Company’s Big plans for school

FARRANS Construction has completed the £12million build of a three-storey school in central London.

The Dunmurry firm signed off on the Big Creative Academy in Waltham Forest which willn specialise in creative industries.

The development saw the

construction of a replacement school for the performing arts, a theatre and ancillary café for pupils, staff and occasional community use.

Cathal Montague, regional director for Farrans Construction, said Big Creative Academy is an unique project. He added: “We

worked closely with the clients to determine and cater for the bespoke requirementsnto deliver an impressive, modern, fun and creative space for the pupils.”

The building comprises a three storey ‘L’ shaped teaching block, connected to the theatre.

This will be fascinating. Autocar magazine, which was founded in 1895 when there were thought to be only six privately owned cars on the road, is having its entire archive digitised. It means enthusiasts will have access to a myriad of fascinating stories and more than 5,000 road tests.

I worked at the magazine for five years on its staff and still contribute to it on a regular basis.

The project should be completed this year but meanwhile you can register your interest at archives@archivedigital.co.uk which is the company that’s carrying out the mammoth task of scanning the 700,000 pages printed over the past 126 years.

BY

FORM horse Lee Westwood is happy to skip Cheltenham to take another crack at the Honda Classic today.

Punter Westwood opted to pass on the Players Championship to go to the races this time last year – and won £48,000 on a Super Heinz bet for a £240 stake. The Ryder Cup star has banked nearly £2million over the last two weeks for runner-up finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship.

And he will tee up for the fourth week running in Florida.

“I didn’t have any plans to go to Cheltenham because of where I am golf-wise,” said the 47-year-old (left). “I joined the PGA Tour last year and I committed myself to play a string of events.” Westwood admitted he felt “jaded” and “drained” after playing 54 holes at Augusta with his teenage son Sam (right) on Monday and Tuesday this week to prepare for next month’s Masters.

But he insisted he was always going to tee up at the PGA National in Palm Beach, where he finished tied-fourth last year. “It’s one of my favourite tournaments of the year,” said Westwood, now up to 19 in the world rankings.

PAUL O’CONNELL has made a massive difference to Ireland’s lineout but Stephen Ferris is still waiting for evidence that Andy Farrell has put his stamp on the team.

Over a year into Farrell’s reign, Ferris remains unconvinced as he demands more from Ireland’s attack.

“What is the Andy Farrell way?” asked the Ulsterman. “If you’re telling me it’s getting to the 10 metre line and sticking a Garryowen onto the full-back and hopefully capitalising off that, then our 2023 hopes are not going to be too good.

“You need to keep the ball in the game. We’ve seen the lineout and scrum get stronger. But our attacking threat has to be better. We only made three line-breaks against Scotland and scored two tries, one a 50-50 that Robbie Henshaw cleaned up and dotted down.”

Ferris disagrees with Farrell’s post-scotland comment that O’connell (above) owed much to the hard work done before his arrival in turning around the lineout.

“Everything positive about it, particularly the defensive lineout, is 90% down to what Paul and the players did throughout the week to negate what was a bloody good lineout up to then,” he said.

“Huge credit goes to them because the scoreline could have been different if the Scots had won four more of their throws. Paul has brought in tremendous accuracy on both sides of the ball and it’s going to stand really well to Ireland.”

THE death of Murray Walker marks the end of a golden age of sports commentary.

Murray, along with David Coleman, Richie Benaud, Bill Mclaren, Peter

O’sullevan and Dan

Maskell are now all gone, leaving a deafening silence where their distinctive voices once were.

I interviewed

Walker at Monza in 2000 and realised it was his life experiences that brought character to his broadcasting.

He talked about his tank division smashing through German lines in 1945 to join advancing Russians in the Baltic, resulting in his trickiest assignment of the war. Defending a rocket fuel warehouse from vodka-parched Russians who wanted to drink it dry. He also bragged about his time in advertising, when he boosted sales of Trill seed by tricking budgie-owners into believing they were cruel by keeping only one bird, with the hearttugging slogan: “An only budgie is a lonely budgie.” Like those other legends Walker (above) could infuse his words with a colour and humour that came from living so many different lives. Making so many of today’s commentators, who haven’t, sound more beige than a 1970s Morris Minor.