Round Town News

TORRY PLAYED bottom of the table Catarroja last Saturday and earned a much needed 3-1 victory. The game was an entertaining affair with Torry just having the upper edge in a game which could have produced more goals with the opposition hitting the crossbar and Torry also through an exquisite chip from Luis Carlos.

Luis Carlos did find the net to put Torry ahead and their lead was doubled from a Dani free-kick from the right which evaded everybody and curled into the far corner of the net. 2-0 to Torry at half-time. Catarroja pulled one back around the hour mark with a header from a corner but Torry responded almost immediately through a Gasch strike to restore Torry’s 2 goal advantage and that’s how it finished.

Torry are at home at the Nelson Mandela on Sunday to 5th placed La Nucia in a 5.00 pm kick-off. Try to be there.

 

AT LAST a wedding to avoid rather than a funeral!

I say avoid because I steer clear of parties and large gatherings like the plague. Ideally I like four people round the meal table, although I have accepted that if you really want to enjoy a meal in Spain you need six to share a variety of dishes.

Once you reach a ‘certain age’ you are inevitably going to attend more funerals than weddings, or christenings, and if you live an expat lifestyle in or around a retirement community it is only to be expected that there will be a higher than average number of funerals.

But I am not being flippant with the headline to this column: I can recall 14 funerals in the last six months and not one by natural causes - aka old age. Again it is to be expected that expats with existing medical conditions opt for the sunshine, but even taking those into account it is staggering how many funerals there have been.

Of course living in a marina with 60 plus bars, cafes and restaurants doesn’t help: nor does falling into the marina when drunk!

So the DGT want the Government to raise the speed limit to 130kph on motorways and reduce it to as low as 20kph on other roads.  How stupid!

120kph is fast enough. I don’t believe that everyone is capable of driving at 130kph for sustained periods.  It takes more concentration and requires faster reaction times.

Surely if they are happy to have people drive at 130kph why not leave the speed limit at 120kph rather than tempt/encourage people to drive faster and just have a no fine policy up to 130kph?

And have you ever tried to drive at 20kph? It is virtually impossible to drive that slow and keep your eyes on the road. Try it if you don’t believe me. You are either continually changing gear or watching the speedometer to check your speed.

That can't be safe?

And finally ... thanks for the emails regarding previous columns. To be honest I spend a lot of time driving through the void that is France so it is refreshing to know I am not writing into a void as well.

Chris runs ALStrays Transport (www.alstrays.com) along with his wife Sandra, transporting re-homed cats and dogs twice a month between Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and the UK.

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www.almerimarlife.com
www.chrismarshall.ws
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Last Sunday Torry played at home against CD Burriana. In charge was newly appointed manager Joserra. Torry got off to a winning start to 2013 with a goal on the stroke of half-time by Koeman and a second part way through the second half through a header from Dani following Torrys best move of the match. An encouraging start for the new manager and a platform to hopefully build on. We are now into the January transfer window and hopefully there will be a few changes in personnel to freshen things up and give greater balance to the team. On Sunday at 5.00 pm Torry are at home again against CD Acero. Try to be there and see Torry continue their winning start to 2013.

TORRY TRAVELLED up north to play 2nd in the table La Nucia last Sunday and came away with a point after a 0-0 draw in a close encounter, in which both defences were on top and in consequence produced few chances or goal-mouth action of note. A good result for Torry though. Torry have now moved up to 5th in the table, level on points with 4 other sides ,but higher placed because of their superior goal difference. They will have played at home to Borriol yesterday and hopefully won convincingly to consolidate their position in the league. At the weekend they are away to Elche Ilicitano who are the leagues "nomads" who don't have an "home" ground but play at different grounds in the Elche area. If you want to go on the Torry Army coach or travel independently visit www.fctorreveija.net  to find out the day/time/place of the game.

AJB INSURANCE have been established since 1987 providing top quality insurance to expats. They have thousands of satisfied clients throughout the whole of Spain.
They only work with the largest international insurance companies thus ensuring that they can offer the best policies at the best prices.
Their multi lingual staff are always pleased to help and the boss, Philip Rayner is on call 24 hours a day for any emergencies. The success of AJB is down to the fact that they go the extra mile to help their clients.


