VALL D'EBO
Many have found the last year challenging, but none more so than the girls from La Nucía's synchronised swimming club
GUIDED TOURS
Daily from 11.00 to 18.00: Guided tours of the Cova del Rull cave with its fascinating sculpture-like stalagmites. Millions of years of underground history discovered last century by a man walking his dog. Price €4 per person (children and pensioners €2.70)
LAS CLARISAS culture centre exhibition space in Elche is hosting a display of items related to the heritage of the city’s Easter brotherhoods.
Entitled ‘Lo que el ojo no ve’ (what the eye doesn’t see), the exhibition’s main objective is to bring people closer, in a safe way, to the Elche Easter processions.
The exhibition complements a display entitled ‘Así sea’ (so be it), which is currently taking place at the Masónica display room in the Calahorra tower.
‘Así sea’ contains sketches and designs for various pieces from the collections of the city’s Easter brotherhoods.
Councillor for fiestas Mariola Galiana said: “For the first time pieces from the 31 Elche brotherhoods have been brought together in one place, which, under normal circumstances, would currently be mounted on their respective thrones or floats.
“These are authentic works of art, from the best workshops and artists in Spain, which are almost never fully appreciated while the processions are taking place.”
‘Lo que el ojo no ve’ contains 75 pieces of gold work, embroidery and carvings, as well as fragments of images from tunics and banners, while ‘Así sea’ contains various models from different projects by local brotherhoods.
These are either old projects or new schemes that are currently being developed.
Sra Galiana invited all people to visit both exhibitions.
‘Lo que el ojo no ve’ is open daily from 10.00-13.00 and 17.00-21.00, and ‘Así sea’ is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10.00-14.00 and 15.00-18.00, and in the morning only on Sundays.
Both exhibitions close on March 18.
THEIR facilities were closed from March until July 2020 due to Covid and although they trained every single day at home, with exercises via video call from their dedicated trainer, it was far from normal. In July the indoor pool at the Camino Cano sports complex reopened and in spite of the very strict restrictions – wearing masks, maintaining distance and no use of the changing rooms or showers, the girls were absolutely thrilled to get back into the water and to start doing what they love to do.
All was going so well until the bombshell news in January of this year, when Ximo Puig, president of the Valencia region announced that everything in the region was to close down yet again.
The team thought that their chances of competing nationally this year had been wiped out but thankfully, this wasn't the case here in La Nucía. Although the pool has been closed for the last eight weeks to the general public, the three teams of 36 elite swimmers were given special permission from the national swimming federation in Madrid to continue training… and that is exactly what they have been doing!
La Nucía 'city of sport' welcomes numerous elite athletes to train here during the winter months and the pool and sports facilities have remained open for the exclusive use of professional sports people.
There are teams from Romania, Poland, France and individual athletes, including the Olympian triathlete Brownlee brothers who all flock there to prepare for world championships and even the Olympics.
The national winter artistic swimming championships are taking place this weekend in Lloret de Mar, teams will attend from across Spain, the Balearics and Canary Islands to compete to win a place in the first division.
From the results of this competition, the top 16 teams then qualify to compete against each other in the prestigious summer championships which decides the best club in the country.
There are two categories competing in Lloret this weekend – alevin (aged 9-11 years) and infantil (12-15 years). In total there will be 232 alevines, (11 of those from La Nucía), and 336 infantiles, (13 of those also from la Nucía), including British born Natalie Baker. Sadly, due to the pandemic, parents will not be allowed to accompany or watch from the poolside as they normally would, cheering their girls on, but the events will be live streamed with commentary so they will at least be able to watch the routines.
All the girls compete in a round of four individual figures before a panel of national judges, although there are a dozen routines which they must know perfectly, they only find out which ones they will have to perform 48 hours prior to the competition, so a particularly stressful and anxious wait.
The scores of the four routines are combined and the winners of gold, silver and bronze are decided.
Sadly with Covid there will be no podium celebrations or medal ceremonies and the head trainers of the winning teams will be told and handed the medals to present themselves.
Natalie Baker continues to compete for her place in the national squad. Last March she was the first ever swimmer from the Valencia region to be selected for the national team, and having returned to competition with excellent scores in November 2020, has retained her place. Nevertheless, in this sport no-one can afford to rest on their laurels and so this weekend she must prove herself once again in front of the national selection committee by performing in two group routines that Spain will take to international competition in Quebec, Canada this August! In addition to the individual figures, there is also a group dance performed by 8-10 swimmers, called a free combination routine or combo. This allows each team to highlight their strength and create new and interesting patterns or lifts. The alevin team have a fun, fast and furious routine choreographed to the 'Crazy Frog' song whilst the infantil girls have opted for a mix of passionate Latino songs taken from the world famous hit TV show 'Casa de Papel' (Money Heist) all put together by DJ Michael Baker!
The club is always on the lookout for new recruits, and is open to both girls and boys aged 5 upwards.
The only real requirement is that they can swim. The club receives no funding so if there are any businesses that would be interested in becoming sponsors then information packs are available by emailing Anita Aris at sincrolanucia@gmail. com.
It is imperative that we as a society encourage our youngsters to take part in such activities and realise that their dreams can be achieved… but only with our help. Good luck girls.
Six sixes in one over
EARLIER this month, West Indian Kieron Pollard smashed six sixes in one over bowled by Sri Lankan Akila Dananjaya in a T20 match to become only the eighth batsman to achieve this feat in the history of the game. In this same match, Danajaya had taken a hat-trick before getting smashed all over the ground by Pollard.
