Man taken to hospital after Benfleet crash - echo-news.co.uk
Man taken to hospital after Benfleet crash
5:56pm Saturday 19th May 2012 in News
A MAN who stopped to let a elderly woman cross the road was taken to hospital after a car smashed into the back of him.
The Ford Cougar braked at a zebra crossing on Benfleet Road, close to the A13 roundabout in Benfleet, when a Vauxhall behind him was unable to stop in time.
Firefighters from Rayleigh Weir were called to the incident just after 12.45pm and made sure the casualty was comfortable before removing him from the car.
He was taken to Southend Hospital after complaining of feeling faint, but his injuries are believed to be minor.
The road was closed for 30 minutes whilst the scene was made safe.
London calling! Chelsea bid to become first capital club to win Champions League - Daily Mail
By Dan Ripley
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For Chelsea, the Champions League final against Bayern Munich presents an opportunity for the club to win the competition for the first time in their history.
Only since 2003, when Roman Abramovich started bankrolling the club financially, has the dream really seemed possible for Blues fans, who in the last nine years have seen enough near misses.
But it’s not just Chelsea who could see their first crowning moment as Europe’s kings – it’s the city of London too.
German mission: Chelsea face Bayern in Munich on Saturday night
England’s capital has its fair share of top football teams - without failure it serves up plenty of London derbies in the Premier League each year.
But since the formation of the European Cup in 1955, only three London sides have played in Europe’s premier club competition with Tottenham and Arsenal also appearing.
Along with the Blues, they too have come close to sealing Europe’s biggest prize for the capital, but have also suffered heart-breaking failure.
Here, Sportsmail assesses how London’s trio have fared among Europe’s elite...
Chelsea
Times appeared: 10
Best result: Finalists (2008)
Worst result: Last 16 (2006 and 2010)
Heartache: Chelsea lost the 2008 final to Manchester United
Despite being league champions, Chelsea did not take part in the first ever European Cup tournament and didn’t make their maiden appearance until reaching the quarter-finals in 2000.
They have been a permanent fixture since 2003, reaching four-semi finals before this season, but it’s the 2008 final in Moscow that still hurts fans.
Having already missed out on the league title to Manchester United, Avram Grant’s side went to penalties against the Red Devils and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
John Terry could have won the trophy for Chelsea but hit the post with his spot-kick after slipping, before United recovered to triumph in the competition for a third time.
Arsenal
Times appeared: 16
Best result: Finalists (2006)
Worst result: Group stage (1999 and 2000)
Seeing red: Jens Lehmann (left) was sent off as Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final
Before the Champions League era started in 1992, Arsenal only twice featured on the biggest stage, being eliminated in the 1972 quarter-finals and the second round 20 years later.
Since 1998 the Gunners have contested every single campaign but have only once visited the final despite getting out of the first group stage in each of the last 12 seasons.
The 2005/06 campaign is the closest Arsenal have been to becoming top dogs. Arsene Wenger’s side reached the Paris final after setting a record number of 10 consecutive clean sheets before losing 2-1 to Barcelona.
The Gunners also reached the semi-finals in 2009 but were thoroughly outclassed over two legs by Manchester United, losing 4-1 on aggregate.
Missing out: Arsenal were knocked out by AC Milan this year
Capital winners
Real Madrid (9) 1956-1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, 2002.
Ajax Amsterdam (4) 1971-1973, 1995
Benfica (2) 1961, 1962.
Steaua Bucharest (1) 1986
Red Star Belgrade (1) 1991
Tottenham
Times appeared: 2
Best result: Semi-finalists (1962)
Worst result: Quarter-finalists (2011)
Spurs don’t have the staying power to make the Champions League a habit but have made a real fight in the only two times they have featured.
A controversial semi-final defeat against Benfica ended their hopes in 1962, with Bill Nicholson’s side crashing out 4-3 on aggregate after seeing three goals contentiously disallowed over the two legs.
Real hiding: Spurs lost to Madrid in last year's quarter-final
It wasn’t until 2010 that Spurs returned to the biggest stage where they starred in the tournament, topping a group that contained holders Inter Milan – even defeating the Italian giants along the way.
