Back in the day: We delve into our archives to see what was going on 10 years ago, 25 years ago and 50 years ago this week
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10 years ago – October 8, 2015
Charlie’s plea
Football star Charlie Austin has urged West Berkshire Council to rethink its decision to kick Newbury FC out of their Faraday Road ground.
The club have been served notice on their ground and have to be out by June 2016 so the council can redevelop the London Road Industrial Estate.
The current ground has been home to a Newbury football club since 1963.
In January, the chief executive of West Berkshire Council, Nick Carter, said that the council did not intend to close the club without a suitable replacement site being found.
But two weeks ago the council said it “was not duty bound” to find the club another site – and with just 10 months to go until they have to leave their home.
Newbury FC chairman Keith Moss says the club could fold if help does not arrive.
QPR striker Austin who grew up in Hungerford and went to John O’Gaunt School, said: “I would advise the council to rethink the decision as football is important to a lot of people and there is no need to potentially make Newbury fold.
“I played there a couple of times for Newbury under-14s and scored there for Hungerford, but you have to think of the hard work that people have put in to pick the club from where it was after coming down leagues to where it is now.”
25 years ago – October 12, 2000
Double despair
“Break a leg” may be the theatrical way of saying “Good Luck”, but it is not meant to be taken literally.
The Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, had to cancel two performances of its latest production, Prisoner of Zenda, last Thursday and Friday after one of its actors, Russell Gomer, fell and badly twisted his ankle.
Gallant Russell returned to the stage on Saturday, strapped up in boots that were several sizes too big to accommodate the bandages.
His accident was not the only piece of bad luck to hit the production
A week before the show opened, actor Christopher Wells heard that his mother was seriously ill in South Africa.
On Sunday, he flew to South Africa to see her and Richard Clothier stepped into his shoes for the first time on Monday.
A spokeswoman for the theatre, Tei Williams, said: “It has been very, very scary – asking any actor to come into a role with just five days’ rehearsal is a nightmare.
Ms Williams added that Richard had been “absolutely word perfect” on his first night and said that the audience had been very understanding of the theatre’s predicament.
50 years ago – October 9, 1975
Amazing Grace
Dr Grace Thornton, the secretary of the Women’s National Commission, Cabinet Office, was guest speaker on Tuesday, at the inaugural lunch of Newbury’s week of events in celebration of International Women’s Year.
Dr Thornton, who has had a distinguished career in Diplomatic Service, was the first women to be appointed Charge d’Affaires in Reykjavik in 1949.
Among other important posts held during her career, she was First Secretary and Counsul in Djarkarta from 1962-64, where she hit the headlines for quelling a riot; Consul-General in Lisbon, 1965-70, and Head of the Consular Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1970-73.
She told her large audience that the three aims of the International Women’s Year (IWY), are equality, development and peace.
“This year will see anti-discrimination legislation on the statute books, and by the end of the year the Equal Pay Act will be implemented, but changes in the law can only change the framework of human relationships, not the relationships themselves.
“There is nothing so powerful as an idea that catches on. This idea – of equality – has caught on.”