The other seven players who have smashed 36 runs off six
balls are: Gary Sobers for Notts v. Glamorgan, English County Championship in 1968; India’s Ravi Shastri for Bombay against Baroda in a World Championship game in 1985; Yuvraj Singh for India against England (Stuart Broad was the hapless bowler) in a T20 international in 2007; South African Herschelle Gibbs v. Holland in the T20 World Cup of 2007; Ross Whitely for Worcestershire v. Yorkshire in a T20 Blast in 2017; Hazra Zazai for the Balkhan Legends v. Kabul Zwanan in an APL tournament in 2018 and Leo Carter for Canterbury against Northern Districts in a T20 encounter in New Zealand in 2020.
Quack, quack, quack
Let’s be truthful, Jonny Bairstow has just had his worstever Test series as an England batsman. In the final game in India, Bairstow bagged another duck – his sixth against the same country and his third in his last four visits to the crease. In fact, his last nine scores against India have been 0, 6, 0, 0, 18, 0, 0, 28 and 0.
In his career Bairstow has now registered 31 quacks, more than any other current England player, while at the same time his Test average has fallen dramatically from 41.51 to 34.12.
In this latest series which England lost 3-1, two Indian spinners took 59 England wickets between them, with Axar Patel achieving four fivewicket hauls as England lost all 10 wickets in an innings to slow bowlers in the last three Tests.
The player who holds the record for most ducks in a senior cricket is Reg Perks, the former Worcestershire and England spinner who notched up 156, while the player who has had more Test noughts than anyone else is West Indies paceman Courtney Walsh with 43.
England's all-round cricket team
Recently, while talking cricket with colleagues, this question was asked: Can you name an England team containing 10 allrounders and a wicket-keeper batsman who have starred in
Test Matches since World War Two.
I came up with this one: Trevor Bailey, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, Ian Botham, Basil d’Oliviera, Tony Greig, Paul Collingwood, Ray Illingworth (captain) and Fred Titmus, with perhaps Alan Knott, Bob Taylor or Jos Buttler as my wicket-keeper.
My chosen XI contains several quality batsmen, some expert bowlers (quickies and spinners) and three or four terrific fielders and, the stumpers apart, during their respective careers, they all scored at least one century with the bat and managed at least one fivewicket haul when bowling.
Liverpool's poor home form
Following last Sunday’s 1-0 home defeat by Fulham, reigning champions Liverpool have now lost six home PL games in succession – something that’s never happened before in the club’s 129-year history. Prior to this disastrous sequence of results, which began in mid-January when Burnley won 1-0 at Anfield, Liverpool had gone 68 games unbeaten on their own patch. Chelsea hold the all-time record with an unbeaten home run of 86 matches, achieved between March 2004 and October 2008.
Two finals in a fortnight
This has never been done before, as far as I can ascertain, whereby a team has played in two successive domestic Cup finals of the same tournament in the same month, just two weeks apart. But it’s going to happen next month. And it will be the Spanish La Liga club Atletico Bilbao who will play Real Socieded and then Barcelona in the two finals of the Copa Del Rey on April 3 and 17. The first final has been carried over from last season (postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic) and then soon afterwards Bilbao will face Barcelona in this season’s final.
So far, Bilbao has won the Spanish Cup 23 times, Barcelona 30 and Real Sociedad just twice.
United heavily in debt
It has been officially confirmed that Manchester United accessed a £60million draw-down of their available £200m credit ceiling in order to cover a rising net debt which now stands at £455.5m.
Due to Covid-19, the Premiership club has also announced a 2.6% growth in total revenue from £168.4m to £172.8m covering the last three months of 2020.
This ‘modest’ climb was attributed to a 68% increase in broadcasting revenues to £108.7m - a figure helped mightily by United’s return to the Champions League.
“Demand for live football remains strong” said the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, as he released United’s second-quarter fiscal results.
Maguire in court
Harry Maguire is unlikely to be summoned to attend court this year for his appeal hearing in Greece. Due to a huge backlog in the country’s judicial system because of the coronavirus pandemic, this leaves the Manchester United and England defender free to focus on his playing football, meaning he can be included in his country’s squad for the European Championship this summer.
Maguire was found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and attempted bribery in August 2020 when holidaying on the island of Mykonos and it was believed that in the summer he would be called before an appeal court hearing on Syros, the capital of the Cycladic island chain. But this it seems will not happen.
Meanwhile last Sunday, Maguire
helped United end rivals City’s 21-match winning run with a 2-0 victory in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
Sad news
Mickey Lewis, the former WBA, Derby County and Oxford United midfielder who also managed the latter club, has died from lung cancer at the age of 56.
Also, an inquest last week, confirmed that the ex-Cardiff City and Blackburn player Peter Whittingham, aged 35, suffered a serious head injury after tumbling down the stairs leading to a beer garden in Barry, South Wales a year ago.
Trainer banned
Leading Irish horse race trainer Gordon Elliott has been banned for 12 months with the last six months suspended after being found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute. It followed the emergence of a photograph showing him sitting on a dead horse while on his phone. The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) issued the punishment last Friday, saying the photo showed
"appalling bad taste" by Elliott and a "complete absence of respect" for the horse. It added that the incident had caused serious damage to the reputation and integrity of horse racing. The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has reciprocated the IHRB sanction and Elliott will now miss the Cheltenham Festival which starts next week and the Grand National Festival at Aintree next month.