In the last 16 they shut-out AC Milan to progress 1-0 over two legs before crashing to a 5-0 aggregate defeat against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
Flame for London Games arrives in Britain - star.com.my
CULDROSE, England (Reuters) - The flame for the London Olympics burned brightly on British soil on Friday after David Beckham stepped off a special flight from the Games birthplace of Greece to light a cauldron with a golden torch.
The British Airways 'Firefly' Flight 2012 from Athens landed on time at the Culdrose naval air station with Britain's Princess Anne, Games chairman Seb Coe and the former England soccer captain among the delegation.
The flame will start a 70-day torch relay around Britain on Saturday, with triple Olympic gold medallist sailor Ben Ainslie carrying it on the first leg from Land's End on the south-west tip of England.
The Games start on July 27.
London mayor Boris Johnson, his mane of unruly blond hair trimmed for the occasion, declared the moment to be "a big accelerator of the heartbeat".
"We've got 70 days to go," he told reporters before heading back to London on the golden-liveried plane.
"For someone in my position this is the final furlong for us and that's when the horses start to change places and so this is going to make the difference now between a good Games and a great Games."
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg welcomed the Olympic torch on behalf of the British government on a clear evening in marked contrast to the torrential rain left behind in Athens.
"It is a fantastic moment for us, particularly at a time when there is so much anxiety and concern about the economy and other things, to be uplifted by this whole experience and to be able to showcase ourselves to the world as an open-hearted, generous, dynamic, positive country," he told the BBC.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for the country as a whole."
CUSTARD COMET
The arrival of the flame, with Princess Anne carrying it in a special lantern down the steps from the plane, was covered live on Britain's main BBC station with the plane circling overhead before landing to fit in with the schedules.
"It's only when the torch comes into your possession that you realise," the Princess said as she handed the lantern to one of the special security team who will guard it.
Beckham soon lit the Olympic torch and ignited a cauldron with the flame, which was then due to be transferred to Lands End for Saturday's relay start.
Johnson said the manner of the flame's arrival bodes well.
"The plane landed bang on time, in fact it was early," he declared enthusiastically.
"We circled over Cornwall like a custard-coloured comet and that is a metaphor in my view for everything that has happened so far in the London Olympics. It's been either on time or ahead of time and it's under budget."
On Thursday, the flame had been handed over at a damp ceremony in the Athens marble stadium that hosted the first modern Games in 1896.
The flame, lit from the sun's rays at the home of the ancient Games in Olympia a week ago, was presented under grey and rainy skies to former Olympian Princess Anne by the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos.
Coe, who will head off to Munich on Saturday to watch his beloved Chelsea play Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, was confident the torch relay would light the fire for anyone still ambivalent about the Games.
"It does have a big impact," he said.
"I saw the test event the other day with a cardboard torch going from Leicester to Peterborough and they (the spectators) were three and four deep on the pavement, in the little villages.
"And every week I get letters from people who are talking about the things they are doing to mark the fact the torch is coming through. There's an emotional connect with this that I'm not sure all torch relays have got."
London 2012: Jason Smyth just outside Olympic standard - BBC News
Paralympic star Jason Smyth just missed out on achieving the 100m Olympic standard as he clocked a time of 10.24 seconds in Florida on Saturday.
The Northern Irishman's time was 0.06 seconds outside the Olympic A standard in the meeting at the National Training Centre in Clermont.
Smyth will chase the London standard again at meetings in the US over the next three weeks.
The 24-year-old trains alongside Tyson Gay at the Clermont venue.
The Derryman's set his personal best of 10.22 at the same track a year ago and Saturday's run is his second fastest ever 100m.
Earlier, Smyth had clocked a wind-assisted 10.23 in the heats in Saturday's meeting.
"I'm delighted with that. It's a fantastic season opener for him," said Smyth's coach Stephen Maguire.
"He made a few mistakes in both races so there's more to come."
Smyth has been training alongside top athletes such as American star Gay at his regular Florida base since November.
Like South African star Oscar Pistorius, Smyth's main career ambition is to compete at both this year's Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.
He competes in Orlando next week before racing again at the Clermont venue on 2 June.
The 24-year-old has also received an invitation to the Diamond League meeting in New York on 9 June.
