Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account Laurie St-Georges says she’s feeling like a freshman at the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience And so does her play — record-setting stuff in fact — during a 2-for-2 start at the Canadian women’s curling championships proving she’s truly become a seasoned competitor at the annual 10-day event somebody called me a veteran here,” said St-Georges the ever-bubbly skip of the Québec champions at the Scotties hosted in Thunder Bay no.’ I’m playing against women who have so much experience Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of Noon News Roundup will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Fact is only four others this year in T-Bay have skipped more times than St-Georges at the Scotties Kerri Einarson and Kerry Galusha match St-Georges in skipping in each of the national finals from 2021 through this winter’s event “But I feel like a rookie,” reiterated St-Georges I have butterflies and I have to breathe more you just (start to) feel more and more confident But this is the spot that I like … T be a rookie because the self-described newbie to the nationals is showing she belongs at Fort William Gardens Her opening-game win Saturday — an 8-2 ease past fellow contender Kaitlyn Lawes from Manitoba — saw St-Georges and her Quebec crew establish a new Scotties mark with steals in seven different ends they stole points in seven of the first eight ends with Lawes — who didn’t score until the ninth — having the hammer throughout “I didn’t even know that,” said St-Georges “But I think we’re far away from the job done here,” she continued but teams are just going to get stronger and more confident on the ice So I think we just got to keep it up and just keep making shots.” They did just that with another Scotties highlight in Draw 4’s victory Sunday by counting seven in the seventh end in a 12-3 morning take-down of Galusha and Northwest Territories The third game came for Quebec (2-1) — which also boasts third Jamie Sinclair second Emily Riley and lead Lisa Weagle — went late Sunday which ended in an 8-4 decision for Ontario’s Danielle Inglis (2-1) and the whole team feels confident,” Weagle said “I think the thing with Laurie is she’s a big-game player,” continued 39-year-old Weagle “And she’s rising to the occasion — and the whole team is The addition this year of Weagle herself has been huge for the rink from the Glenmore and Laval-sur-le-Lac curling clubs the Ottawa native is a two-time Olympian — in 2018 with Jennifer Jones — a three-time Scotties champ — in 2013 “Oh … Lisa makes such a big difference,” said St-Georges praising the decorated lead for her world-class front-end skills “She brings a lot of confidence and a lot of mojo on the ice The draw of Sinclair to the team two years ago has been key the 32-year-old Alaska native also boasts quite the body of curling work as a three-time United States champ in 2017 “Fantastic” second Riley has joined St-Georges in all her visits to the Scotties which brings a different strength to the squad And experienced coach Francois Roberge carries big experience to further help make the Québec crew a serious contender this year “I know we’re going to get some tough games coming up,” added Weagle “We’re just going to keep trying to enjoy the moment and play well.” tsaelhof@postmedia.com transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account Police in Quebec have arrested a man following a robbery at the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) in Saint-Georges, according to local media outlets.  The Sûreté du Québec is said to have intervened after receiving a call around 12:30 pm on January 13th following a robbery at the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) in Saint-Georges.  “The suspect allegedly broke into the business on 107th Street. He grabbed products on the premises before fleeing in a vehicle,” explained Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Béatrice Dorsainville in one local media report A search operation was quickly set up to locate the vehicle and its driver Thirty minutes after the start of the operation the suspect was intercepted and arrested on Route 173 in Saint-Joseph thanks to information obtained from the public Investigators will contact the man once his condition allows If you'd like to support independent industry media we have several options to become a StratCann Supporter LANGLEY —  If you watched the way Dorian Glogovac played over the final four games of his high school career earlier this month at the B.C senior boys Quad-A basketball championships you’d almost swear that he was performing in some kind of dream state And maybe that isn’t too far from the truth given the way the 6-foot-6 senior guard with Vancouver’s St 16.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists en route to leading his team to third-place knowing you are going to be in those situations and working hard and preparing yourself for those moments,” Glogovac said a couple of weekends ago during the Quad-A post-game awards ceremony in which he was named the first B.C boys top-tiered provincial championship MVP not on the title-winning team since 12-year NBA veteran and current New Orleans Pelicans’ big man Kelly Olynyk pulled the trick with South Kamloops back in 2009 “Like all of those shots I hit,” he continued his game-winning buzzer-beating three-pointer in a 78-75 win in the bronze final earlier that day against Terry Fox still fresh on his mind and that belief that I have in myself is something… I don’t know where it comes from.” because Glogovac has melded his visualization techniques into not only his pre-game preparation including the way he actually thinks about how he will practice he’ll do things on the court he seems half-ready to admit surprise even himself Like the triple he somehow steadied himself to hit late in the game one which our Varsity Letters’ team of veteran hoops scribe Dan Kinvig and broadcaster Paul Eberhardt each rightly described in gushing terms it’s now two weeks later and hindsight still matches the moment Glogovac hit a ridiculous – even by his standards – twisting Said Eberhardt on the TFSETV.ca livestream of the Glogovac shot which came against Spectrum defenders Harper Kopp and Justin Hinrichsen just as guard J Elijah Helman had also begun to close in: “Are you kidding me That was his 50th point and he was triple-teammed.” Glogovac had opened the tournament with 43 points in Saints’ 81-66 win over Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers There was a calm before the storm as he scored a ‘mere’ 18 points in a second-round 88-58 win over Abbotsford in the aforementioned battle for third place 39 points in that 78-75 win over Terry Fox “Dorian is a truly special player and I think what separates him the most is his ability to perform at his best when the stakes are the highest,” said St He can score at all three levels of the court and he has so many fakes and counters from mid- and close-range that it makes him almost impossible to shut down… regardless of what type of defence the opponent is in.” Of course that is what made the Spectrum-St the game of this season’s  Quad-A championships Here are the precise numbers on Glogovac’s 53-point outing: 18-of-45 from the field (40 per cent); 5-of-18 from three-point range (27.8 per cent); 12-of-14 free throw (85.7 per cent); 14 rebounds (2 offensve); four assists four fouls over all 40 minutes of floor time over the 79-year history of the championships it was an historic performance on so many different levels A PLACE IN ANY DISCUSSION OF THE TOURNEY’S BEST there are certain individuals whose feats of scoring wonder — amidst the intense pressure of the championship side of the draw — have rightfully earned a place within its lore of most fabled single-game performances There’s the 45 points of Steveston’s Gareth Davies in 1984 still the record for most points scored in a top-tiered championship final as the Packers topped the Richmond Colts 84-59 There’s Yale’s 2015 MVP Jauquin Bennett-Boire in a 2015 title-game 69-63 victory over the Terry Fox Ravens Vanier’s Calvin Westbrook scored 52 points in an opening-round 102-95 overtime win over White Rock Christian it stood as the record for the most points scored by a player on the championship side of the draw of the B.C along came a kid who wasn’t even born when Westbrook — at the tourney this year as an assistant coach with Single-A Haida Gwaii — lit up the goals at the PNE Agrodome Dorian Glogovac is now the top-tiered tourney’s all-time leading single-game scorer on the championship side of the draw and the top single-game scorer of Friday’s Final Four it was impossible to ignore the quote Spectrum head coach Tyler Verde gave Kinvig following Glogovac’s Final Four heroics: “Growing up I remember one play from Kobe Bryant in the corner over three guys against Portland And some of those shots (at the end of the game) reminded me of that obviously comparing somebody to Kobe Bryant is crazy as somebody who grew up watching basketball.” Our Kinvig provided Varsity Letters’ readers with the all-time Top 5 single-game leaders in top-tiered provincial championship game history and while all are incredible feats by stunningly-talented players only Glogovac’s came on the championship side of the draw “When we played Spectrum at the Cowichan tournament to start the year and he went for 41 points and caught fire in the second half I could feel that this year was going to be different and truly felt like if we have him he’s a true leader whose belief in himself carries over to his teammates and makes everyone on our team want to give everything of themselves to help the team win.” Which brings us full circle to the start of our story Glogovac came to Canada with his parents as a two-year-old back in 2009 appreciate and ultimately adopt the winning ways of a certain Serbian tennis superstar the tennis player,” Glogovac told Varsity Letters moments after accepting his MVP award.”The amount of belief that he has in himself even when everyone in the crowd is against him… he believes in his abilities no matter what the outcome is.” Djokovich is a huge proponent of the same kind of pre-match visualization techniques that Glogovac has made his bedrock they continue to support me and have shown me so much support my team,” added Glogovac who said following the provincial tournament that he will focus his thoughts towards the academic/basketball balance he wants to find in selecting his college basketball destination “I am representing all the people that came before us in the Saints community It’s something you can’t just go out there and not give it your all.” not only makes us cherish the month of March but leaves us aching over the off-season for the chance to see the magic which inevitably accompanies the dawn of every new season (Varsity Letters once again extends a warm ‘Thank You’ to Ken Winslade the caretaker and resident historian of B.C for additional research to confirm several details included in this story)  If you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department it has been taken without appropriate permission true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.’s high school and university sports community with hard work Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com Not to take away anything from local schools but thinking this kid is going to the Ivy League Top student and much higher level of competition Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Sign in Join now, it's FREE! George’s Square where people had been living for several months was removed earlier today This comes after the city passed a public space use bylaw at the beginning of October. An eviction notice was posted at the encampment two weeks ago which gave people two weeks to leave who wanted to use her first name due to safety concerns was living at the encampment for a couple of months a housing outreach worker for Stepping Stone this morning telling her the encampment was being taken down and to come down if she wanted any of her belongings that were still in her tent The possessions she is keeping are in storage because there's nowhere really for us to go And there's people with really bad addictions that are getting pushed out of the public and there's going to be more overdoses now with the medical centre … the safe supply closing It's going to affect a lot of people,” said Danielle.  People don’t know where they will be going tonight but some will go to shelters and others will be staying outside She said some people in encampments are treated differently than other people and even people who live in shelters are treated differently too “Some people can't go to the shelter but there's others that can,” said Danielle With two deaths at the encampment on Friday it’s going to continue to be devastating “We're going to see a lot more of it come the colder months because they're going to be out in the middle of nowhere Danielle has been living in a shelter with her dog Lexi She’s the first dog to have lived at the shelter who wasn’t a service dog and was shocked to see the encampment structures being taken down thinking that the time people had to be out was 4 p.m People’s items are being kept in a work van for the time being and then the items will be put in a storage facility People have been pretty good about coming to shelters the majority of individuals that were in St George’s Square have voluntarily relocated to other locations or to an available shelter space," said deputy CAO Colleen Clack-Bush via email "In an effort to respect the privacy of these individuals we cannot provide information on specific details Our bylaw staff along with social service partners are actively assisting any individuals who remain there at this time and are dialoguing with any impacted individuals to ensure they are informed of available supports and where they could relocate to city staff will proceed with the removal of shelters that haven’t yet been removed by the owner Bylaw staff will continue working with our social service partners to coordinate pick-up of removed items," she continued in the email More Spotlight > Bianca St-Georges has joined the Utah Royals. The team announced the signing of the free-agent Canada forward on Thursday. St-Georges, 27, spent last season with the North Carolina Courage, scoring three goals and adding an assist in 21 appearances. "Bianca has a wealth of experience as a NWSL veteran and Canadian international that will help the team to continue their development and be even more competitive in this league," Royals sporting director Kelly Cousins said in a statement. St-Georges becomes the second CanWNT member on the Royals, joining former Arsenal forward Cloé Lacasse of Sudbury, Ont. A native of Saint-Charles-Borromée, Que., St-Georges is headed into her sixth pro season, having spent the first four campaigns of her career with the Chicago Red Stars. In 60 career, NWSL games, St-Georges has nine goals and four assists. Internationally, the West Virginia product has been capped 11 times by Canada and made her senior debut in 2021. The Royals open their 2025 campaign on Mar. 15 at home to Bay FC. THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Laurie St-Georges' eyes widened when informed that seven stolen ends in a single game at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts was a record. "I'm glad that I have a record now," Quebec's skip said Saturday. "I still feel like a rookie." In an 8-2 win over Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes in the tournament's first Pool B draw, St-Georges stole a point in the first end, and after a blank second, continued the heist with single points in ends three through seven. Her team stole another two in the eighth before Lawes finally countered with two in the ninth, then shook hands. "Just had to get rid of that dang hammer, I guess," Lawes said with a laugh. "Just millimetres on the wrong side every time." The previous Hearts high of six stolen ends in a game was held jointly by New Brunswick (1987) and Manitoba (1985). Defending champion Rachel Homan, Alberta's Kayla Skrlik and Saskatchewan's Nancy Martin won Saturday evening to get to 2-0 in Pool A. The early ends of the draw were interrupted when curlers complained of a greasy substance on their broomheads. All four sheets at the Fort William Gardens were mopped by the third end. Teams were also given permission by the umpire to change their brush heads. Six of eight teams did so. "It just looked like oil on the ice, and every time we swept it, there was just black all over women's brooms," Homan said. "So they mopped it, and most of it went away. They did great managing the ice. Some things happen. You adapt and move on." Said Martin: "We traded (the brushes) out after two, I think, or three, which they said we could all do. Then, we just were looking at them after, and they're still pretty grubby, so not sure what that is." Homan defeated hometown favourite Krista McCarville 10-7 of Northern Ontario in front of a full house of just over 3,000. "We knew that was going to be a tough one. Some people cheering on our backswing for us to miss, but that's part of the game," Homan said. "They're excited. They want their team to win." Skrlik, playing with a full team after vice Geri-Lynn Ramsay sat out their opener with the flu, scored two in the seventh end and stole a trio in the eighth in a 9-8 victory over B.C.'s Corryn Brown. "Geri-Lynn's back, we had our original lineup back. Had to settle into things a little bit more and we finally got our mojo in the back half, switched around some rocks and we were able to figure it out," Skrlik said. Martin defeated Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo 8-6. Martin made her Hearts debut as a skip this year, but she's also played in a pair of Canadian mixed doubles finals. "I think it's just playing for a hundred years and playing a lot of mixed doubles, and playing last shot a lot. There's a lot of pressure at that mixed doubles. Usually you're shooting some pretty tough shots," said the 52-year-old from Wakaw, Sask. "The girls are what makes me so comfortable out there." Alberta's Selena Sturmay joined Brown at 1-1 after an 11-4 victory over Nunavut's Julia Weagle (0-1). In Pool B's first draw in the afternoon, Manitoba's Kerri Einarson opened with a 6-4 win over Brooke Godsland of Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba's Kate Cameron doubled Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories 8-4, and Nova Scotia's Christina Black was a 7-5 winner over Ontario's Danielle Inglis. The 18-team field is divided into two pools with the top three in each advancing. The final four Page playoff teams emerge from that half-dozen. In addition to $100,000 in prize money, the winner of this year's event represents Canada at next month's women's world championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea. Quebec's opening win also marked the return of Lisa Weagle to the Tournament of Hearts. A world and three-time Canadian champion lead with Homan until 2020, the 39-year-old Weagle joined St-Georges' foursome and replaced Kelly Middaugh for this season. "I never thought I would say that about the Scotties, but it really feels like home to be back out there on that ice sliding over the hearts with the big crowd," said Weagle, whose last appearance as a player was in 2021 playing lead for Jennifer Jones in Calgary. Weagle's sister, Julia, is skipping Nunavut in Thunder Bay. The siblings won't face each other in the preliminary round because they're in different pools. "I'm a little disappointed more for my parents because now they have to go to every draw," Lisa said. "It's a lot of curling for them to watch." St-Georges, 27, is skipping Quebec at the Hearts for a fifth straight year. Her teams have reached the final six twice. "Someone called me like a veteran, and I'm like, 'Oh no, I'm playing against women that have so much experience and I have so much to learn from them,''' St-Georges said. "So I still feel like a rookie … which is fine with me." 