“ I HAVE BEEN A CLIENT OF AJB INSURANCE FOR MANY YEARS AND HAVE FOUND THEM TO BE EXCELLENT. I HAVE HAD TO MAKE VARIOUS CLAIMS AND THE STAFF HAVE HELPED ME EVERY STEP OF THE WAY “ Mrs R. Alicante

“ OUR VILLA WAS BROKEN INTO ON CHRISTAMS DAY 2 YEARS AGO. WE TOLD PHILIP AT AJB AND HE ARRANGED FOR OUR DOORS TO BE REPAIRED THE SAME DAY – YES CHRISTMAS DAY. THAT’S WHAT I CALL GOOD SERVICE “ Mr J. America

“ WE TRANSFERRED ALL OUR INSURANCES TO AJB IN 2011 AND SAVED OVER 265 EUROS. WE ACTUALLY GOT BETTER COVER AT A LOWER PRICE AND EVERYTHING WAS IN ENGLISH. “ Mrs C. Murcia

“ BEING NEW TO SPAIN WE DID NOT KNOW WHERE TO GO FOR OUR INSURANCES, PARTICULARLY OUR PRIVATE MEDICAL INSURANCE, WE SPOKE TO SOME NEIGHBOURS AND THEY RECOMMENDED AJB. WE HAVE BEEN SO PLEASED WITH THE SERVICE THAT WE RECEIVED THAT WE HAVE RECOMMENDED THEM TO ALL OUR FRIENDS “ Mr D. Javea

As you can see AJB Insurance really do pride themselves on their service. Philip and his staff are always there to help their clients.

AJB have some VERY good news – if you contract a new vehicle ( Spanish or UK registered ) or a property insurance they will beat the price of your existing company.

YES THAT’S RIGHT THEY WILL SAVE YOU MONEY ON YOUR INSURANCES.
AJB offer a full range of insurance products including private medical, life, travel, motorbike, community, boat, business etc

SO CALL AJB TODAY FOR A FREE NO OBLIGATION QUOTE AND START SAVING MONEY.
Tel : 965 796 357 or 965 794 417
Mobile : 606213665
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TORRY GOT mugged last Sunday against Alzira. In wet and windy weather conditions akin to the UK, they fell to a very late Own Goal from substitute Manu Amores who inextricably headed past his own keeper from a cross when under no real pressure. The lad was shell-shocked and distraught. Torry had chances to score but these were wasted, twice through substitute Luis Carlos and once through Gash, Jorge and finally Ernesto who had a header from close in parried away by the Alzira keeper right at the death. Torry deserved at least a point but thats football for you. Torry have to dust themselves down or more appropriately wash off the mud and pick themselves up for Sundays visit to Elda to play Eldense in their brand spanking new stadium. Book a place on the Torry Army coach and go there. Torry are still only 4 points ff 3rd and 4th place and 6 points off top spot in a very keenly contested league. A win should narrow the gap.

CONTACT THE Helpline telephone number for all enquiries: 659 624 643. This number should also be used to request loan of medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walking frames etc. There is no charge for this service but a deposit is required and donations are always welcome to keep the service going. Full details on website www.jalonvalleyhelp.com

Shop opening hours at Jalon and Alcalali are Monday - Friday 10am to 1pm (plus Saturday morning at Alcalali). A wide variety of clothes, books and household items etc. are for sale and also wanted. Currently needed are ladies, gents and children’s warm clothes and footwear for the approaching colder weather. And our ‘knitting volunteers’ need wool to make warm cardigans and jumpers. Donations of blankets and bedding together with household items, bric-a-brac, books, DVDs & CDs are always welcome plus we now need toys suitable for Christmas gifts. Autumn/Winter clothing is now available at both shops.

PLASTIC BOTTLE TOPS
These can be used to raise funds for medical treatment that is not covered by the Spanish healthcare system. So far over 300,000€ has been raised by the collecting and recycling of 1,000 tonnes in one year. Please save yours and take them to the Tobacco Shop in Jalon for recycling.

RAISING FUNDS FOR CANCER CHARITIES AND JALON VALLEY HELP
Friday 9th November: Fashion Show at The London Boutique, Jalon. Doors open at 12 noon for 1pm start. 1€ entrance fee includes a glass of wine courtesy of London Boutique, 20% discount on clothes purchased, plus Raffle.

Saturday 24th November: Christmas Bazaar at The Pensionistas/Library, Jalon (next to Sports Hall near roundabout on Jalon to Lliber road). Time 10am till 2pm: Stalls, Refreshments & Christmas entertainment.

DECEMBER:
Christmas Carols in Jalon Square, date to be confirmed soon. Details of more events to follow shortly and you can also check the ‘Diary Dates’ on the web page to see what is coming up: www.jalonvalleyhelp.com

THE PINK Ladies presence at the Civic Centre in Playa Flamenca resulted in many people dropping in to book mammograms and smear tests - and men attending to book prostate tests.  
These tests, part of the AECC early detection screening programme, are vitally important to the unfortunate people who develop this evil disease - the sooner it is detected the better.

The new ‘winter hours’ for the Civic Centre opening times are between 10am and 1pm every Wednesday and the AECC Torrevieja office is open Monday to Thursday between 10am and 1pm.