Olympic torch starts journey to London - SBS
The Olympic flame was greeted by thousands of cheering spectators as it began its 70-day relay journey around Britain and Ireland on Saturday ahead of the 2012 London Games.
Triple gold medal-winning yachtsman Ben Ainslie was the first torchbearer, setting off from Land's End, England's most southwesterly point, before a succession of runners carried the torch through Cornwall to Plymouth.
With the Atlantic Ocean glistening behind him in the early morning sunshine, Ainslie waited while the flame was flown to Land's End by a Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter.
The yachtsman barely broke into a jog as he let some of the spectators lining the route touch the golden torch whose design has spawned the nickname "cheese grater".
After travelling barely 300 metres, he passed on the torch to 18-year-old Anastassia Swallow, a surfer who is hoping her sport will one day become an Olympic discipline.
Over the next 10 weeks, the flame will travel 8,000 miles (12,875km) around England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and will also visit the Republic of Ireland.
Some 8,000 people -- one for every mile of the route -- will take part in the torch relay as it heads for the Olympic Stadium in east London for the opening ceremony on July 27.
Ainslie, who just a day earlier won a sixth world title in the Finn class as he steps up his efforts to win a fourth Olympic gold, said it had been a special moment for him to start the relay in his home county.
"I'm really very proud for the whole nation," said Britain's greatest Olympic yachtsman, who wore the number 001 on his white London 2012 top.
"It was pretty emotional, so much effort has gone into getting the Olympics in London and it means so much to everyone involved."
On its 70-day odyssey, it will travel through 1,019 cities, towns and villages and visit landmarks such as Stonehenge.
From June 3-7, it will go to Northern Ireland and the Irish capital Dublin -- the only time the torch will leave the United Kingdom on the route.
On the first day, the specially trained police officers who will run alongside the torch throughout its journey swiftly tackled a man who they thought was trying to get near to one of the torchbearers.
They pushed him into a hedge and the relay continued without a pause.
The flame was lit in Ancient Olympia in Greece on May 10 and handed over to the British delegation in Athens in a rain-sodden ceremony on Thursday.
It was flown to Britain on board a British Airways plane renamed The Firefly for the occasion, accompanied by football star David Beckham and Princess Anne.
Each runner is allowed to keep their torch, but although organisers have said they hope they will be cherished as souvenirs, one appeared on eBay on Saturday, attracting bids in excess of STG2,000 ($A3,200).
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London 2012 torch relay starts in Britain - Assam Tribune
LANDS END (UK), May 19 (AFP): Sailor Ben Ainslie was the first torchbearer as the Olympic flame began its 70-day journey around Britain and Ireland today ahead of the 2012 London Games.
The flame arrived in Britain from Greece yesterday and was flown to Lands End, the southwesterly tip of England, today by a Royal Navy helicopter before it was used to light the torch for the start of the 8,000 mile (12,875-kilometre) relay.
Ainslie, who has won gold medals in sailing at the last three Olympics, then walked just 300 metres, allowing some of the 3,500 spectators lining the route in the morning sunshine to touch the gold-coloured torch.
The yachtsman, wearing the number 001 on his T-shirt as the first torchbearer, then passed on the torch to 18-year-old Anastassia Swallow, a surfer who is hoping that her sport will one day become an Olympic discipline.
Ainslie, who on Friday won a sixth world title in the Finn class as he prepares for an attempt to win a fourth Olympic gold, said it had been a special moment for him to start the relay in his home county of Cornwall.
It was pretty emotional, so much effort has gone into getting the Olympics in London and it means so much to everyone involved, he said.
On its first day, the torch will be carried through Cornwall to the city of Plymouth.
Over the next 10 weeks, 8,000 people will carry the torch as it makes its way around the United Kingdom and heads for the Olympic Stadium in east London for the opening ceremony on July 27.
It will travel through 1,019 cities, towns and villages and visit landmarks such as Stonehenge.
From June 3-7, it will go to Northern Ireland and then the Republic of Ireland the only country outside the United Kingdom on the torch route.
No overseas legs of the relay have been planned this year after those before the 2008 Beijing Games was hit by protests against China.
The flame was lit in Ancient Olympia in Greece on May 10 and was handed over to the British delegation in Athens in a rain-blighted ceremony on Thursday.