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts: Scores, standings and scheduleTeams overcome travel woes, player sickness on opening day of ScottiesCOMMENTS When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines Should you violate our submissions guidelines we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time Search for academic programs, residence, tours and events and more George's University (SGU) has launched a new admissions partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University that will grant qualified Laurier students fast-track admission into the St George's University is delighted to offer this new opportunity for aspiring doctors from Wilfrid Laurier University to pursue degrees in medicine with us," said Dr George’s University School of Medicine “SGU is tremendously proud to partner with Laurier to create more avenues for qualified Canadian students to become practicing physicians while helping to address Canada’s ongoing physician shortage.” The partnership creates a "4+4" pathway that provides students who have successfully completed a four-year premedical curriculum at Laurier admission to the four-year MD program at SGU Laurier students interested in pursuing the pathway must maintain a strong undergraduate GPA and complete all prerequisite coursework in the health sciences The pathway also includes an option for students to enter the first year of the MD program at SGU’s campus in Grenada after their third year at Laurier provided they meet the standards of admission Students may apply to the pathway upon application to Laurier’s Honours Science program or while an enrolled student in most Bachelor of Science programs Qualified students will be eligible to complete the basic sciences component of the SGU MD program in either two years of study in Grenada or one year at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom and one year in Grenada Students’ clinical rotations will take place with SGU affiliates including those in the United States and the United Kingdom SGU School of Medicine works with a network of more than 75 hospitals and health systems in the United States Canada and the United Kingdom offering clinical and ambulatory training Students who have graduated from Laurier within the past five years are eligible to apply to the program meaning the agreement will also benefit Laurier alumni “This strategic partnership opens additional pathways into medical education for Laurier students taking many of our science programs and provides our graduates with Laurier-specific scholarships and benefits to support them as they enter medical school,” said Laurier Faculty of Science Dean Anthony J George's University to enhance our program offerings to students." Laurier students who are accepted into the pathways with sufficiently high overall GPA and sciences GPA will be awarded a scholarship of US $85,000 at SGU School of Medicine Students will also be eligible to be considered for all of SGU’s School of Medicine scholarships SGU granted more than US $50 million in scholarships in the 2022-2023 academic year Graduates of SGU School of Medicine have the option to write exams that allow them to practice medicine in Canada Visit the Laurier website and SGU website for more program details and application information George's University is a center of international education drawing students and faculty from 140 countries to the island of Grenada SGU is affiliated with educational institutions worldwide The University's over 28,000 graduates include physicians and public health and business professionals across the world George's University School of Medicine is accredited by the Grenada Medical and Dental Council which has been recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) Wilfrid Laurier University is committed to academic excellence Laurier’s holistic approach to learning integrates innovative programming with hands-on experience outside the classroom to ensure Laurier graduates are not only ready for the future but are inspired to leave their mark on the world Community is at the heart of everything the university does Laurier inspires students to engage in campus life and the broader community leading to high levels of student satisfaction and engaged alumni who carry the Laurier legacy throughout the world Laurier builds knowledge that serves society and creates connections that have a lasting impact Learn more about Laurier’s 20,000+ students in Waterloo By selecting “Accept” and continuing to use this website Due to heavy rainfall on Friday, August 9, Chemin Saint-Georges was closed indefinitely between addresses 65 and 74 in Rigaud.  According to Environment Canada, Rigaud received more than 169 mm of rain. Some shoulders and part of the road finally gave way. The public works team is busy securing private driveways. They will then repair the road surface. For the time being, no residents are landlocked. Unfortunately, it is not possible to give a precise date for the reopening of the road. Water is still running in the ditches and shoulders.  Pour partager votre opinion vous devez être connecté. Pour une troisième année, la MRC de Beauharnois-Salaberry annonce sa participation à l’initiative ministérielle Proximité, du ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation de Québec (MAPAQ). Elle a lancé le projet Proximité, permettant ainsi à onze entreprises du territoire de bénéficier de formations ainsi que d'un accompagnement ... Pet owners sometimes face high veterinary costs, especially when it comes to purchasing medication. However, an alternative exists for owners: adding their pet to the pharmaceutical file, enabling certain prescription treatments to be obtained at reduced cost from pharmacies. However, access to these medications remains limited due to regulatory ... Welcome to Day 2 of the TBI boys Super 16. We’ve already had an all-timer with STM’s incredible rally past St. Georges. Keep checking back for updates from our final three games throughout the evening. LANGLEY — At one point in the second half, as St. Thomas More’s Zeru Aberra picked himself up off the basketball court for the umpteenth time, his head coach asked him a simple question. “Hey Zeru, you alright,” Denzel Laguerta asked his crash-and-bang senior guard. “He told me ‘I’m fine,’” Laguerta would later say, after initially wondering if he needed to pull his team leader off the court for at least a brief respite after the pounding he was taking inside the paint against the St. George’s Saints in the quarterfinal round here at the TBI Super 16 tournament. “Then he told me that if we wanted to, we’d have to carry him off the court.” That was right around the time the No. 3 Triple-A Knights of Burnaby were trailing the No. 5 Quad-A Saints of Vancouver by a whopping 20-point (76-56) deficit. At that point St. Thomas More had literally no momentum. Every positive step they took was met by the same and more by its talented opposition. Yet somehow, with Abera leading the way, STM mounted perhaps the most incredible comeback in TBI history, finishing the game on a 26-4 run to claim a stunning 82-80 victory and berth in Friday’s Final Four semifinals. “I knew we could compete with these guys and coming out of the half (trailing 47-31), if we could clean it up…” said Abera, who would go on to score 19 of his game-high 41 points in the fourth quarter. “And then we had the game in our hands, and with all of the energy and momentum, we just took it over from them.” Truthfully, it was hard to fathom how quickly… and quietly the rally seemed to transpire. But with each stop on the defensive end, the tide just continued to turn.  At one stage, Abera’s personal point-scoring streak included three straight triples. And he also finished the fourth quarter shooting 6-of-7 from the free throw line. With a minute remaining, the Knights’ Shane Deza stole the ball at half court and deftly found a speeding Abera on his way to the basket. Abera hit both shots from the stripe to give STM an 80-79 lead with 56.3 seconds remaining. After Saints missed a three, Abera drew a foul and hit one of two for an 81-79 lead with 43.5 seconds left. St. George’s star guard Dorian Glogovac, who finished with a team-high 22 points, hit one of two free throws himself to make it 81-80 with 34.8 seconds left. Then, STM’s Grade 11 forward Logan Ball was fouled and he hit one of two shots to ultimately seal the victory at 82-80 with 7.6 seconds remaining. “I have awarded Zeru some leadership awards at STM, not for the points he scores, or the assists or rebounds,” Laguerta added. “It’s the way he leads himself. In every conditioning drill, he’s always up front. And if you tell him to jog it out, he’s going to sprint.” The win sends the Knights into the Final Four on Friday against the winner of the Vancouver College vs. Terry Fox game at 7:45 p.m. Deza added 12 points for the winners while Ball had 15. Jaevar KhunKhun had 17 for the Saints, Aryan Sablok 16 and Roman Simmons 15. “The culture we have here in terms of what me and coach Mitch (recent program architect and former longtime head coach Aaron Mitchell) are trying to build… he’s always taught me that early in the season it’s about the process.. not worried about wins and losses but more the resiliency and the culture we’re trying to build,” said Laguerta. Unspoken in all of this? Culture and resiliency are what ultimately make wins like Thursday’s possible. Abera couldn’t help but think it was a win which would serve as the reminder to he and his teammates the rest of the season that anything is possible. “That was one of the higher ranked Quad-A teams and if we can face this type of adversity,” said Abera, “I don’t think there is any other kind of adversity that we face that we won’t be able to get over.” LANGLEY — In the real-life lab of basketball education, 34-year-old Vancouver College head ocach Ryan Shams greatest strength might be the fact that he respects all the greats who have come before him. On Thursday, as TBI 2024’s Super 16 round reached its Elite 8 quarterfinals here at the Langley Events Centre, Shams and his Quad-A No. 4 Fighting Irish were gridning through the battle of their lives heading into the fourth quarter against the young, restless and unranked Terry Fox Ravens of Port Coquitlam. Important to note that this is the same team that Vancouver College dismantled in its season-opener by a 108-63 score back on Nov. 26. On Thursday, 63 points was almost enough to win the game, the Irish digging extra deep to find fourth-quarter stretch-drive success en route to a hard-earned 67-59 win. “Today was a tough one,” Shams said. “I think we got a little away from our team concepts, and we were forcing the one-on-one stuff. At the half we talked about playing as team, moving (the ball) and getting everyone involved and that helped a little. But respect to Fox, we beat them in our home opener and so you knew Chambers would have his team ready to go.” Chambers, of course, is the legendary Rich Chambers who has led B.C. high school boys teams for parts of the past six decades. And if you are looking for an explanation as to how a team that lost by 45 just 10 days ago can come back and lose by six in a contest where a few key plays could have reversed the outcome? “I warned them in the pregame not to take these guys for granted, that they won the junior proivincials last year,” reminded Shams. “So I knew we would be in for a dog fight.” And back to learning in the lab of real-life, real-time head-to-head coaching against the province’s deepest-rooted coaching Yodas? “One of the best ways to learn is to go up against the best so whether its Chambers, or (Oak Bays’ Chris) Franklin or (West Vancouver’s Paul) Eberhardt, that is the only way to get better as a coach… go up against guys that have been doing it forever. “And I love it. I know I will be in for a battle every time no matter what the rankings are because coaching is such a big part of basketball. It’s just awesome to compete against the best coaches in the province.” Andres Garcia scored 21 of his game-high 29 points in the second half, and was the only Irish player to hit double figures in scoring. For the Ravens, point guard Marvin Reyes and forward Jayson Ikani each Grade 10s, each scored 20 points. The Irish now move on to face the St. Thomas More Knights in the Final Four on Friday, tipping off at 7:45 p.m. LANGLEY — Its current run of top-level success has lasted long enough that any talk of their collective lack of height has become nothing more than a tired cliche. But if you’ve watched the current era of hoops being practiced by East Vancouver’s St. Patricks Celtics over the past five or seasons or so, there’s actually a key talking point with head coach Nap Santos’ program that never gets talked about. And so in the aftermath of the Triple-A No. 2-ranked Celtics’ decisive win over Coquitlam’s Quad-A honourable mention Centennial Centaurs in the quarterfinals here at the TBI 2024 Super 16, it was a simple question directed at Santos about what his team’s primary mindset is heading into games. “The mindset is just being really tough,” he smiled of his team “They are really nice kids so I don’t want that niceness to go out on the court because we’re trying to compete, and that is nothing against the other team. It’s all just being tough, especially on defence and doing whatever it takes to get that W.” It’s the same recipe that the Celtics will carry into Friday’s 6:15 p.m. semifinal clash against the Dover Bay-Burnaby South winner. And it’s also the same conversation Santos had a year ago this weekend when his team advanced all the way to the TBI Super 16 championship final before being handed a figurative jaw-breaking 91-32 shot to the chops by California’s St. Margarita Eagles. On that day, the first thing Santos wanted to talk about was what he called ‘The Bump’. “It’s about actually feeling it,” Santos said that day about the fact that not an inch of the court was given for free by the TBI’s U.S. visitors. “The bump. Getting bumped and getting hit. I think our guys needed that, and I loved it.” “I played in The Philippines and that is what it is like over there. “You have to try and find a way to get from point A to point B and they are not going to let you get to B. You have to find the way.” Thursday’s quarterfinal did not play out against that level of physicality. Yet it’s a lie to say that the thumping his team took that day at the hands of Santa Margarita has not resonated deeply. “It’s an attitude.. that you don’t just give ‘em the position. Let ‘em work for it. That is like The Bump. Don’t make it easy for the other team,” Santos continued. Despite the fact that the long-limbed Centaurs were able to put great talent on the floor in 6-foot-7 star Alex Birsan and rising 6-foot-6 Marcus Perry, the Celtics were able to dictate tempo and tenor on its own terms. “It’s always been heart over height at St. Pat’s,” Santos continued. “We’re not afraid of the bigs, we’re not posting up anyone, but teams will post us up, so learn how to defend it. If you have that edge, that attitude, just be tough so that we can compete with those bigger teams.” And then there the other half of that coin, the fact that the Celtics, along with Vancouver College, might have the best core of three-point shooters in the province. On Thursday, it was St. Pat’s tallest player, 6-foot-4 Jakobi Matalabos, who took his shooting stroke to a different place. Matalabos finished with a game-high 33 points, hitting eight triples in the process. Riley Santa Juana added 20 points, Heracles Mai 10 more, and Arkin Solis another nine with a trio of triples. Birsan led the Centaurs with 13 points on a night when the St. Patricks defence gave up very little inside. On the game, Centennial hit eight three-pointers but just 13 field goals inside the arc. LANGLEY — The Dover Bay Dolphins are proving that they are improving on the court with all of the reps they are getting in practice and in games as the No. 2-ranked team in the B.C. Quad-A rankings. The Dolphins are also proving that they are adept at keeping their focus while playing the role of road warriors for the second straight week. After dispatching the competition with four wins in three days to claim the Kodiak Classic championship title at Heritage Woods Secondary last Saturday, the Nanaimo squad is, of course, back on the mainland for the 2024 TBI Super 16. Thursday, Forward Hudson Trood led five Dophins in double figures with a game-high 22 points, 20 of which came between the second and third quarters, as the tourney’s No. 1-seed topped an improving Burnaby South Rebels squad 88-72. The victory propels the Dolphins into a 6:15 p.m. semifinal on Friday against East Vancouver’s St. Patricks Celtics. The 7:45 p.m. semifinal pits the Quad-A No. 4 Vancouver College Fighting Irish against the Triple-A No. 3 St. Thomas More Knights of Burnaby. Dover Bay, which has blended athleticism, smarts and size to great effect over the past few seasons, hit 10 triples on Thursday, including three from 6-foot-4 Dane Schmidt who came off the bench to score 10 points. Senior forward and team scoring leader Frank Linder added 20 points, point guard Joe Linder 13 more, while senior guard Evan Slater also knocked down a trio of triple to finish with 12 points. Guards Llorikk Gutierrez and Sean Lay led Burnaby South with 20 and 19 points respectively, Lay hitting five threes on the game. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Laurie St-Georges' curling team has partially disbanded after narrowly missing the playoffs at the Canadian women's curling championship. St-Georges, vice Jamie Sinclair, second Emily Riley and lead Lisa Weagle went 5-3 at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., to finish just outside the top three teams at 6-2 that advanced out of their pool. The team said Thursday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Sinclair and Weagle were stepping away from the team "to pursue new opportunities and personal endeavors." St-Georges was a second-team all-star in her fifth straight appearance skipping Quebec. Sinclair, a former U.S. women's champion skip, joined St-Georges' team in 2023 and three-time Canadian champion lead Weagle was recruited last year. The post said St-Georges and Riley were exploring their options. Rachel Homan curls perfect game, beats Kerri Einarson in Scotties finalQuebec’s Laurie St-Georges makes Scotties Tournament of Hearts historyCOMMENTS Sparks are expected to fly when two of the island’s top teams lock horns in the opening round of the Premier Division T20 campaign at Sea Breeze Oval tomorrow Fans are in store for a real treat when Bailey’s Bay host T20 knockout and 50-overs champions St George’s to the picturesque venue hopes to get his team’s title defence off to a solid start and has braced himself for another tough battle in the east end derby “It's always a good rivalry when Bay play St George's so we are looking forward to it and kick starting our season,” Fray told The Royal Gazette “T20 league champions versus T20 knockout champions so it's a lot around the match and the guys are hungry and ready “We are looking forward to cricket being back at Sea Breeze Oval and I encourage everyone to come out and support because it's a big game for us We know St George's are going to be ready to play.” who suffered a knee injury while on international duty at the North American Cup in Cayman Islands also expects a tough outing against the home team “We are looking forward to the new season and this is one of the toughest games we could have possibly started with as Bay are a close-knit team like us,” he said The match will mark wicketkeeper and former Bay player Sinclair Smith’s first as St George’s captain having succeeded Onias Bascome who joined St David’s in the off-season transfer period “Wishing my new captain Sinclair Smith the best as I have all the confidence in him and our restructured team,” Smith added Somerset host St David’s at Somerset Cricket Club with Cleveland County and Devonshire facing off at PHC Field in tomorrow’s remaining top-flight T20 league fixture All Premier Division T20 matches begin at 2.30pm Weekend cricket action gets under way today with three First Division T20 matches Somerset Bridge take on Western Stars (10.30am) and PHC and Flatts (2.30pm) in a double-header at Lord’s while Southampton Rangers and Western Counties rivals Willow Cuts (2.30pm) do battle at Somerset Cricket Club First Division action continues tomorrow with Warwick facing Western Stars at Sea Breeze Oval (10.30am) Willow Cuts take on hosts PHC at PHC Field (2.30pm) with Southampton Rangers up against Somerset Bridge at Somerset Cricket Club (2.30pm) also in fixtures involving Western Counties rivals You must be Registered or to post comment or to vote Which of the Throne Speech promises is the Government best equipped to deliver on View Results It's a difficult course and one that only reasonably experienced and competent golfers will get round The wind is a factor but the holes themselves are challenging A course rating of 75.2 against a par of 70 off the very back tees All players are required to have a handicap index of 18.4 or less Handicap verification is required upon checking-in on your date of play Golfing attire is acceptable throughout the Club until 11.00am after which jacket and tie is mandatory for gentlemen so as to complement the dress code applying to gentlemen Gentlemen may wear tailored shorts on the course if accompanied by knee-length socks Golfing attire is allowed on the terrace and in the Snack Bar throughout the day Jeans and trainers are not to be worn under any circumstances windswept links is ranked 11th in our Top 100 UK&I Course Rankings in association with Peter Millar https://www.royalstgeorges.com office@royalstgeorges.com Royal St George's provides one of the strongest layouts in the UK and Ireland it’s a challenging yet fair windswept links offering a thorough examination of ball-striking and strategy A course where you walk in the footsteps of golfing greats and feel that gravitas for the full 18 holes excellent contouring and a highly challenging routing - pointing you in all directions to face all wind directions – Historic location for first Open held outside Scotland – Tremendous layout asking for complete control of the game – Test yourself on the subtle contouring UK & Ireland Top 100 Golf Courses 2025/26 - 11 making it difficult to single out individual holes but a couple of standouts include the testing par-4 4th where you must drive over one of Britain’s tallest bunkers and the brilliant par-5 14th where out-of-bounds all down the right side a stream bisecting the fairway and perfectly positioned bunkering demand absolute precision Founded in 1887, Royal St George’s was the first English course to play host to The Open Championship, which it did in 1894. The club has welcomed golf’s most prestigious tournament 15 times in all, with Collin Morikawa the most recent Open champion at St George’s I'd like to say Royal St George's was the first Open Championship links I played fairly early in my golfing 'career' and it sort of was.. until I discovered that neighbouring Prince's this was my first Open Championship links experience and it took things to a whole new dimension for me Everything was done slightly differently and felt different somehow the odd top pro over the years has complained about the unfairness of the bounce which is perhaps more prevalent on the rumpled fairways here but my view is that if you can't deal with that (overlooking all the kind bounces A great feature at St George’s is the fact the holes all point in different directions Picking an aiming point from the tee is crucial Subscribe to the Golf Monthly newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest tour news head-to-heads and buyer’s guides from our team of experienced experts anything hit towards the sides of the putting surfaces will fall away On the greens there are subtle breaks but there’s less borrow than there first appears The surfaces are always magnificently prepared and presented A couple more standout holes include the tough 15th a 475 yard par 4 with bunkers left and right from the tee where you’re faced with a long approach to a tiny pear-shaped green with cross-bunkers waiting just short an attractive short hole with bunkers surrounding the two-tiered putting surface Selecting the right club is critical especially in windy conditions Cameron MoreGolf Monthly Top 100 PanellistRoyal St George's is one of the finest links in GB and is rightly world-renowned It is a championship course that is exacting from the off with rumpled fairways and incredible run-offs A score of handicap or better here is truly a great score the course has a fantastic set of holes which require concentration and execution to succeed The experience at 'RSG' is such a treat and something that everyone should seek to sample Cathal DevlinGolf Monthly Top 100 PanellistThe design of the course strikes a perfect balance between playable and challenging The course feels grand and at no stage is it cramped or imposing The variety of hazards encountered is absorbing hazardous traps and delightful contours must all be navigated as you plot your way around the links keeping the golfer engaged with the task at hand The diversity of the green complexes is outstanding with slopes of all shapes and sizes available to work the ball closer to the hole Contact the club via the Royal St George's website for more details This two-time Open venue follows a broadly out-and-back routing with one or two deviations including an Old Course-style loop at the far end The outward nine hugs the sea wall closely in places and the course has benefitted hugely from Martin Ebert’s judicious and selective design touch in recent years All three nines at Prince’s have benefited from a transformational and hugely impressive upgrade under the expert guidance of Martin Ebert and while it is very difficult to say which two loops are the best each of the Shore and Himalayas nines has a delightful new par 3 facing out to sea The Lodge at Princes Golf Club - book now at princesgolfclub.co.ukSituated at the entrance of Prince’s has 38 bedrooms including two lavish Bay and Links suites all with en-suite facilities with the modern essentials the Royal is an 18th century hotel offering spacious rooms He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100 making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts He reached the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course Put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting) Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚ Ball: Any premium ball I can find in a charity shop or similar (or out on the course!) you will then be prompted to enter your display name The changes have begun in women's curling following the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.  Quebec's Team Laurie St-Georges announced third Jamie Sinclair and lead Lisa Weagle would be leaving the team to "pursue new opportunities and personal endeavors."  🩵 pic.twitter.com/jak0fCSOok Quebec posted a 5-3 record at the Scotties in Thunder Bay this year but missed the playoffs after dropping their round-robin finale to Nova Scotia's Team Christina Black.  and passion for the sport have made a lasting impact on our team and we're grateful for all the special moments shared together," Team St-Georges said in a social media post "We will miss being their teammates but will cherish a lifelong friendship with these two wonderful people."  Sinclair has played the last two seasons with St-Georges while Weagle a three-time Scotties champion and 2018 Olympian appearing in her first Canadian women's curling championship since 2021.  has represented Quebec at five straight Scotties.  said they would continue to explore options for next season.  Catholics from across the globe have found a home in the Diocese of Lansing Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Saint George Mary Cathedral in Lansing depicts the baptism of St and spread the faith across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms The builders of our cathedral understood that St Ethelbert’s conversion marked the beginning of Catholicism in the English-speaking world shaping a distinctly English expression of Catholic spirituality that continues to bring souls to Christ the Virgin Mary appeared to Richeldis de Faverches instructing her to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth This Holy House memorialized Mary’s joy at the Annunciation the root of man’s salvation,” a message re-echoed in the Angelus devotion Our Lady promised her motherly help to all who devoutly seek her there as popular as the Camino to Santiago de Compostela in Spain Devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham reinforced England’s spiritual identity as the “Dowry of Mary,” a title dating back to at least the 14th century It signifies England’s consecration to the Blessed Virgin where a dowry was a gift of property provided by a husband for his wife’s security It is in this sense that the title “Dowry of Mary” is understood; that England has been especially set apart for Our Lady Catholic England was also called “the island of saints” and “the most devoted child of the See of Peter.” Throughout the medieval period and into the Reformation the only English-born doctor of the Church wrote extensively on Scripture and history coining the terms “AD” and “BC” to mark dates relative to the birth of Christ was martyred in 1170 for defending the Church’s liberty against secular interference and other houses of religious life were found in nearly every town across the land is associated with the beginnings of the Brown Scapular devotion Writers like Dame Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe enriched the English mystical tradition by reflecting on divine mercy The English Reformation brought immense suffering to Catholics Thomas More were executed for upholding the sanctity of marriage and union with Rome after Henry VIII’s break with the Church Their sacrifices solidified the unconquered resilience of English Catholics who kept the faith alive through clandestine Masses and the practice of the faith in recusant families’ households English Catholicism experienced rebirth following the Oxford Movement This renewal found expression in literature who reproposed the faith in works like Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man Gerard Manley Hopkins expressed a sacramental vision of nature in his poetry captured the struggles and triumphs of the faith in an increasingly secular world Pope Benedict XVI once remarked: “The great tradition of English Catholic spirituality has much to offer the Church today It is a spirituality of both contemplation and action which expresses the deep interior life of the individual and the commitment to work for the common good SIGN UP HERE ContactSign-Up e-newsSitemapOutreach Mass Your browser is too old. To use this website, please use Chrome or Firefox November 6, 2024 @ 1:53 pmNews GUELPH – With an eviction deadline staring them in the face unhoused people living in downtown Guelph’s St George’s Square don’t know what they are going to do come Nov Guelph city council recently passed a public space use bylaw that restricts where encampments can be located George’s Square is identified as a “sensitive public space” not suitable for encampments and on Oct bylaw officers taped notices to the 20-some shelters in the square He lived in the square for about nine months after a series of events led to him being homeless 1 to check on his friends and donate some of the clothing he doesn’t think he’ll be needing “The encampment is a great community of people,” he said “It’s the ‘walk-bys’ (people who walk by and stare) that are more of the issue They go out of their way to take pictures and make unneeded comments Mazza said he had a job and an apartment and things were good until he was in a car accident that was life altering and because of an issue with the Ministry of Transportation it appears on paper that he still owns some cars Guelph’s deputy CAO of public services Colleen Clack-Bush stated in an email the posted notices refer to the shelters and structures that must be removed “and not the individuals themselves,” she said There are many public services offered in the downtown core from social services to the safe injection site to food and clothing offered by local churches People will still be allowed to congregate and be downtown They just can’t erect structures for sleeping city staff will proceed with the dismantling of shelters that haven’t yet been removed,” Clack-Bush said She acknowledged an increased presence of bylaw officers in the core “to monitor and provide support as needed for those who are complying with the order to remove their structures,” she said This infographic is what the City of Guelph is using to explain its new public space use bylaw Encampments are permitted; just not within the restricted areas Guelph Police