winning his original group and beating the 6th seed in the process before coming up against the top seed in the next phase where he lost his 1^st match. This meant that he was in a battle to make the 2^nd team. Another win against a seeded player ensured that Rhys finished 5^th (having won 7 of his 9 matches) and will represent Lancashire for the 2^nd year in a row at U/18 level and he is still only 11. Older brother Max found the going a bit tougher but finished the day having won 4 of his 9 matches.

Both boys returned the next day to start the process again in the U/15s, this time though Rhys was the top seed and duly won his 1^st group without dropping a set. Max performed very well and upset the seeding to win his group and make it to the 2^nd phase.  At this stage there are 4 groups (of 4 players) and unfortunately the draw didn’t favour Max as he was now in a group with 2 of his club mates, one of which was his brother! Rhys won all his matches without dropping a set and Max battled to 2^nd place in the group. The final phase saw all the group winners play for places 1-4 and all the 2^nd places battle for 5^th– 8^th and so on.

Rhys lived up to his billing dropping only 1 set in the process and secured the top spot in the trials. Max continued his fine form winning his 1^st 2 matches before a close battle saw him lose the 5^th / 6^th in 3 very close sets. Rhys will therefore represent Lancashire at both U/15 and U/18 level with Max on standby as a reserve.

Good luck to Lewis Thompson from Year 9 who has been selected to compete in the X30 World karting Finals in Le Mans, France. This event will see competitors from around the world travel to France to take part in the competition and this is a great honour for Lewis to be included.

Lewis has had many successes with his karting and this month was on the podium in both finals of the LGM series National Championship that he competes in.

This is an excellent opportunity for Lewis and we wish him a safe and successful trip!

For more information about the event, visit www.x30world.com/iame.international.final/

Monday 26^th September 2016

When his audience heard that his latest novel featured fairies as the bad guys, Peadar O’Guilin quickly reversed our image of these creatures by describing the Irish Sidhe as malevolent human sized creatures.  In Irish mythology they are sinister beings who seek revenge on humans for banishing them to the underworld.  Even today farmers plough around fairy forts, and a motorway was diverted around a hawthorn tree said to be sacred to the fairies.

In The Call, the fairies have been kidnapping teenagers for the past 25 years, and taking them to the grey land, a sinister underworld where they have a whole day to fight for their lives.  They are only away from the real world for 3 minutes, but few of them return alive or unscathed.  Ireland has been completely cut off from the rest of the world, so there is no internet, transport or communications.  The government has created survival colleges where children are trained to combat the violence they will find when they are called.  Nessa, the main character, has to contend with her disability caused by childhood polio.

Peadar loves reading science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, and his favourite authors are George R R Martin and Neal Stephenson.  Lord of the Rings was his favourite book when he was a child.  He loves being a writer, although he works part of the week as a computer programmer.  The hardest part is the redrafting and editing to create a finished novel, as this process often produces new ideas which he then has to find a way of putting in the book.

The dystopian and political elements of The Call should inspire the year 9 boys, who are studying The Hunger Games and Animal Farm in their English lessons.   He talked to a year 7 class about stories and creative writing.  Peadar is soon to visit Waterstones in London, and tour the USA to promote his new book.