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Belfast Telegraph
5 days ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Cliftonville Academy eager to put League struggles behind us in T20 Final clash with Instonians, says Jared Wilson
Wilson is player/coach of a side who have set aside their League struggles to be the surprise package of the shortest format, and go into the game with no fear. 'It's certainly been an interesting League campaign where we have lost a few games by small margins,' said Wilson. 'Against Instonians for example, I was on 95 as we were chasing 325 and there was a long delay looking for a lost ball and my concentration was broken, getting out the next ball. We lost that game by just 10 runs. 'There was another match where we also came out the wrong side of a tight contest versus Muckamore, and in that I and our overseas player Abhishek (Raut) got nought. 'If we had won both those then our season would have been on a different trajectory, and we would have been in the top six rather than in the bottom four. 'In the T20 campaign we have played some really good cricket and it's exciting to be in the Final. 'It's obviously going to be tough against Instonians who are flying in all competitions, but T20 cricket can be a bit of a leveller, making it a more even contest. 'They're full of confidence with the season they're having, but we have got a few wins recently that will help us in the Final. The South African born all-rounder came to Northern Ireland as a teenager, enjoying success with Ardmore and Newbuildings in the North-West, before switching to Cliftonville Academy where he started initially as a director of cricket, before moving to his current role. 'I came here to Ireland not really knowing anything about the place to be honest,' he said. 'I started at Ardmore where I really enjoyed it and we had a lot of success. I also captained Newbuildings to the Premiership and Faughan Valley Cup. 'We just missed out on the treble, beaten by Fox Lodge in the Senior Cup Final in one of the best games I've ever played in. 'The crowd, the pressure, the atmosphere. It was just an incredible occasion. 'I loved my time in the region, and still am based in Derry, along with my partner Shannon, and two sons Eden and Reuben who are aged four and two. 'It's a great place and the people are just so warm and funny. It was a bit of a change from Cape Town but six years later I'm still here and looking forward to the future.' He's relishing the opportunity to add more silverware to his collection, hoping an all-round team effort can topple the Shaw's Bridge side 'There's a massive buzz around the club ahead of the Final,' said the 25-year-old. 'It's certainly going to be one of the proudest days in the club's history and we have the players to achieve that. 'To win one of the biggest trophies in domestic cricket would be great for all at the club, and we will be trying hard to do that. 'We have a great opening partnership with Abhishek Raut, who has played in the IPL, and Frank Collins. They've laid the foundation with strong starts, and the middle-order has backed that up. 'We have a varied bowling attack with plenty of variety. Matthew McCord, John Glass, Ben Kane, Abhishek and myself have complemented each other well. 'We don't really have any superstars, but what we do have is a real team ethic. 'That's been the hallmark of our success in the T20's and If we all stick together and fire, there's no reason why we can't lift the trophy on Sunday.' The Final on Sunday is part of a double-header with Bangor meeting Cregagh in the T20 Trophy ahead of the main event (11.00am). There's also a busy League programme on Saturday with leaders Instonians hosting North Down, second-placed Waringstown travelling to Muckamore, and CIYMS at home to Lisburn. In the bottom four Templepatrick entertain CSNI, while Cliftonville Academy warm up for their big day with a home clash against Woodvale. In today's Premiership games, the top two meet at the Foyleview Arena with Newbuildings playing leaders Donemana in a dress rehearsal for next week's Senior Cup final. In the other games, Bready are home to Ardmore, Strabane host Coleraine, while Brigade entertain bottom side Eglinton. There are also three rearranged matches on Sunday with Strabane at home to Donemana, Newbuildings taking on Brigade and Bready meeting Eglinton.