also announced in a press release on Oct 28 a public safety initiative targeted at open drug use and “associated criminal behaviour” downtown there were two bylaw vehicles parked on Wyndham Street and two Guelph Police vehicles parked around the corner in the BMO parking lot Police and bylaw officers stood together by the fountain in the square observing the scene and talking amongst themselves They were just there and not approaching people He called the police community safety initiative the “heat program Mazza added pushing the homeless population to the fringes of public parks which are allowed for encampments according to the bylaw removes them from the services offered downtown and the community they have formed in the core “They are moving (the homeless) so they don’t see them “It makes access to programs even harder instead of looking at the root cause.” The city had provided a map of places in Guelph where encampments are allowed but has since removed it from its website “In an effort to provide the most accurate and clear information possible we have removed the Public Space Use bylaw map from the website at this time we’ve provided an infographic to help people understand the specifics of the bylaw more clearly,” Clack-Bush said “The map was initially created as a visual demonstration tool and was not intended as a complete representation of the bylaw or part of the bylaw itself.” She said the map caused confusion; the public space use bylaw is the official resource The infographic doesn’t say where encampments can be located – only that five tents per cluster are permitted and there must be 10 meters of separation between clusters There’s a long list of where they can’t go including Market Square; on paths or trails; in fountains George’s Square; or within 10 metres of schools and playgrounds or lakes and rivers Clack-Bush said bylaw officials will work with police on enforcement matters when needed and bylaw officers will visit new encampment locations to ensure people are safe George’s Square did not want to speak to a reporter Instead they turned their backs to the wind rolled up their collars and hunkered down for one more night in the square 905 Gartshore Street, Fergus ON N1M 2W8. © All materials copyright Wellington Advertiser, 2006-2025. Photographs and text found here may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without express permission. If you need something, please ask. Your feedback is welcome. Please direct comments, questions or suggestions to editor@wellingtonadvertiser.com Sign In Register — Rachel Homan's team remained unbeaten at the Canadian women's curling championship while Quebec's Laurie St-Georges contributed to gridlock in her team's pool Monday Defending champion Homan defeated Saskatchewan's Nancy Martin 9-6 to sit alone atop Pool A at 4-0 "We've played some tough teams and good to get the wins out against those tough teams," Homan said Quebec's St-Georges beat four-time national champion Kerri Einarson of Manitoba 9-6 Quebec was tied for first in Pool B with Ontario's Danielle Inglis and Nova Scotia's Christina Black all at 3-1 There were five teams with one loss in that pool with Einarson and Manitoba's Kate Cameron both at 2-1 "It's definitely not clear cut," said St-Georges' third Jamie Sinclair The top three teams in each pool of nine at the conclusion of the round-robin Thursday advance to a round of six The four Page playoff teams emerge from that half-dozen Sunday's winner of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay represents Canada at the world championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu Homan's vice Tracy Fleury posted a 99 accuracy percentage in the win over Saskatchewan I didn't know she played 99," the skip said "We couldn't have won that game without her playing 99 There were a lot of team shots out there." Front end brushers Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes dragged Homan's draw for a nibble of the rings in the ninth end which set up the skip for two points and a 9-6 lead coming home You don't hear that every day," Homan said Her Ottawa Curling Club foursome extended its streak of wins at the Hearts to 16 in a row dating back to last year's unbeaten run in Calgary B.C.'s Corryn Brown was 4-1 after a 10-3 win over Nunavut's Julia Weagle "We even could have been five and oh pretty easily too so we're really happy with where we're at right now," said Brown whose lone loss was a 9-8 decision against Alberta's Kayla Skrlik who lost 10-4 to Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville The hometown McCarville rink received a rousing cheer at the Fort William Gardens when it ended a four-game skid but the odds for a playoff spot were long after a 9-3 loss to Brown in the morning "We didn't really give the crowd to much to cheer about before this," McCarville said "It felt really nice to do it for ourselves McCarville was among a five-way tie of 4-4 teams in third in a pool last year in Calgary but finished on the outside via the tiebreaker formula Head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker followed by the cumulative last-stone draw distances that precede each draw McCarville ranked eighth in LSD in Pool A as of Monday "We know it's a very slim outside chance with what's happening right now "We're just going to try and win our next game and that's all we can really do right now." New Brunswick's Melissa Adams was tied at 2-2 with Alberta's Selena Sturmay after an 8-7 victory over Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo (1-3) Northwest Territories' Kerry Galusha and Yukon's Bayly Scoffin were 1-2 after Galusha beat Scoffin 14-8 Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes fell to 1-3 after an 8-6 loss to Ontario Brooke Godsland of Newfoundland and Labrador was winless in four games This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb Inspired by the light-filled visions of Guardi Turner — and yet wholly his own — Signac’s Neo-Impressionist interpretation of La Serenissima pulses with vibrant colour The work hails from an exceptional series Signac painted of Venice between 1904 and 1908 it appears at auction after 70 years in the same private French collection Entrance to the Grand Canal — now held in the Toledo Museum of Art is often regarded as the most important work by the artist in an American public collection Both paintings were first exhibited at Signac’s seminal 1907 exhibition at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune this extraordinary work will be on view in the galleries of Sotheby’s Paris — located in the very building that later became home to the legendary Galerie Bernheim-Jeune It will then go on view in New York at the beginning of May before being offered with an estimate of $7 – $10M as a star of Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale in New York Couchant (Venise) comes to auction with impeccable provenance having passed through the hands of three of the 20th century’s most remarkable patrons: Gustave Fayet Maurice Girardin — each guided by the renowned dealer Eugène Druet who handled the work no fewer than three times a visionary supporter of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon acquired the painting directly from Druet in 1905 Letters between the artist and Fayet reveal a deep mutual admiration with Signac personally requesting the painting’s loan for the pivotal 1907 exhibition The Fondation Louis Vuitton will be devoting a retrospective to Fayet and his collection in 2026 as part of its ongoing series on the great collectors of the 20th century (Chtchoukine in 2016-1017 and Morozov in 2021-2022) a legendary collector of Impressionist and Modern art Girardin later recounted his first encounter with the painting — a moment that sparked his lifelong passion for collecting: il m’arrivait dans mes permissions de visiter des galeries modernes j’admirai un Signac de Venise ; timidement je me renseignai du prix : 500 francs I sometimes visited modern galleries on leave I admired a Signac from Venice; shyly I asked about the price: 500 francs The work has remained with the same family since Girardin’s collection was sold in 1953 and now emerges at auction as not only a rare example of Signac’s scenes of Venice but the most valuable works depicting Venice by Signac ever to be offered at auction ArtDependence Magazine is an international magazine covering all spheres of contemporary art ArtDependence features the latest art news highlighting interviews with today’s most influential artists fair directors and individuals at the axis of the arts The magazine also covers series of articles and reviews on critical art events new publications and other foremost happenings in the art world If you would like to submit events or editorial content to ArtDependence Magazine, please feel free to reach the magazine via the contact page 2025) - Utah Royals FC announce the signing of free agent forward Bianca St-Georges St-Georges will spend the 2025 NWSL season in the Beehive state NC where she notched three goals in 21 appearances for NC St-Georges started her career in Chicago after being selected 20th overall in the 2019 NWSL College Draft by the Chicago Red Stars "We are excited to welcome Bianca St-Georges to the Utah Royals FC family" said Sporting Director Kelly Cousins "Bianca has a wealth of experience as a NWSL veteran and Canadian international that will help the team to continue their development and be even more competitive in this league While in Chicago for her first three professional years St-Georges recorded 44 appearances for the Stars scoring six goals St-Georges got her first goal contributions in the same match scoring and assisting in a 3-2 victory in the 2020 Challenge Cup Semi-final against Sky Blue FC (now Gotham FC) St-Georges shined in her final year as a Mountaineer Leaving West Virginia as a junior and leaving a year of eligibility on the table St-Georges declared for the 2019 draft and graduated as a All-Big 12 First team selection St-Georges concluded her time in Morgantown with 81 appearances and nine goals The Quebec native has represented the Canadian National Team on both the youth and senior level St-Georges began playing with the U-17 team at the 2013 CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship contributing to their silver medal propelling Canada to the U-17 Women’s World Cup a year later St-Georges did the same with the U-20 squad in 2015 and 2016 Logging her first senior cap with Canada on June 22 2021 in a 0-0 friendly draw against Czech Republic St-Georges would return to the Canucks a year later as part of the 2022 CONCACAF Women's Championship silver medal squad with current URFC forward Cloé Lacasse St-Georges most recently appeared in the 2024 SheBelieves Cup 1-1 (4:2) Semi-Final win over Brazil Utah Royals FC returns to action after flipping the script under Head Coach Coenraets finishing the 2024 season 5-4-2, 17 pts under Coenraets helm. Hosting 2024 expansion sibling Bay FC at America First Field on March 15 URFC look to continue its unbeaten streak against Bay after completing the 2024 sweep. Don’t miss this year's action, season tickets are available now at https://www.rsl.com/utahroyals/tickets/ As prices surged at this year ’s Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges wine auction what do the sale’s results say about the broader state of the fine wine market The beginning of March saw the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auction take place during which the 2024 vintage went under the hammer Billed as Burgundy’s best kept secret by iDealwine which organised the event for the first time this auction gives wine enthusiasts a chance to purchase 228-litre barrels with the profits going to the hospital attached to the winemaking estate Just like its larger and more well-known counterpart in Beaune the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges combines healthcare and winemaking with a story steeped in history the hospital gained its financial independence through donations Legend has it that Hugues Perdrizet bequeathed the first vines in 1688 the wines produced from the hospital’s vineyards were sold before they started to be auctioned by the barrel in 1961 with the funds raised helping to maintain the work in the vineyard and being reinvested into the hospital the proceeds of one barrel of wine are donated to another worthy cause working in the healthcare or humanitarian sector This tradition honours the generosity of those who donated the vines in the first place This year ’s auction will go down in history for two reasons: the first for the average price of a barrel rising 41.5% on the previous year; the second for the bottles and magnums of the estate’s wines from 2005-2017 (that were all snapped up by bidders) which were put up for auction to compensate for 2024’s small harvest This final point helps to put this year ’s auction results into context The 2024 vintage was marred by disastrous weather and mildew This resulted in a 75.5% drop in the volume up for auction in 2025 the results of the Hospices de Beaune auction in November last year were not so rosy Often said to reflect the current state of the market prices of red wine barrels fell by 5% – a stark contrast to the results of 2025’s Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges sale where the average price of a red wine barrel increased 40.6% on last year the average price per barrel at the Hospices de Beaune auction was up 8% – but that is nothing compared to the gigantic 40% increase for the Hospice de Nuits’ white wines Chardonnay only makes up 5% of the production there but the increase in the average price for the estate’s white wines still exceeded expectations But this doesn’t fully explain the surge in prices true: there are three factors that we need to bear in mind when analysing this unprecedented increase masterfully crafted beautiful wines that encapsulate everything a wine enthusiast searches for in a Burgundian Pinot Noir 150 barrels were filled during the 2023 vintage This makes the rise in the average barrel price at this year ’s auction even more impressive it is remarkably close to the all-time record set in 2022 (€22,807) But how does this compare to the current market Although auction prices of fine wine have generally fallen over the past two years as its average price remained stable in 2024 The first lies in the unique nature of this auction The proceeds directly fund the work of the hospital so locals actively support these institutions and they often try to compensate for the low yields by pushing bids higher for each pièce The second factor is the excellent quality of the wines The auction battles and prices are a testament to the outstanding work of Jean-Marc Moron – an exceptional winemaker – and his team in a year that was plagued with issues The Pinot Noirs that went under the hammer on 9 March embody the variety’s classic style: purity The prices are a well-earned tribute to the team’s remarkable work The third reason for the increase in prices lies in the current market dynamics for Côte de Nuits wines Demand for Pinot Noir from this prestigious region is strong around the globe the wines of the Hospices de Nuits flew under the radar director of the Hospices de Beaune (which has managed the Hospices de Nuits since 2016) which had long been a local affair and not very well-known outside Burgundy a more international and modern dimension by entrusting it to a global player like iDealwine The wines’ true market value has seen the light of day and the prices for the 2024 vintage were driven by their rarity which is just starting in Nuits-Saint-Georges when it goes under the hammer next year to see if it can match the prices that 2024’s wines obtained iDealwine is France’s top wine auctioneer and leading online wine auction house worldwide • Fine Spirits Auction (FSA) is iDealwine’s dedicated spirits platform launched in partnership with La Maison du Whisky a French specialist in high-end spirits since 1956 and with offices in Bordeaux and Hong Kong iDealwine sources rare bottles from European cellars private collections and direct from producers before meticulously authenticating and shipping to enthusiasts • If you are keen to sell your wines or spirits, check out idealwine.com We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again The carillon is a concert instrument whose dynamics and nuances can be controlled as finely as a piano or violin and the player can create the most powerful sounds alongside gentle and melodic passages Many people do not realize that the music emanating from St George’s bell tower is being played by a real person is not automated and is a completely manual and mechanical instrument Ont.) has studied carillon performance and arranging for several years She is a graduate of the prestigious Royal Carillon School in Mechelen Belgium and a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America She has performed numerous carillon concerts in Europe and North America and is a regular player of the beautiful 36-bell carillon at St Deborah’s program on Aug. 18 is built around the concept of ‘voyages’ featuring the folksongs Scarborough Fair and The Ash Grove These are followed by Spanish-inspired works: La Catédral by Paraguayan guitarist Agustín Barrios Mangoré arranged for carillon by Deborah Hennig a sultry Spanish dance by Emmanuel Chabrier Joy of Man’s Desiring and the soaring modern hymn On Eagle’s Wings The program concludes with Canadiana including Image No 2 by Canadian carillonneur Émilien Allard Listeners will enjoy the instrument’s versatility colours and virtuosity as its unique sounds float through the air around St The bells can be heard best from the area immediately