Web Log

505 knives have been dropped into special bins at Norfolk police stations,
as part of a national knife amnesty, following several fatal stabbing nationwide. Over 100 knives were handed in to the police in the West Norfolk area. Two ornanmental swords were handed in to Lynn police.

The young man who died at the 10k Marathon last weekend was named as Duncan Gooderson, a 25-year-old keen sportsman from from Peddars Way North, Ringstead, near Hunstanton.
A post-mortem failed to establish the cause of death.

Funniest headline of the week: "Crab fishermen feeling the pinch." This appeared in Tuesday's Eastern Daily Press, together with a picture of a Cromer Crab, that is being seen less often due to global warming.

Lynn's first Great East Anglian Race was indeed something to remember. A great success overall, that was later tainted by tragedy.


Click here for larger image.

From our vantage point on the Red Mount, we witnessed a huge stampede of runners snaking their way around towards us. We guessed the Walks had never seen anything quite like this before.

Top Kenyan athlete Patrick Mizohke lead the field, and streaked past us like a bullet. The rest of the 1600 runners followed in what seemed like a never-ending stream of faces.

Their shirts sported the emblems of just about every known East Anglian sports club and charity. We saw shirts with Suffolk Sport, Docking Village, Addenbrooks Hospital.

The Guide Dogs team included a brave blind runner and the oldest man in the race, a very fit 83-year-old, completed the course well ahead of many of the back runners.

Within minutes of the last runners passing us, Patrick Mizohke was whizzing by yet again, having completed his first lap of 5 kilometres. If we had blinked we would have missed him, but we managed to get one good picture as he passed us. As one onlooker said to us: "He seemed to fly through the air".

It wasn't long before he was back yet again, and there was a great roar from the crowd in the distance as he dashed across the finish line. By this time, the fast front runners had caught up with the slower backrunners, and there was a lot of ducking and dodging.

Then we heard the sound of an ambulance, and saw blue flashing lights appearing near the finishing line. We thought that perhaps it was someone suffering from exhaustion having found the course just too much, and didn't think too much about it.

But we later heard that it was a 25-year-old local lad, that who had been in some distress, and collapsed just after crossing the finishing line. He was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, with medics and doctors struggling to resusciate him. Very sadly, he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

He was later named as Duncan Gooderson, a keen sportsman from Ringstead, Norfolk.

Apart from this awful tragedy, the race was a huge success, and we look forward to this new event appearing annually from now on.

Full Results

Hundreds of runners as they race through the Walks.


Patrick Mizohke won the men's race.


Cathy Mutwa won the women's race.

Full Results

News Update: It is with great sadness we have to report that a 25-year-old runner has died in hospital after collapsing at the finish line.
It's believed he was a local man. Race director Ian Vaughan-Arbuckle said: "It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts go out to his family." BBC report

Here's another quick look at what's making news in the area...

Lynn's debt-ridden Queen Elizabeth Hospital has announced up to 215 job cuts in order to save money. The total number of beds is also to be cut from 520 to 460. Local MP Henry Bellingham says staff morale is likely to suffer, and puts the blame on Tony Blair's government for a shortfall of funding.

More than 1,500 runners are now due to compete in the Great East Anglia Run on Sunday. The race starts at 10.30am in The Walks, and follows a route through the town centre.

The Warehouse Clearance store has re-opened on Broad Street, taking over the old Woollies shop, while in New Conduit Street gift shop Great Prescence has suddenly stopped trading and gone into liquidation.

Crazy story of the week: A focus DIY delivery van was clamped on the Hardwick Retail Park after innocently delivering to it's own store. Over-eager staff from National Clamps, locally known as the "parking gestapo", had nothing to say!

Last Saturday our Lotto Syndicate scooped £596.00! Players have already received cheques for their share. We had 3 x 4-ball wins and 41 x 3-ball wins, making a total of 44 wins.

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We've recently updated the Family History Page with more links to ancestory web sites, including couple of web sites where you can access the 1841 census, and a web site giving detailed lists of all the names on our local War Memorials.

The War Memorial link could be particularly interesting to family researchers as it contains a potted history of many of the soldiers, often telling where they lived and worked in Lynn, and sometimes details of their family.

Over 1,000 runners have entered the Great East Anglia Run, which takes place on Sunday 28 May. The 10k Road Race will be run through historic King's Lynn, and starts at 10.30am at The Walks, King's Lynn.

The race is a celebration of the redevelopment of the town and £300m of regeneration initiatives. It will provide an opportunity for many people to experience Lynn's unique character and charm, alongside the vibrant new shopping centre.

Earlier this week, top athlete John Mayock, announced his withdrawal from the event owing to injury. But Tewadros (Teddy) Shiferaw, the Ethiopian steeple chase record holder and recent winner of the Edinburgh half-marathon, has agreed to step into the breach, which will ensure a world class athlete setting the pace for all the male athletes. Teddy recorded a time of 28.41 minutes recently in a 10k race in Pakistan.

At the same time top African runner Cathy Mutwa (pictured) has agreed to race in the event. Cathy is presently ranked 7th in the world at 10,000m.

If you're interested in taking part yourself, the closing date for entries is 19 May.

Full details of the race are available at www.greateastangliarun.co.uk/

We are developing a new community website for King's Lynn.

The site will integrated as part of King's Lynn Online, and users will be able to do lots interesting things such as post messages, share photos, take part in surveys and much more. Registration will be absolutely free.

The site should be ready to launch within the next couple of weeks ~ so watch this space!

A new "public service" website has been set up, "for the people suffering under the regime of Kings Lynn Borough Council".

The site, apparently set up by a disgruntled local resident, paints a picture of a bungling local authority, amusingly described as "the Chapel Street Chumps".

It claims the council wastes thousands of pounds of taxpayers money, are difficult to deal with, and treats the residents and their views "with contempt".

The site can be found at www.kingslynncouncil.com.

Here's a quick look at what's making news in the local area...

50 staff at Swan Street motors have been left without a job after the business suddenly closed last week.

Investors are planning to transform the old silo site at King's Lynn South Quay into a luxury hotel, two blocks of homes, new retail units and an 11 storey tower, to be an eye-catching new landmark for Lynn.

The Park View hotel is to be partially demolished, and converted into 39 homes.

Restoration of King's Lynns leaning tower is almost complete, with scaffolding due to be removed in the next few weeks. Work continues on the landscaping of Tower Gardens, which will show the original layout of the old Franciscan friary.

The King's Morris men proudly displayed their May Garland on the Saturday Market Place on Sunday afternoon.

After a display of dancing in their colourful outfits, they paraded around the town blowing horns to wake everyone up, an old custom,
performed originally by the children of the town, and revived by the dancers in 1983.



The King's Morris Men display the May Garland, just before a strong gust of wind caught the umbrella and almost blew them both away!



Dancing on the Saturday Market Place.




The Morris Men blow their horns, before beginning their noisy journey around town, much to the startlement of visitors.



A glimpse of the New Vancouver Centre, as the Morris Men pause on their journey around the town, for another dance.

We've been busy working on the site again, and added a new interactive map, which we're very excited about. Also, there's a new map of the recently redeveloped Vancouver Centre, with details of all the shops.