Scotsman
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The Good Liar, by Denise Mina review: 'taut and cunning'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Amphibology. It's a smart word for a simple concept, the syntactic or lexical wriggle-room that generates double meanings. Examples might be the scene in Carnivale where the freakshow drums up interest in 'man eating chicken' or the reviewer's standby, 'I shall lose no time in reading your book'. As titles, the crime genre has an especial fondness for them, but I think this is the first of Denise Mina's to use the device. Does the title mean 'an individual exceptionally adept at fibbing' or 'a morally upright person with an unfortunate propensity for deception'? The trick is to keep a gap as to both meanings, and to which of the characters the title refers. Although this is technically a crime novel, it is notable that the press release calls it a suspense novel. While that is apposite, moral calculus novel works well too. Denise Mina | Lisa Ferguson / The Scotsman The central character is Dr Claudia O'Sheil, a scientist and forensic specialist whose modelling, particularly of blood splatters, has earned her a lucrative position with a data and testing company, ForSci Ltd. If her professional star is in the ascendant, however, her personal life is not: her husband, an investigative reporter, has died, and she is gnawed by suspicions it may have been suicide. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She is called away from a glitzy opening ceremony with her friend, Sir Philip Ardmore, the owner and founder of ForSci Ltd, about to be elevated to chair of the Forensic Ethics Committee. Someone has stabbed to death Ardmore's schoolfriend Viscount 'Jonty' Stewart, as well as slicing his younger, second wife Francesca's throat and blowing the head off the guard dog. So, plenty for a blood splatter expert to do. The Viscount was at odds with his druggie son, William, and whoever committed the crime loathed Jonty so much his groin and genitals have been mutilated post-mortem. William, however, appears to have an alibi. Although this is the initial positioning of the pieces, it is framed by a narrative one year in the future, with Shiel, now an MBE, about to give a speech at the newly refurbished Royal College of Forensic Scientists, organised by Philip, now Lord, Ardmore. She does not intend to give the speech they think she is to give, and in fact is steeling herself to scupper her whole career by confessing to errors in her methodology. Mina strategically places a reference to Shaken Baby Syndrome, which came under scrutiny from the outset. But without going into details, any reader can do the rough maths. Even a 99.9% accuracy rate means a possible one in a thousand errors. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Crime fiction may have moved on from the classic whodunnit formula, but in doing so it has found different challenges. DNA evidence is far less novelistic than deduction and hunches. AI is much quicker at checking databases than a grizzled detective and a musty filing cabinet. Part of what makes Mina such an interesting writer is that the science is a background to the moral and ethical questions she is posing, not an end in itself, as it might be in the increasingly strained versions of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs. The double narrative provides two strands of jeopardy and tension. William is conspicuously unsplattered, even if doubts creep in about his alibi. O'Sheil is convinced of his innocence and perturbed that he pleads guilty nonetheless. If not him, who? Complications arise about the reliability of her statistics alongside concerns about the actual ownership of the company, which might tie in with her husband's death. Part of what is so convincing and troubling in this is the subtle unravelling of multiple affiliations of class and aristocratic loyalties. The other is the countdown to O'Sheil's revelation, and this is done very adroitly: I genuinely was unsure, 50 pages from the end, whether she would go through with her revelations. In part this is due to a subtle and slow increase of emoluments and favours and quiet words which might not be illegal but which neatly bind O'Sheil – not to mention ever-so-quietly whispered hints of threats. The class system has always been the unsung villain of Mina's books. O'Sheil's sister is a recovering addict; there is a slightly raffish lawyer who has a healthy degree of scepticism towards those and such as those; there is a sense of how precarious careers can be without aristocratic largesse and protection. The double plot also makes this a tauter affair than some of Mina's novels, and this can be seen particularly in her very cunning way of introducing minor characters as if they were merely 'also starring'. One character is introduced almost as a caricature – 'his money was as old as his face was red', 'he was what they feared they might be: rich and dull and only invited out of obligation because he donated to everything', 'I can't abide that braying fool' – an assessment from O'Sheil, and as principal character, one with which the reader subconsciously accedes. This manoeuvre is played more than once, a mild rebuke to the reader's hasty judgment when the truth is revealed. I would not call Mina a crusading writer, but there is a feeling that the topics she chooses are not random, but serious and urgent. Given the current state of the world, she is unlikely to run out of nettles to grasp any time soon.