surrounding the church Douglas Street and the Courthouse parking lot offer good listening areas and audience members are encouraged to bring a folding seat for the 45-minute concert The concert is free and open to the public George’s was originally a 23-bell instrument installed in 1926 by the British bell foundry Gillett and Johnston it was refurbished and expanded by US bell founders Meeks Watson to 36 bells and is a rare gem among carillons in Canada The celebrations in honour of a warrior saint have begun News | UK A day celebrating dragon slaying and tales of knighthood has begun, with St George’s Day (April 23) being national day acknowledged by many Christian churches The day is dedicated to the patron saint of England, St George. This springtime celebration, also known as The Feast of George, is the perfect opportunity to fly your English flag - literally and figuratively It is not quite a bank holiday or a day off from work but you can still celebrate the anniversary of St George’s historic triumph this April Here’s everything you need to know about St George’s Day St George’s Day is typically celebrated on April 23 - the day of the patron saint’s death in 303 AD the UK does not hold a bank holiday on St George’s Day St George’s Day is a Christian feast day commemorating Saint George of Lydda who was executed by the Romans on April 23 more than 1,000 years ago he rose up the ranks to become a member of the Praetorian Guard for Emperor Diocletian the tale goes that St George was tortured and later executed by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith He was widely celebrated as a warrior saint but in 1346 his position was elevated to patron saint after his recounted intervention at the Battle of Crécy In 1552 all religious banners were abolished The myth of Saint George was further popularised in the 13th century when it was published in a manuscript called The Golden Legend According to the hagiography (saint story) George heroically slayed a dragon and rescued a princess from being eaten the people of the town converted to Christianity is now celebrated as England’s national day St George’s Day is no longer a public holiday in England unlike our Scottish (St Andrew’s Day) and Irish (St Patrick’s Day) cousins While it used to be observed much like Christmas celebrations started to wane in the early 18th century there are calls for it to be observed as a national holiday Celebration often includes a feast hosted by the Church of England You can hold your own with traditional English foods such as Yorkshire puddings Or don a red rose - if you believe the tale where St George gifted the princess a flower upon saving her Leadenhall Market in the City of London is throwing a celebration to celebrate the day on Wednesday (April 23) that is free to attend There will even be Morris Men performances at 11am and 1pm There will also be music to commemorate the national event - the Band of the Coldstream Guards are set to host a free concert in The Guards' Chapel on Birdcage Walk from 7pm. It is a ticketed event and full details can be found here. Another free event is a garden party taking place at St George's Garden in Waterloo at the southern end of Blackfriars Road mocktails and sweet treats provided by local businesses plus a free gardening workshop led by community gardener Frances Ward St George’s Day: Why don’t we get a bank holiday Best royal teddy bears to celebrate the King’s Coronation How much are the Crown Jewels worth and are King Charles’ the same as the Queen’s Very little is actually known about the life and deeds of St George If he ever existed (there’s no proof he did) George would likely have been born in the 3rd century AD more than 2,000 miles away in Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey) The Roman church itself had its doubts about the veracity of St George’s existence it declared that George was “one of the saints who were rightly reverenced by men St George might be hailed as England’s national hero but he wasn’t actually English and never even visited the country his reputation for virtue and holiness spread across Europe and his feast day was celebrated in England from the 9th century onwards Edward I (1272-1307) had banners bearing the emblem of St George (a red cross on a white background) and Edward III (1327-77) had a strong interest in the saint and owned a relic of his blood England is far from the only country or region to claim St George as its patron Ethiopia and Catalonia among others as their patron saint and many of these places have their own celebrations in his honour The well known myth that St George rode into Silene (modern-day Libya) to free the city from a dragon is actually a story which post-dates the ‘real’ George by several centuries It may have started simply as a way to explain icons of military saints slaying dragons and kitted his troops in the St George’s cross when fighting the Welsh He raised St George’s flag over Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland in 1300 King Edward III gave St George a special position as a patron saint of the Order of the Garter in thanks for his supposed intervention at the Battle of Crécy VE Day 2025 fashion: best looks from the day VE Day 2025 fashion: Princess of Wales to Lady Victoria Starmer Prince Louis steals the show at VE Day parade as he keeps dad William looking sharp and mimics brother George Prince Louis steals show with sweet antics at VE parade Ukraine 'launches stunning Kursk offensive' in major blow for Putin ahead of Victory Day celebrations Ukraine 'launches stunning Kursk offensive' in blow for Putin David Beckham extends olive branch to son Brooklyn amid 'family feud' Pregnant Jesy Nelson reveals plans for future in message from her hospital bed after surgery Pregnant Jesy Nelson reveals plans for future in message from hospital St George’s Day was commemorated as an apotropaic ritual undertaken to ward off evil.’ Photo: Justin Tallis/Getty The police menace law-abiding people for speaking their minds The country feels as if it is one Islamist bombing away from eruption.” Just as with Easter, marked this year by booming church attendance and a perceptible new air of politicisation the day when the English people take stock of who they are has taken on a new political salience a public mood very different from that of our recent past A close reading of St George’s Day political messaging ahead of the Government’s inevitable drubbing in next week’s English local elections reveals a population increasingly ruled by Westminster as a sullen and borderline rebellious tribe By Aris Roussinos For the ruling Labour Party, St George’s Day was commemorated as an apotropaic ritual undertaken to ward off evil. “There are people trying to sow division in our communities, people taking the red and white of our flag with them, as they throw bricks at businesses and our police,” Starmer lectured the nation with all the stern appeal of a substitute teacher faced with an unruly class His reference to his predecessor as “an English Hindu” was an explicit nod to the weeks-long debate earlier this year as to whether or not Rishi Sunak is meaningfully English a topic of political discourse unthinkable just a few years ago and the product of the newfound ethnic consciousness unwittingly accelerated by mass immigration and its advocates have the air of a civil rights movement for what is still Catastrophic misgovernance has brought us here: progressive overreach has brought about reaction and perhaps soon overreaction; while uncomfortable truths left buried to maintain social order now threaten to emerge in an uncontrollable form The most violent scenes in last summer’s riots took place, after all, in Rotherham, a name now indelibly associated with state failure. There, the British state’s apparent collusion in a decades-long campaign of sexual exploitation approaching the scale of war crimes the product and accelerant of a Northern English urban landscape as segregated along ethnic lines as that of Ulster has placed a time-bomb beneath the foundations of its own legitimacy the governing party can neither reveal the full extent of the horror nor long actively suppress it Labour’s Mirpuri vote bank has now outgrown the party while the buried secrets of its once-unchallenged Northern governance have made fertile ground for a growing nationalist Right the party looks destined to be ground to dust between the tectonic plates of these two newly assertive identities For Sadiq Khan, whose video’s chosen imagery of elderly Pearly Kings and Queens in their tribal finery conveyed much the air of an American land acknowledgment footage of multicultural celebration sat uneasily with a sombre warning against “the rise of populism and prejudice around the world” “stood up for what he believed in” (whether this meant Christianity or killing dragons went unexplained) “England is a tapestry of different cultures woven together to tell one story,” Khan intoned as the video showed his “London Welcomes Refugees” posters on the Tube and a happy multiracial crowd dancing hokey-cokey in the spring sun As with Starmer’s attempt to divert English identity onto the more comfortable plane of football and Fabian decency or the almost parodically bloodless patriotism of the Dover MP Mike Tapp endlessly shrouding himself in the Union Flag and Brown’s state-mandated British Values the ruling party’s St George’s Day communications were simultaneously anodyne and heavily politicised the governing Left is pursued by an amorphous rapidly evolving Right whose deathly grasp it cannot escape the country has been engaged in a slow-burning from Brexit’s violent rupture with Westminster’s decades-old political consensus to the electorate’s wild and desperate lurches between any party pledging to break the trajectory of decline Northern England has emerged as the neglected kingmaker in British politics delivering ephemeral landslides to Johnson’s Tories and then Starmer’s Labour before violently rejecting each in turn A Westminster lobby entranced by the drama of the new party’s rise has yet to grapple with the consequences of its likely failure By Aris Roussinos Writing in 1977 the Scottish nationalist writer Tom Nairn foresaw a future where the pressures building up beneath a Westminster system shared between two parties of only cosmetic difference would eventually lead to that system’s breakdown “Only the combined pressures of external collapse (e.g the breakdown of the currency) and internal upheaval (whether as nationalist or as social revolt or the two at once) will be enough to unseat this resistant system,” Nairn wrote would be a new “Gaullism” of the English Right which “while of course manipulating the symbols of tradition and extolling the ancient virtues will be forced to go beyond a transitional It will desert the sacred continuities even as it hymns them.” For “its principal purpose is laid down in advance: the forcible breakneck achievement of that successful modernisation which has eluded all United Kingdom governments in this century (except in time of war) a new constitution and state are needed (even if they retain some vestments of the old).” For Nairn “this will be that long-awaited ‘revolution from above’” made by the anonymous propagandist of the internet Right “Brewgaloo” prominently features Jenrick over Lowe’s stirring speech calling for a Great Repeal Act of Westminster’s maladaptive laws as the first act of “national restoration” Glastonbury Tor and King Alfred whizz past near-subliminally: this is what Nairn predicted in the quiet lull between St George’s Day and England’s local elections the political contours of the near future are taking solid form few seriously see in Farage’s charismatic solipsism a serious party of government: instead Reform’s historical purpose is to break Labour just as last year it helped break the Tories The Conservative Party has found a new voice if only to rail against the consequences of Conservative governance allied with its fellow traveller Rupert Lowe it speaks to a project beyond mere conservatism but instead of systemic reform in the service of national restoration Where Labour seeks anxiously to divert this energy towards its comfortable chosen ground — the now nostalgic Fabian multiculturalism of the Blair era — this ascendant Right seeks to ride the bottom-up nationalist wave created by decades of state failure as English politicians addressed their rebellious people Like the May elections following at its heels it was a way-station on the road to a different England — one way or another Aris Roussinos is an UnHerd columnist and a former war reporter We welcome applications to contribute to UnHerd – please fill out the form below including examples of your previously published work. Please click here to submit your pitch Please click here to view our media pack for more information on advertising and partnership opportunities with UnHerd The average price of a barrel of wine at the 64th Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auction saw the average prices of a barrel rise 41.5% on last year on the back of the smallest harvest in over sixty years The auction, which was organised by French auction house iDealwine for the first time raised €856,950 in total (excluding the charity pièce) This was a marked decline from the €2,281,500 (£1.94m) raised last year but this was due to the 2024 being the lowest yielding harvest since 1961 down nearly 60% in yield-terms on the previous year With yields down to around 9.5 hectolitres per hectare only 36 barrels were produced of the 2024 vintage compared to 150 of the 2023 vintage sold last year – a drop of 75.7 % – or 160 in 2022 However, the sale was heralded a success, as the average price of the 288-litre pièce rose significantly to €22,422. This was close to the all-time record set in 2022 of €22,807, iDealwine said saw an average price of €28,815 with the most expensive wine at the auction the Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Cuvée des Sires de Vergy up 34.5% on last year’s hammer price of €41,000 According to Laurent Delaunay of Burgundian producer and negociant house Edouard Delaunay there were very little barrels available.” which represents all four Hospices sites of Beaune said the team were delighted with the auction result “We had hoped for a small rise in the pièce prices and we had a wonderful surprise with the records,” he said “The sale of the bottles and magnums from past vintages allowed a few great wine enthusiasts to indulge We are very happy with the result and the contribution of the two exceptional patrons.” The auction also saw a piece of white-wine from Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Terres Blanches sold for €27,000 (+28.6 %) –  a rarity as Chardonnay covers only 5% of the appellation and this was completed by a feuillette (a 114-litre barrel) which sold for €16,000 In order to compensate for the shortfall of the vintage and boost the appeal of the auction to those attending the second half of the sale was devoted to bottles of back vintages of Nuits St George wines from 2005 to 2017 a very special auction not only due to the smaller yields pushing the “dynamic” bidding in the room but also due to the decision to offer back vintages of Nuits-Saint-Georges wines – a one-off decision made up of six-bottle cases and mixed cases and 120 magnums lots of wines dating from 2005-2017 it is rare to find back vintages of Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges wines on the auction or secondary market and although this meant there was “little reference” in terms of pricing the wines as it was mostly private individual who buy them from the sale Meanwhile the charity pièce in aid of Coucou nous voilou – a French charity that works to brighten the lives of children and teenagers in hospital through trips games and murals –  has raised €53,900 so far two rare and historic bottles of Hospices Nuits-Saint-Georges were donated to raised extra funds for the charity from Delaunay’s personal cellar comprised a Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru from 1955 and another form 1959 “In my personal cellar I have some wines from the 20s when my grandfather and father were buying them and I decided them to donate two bottles,” Delaunay said although the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges sale disconnected from the wider market for Burgundy” the sale would help to boost not only the reputation of the sale itself “The quality of the wines made by Jean-Marc Maron are outstanding – great wines this year and to some extent and everyone knows the 2024 was difficult – it brought a natural concentration which compensated the lesser good climate and the wines were very good,” he said the Hospices de Nuits St George has been developing its reputation and image they are special wines you don’t’ find anywhere else and although it doesn’t have any influence on the normal market it’s good for the market and good for the vintage reputation – it will participate to improve the reputation of the 2024 vintage.” It is also proving an interesting litmus for Burgundy given the additional challenges beyond the small harvest which includes the market  being  a little on pause for the time being there is some slowing down” combined with a “not very satisfactory” geopolitical situation Edouard Delaunay has been one of the biggest buyers many customers were forced to sit this one out “Unfortunately we didn’t buy as much [this year] – I buy on behalf of some customers but due to the market situation not all my clients they were able to increase their prices by 41% so it is probably the smallest amount that we’ve bought,” he said This is likely to have been the case across