Sport 1 v 0 News
AS SOMEONE that worked alongside Clare Balding at the beginning of her broadcasting career, I’m delighted that she is being rightly praised for her excellent work at the Olympic Games. Balding, who’s main role was to front up the swimming coverage, was one of the stand out presenters on the BBC and she showed just what is possible with a little bit of homework and a whole lot of professionalism. You could argue that being a highly paid employee on the UK’s state broadcasting channel, we would expect nothing less from any presenter, but sadly, Balding’s performance put the efforts of many others in to perspective. For years now, I’ve always wondered why it is that news presenters get to sit in on big sports gigs. They don’t know enough about the subject and it shows. Just think about it from the other way round for a second. How many sports pundits would get a job on the BBC’s coverage of the US Presidential election or the Conservative Party conference? Probably none and for good reason.  Entertaining though it might be to hear Brendan Foster on the foreign policy plans of the Tea Party or rowing commentator Garry Herbert spouting off on Tory tuition fee proposals, I fear their careers might never recover. Or indeed, my ears!

Name dropping
Working on the Olympic pre and post show in the Olympic Stadium, I was knocked out by some of the guests that came along whilst the athletics was on. Our ‘A’ list interviewees included Sir Patrick Stewart, John Hurt, Joanna Lumley, Jack Whitehall, Jon Culshaw and Simon Pegg. Each of them was an absolute delight to talk to and even better, once the show was over, they all stayed to watch the action so taken were they with just being in the stadium. Not only that but all of them turned up for free, such is the power and the lure of the Olympics.

Role models
It’s been very heartening to hear a number of professional footballers saying that they and their team mates could learn a thing a two about performance, sacrifice and behaviour from members of the GB Olympics squad. Sadly, now that the Games are over, I imagine that most of them will continue to act like the spoilt, selfish and self-obsessed bunch of wasters that most of them are!

Back on the bike
Whilst he did OK in his individual event, sprinter Adam Gemili was partly responsible for yet another British relay cock up in the heats of the 4 x 100m. However, it’s good to see that World Junior Champion has decided not to let his error stand in the way of his career. Gemili is down on the start list for the 100m at the Samsung Diamond League event in Stockholm on Friday night where he lines up against the likes of Ryan Bailey of the USA plus Nesta Carter and Michael Frater from Jamaica. Here’s hoping the young man can impress now he’s made it in to the big league.  
RTN’s Andy Kay was the trackside presenter and interviewer for athletics at the Olympic Stadium

FIRSTLY, WELL done to Team GB who managed to progress from their Olympic group and will now face South Korea in the quarter finals on Saturday. There’s been steady improvement from Stuart Pearce’s men but they haven’t yet produced that top-drawer performance that they’ll need against potential semi-final opponents and tournament favourites, Brazil. In actual fact, in my opinion, they’ve been pretty boring to watch so far so I’ve taken the liberty this week of assuming that they’d be boring to write/read about as well!

Having said that, the topic I settled on, the transfer window, hasn’t exactly been the most thrilling either but if you’ll bear with me……Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all done a bit of interesting business, Liverpool are linked with every player under the sun, and QPR are signing any footballer with a pulse, but there hasn’t yet been that catalyst for the flurry of transfer action we’re craving.

The whole affair had been so quiet in fact that, up until about an hour before my deadline, I was sweating over what I was going to write about! Fortunately for me though, up stepped Santi Cazorla and (hopefully) the big-money transfer merry-go-round was swung into motion!

In case you didn’t hear, the Spanish attacking midfielder left Malaga’s pre-season training camp and headed to London for a medical with Arsenal. Now, you may not see this one transfer as a ground-shaking Carroll/Torres type deal (and on its own it’s not) but the repercussions of the move will cause a domino effect that’ll be sure to entertain us over the next couple weeks.

Arsene Wenger has known for some time, probably much longer than we have, that his captain Robin van Persie intends to leave the club and for evidence of that, you only have to look at the usually cautious Frenchman’s gung-ho transfer policy this summer. He had two strikers signed up by the middle of June (which was a bit of a giveaway) and it now looks like Cazorla is the final piece in his new-look attacking puzzle.  

Assuming I’m right, once the deal goes through, van Persie will be allowed to leave and where he ends up will shape the rest of the summer window. As we covered a few weeks ago, the Dutchman’s next club is likely to be one of Man United, Man City or Juventus and, for what it’s worth, my money’s on United meaning it’ll be up to City and Juve to react.

Curiously, the Italians have also been heavily linked with City’s Edin Dzeko, so they could well turn their attention to him, and given that he’s hardly justified his €30million price tag since he arrived at The Etihad, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mancini cashed in.

That would leave City with a hole to fill and, knowing them, you can then expect some pretty expensive fireworks! Napoli’s Edinson Cavani and Gonzalo Higuain of Real Madrid (both in the €40million bracket) appear to be top of Mancini’s wish list but neither club seems interested in selling…….cue the Arab billionaire and his deep, deep pockets!

This Week in “The Lions”:
Sat 4th Aug:    The quarter-finals including GB v S. Korea (8.30pm)
Tues 7th Aug:    The semi-finals (hopefully) including GB v Brazil (8.45pm)