Irish Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Use the Words You Have; A Shot of Hope; Fish Tales
Use the Words You Have by Kimberly Campanello (Somesuch, £9.99) Written in Ardmore but set in Brittany , Kimberly Campanello's lyrical debut novel attempts to untangle what it is to write autobiographically. She flits between perspectives, narrating 'both reflexively and steaming ahead from the I'. Essentially the story of a holiday romance between characters K and M, the novel isn't unique in plot, but shines in its habit of unpicking words and metaphor. As K navigates the experience of falling in love in a foreign tongue, Campanello meditates on how we can break language barriers and, eventually, language itself. Use the Words You Have is effervescent, unfurling like a prose poem; considering that Campanello is first and foremost a poet, we might expect her to have crafted an even more formally experimental novel. Emily Formstone A Shot of Hope: Stories of Quiet Resilience by John Travers (Orpen Press, €15.99) John Travers, described in a foreword to the book as 'narrator extraordinaire of the human condition', has chosen a befitting title. From maternity wards to homeless outreach, a psychiatric institution in Ghana a women's prison, and the preterm loss of his own infant, James, the Irish GP explores the many cases of resilience he has encountered and supported in his vocational medical career. The human capacity to heal and instinct to care are the vital bedfellows that propel the remarkable stories, and Travers's compassionate prose will reassure those who have felt undervalued by the medical system. When online news might suggest avarice as the primary motivator of human behaviour, the glimpse of humanity afforded by this book proves a powerful shot of hope. Brigid O'Dea Fish Tales by Nettie Jones (Virago, £16.99) Writer Kevin Power recently bemoaned the trend of 'ingratiation' in modern fiction, where 'novelists are constantly soliciting our approval'. Fear not ingratiation with this republication of the rambunctious 1980s novel – the last book acquired for publication by Toni Morrison before her death. The scene-setting epilogue features a nude woman pleasuring herself on the street before spitting in her husband's face. From here, we go on to meet the cast of splendidly distasteful and spiritually ugly characters who occupy the world of the hedonistic Hustler, Lewis. In downtown New York, we are invited into her bohemian lifestyle where sex, violence, extravagance and destitution make for seductive (and destructive) bedfellows. Jones' ruthlessly pacy 'Valium and alcohol-saturated' prose is something to behold. Brigid O'Dea
The Herald Scotland
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Japanese whisky giant opens new base in Scottish city
Suntory Global Spirits now employs more than 550 people across the UK, including its distilleries and additional operations in Scotland and London, where it has also opened a new office. The new office on West George Street "offers a city-centre space for the company's approximately 50 city-based corporate employees, in addition to the company's existing offices in Springburn". Chris Richardson, of Suntory Global Spirits, said: "Suntory Global Spirits and our brands have a longstanding connection to Glasgow, and today we have teams from various global corporate functions as well as production and local teams working here. "We are delighted to provide this new central Glasgow office space that enhances our presence in Scotland and provides our people with a facility where they can do their best work. "This is a great example of how Suntory continues to invest in its people and ensure we are at the centre of the action in key cities around the world." The news follows the launch of its new UK commercial business earlier this year, which saw the company become directly responsible for the UK marketing and distribution of its spirits portfolio in the UK. The UK is also home to several of the company's brands, including Laphroaig, Bowmore, Auchentoshan, Teacher's, Glen Garioch, Ardmore and Ardray Scotch, and Sipsmith gin. Headquartered in New York City, Suntory Global Spirits is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings Limited of Japan. Barrowland unveils 'ambitious' plans to alter famous facade It has evolved from a dance hall into one of Scotland's most beloved concert venues. Bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Manic Street Preachers, Mogwai and Idlewild all count the Barrowland Ballroom among their favourite places to play, for its superb acoustics, sprung dance floor and capacity crowds.
BBC News
10-07-2025
- BBC News
Ardmore: Man arrested as 120 cannabis plants seized
A man has been arrested after more than 100 cannabis plants were seized in County said officers discovered about 120 plants at an address in Ardkill Road in Ardmore at about 12:00 BST on Wednesday.A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis, being concerned in supply of a Class B drug and being concerned in production of a Class B was further arrested on suspicion of possession of a Class B controlled drug with intent to supply and dishonestly using electricity. Police have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