the board – with very little wine around from the 2024 vintage not everyone would have been willing to pay the increase prices there also hasn’t been a breakdown of clients by country but the appointment of French online auctioneer iDealwine which was announced in September was intended as a “strategic move to further expand the reach of the auction beyond Burgundy” It is hoped that this will further raise the sale’s already increasing profile and boost its international appeal and attract a wider clientele Delaunany said it was hard to tell at this stage whether this had been successful notably Maison Albert Bichot and Paul Jaboulet Aîné were likely to be buying on behalf of both local and international customers However he pointed out that the better-known Hospices de Beaune sale was still largely dominated by French negociants by around two-thirds it was facing growing pressure from out-of-town shopping parks and changing habits People were heading elsewhere for big shops Something had to change — and it did That’s when St George’s Shopping and Leisure Centre officially opened its doors It was a £40 million development built to bring something different: not just another mall and even play games — all under one roof It was chosen on purpose to tie into the name giving it a patriotic edge and a memorable start the site was home to Adams furniture store Go back far enough and the building had even been a cinema — the Harrow Empire — in the early 1900s the development arm of the well-known pharmacy chain took the lead and brought the project to life with the backing of Harrow Council There was a real sense of occasion about it as there was a special guest – Hunter from the Gladiators one of the biggest shows on TV at the time the shopping centre had a modern look and feel — skylights glass lifts and a sweeping staircase that gave it a surprisingly grand feel Two major retailers helped anchor the new shopping centre from day one — Boots which relocated from Station Road after more than 60 years there Woolies took up two floors and quickly became one of the busiest shops in the complex there was the Virgin Megastore — a real magnet at the time It was the sort of place you could lose an hour or two browsing through CDs you could walk in and pick up singles like Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack,” The Fugees’ “Ready or Not,” or George Michael’s “Fastlove.” Oasis and Blur were still at the height of their chart battle and Now That’s What I Call Music 33 had just come out The Disney Store also opened inside St George’s having a Disney Store on the high street felt like a bit of a coup But St George’s wasn’t just about shopping Just a few days after the official opening This was Harrow’s first modern multiplex The first Mission: Impossible was just a few weeks away the arrival of a Warner Cinema right in the town centre was a huge deal No more trips to Watford or Brent Cross — everything you wanted was suddenly right here It doesn’t get talked about as much these days but in the early days of St George’s It was a family entertainment zone tucked inside the centre and even an internet café — which a classic sit-down racer with wheel-to-wheel multiplayer The sound of coins clinking into machines and the glow of screens made it a popular hangout — especially for those who preferred gaming to shopping it added something genuinely fun to the mix The design of St George’s had a mix of styles the staircases and balconies gave it a slight Georgian flourish The aim was to make it feel modern but not cold — and People noticed how light and open the space felt which wasn’t always the case with shopping centres at the time The arrival of St George’s gave the town centre a real boost and the town’s retail ranking jumped nationally It helped stop the drift of shoppers heading out of town Harrow was back in the top tier of London shopping destinations with more visitors staying in the area to shop and eat The late-night cinema and McDonald’s opening hours caused some concern among nearby residents Harrow Council stepped in to limit late-night licenses and security presence was increased — a compromise that helped things settle down and the cinema changed hands in 2004 when Warner Village was sold and rebranded as Vue taking over some of the former leisure space Virgin Megastore stayed open for several more years before eventually closing in line with national trends it remained a favourite spot for music lovers St George’s had firmly established itself and still seen as a central part of life in Harrow Town Centre People had their routines — a browse around the shops maybe a film upstairs if something good was on some of the original sparkle may have faded and a few of those first-day stores are long gone but the legacy of St George’s Shopping Centre still stands It helped shape Harrow Town Centre into what it is now For those who remember the excitement of opening day it remains a defining part of local history Harrow Online is a company registered in England and Wales From its very first performances in London, Pride and Prejudice (sort of) has won audiences over with its originality and biting humor. Adapted into French by Virginie Hocq and Jean-Marc Victor, the show is now on stage at the Théâtre Saint-Georges in Paris promising to delight audiences with an irreverent version of the literary masterpiece Bennet is desperate to marry off her five daughters whileElizabeth Bennet and the mysterious Mr Darcy navigate between misunderstandings and prejudice the point of view adopted turns the codes on their head: here it's the chambermaids who take the stage to playfully revisit the fate of their mistresses A delightful mise en abyme that interweaves sparkling dialogue Under the direction of Johanna Boyé, the play offers a modern The five actresses embody all the characters with contagious energy.Humor is omnipresent sublimated by a musical dimension carried by a live guitarist who punctuates the action with rearranged contemporary songs The pared-down scenography and modern costumes contrast with the 18th-century decor evoked in the text, adding a pop touch that energizes the whole. Johanna Boyé, who has already won several Molières confirms here her talent for combining tradition and theatrical innovation This adaptation is the result of a Franco-British collaboration. Isobel McArthur, author of the original version, won an Olivier Award for her acclaimed comedy an academic and specialist in English literature have preserved the offbeat spirit while transposing it with finesse to French culture singing and improvising with remarkable ease This all-female cast pays tribute to sisterhood and questions gender relations with humor and lightness or Almost Pride offers an immersive and original theatrical experience This show will appeal to both Jane Austen fans and neophytes in search of laughter and good humor It invites us to (re)discover this masterpiece through a resolutely contemporary prism Plays to see in Paris now and in the futureImmerse yourself in the diversity of Parisian theater, from the great classics to striking new works. [Read more] This page may contain AI-assisted elements, more information here Refer your establishment, click herePromote your event, click here by | Apr 28 a battle of the Spiders at Signature Brew in London’s Haggerston giving me a second chance to see Spyder Byte 8 years or so after the last one opening for the mighty Black Spiders who are on tour to promote Cvrses the band’s latest album It’s now over 27 years since I first saw Black Spiders main man Pete Spiby performing in Groop Dogdrill opening for We arrived after Spyder Byte had started and like the last time I saw them Daniel Lawrence was screaming Hey a lot at the top of his lungs wailing guitar solos wrapped in scarves for Black Velvet Love They Won’t Let Go of that sleaze metal sound Whose On The Run they ask well some of us run from widdly solos They closed by covering Motley Poo’s Kick Start My Heart and sounding far closer to the record than Motley Crue did last time I suffered them live After the break it was time for the 5 headed riff monster that is The Black Spiders who opened with the statement of intent of Never Enough the triple guitar attack building a wall of riffing guitars for Pete Spiby to yell here we come at us Stabbed In The Back was full of the pain of betrayal and a monster of a riff The bands classic Sorry Not Sorry was a full on punching the air anthem live Wyatt Wendell’s huge powerful drums led them into Fly In The Soup as a storm of guitars raged away The next song felt appropriate after the band had some severe trouble the night before trying to get into the band’s hotel for the night it was stuck behind a police road closure making Up All Night seem more relevant even if the song is about going out and staying out partying all night long It was no surprise they had some fun at the start of Tom Petty’s Lips they all wanted to kiss those lips with the butchest heaviest riffs they can muster How big are the bands Balls well judging by the riff that goes with the song they are humungous For No Superman Pete put his guitar down for most of the song showing a slightly more sensitive side the song built and built so the humanity they seek can be discussed in the lyrics They had a proper dust up on Stay Down as most of the audience chanted the chorus with them whatever you do know when enough is enough One thing the band were certain about was that they had The Mofo Sauce and were ready to dish it out as required When you know everything is done all that is left is to Go and they made clear how much the object of this song really needed to Go They revved up their hogs to blast our minds with Hot Wheels that had flame decals and a twin turbo exhaust that breathed fire when revved up enough Pete then introduced the rest of the Black Spiders that led into a totally furious Rat Is A Rat Considering they were in one of the London boroughs most plagued by knife crime Teenage Knife Hand could easily have been about goings on in the alleys around the venue It was full throttle guitar action before they closed the show with Kiss Tried To Kill Me a song about goings on in Springfield and the effect they had on Pete this was a great full on set of no nonsense hard rock Live review of Black Spiders @ Signature Brew Haggerston by Simon Phillips on 24th April 2025 Frank Black Celebrates 30 Years Of ‘Teenager Of The Year’ At The London Palladium London’s genre-defying quartet Wolf Alice have returned in full bloom with their new single, Bloom Baby Bloom—a vibrant, effervescent track that signals a fresh chapter for one of Britain’s most dynamic modern rock bands. Released after a period of relative silence since their Mercury Prize-winning 2021 album Blue Weekend, the single has sent ripples through the alternative scene, sparking excitement about what might be next for the group. It’s lunchtime in sunny Stoke Newington, the part of London that really feels like a village. Most of the crowd lined up outside the historic Old Church are making this the first stop on their weekend, and as they mingle among the old tombstones with beers in hand, the anticipation is fizzing in the air. For the fourth year in a row, Pet Needs are about to kick off their Fractured Party weekender, and we’ve so far beyond ready for it. Rockshot Magazine favourite Lizzie Esau continues her rapid ascent through the UK’s alt-rock landscape with the release of her most accomplished single to date, Bugs. A darkly euphoric track filled with emotional grit and lyrical nuance, Bugs sees the 25-year-old Newcastle native confront the chaos of creative self-doubt with ferocity — and catharsis. EMMMA is no stranger to vulnerability — but with her latest single, Wednesday’s Child, the rising UK-based alt-pop artist turns raw emotion into a seismic act of self-empowerment. Released as the next step toward her second EP, the track is a defining moment in her artistic evolution: darker, bolder, and more emotionally fearless than anything she’s released before. British singer-songwriter Jon Allen invites listeners into the fog-shrouded streets and shadowy corners of 18th century London with his latest album, Seven Dials. Known for his earthy blend of folk, blues, and Americana, Allen trades modern-day themes for a haunting historical portrait that’s as cinematic as it is emotionally raw. Rising electro-pop artist Sophie Grey. is back with a brooding new single, On Hold, and it’s everything we’ve come to expect from the multi-talented producer, performer, and provocateur — shimmering synths, bold visuals, and an anthem for the digitally disenchanted. Out now with an equally cinematic music video, On Hold is a hypnotic blend of retro-futurism and raw emotion, delivered with Grey’s signature flair and fiercely independent spirit. WATCH: Andrew Rosindell: St George's Day should be a public holiday is among the least English parts of the country It's under an hour's drive from Castle Point - the most English town in England Just 4.1 per cent of the borough, which traces its history to 958 AD, marked their national identity as "English only" at the 2021 Census, and that's before non-EU migration to the UK markedly increased English identity dropped from 60.4 per cent to 15.3 between the 2011 and 2021 censuses - while Newham's 4.1 per cent English-only identity fell from 20.7 per cent in 2011 At the top end of East Ham's High Street - in central Newham, where 1.6 per cent of residents identify as English, despite around 40-50 per cent of those in the area having been born in the UK - stands an international care worker recruitment firm A few minutes' walk away is an immigration law practice save for a fundraising poster for a nearby £3.1million-valued masjid The street is peppered with South Asian speciality stores food markets and more - no longer an unusual sight in any of England's big cities and a smattering of mosques all within a few hundred metres Aside from a Union Flag on Newham Town Hall the St George's Cross can't be seen flying anywhere Two of the High Street's grand old pubs - the Denmark Arms and the Earl of Essex - have long since closed save for a fundraising poster for a nearby £3.1million-valued masjid or Muslim place of worship several South Asian New Year's celebrations had just passed - but with St George's Day around the corner the People's Channel wanted to find out what locals thought of England's national day - and Englishness as a whole he said: "It depends on your parents," but counselled that he would consider himself "more" English if he'd lived here all his life St George's Day "isn't something I grew up celebrating" he added - and said his family tended to celebrate holidays like Eid or Bengali New Year instead Though he didn't know when St George's Day fell he did know when Bangladesh celebrates its Independence Day But he added: "It would be nice for English people to celebrate more." Just one St George's Cross was seen along East Ham High Street - as part of a Union Flag on Newham Town Hall spoke to GB News from his food delivery bike not like in Bangladesh," where many of his extended family still live Hamza said he had heard of St George's Day And when asked what he thought of English cities celebrating St Patrick's Day - and whether they could do more for the English equivalent is a father-of-two of Nigerian heritage who was born in Hackney He said that he considered the East End home - but had a "complicated" relationship with being English A large Hindu temple sits on the High Street But it feels like not everyone always sees people like me as properly English.. it's easy to switch between being English and Nigerian." Being English isn't about one's background It's about being "part of the community" Michael said St George's Day was "some time in April" - and called for a more "inclusive" day which "celebrates Englishness in a way that reflects modern England" he said he'd "have a beer and put his hat on" on April 23 said he came to the UK two years ago - and does not feel English at all is "maybe about being born here or living here long enough to feel a part of it" - and asked why people felt less English than ever before he said that people perhaps "feel disconnected from the country" Sajith hadn't heard of St George's Day at all He still feels "connected to Sri Lanka" and his own culture he said the day should make "everyone who lives here a part of it" Around Newham, some groups are trying to do just that. One, Cohesion Plus, is running its annual St George's Day parade in nearby Dartford - hailed by campaigners at another as "a great example of how an inclusive celebration of St George's Day can really help build cohesion" City Hall Tory leader Neil Garratt told GB News that April 23 "represents an opportunity for Londoners to come together to recognise our ties with each other and the communities in which we live at a time when increasingly it feels that they are fraying in the face of modern life" Communities are 'fraying in the face of modern life' But with more and more towns and cities across England facing the cultural shocks of soaring migration other campaign groups have sounded the alarm over St George's Day told GB News: "The twin threats of mass migration and multiculturalism are potentially existential for St George's Day and other national festivals "New arrivals have faced no pressure to assimilate into English or British society and have instead created cultural silos for themselves where few would even know about St George's day "The damage has been caused by an immigration system that allows anybody to bring their own culture and way of life to these shores with little to no expectation that they adopt the customs and habits which