It was flown to Britain encased in a special lantern on board a British Airways plane renamed The Firefly for the occasion, accompanied by football star David Beckham and Princess Anne, the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.
Beckham had the honour of lighting the first torch at the Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose in Cornwall on Friday.
In contrast to the shoestring operation when Britain last hosted the Olympics in 1948, this years relay is a big-budget affair, with parties and public events at each of its stops.
Police in new appeal over fatal crash - This is Southampton
Police in new appeal over fatal crash
1:58pm Saturday 19th May 2012 in News
POLICE are continuing to appeal for witnesses to a fatal head-on crash in Romsey in which a woman from the town died.
A silver Vauxhall Combo was travelling towards Romsey town centre on the A3090 bypass when it was in collision with a white Volvo tipper lorry.
A 57-year-old woman, who was travelling in the back of the Vauxhall, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Vauxhall driver, a 67-year-old man, was taken to Southampton General Hospital with minor injuries and discharged the same night.
The driver of the lorry, a 38-year-old man from Portsmouth was uninjured.
The road was closed for nearly four hours for an investigation..
Witnesses to the collision, on Thursday around 2.20pm, or anyone who saw either vehicle just prior to the crash, are asked to contact Sergeant Andy Lynch of the Road Death Investigation Team at Eastleigh on 101, quoting operation Elmshurst.
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London 2012 Olympics: Lawrence Okoye improves British discus record - The Guardian
Lawrence Okoye has broken his British discus record at the Halle Throws International in Germany. The 20-year-old, who is the reigning European under-23 champion, held the previous national best with a throw of 67.63 metres in London last July.
But he produced an effort of 68.24m in the fourth round of throws to finish third and provide the British highlight of the event, showing the form that could take him a long way at London 2012.
Germany's two-times world champion Robert Harting took first place with a throw of 70.31, ahead of Poland's Olympic silver medallist Piotr Malachowski, who had four throws of 68m, including a best of 68.94.
Okoye's British team-mates Abdul Buhari and Brett Morse finished in ninth and 11th, after respective best efforts of 61.22 and 59.72, both well below their personal bests.
The Scottish hammer thrower Mark Dry, who has already achieved the Olympic B qualification standard, fell just short of his personal best in finishing fifth in his event with a best of 73.88. His fellow British thrower Alex Smith was 10th with 71.68.
Sophie Hitchon, who has already set the A Olympic standard, finished fourth in the women's hammer with 70.09, while Jade Nicholls and Eden Francis were 11th and 12th in the discus with throws of 56.93 and 56.54.
North West 200: Farquhar claims supertwins victory - MCN
Ryan Farquhar claimed an historic victory in the first ever North West 200 Supertwins race this evening (Thursday).
Ireland’s top road racer led the four-lap race from start-to-finish in the Vauxhall-backed race to cross the line 2.94s ahead of former GP rider Jeremy McWilliams with Michael Rutter third – all three riders on Farquhar built Kawasakis.
Farquhar has been instrumental in the development of the Supertwins class in Ireland and it’s his hard work that has also seen the TT adopt a Twins race on the mountain course this year for the first time.
He said: “This is unreal. I always knew the potential of these bikes and to come here and have the likes of Jeremy, Michael and Jamie (Hamilton) riding for me was a lot of pressure but also an honour.”
It was McWilliams’ North West 200 debut and he said: “This is a dream come true for me and a dream come true for Ryan. I never thought I’d be able to run this close to the front. I’ve really enjoyed it and I’ll be back if Ryan invites me to ride his bike again.”
The NW200 race stated on a wet track but it was drying throughout the four laps. Farquhar and McWilliams were on wets but Rutter opted for dry tyres and rode a masterful race in treacherous early going to overcome James Hillier (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki) and Adrian Archibald (McKinstry Kawasaki).
Rutter’s last lap established a new lap record for the class. Farquhar’s fourth entry, Jamie Hamilton – another NW200 rookie - finished sixth.
MCN’s Adam Child survived a scary moment in wet qualifying when he hit a kerb to finish 24th in his Supertwins debut, riding his Ken Urwin Motorcycles Kawasaki. He ran a stock engine for the NW200, saving his tuned ER6 motor for next week’s TT debut.
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