have defined our nation for centuries now see the ascendency of all manner of foreign customs and festivals to the exclusion of our nation's own Patron Saint - towards whom there is little fidelity or tradition of celebration "Englishness has been under attack by politicians who describe our culture in broad and vacuous terms stripping it of all real meaning and thus permitting other cultures to fill the void." asked whether it would be marking St George's Day The main Red/Blue layout has many wonderful holes while the Green nine also has its fair share the par-3 8th on the Red is a very photogenic and appealing hole that would grace the cover of any book on classic short holes Harry Colt is arguably the greatest golf course architect of all time Recent work by Tim Lobb has only served to subtly refine what was already a quite brilliant layout With around 120 clubs and even more courses Surrey has more Top 100 courses than any other county and an in-depth supporting cast to suit all tastes and pockets St George’s Hill is a perfect example of classic design and picture-perfect presentation - it is number 25 in our Top 100 UK&I Course Rankings in association with Peter Millar Header Cell - Column 0 Header Cell - Column 1 Address stgeorgeshillgolfclub.co.uk admin@stgeorgeshillgolfclub.co.uk This absolutely gorgeous and hugely enjoyable heathland design is a perfect example of Golden Age golf course architecture It is so pretty that it may lull you into a false sense of security it is completely engaging all the way with every hole a fresh and different adventure – This is one of the prettiest courses in the Top 100 as well as one of Harry Colt’s greatest designs – A journey back in time to the Golden Age of golf course architecture – The 8th on the Red Course is one of the finest short holes anywhere UK & Ireland Top 100 Golf Courses 2025/26 - 25 It is a timeless classic running over a quintessential English landscape and one of the very best golf courses in England I always feel as though I have genuinely stepped back in time What lifts it even higher from simply being a glorious place to play is that it has significant but easy-walking elevation changes These add very much to the visual appeal as well as asking questions on club selection The instantly recognisable clubhouse is perfectly situated above the greens of the two strong par 4s that close each nine they sometimes deceive the eye due to their location and if you had to pick out a signature hole it would be a tough call as there are just so many for me it would be the par-3 8th which is an absolute pearl this exquisite one-shotter plays across a valley and up over an expanse of heather and sand The Green nine is a little shorter but still great fun Play St George’s Hill when the heather is in bloom and you may well struggle to concentrate on your game Cathal DevlinGolf Monthly Top 100 PanellistWith the appointment of Renaissance Golf Design as the club’s consulting architects it will be fascinating to see what direction the club will take the golf course in the years ahead John SlaterGolf Monthly Top 100 PanellistOver the last 2-3 years they have subtly removed marginal trees mowed out some green extensions and aprons and focussed on agronomy to get better playing surfaces The front nine is so varied it’s over in a flash so focus on the back nine where the best holes are in the main Russ GroombridgeGolf Monthly Top 100 PanellistThis is a true Surrey heathland masterpiece and the clubhouse is as majestic as you will find anywhere Rob FearGolf Monthly Top 100 PanellistSurely one of England’s most beautiful inland courses grandiose clubhouse which majestically presides over the course and to which the view from the eighth green is fabulous Many golfers regard this gently-undulating and very pretty heathland classic as a quite ingenious example of a course that can test the best golfer while still remaining playable and enjoyable for all WEST BYFLEET and in a county packed with more top-quality golf than seems fair an outdoor tennis court and other leisure facilities Guests can enjoy speciality pizzas and simple grilled dishes in the Mediterranean Grill restaurant This charming pub and family-friendly hotel has wonderful views of the river and out beyond historic Chertsey Bridge It is set over 3 floors with lift access to the 47 rooms He specialises in course reviews and travel and has played over 1,250 courses in almost 50 countries he played all 21 courses in East Lothian in 13 days One of Rob's primary roles is helping to prepare the Top 100 Courses of the UK&I as well as the Next 100 where he is missing two in Scotland and two in Ireland He has been a member of Tandridge for over 30 years where his handicap hovers around 15 You can contact him at r.smith896@btinternet.com Several luxury yachts were recently seen in St marking the latest marine visitors to the island with the Arkadia and Norn super-yachts among the vessels visiting Category: All, Photos, Videos XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> Sabine Schut-Kery was delighted to see that so much of her work at home with Gorgeous Latino (Toto Jr.—Blackmanda Rubiquil) transferred to their performance at the 2024 U.S “Hex,” an 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Sandy Mancini performed two confident tests in the USEF Developing Prix St which resulted in an overall score of 70.63% to claim the championship title on Saturday “There’s so much I want to improve but I also have to remember that these are all young horses still for the level they’re doing,” Schut-Kery said “So you have to let your perfectionist mind go and just really appreciate how they show up in the ring and to be able to transfer what you work on at home and in your warm up and carry that over in the ring To let go of that “perfectionist mindset,” Schut-Kery and Hex go in weekly trail rides back home in San Diego she’s appointed Hex her go-to lead horse on the group rides “I personally need that break and my horses too,” she said of her trail-ride outings “I’m a huge advocate of balancing my life anyways I think it’s very important to keep yourself in a really good place I do it mostly for the for the horses.” Sarah Mason-Beaty finished reserve champion with Kanjer (69.46%) and Kathryn Fleming-Kuhn and Franzsis HSR (68.95%) claimed third U.S.-Breds Dominate 4-Year-Old Championship Willy Arts won the Markel/USEF Young Horse 4-Year-Old Championship on Pharaoh DG (Koning DG—Janda Parcival) in a field of mostly American-bred horses including reserve champion Sonnenberg’s Paris ridden by Michele Bondy (87.36%) and third place finisher MW Virtuous ridden by Charell Garcia (86.08%) has been special from the time he was a foal and has exceeded their expectations in each stage of his development That was just one of those moments that you cannot prepare for and it just gets better and better,” Arts said of their first test of the week I think the times that you ride a test like that you probably can count on one or two hands.” “Pharaoh” showed his age with a spook he still came through with an overall 87.44% for the win I’d rather have them make mistakes because they’re a little bit sensitive or overreactive than to have one that’s too dull.” Bondy competed two 4-year-olds horses in the class Sonnenberg’s Paris and Sonnenberg’s PrimRosa and landed both first and second in Saturday’s final class Her strong rides also earned her and “Paris” the reserve champion title a ribbon she’ll cherish for the horse she started “Coming into the first test—he’s always very reliable—but you could tell he was a little nervous,” Bondy said but I was a little hesitant to really push for it Amy Bradley’s ‘Roller Coaster’ Peaks In Grand Prix Win Amy Bradley claimed the champion ribbon on her own 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding Quileute CCW (Quaterback—Glueckslady Karen Lipp and Infinity followed as reserve champion with a 66.81% and Callie O’Connell on Eaton H took third with a 63.93% It’s been a long road for Bradley and her 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding “Quill,” who has overcome some serious health issues to make it back into the show ring she’s had her homebred gelding in and out of work while treating a large tumor that had to be removed and laminitis that that required a year off Bradley said there were times where she could only hope he would one day be pasture-sound—so to win a national championship is more than she thought possible with her “heart horse.” “The fact that he actually totally came back from that was a miracle in itself,” she said Simonson Pulls A Hat Trick To Win The Brentina Cup Christian Simonson placed first in all three legs of the Adequan/USEF Brentina Cup to win the championship on Danish Warmblood gelding owned by Christina Morgan and Clifton Simonson His blue streak earned him the championship with an overall score of 68.90% Josh Albrecht took reserve champion on Goldenboy Vinckenburgh (66.34%) and Sophia Schults and Conocido HGF finished third (66.12%) Simonson said that he and his trainer Adrienne Lyle recently back from the 2024 Paris Olympics made it their goal to give “Sonny” confidence-inspiriting rides over the course of this three-part championship “This is a green year—it’s his first year at Grand Prix so my expectation is we’re just trying to give the best rides I can and have him trust me more and more,” he said he gave me such a good feeling all three days and I’m just incredibly thankful to him.” Albrecht began riding “G Boy” only a few months ago and has been pleased with how quickly their relationship has developed “It’s the first year of me showing this horse here,” Albrecht said “I’ve only been riding since November so we’re kind of green—he’s not So my goal has been how to be the best partner for him in the ring that I can be.” Warlimont Wins Champion On A Horse Of Her Own Petra Warlimont won the Markel/USEF Young Horse 5-Year-Old Championship on her own Hanoverian gelding Deambulo PWD (Don Martillo—Franka Madeleine Bendfeldt and Zapatero were reserve champions (80.12%) and Willy Arts on stallion Serupgaards Cézanne earned third (71.96%) Warlimont said that in the preliminary test but in today’s finale the gelding was “ready to go.” When she first heard about the young horse on a shopping trip to Germany she can develop the horse on the timeframe she sets “This whole week was about him gaining confidence and he did [gain] a lot in this last test,” she said Mia Folk ended her pony career with a win before aging out of the division this year Folk borrowed a friend’s Welsh Pony gelding Coelenhage Parco (Vita Novas Celesto—Sonhofs Sabine) winning the three-rider division with an overall score of 63.58% “It’s also been kind of hard trying to build a partnership with such a little time,” Folk said of the pony she started riding two months ago “We’ve actually been working really well together We’ve been practicing trying to make everything accurate and just get the best test possible.” See complete results here you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse Copyright © 2025 The Chronicle of the Horse We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website and 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based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative mergers are either very common or very unusual in UK higher education Dig deep enough into the annals of any institutional history and you will most likely find at some point that the institution as we know it today emerged from the combination or absorption of various nineteenth or twentieth-century mechanics institutes colleges of teaching or technical colleges University of London and the medical school St George’s University of London to create City St George’s Seen from the birds-eye view of Whitehall the relative recent paucity of higher education mergers can be puzzling to some In the private sector mergers and acquisitions are a well-trodden path to gaining market share and generally creating the kind of organisational powerhouse before which others cower and cringe larger institutions can support a wider breadth of education and research activity can have a greater impact on their external landscape and are more protected from external change and financial twists of fortune But for higher education institutions there is much more to take into consideration than the goal of organisational heft and security – there is a public service mission which may be best served by remaining the same size or pursuing only modest growth And there is the administrative complexity and effort of undertaking major organisational change the benefits of scale can be realised through strategic collaboration rather than full merger While it may look from the outside like the UK has a puzzlingly large number of universities and other providers of HE compared to our geographical footprint and population Prospective students enjoy a broad choice of large multi-faculty institutions with a wide range of extra-curricular services and opportunities higher education policy in recent decades has trended towards increasing the numbers of higher education providers such as those the sector is currently experiencing talk inevitably turns to mergers and whether the sector as a whole would be more resilient if merger or acquisition was a more readily available tool in the financial sustainability arsenal And here lies what might be termed the merger paradox – financially healthy institutions tend not to see a need for mergers or be motivated to pursue one even where a strategic business case might be made; whereas financially distressed ones are less likely to be an appealing prospect for a merger partner In the case of both Writtle and St George’s their governing bodies were astute enough to realise that their institutions would not thrive in the long term and to start considering merger well before reaching a point of crisis Being financially challenged is not the primary driver to merge with another institution,” says Richard Mills Head of Finance Consulting and lead for public sector M&A for KPMG in the UK “Returns on investment take a long time to realise and sometimes things get worse before they get better The driver has to be strategic fit – for higher education a merger needs to be about strengthening the academic portfolio and you need to be really clear on the vision and strategy for the merged organisation.” and a plan for the legal and financial aspects of managing a merger is only the beginning “You need to consider the implications of integrating systems Director and major higher education change specialist at KPMG “The worst case scenario is a Frankenstein model of bolt-ons rather than one organisation emerging The work of a merger is much greater than the initial negotiations and the creation of a new legal entity – but that initial work can be so consuming that you end up risking letting the dual running of two distinct entities under one institution become an unintentional status quo.” Deputy President and Provost at City St George’s and was given responsibility for delivery – and realising benefits from – the planned merger with St George’s University of London which was under discussion at that point “City has always been a University focused on business and professional practice When Anthony [Finkelstein] took up his post as President he saw the potential to expand the range of professions that we serve to include broader aspects of health as well as medicine Being a larger institution gives us greater capacity and a greater opportunity across a breadth of disciplines to leverage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work internally and have a greater impact externally All six of our academic schools already had some kind of interesting relationship with health and medicine so you could see how strengthening the breadth of health and medicine could align with City.” the governing bodies of both institutions had agreed some “red lines” – primarily to give security to the Council of St George’s that the institution’s long history would not simply be assimilated into City and disappear The incorporation of St George’s into the new institution’s name was seen as essential as was the idea that the merger was a combination of two universities rather than the incorporation of one by another although it was agreed that in practice City’s structure and policies would become the reference point for subsequent work to establish the new institution Once it was clear that there was a strategic rationale and appetite to pursue merger for both Councils a lot of “due diligence” work was required to make sure that the new institution would have the finances to function and would be compliant in legal and regulatory terms While neither institution felt itself to be in immediate financial peril neither had the luxury of a financial cushion to support major investment and it had to be clear that the combined finances of the two institutions would be sufficient both to fund the merger itself and to realise its planned benefits Taking on space in the midst of a hospital site meant that City’s Council and executive team had to do a lot of work to establish risks and compliance expectations around estates maintenance and health and safety to ensure that they would not be putting City at risk as a result of the envisaged merger At this stage both institutions had to carefully manage their very distinctive relationship A tightly negotiated “transfer agreement” set out the conditions under which the merger would operate including the conditions whereby either party could legitimately back out and what information each was obliged to share in some cases with reference to competition law work began with the Department for Education and General Medical Council among others to work through the academic and legal governance issues of transferring powers and duties from one higher education institution to another Further work was undertaken to understand the implications for students and prospective students and their likely response to the merger and any related impact A key thing was that there was little in terms of pre-defined process for dealing with a university merger of this type,” reflects Elisabeth “At times it felt like we were making it up – albeit in a very thoughtful and evidence-informed way – as we went along It was especially helpful to have people with insights from other sectors on our Council that we could draw on where useful or relevant in our sector and context and we drew on significant external support which is an absolute necessity in this kind of work I don’t know how you could effect something like this without broader insight University of London formally came into being on 1 August 2024 “We decided to leave most of the integration work until after the formal point of merger,” says Elisabeth we had been talking about merging for two years and there was a sense that some people were tired of the discussion and needed to see that it was really happening And on a pragmatic level it is much easier to work through the integration challenges when everyone is under one metaphorical roof one senior team – so we judged that this approach would provide certainty and signal an ability to move forward Once we had access to all the detail of the information about St George’s programmes it also became clear that we weren’t going to have to deal with a lot of overlap which was helpful because it meant we could deliver on a cultural expectation that we would respect the St George’s heritage which by implication is fundamentally about the academic programmes and research.” Key priorities for integration were about bringing together St George’s and City’s School of Health & Psychological Sciences into one academic unit whose executive dean was appointed through an external recruitment process There was also a mapping process to establish the university professional functions and roles and assign some functions to the new school An early priority was confirming directors of professional services for the merged institution who were then tasked with managing the integration of their teams Elisabeth points out that City St George’s like most universities has a whole range of other strategic change agendas on the go and replacement of some university professional services systems There is also a root and branch review of professional services under way looking at the location and effectiveness of roles and functions That means it’s harder to attribute impact specifically to the merger process but it’s also harder for people to blame the merger as the sole cause of unpalatable disruption There is active discussion at City St George’s Council about what above-baseline success measures for the merger should be Some members of St George’s Council have joined an enlarged City St George’s Council and work is underway to establish the culture of the new institution and supporting processes and the information needed by Council members to ensure their understanding of the combined institution and support informed decision making around strategic developments and operational priorities leadership continues to think on a day-to-day basis about the kind of integrated community it wants to have at the level of both school and university and what sorts of interventions will help people forge that community Leaders are taking care to have visibility across all university campuses putting effort into building relationships undertaking more formal “road shows” to share strategy and holding informal sessions with different staff groups The two students’ unions have also merged – a separate merger in its own right – and continue to maintain an active presence on both sites strengthening student representation and opportunities from the outset So what would Elisabeth say to another senior leader preparing for a merger and for most people it starts outside your normal realm of expertise You have to be prepared to run business as usual alongside all the additional work on merging and you have to support staff and students to stay focused on the things they should be focusing on and not getting distracted either by opportunities for future alignment or deferring things to post-merger.” Perhaps the most important lesson for any leader considering merger is having to be prepared to navigate the challenge of sticking to institutional and professional values while actually achieving what can be an intensely challenging process on a human level: We always wanted to be respectful of context and history and true to the commitments we made and the ethos of how the merger would be discussed and planned,” says Elisabeth “But you can’t always be as collaborative as you might want to be – otherwise the risk is you fail to get to the point of merger agreement At least one of the parties has to be pushing for progress and ensuring that decisions are made at any one time.” Having worked on the City St George’s merger Margaret Daher and Richard Mills would strongly advise boards and executive teams to recognise that a merger is a serious strategic endeavour – it needs to be owned and delivered by resolute staff and managers Their experience and studies of successful mergers highlights seven fundamentals which need to be got right although they add that often these are still ignored While there are obvious practical and cultural hurdles to overcome what recent examples demonstrate is that with the right vision case for change and supporting business rationale a merger can be the strategic solution for long term sustainability This article is published in association with KPMG as part of our Radical Efficiency series. You can view other articles in the series here Good article that shoud serve as a key guide to any future mergers There were hundreds of HE mergers in the 25 years between 1970 and 1995 which consolidated teacher training nursing and art colleges into larger institutions most of which are now post-1992 universities Something like 600 institutions funnelled into barely 100 The fact that there have been so few since then and relatively few university-university mergers is really worth understanding we have a list at AoC which counts 188 college-to-college mergers in the last 30 years with peaks in years (1998 2017) when government policy pushed consolidation hands-off from government towards university mergers League tables and staff resistance act as major blockers The only sectors in which consolidation is as difficult and as slow as it is universities are Church of England dioceses and professional football teams The City St George’s merger has an interesting pre-history which shows it was a more complicated – and fraught – process Worries about the viability of St George’s Hospital Medical School (as it then was) as the last free-standing hospital based medical school in London first surfaced more than a quarter of a century ago At the same time the University of Surrey had ambitions to establish an undergraduate medical school and was engaged in a process that might be (uncharitably) described as the ‘rough wooing’ of St George’s At the same time also St George’s and Kingston University shared a Faculty of Health and Social Care (with more students than the core medical medical school and an example of close collaboration short of a merger that has been strangely uncelebrated) Both were talked of as potential partners in a merger A little later HEFCE attempted to nudge St George’s into closer collaboration by awarding it substantial funding to establish what was know as the the South West Academic Network – with indifferent results Then St George’s itself took the initiative by initiating what was in effect a ‘beauty contest’ in search of a merger partner Kingston and Royal Holloway submitted an imaginative joint bid (which would have offered a novel model for merger / collaboration in an area where – let’s us be honest – the dominant model is one of disguised takeovers) But St George’s declined the joint bid and chose as its preferred option a revised solo bid by Royal Holloway) This was then rejected by St George’s council at a last-minute meeting just after Royal Holloway’s council had endorsed it – for reasons too particular to go into here Whether any of these permutations of merger partners would have made better sense than the current City St George’s merger is open to debate They would certainly have been at least to 20 years further down the road But the lesson surely is that achieving mergers between universities is inevitably a more fraught business than the generic and somewhat bland formulations offered by management consultants suggest being financially challenged often is – and will continue to be – the primary driver for merger A not-for-profit university exists to fulfil certain charitable purposes not to preserve the institution simply for its own sake There might be many excellent non-financial reasons why those charitable purposes could be better achieved through merging with another institution where the merger results in one institution being formally dissolved there are limited ways to ensure that the remaining institution keeps its promises Add to this the enormously important role that a university’s name and history so often plays for its stakeholders and of course the operational complexities involved with executing a merger So it’s a fundamentally risky endeavour for the governing body It’s a different prospect when an institution’s financial context forces the matter including where a governing body has the foresight to diagnose the problem well before it becomes a crisis The challenge is then how far those charitable purposes can be sustained – and indeed furthered – vs the risk of them being lost entirely Without the financial impetus (and even with it!) we probably shouldn’t expect a wave of planned mergers Wait till they start announcing redundancies Georges Bridge renovation is right on schedule but $600,000 over budget the bridge will reconnect Route 13 over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and Route 13 traffic won’t have to be detoured onto Route 1 at the Roth Bridge A tentative reopening date has been set for the 18-month project that started in April 2023 “We anticipate reopening on or around Oct. 11 but it could change slightly,” said Steve Rochette, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District Before the renovation, the St. Georges Bridge carried about 11,000 vehicles a day, said Robin Bryson, Delaware Department of Transportation community relations coordinator “Having it reopened will help ease traffic volume on the Roth Bridge and provides another route across the canal should there be an incident on the Roth Bridge that causes lane closures,” Bryson said “The bridge is also relied upon by area residents and emergency services to move north and south across the canal without having to rely upon the Roth or Reedy Point bridges.” Details on fatal Route 13 collision: Man who drove tractor into path of Colonial School District bus named by police The Army Corps of Engineers said the work on the St The final cost will be $46.4 million, which is $600,000 more than the original contract of $45.8 million Rochette said the adjustment is from “small changes” and is a normal contingency for unexpected things found during the project along with inflation on the cost of some materials Army Corps information session on nearby dredging projectThe U.S Army Corps of Engineers has announced an information session about the dredged material disposal area near Delaware City on Thursday at the Delaware City Library at 250 Fifth St Because the area selected for the dredged material included a pond on Cox Neck Road used for fishing, hunting and kayaking, a group including the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association opposed the plan More about the dredging project: Prime Delaware fishing spot in peril. Anglers upset to lose pond for canal dredging At the information session, Army Corps team members will share an overview of the draft environmental assessment document and process. The draft is available for review online The public and agencies are invited to provide comments by Oct. 28, 2024, on the draft environmental assessment by email at PDPA-NAP@usace.army.mil or by postal mail at U.S The audio of the meeting and a slide presentation will be recorded and posted online The draft environmental assessment evaluates dredged material disposal alternatives that address disposal capacity needs for the maintenance of the Delaware River navigation channel from Philadelphia to the ocean and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal navigation channel (This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.) are Opera North’s annual semi-staged productions always such triumphant occasions such vivid dramatic and musical realisations of the opera in question Obviously the general excellence of the company is a factor; it would be disingenuous to pretend that these are their only productions to reach this standard Nevertheless there must be some extra reasons for such consistently outstanding work The direct involvement with characters and on-stage orchestra is one in this case using the entire hall for chorus entries (in the dress circle or most effectively surging down the side aisles in the riot against the Doge) Perhaps the limited space forces a remarkable engagement with inter-personal relationships And there is the little matter of choosing superb singers Simon Boccanegra uniquely bears the names of Verdi’s two premier librettists Written in a confused hurry caused by overwork in 1857 to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave The story is a historically wayward account of the reign of Boccanegra A Prologue 25 years before the main action introduces us to the feud between the patrician Jacopo Fiesco and the newly elected Doge the plebian corsair Boccanegra whose love affair with Fiesco’s daughter Maria has produced a child Fiesco is in exile and has taken in the daughter Amelia without knowing her true identity an enemy of Boccanegra who soon has to face up to the machinations of Paolo Albiani In all of this Boccanegra emerges as the advocate of peace P J Harris’ direction makes skilful use of a tripartite division of the forestage Maria Fiesco’s deathbed) and an imaginative placing of the chorus throughout the hall: one imagines that this be reconfigured to suit the various halls on tour Musically the opera is full of the duets at which Verdi excelled – the violent opposition between Boccanegra and Fiesco in the Prologue or the gradual realisation of their relationship by Boccanegra and Amelia for instance – but the Council Scene from order to chaos back to uncertain order with characters’ passions (and sometimes secrets) revealed in music of intense drama Roland Wood encompasses everything from authority to agony in a beautifully judged performance as Boccanegra with Sara Cortolezzis as Amelia responsible for the few moments of sweetness as well as some stirringly assertive singing Vazgen Gazaryan reveals Fiesco’s character his hatred for Boccanegra and the intensity of his love for his daughter and grand-daughter in a black bass with low notes of overwhelming power and purity brings passion to bear on all his situations from manipulating Boccanegra’s rise to plotting his death Even more passionate is Andres Presno’s fiercely Italianate Gabriele In the face of a wonderfully expressive international cast chorus member Richard Mosley-Evans acquits himself well as Paolo’s sidekick Pietro Antony Hermus links the whole thing together splendidly with vocal entrances coming from all points of the compass and once again the chorus and orchestra respond superbly to complete what is certain to be one of the more memorable events of Bradford’s year as City of Culture Georges Bridge will reopen in time for the evening rush hour Friday At the ceremony, representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Delaware State Police and representatives from J.D When it reopens to traffic at about 2 p.m. The St. Georges Bridge carried about 11,000 vehicles a day before the renovation, said Robin Bryson, Delaware Department of Transportation community relations coordinator The bridge is a tied-arch structure built in 1941 More road construction news: A century-old intersection was in need of repairs until residents pushed back This $46.4 million renovation has improved the structural condition and traveling surface public affairs officer for the Philadelphia District of the U.S The renovation finished right on schedule but $600,000 over budget an increase of about 1.3% from the original contract of $45.8 million (This story was updated to add a photo gallery) the exterior façade of the Library of Birmingham will be lit up red and white to mark St St George's Day falls each year on 23 April St George’s Day is a Christian feast day commemorating Saint George of Lydda he rose up the ranks to become a member of the Praetorian Guard for the Emperor Diocletian St George became a martyr for early Christians Even though St George never stepped foot on English soil he officially became the patron saint of England around 1348 after King Edward III established the Order of the Garter in his name St George was regarded as a special protector of the English Following England's victory at Agincourt in 1415 Archbishop Chichele raised the celebration of St George to a Double Feast