Harrogate squash player James Willstrop has won another Commonwealth Games gold medal — a week before his 39th birthday.
Willstrop, who won gold in the singles at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia and is a former world number one, won the doubles in Birmingham yesterday with partner Declan James.
He had earlier finished fourth in the singles.
Willstrop told the Stray Ferret the intensity of the last few days had been immense and he was delighted with the outcome.
He said lockdown had enabled him to reset and focus on competing at another Commonwealth Games at a stage in his career when he thought it might not happen again.
The event, he added, was the highest profile squash competition in the world even though the World Championships featured all the leading players.
Willstrop grew up in Pontefract but lives in Harrogate with his partner Vanessa Atkinson, who is a former professional squash player.
He plays at Harlow Hill Squash and Sports Club and Harrogate Sports and Fitness Centre.
Willstrop now plans to travel to America for some coaching and training camps before having a holiday and deciding what to do next. He said:
“I’ll see how my body reacts and if it’s in good shape I might play a bit longer on the tour.”
Read more:
- Harrogate squash club strongly represented at Commonwealth Games
- Ripon’s Jack Laugher wins second gold medal at Commonwealth Games
Ukrainian who fled to Harrogate sets up vodka and sunflower oil business
A Ukrainian entrepreneur has moved to Harrogate and launched a vodka and sunflower oil import business.
Fedir Haidai undertook a 14-day journey across Europe with his wife Katya and three-year-old son Misha after finding a sponsor family in Harrogate through the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
He said:
“I was on a business trip to Kherson in February when we heard that Russia was assembling soldiers, tanks and military equipment around 100km away. I spoke to my wife in Kyiv and said we must go now.
“She left work, picked up our son from nursery and a few belongings from home. We crossed into Moldova where we were able to stay with friends. A few hours later we watched on TV as the invasion started.
“My parents are still in Ukraine and I am afraid for them.”
Mr Haidai was forced to abandon two businesses that employed 30 people in Kyiv.
His outdoor paving tile manufacturing company was destroyed by Russian attacks. A second company that imports central heating pipes became unsustainable because his main supplier was based in Russian ally Belarus.
He has now joined the North Yorkshire branch of the Institute of Directors to forge new connections and support as he restarts his business journey.
Read more:
- Knaresborough man appeals for help to bring Christmas cheer to Ukraine
- Temperatures to soar to 30 degrees – but no weather warning for Harrogate district
Three months after arriving in the UK, he has three new ventures.
Sunflower Ltd – named after the Ukrainian national flower – will import Ukrainian sunflower oil, which Mr Haidai will market under the Holla Oils brand.
He is also to import Hetman-branded vodka. Lviv-based Hetman is one of the largest producers of alcoholic drinks in Ukraine, with a history dating back to 1782.
He plans to sell the products through online, physical retail and the hospitality trade.
A third business will help to relocate IT experts from Ukraine to safe European locations.
Mr Haidai said:
“The main thing is that we are safe but we don’t have any savings so I need to set up in business here.
“I know how to organise a company and build relationships with suppliers and clients. My idea is to import products from the west of Ukraine, where it is safer. There is a need for sunflower oil here and significant demand for Ukranian vodka.”
Harrogate ‘like a Harry Potter film’
Mr Haidai has faced challenges in setting up his business – not least finding a bank prepared to open a business account for him – but doors are now beginning to open.
“I need a lot of money to import vodka due to alcohol duty but I have found some people who want to help me,” he said.
“I am surprised and happy that so many local people want to help us in different ways. People are so open and friendly. We have been introduced to so many new people.”
Mr Haidai has been joined in Harrogate by his sister and 17-year-old niece, who have also found a sponsor home in the town. He said:
“My first impression of Harrogate was it looked like a Harry Potter film, with all the old buildings.”
Temperatures to soar to 30 degrees – but no weather warning for Harrogate district
Temperatures are set to soar close to 30 degrees in the next few days — but today’s extreme heat warning does not include the Harrogate district.
The Met Office has issued a four-day amber extreme heat warning for much of southern and central England from Thursday.
The warning, which predicts temperatures of up to 35C, extends north as far as Leeds.
Although the Harrogate district is not included, it is still set to be very warm for the rest of the week.
The Met office is forecasting temperatures of 29 degrees centigrade in Boroughbridge tomorrow, with the rest of the district a degree or two cooler.
Temperatures are not expected to fall until Monday to Tuesday next week when there could be thunderstorms.
Many farmers are praying for rain.
Yorkshire Water said today average stocks in its reservoirs were 51% last week, which is around 20% less than usual for this time of year.
https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1556941086316236800
Read more:
- Image gallery: 72 hours of wild weather in Harrogate district
- Harrogate climate change scientist warns of more extreme heatwaves
Girls aged 13 and 14 admit setting fire to bins in Harrogate
Two girls aged 13 and 14 have admitted setting commercial bins on fire in Harrogate town centre.
The girls, who are both from Harrogate, cannot be named for legal reasons.
They pleaded guilty to arson on a Biffa bin worth £600 belonging to Primark on Oxford Place on May 23.
They also admitted the same charge relating to a bin worth £600 belonging to Harrogate Borough Council on May 26.
The 13-year-old is the same girl who admitted in June being drunk in Ripon and attacking three police officers.
They appeared before North Yorkshire Youth Court in Harrogate on Friday, where they were referred to a youth offender panel for 12 months.
They were also ordered to pay £50 compensation.
The older girl also pleaded guilty to separate charges of causing actual bodily harm on June 19 and assaulting a police officer three days later.
She was ordered to pay £200 compensation plus £85 court costs and a £26 surcharge to fund victim services.
Read more:
- Harrogate girl, 13, admits drunken attack on police officers
- Business group calls for more Harrogate town centre police
‘It’ll take more than a scumbag chancer to bring us down’
The owners of The Dale Stores in Birstwith have pledged to continue serving the village after suffering a “sickening” burglary.
Andrea and Matthew Walwyn were sleeping next door when thieves smashed two panes of glass on the front door to gain entry to their shop and post office at nine minutes past midnight on Friday.
They took stamps worth £3,000 and a quantity of cash.
The couple, who have run the Nidderdale business for 17 years, told the Stray Ferret the incident had shaken them and the community but they had been overwhelmed by messages of support.
Read more:
- Thieves steal cash and stamps from Birstwith post office
- Firefighters called to blaze at factory in Birstwith
The shop has reopened and although the post office is currently closed Ms Walwyn said they would be back at full capacity as soon as possible.
She said:
“We are really shaken. It’s just sickening. We live next door and think of the shop as part of our home.
“People have come in saying they have never locked their doors but they are now.
“But we want to fully re-open as soon as possible.”
Last year The Dale Stores won an award in the Rural Oscars competition organised by the Countryside Alliance, receiving praise for its ‘great service and great produce’ and for maintaining a village post office.
Ms Walwyn said she had been taken aback by the kindness shown by villagers in recent days. One man arranged for builders to sort out the damaged door straight away.
A customer arranged to fix the door.
Mr Walwyn put a post on their Facebook page saying, “It’ll take more than a scumbag chancer to bring us down. Andrea and I are here this morning. Nice people are very welcome”.
It prompted nearly 300 likes and a barrage of supportive comments.
One said:
Boy, 13, rescued at Brimham Rocks“After all you both went through yesterday to see you smiling today is what makes Birstwith village shop the best.”
Rescuers came to the aid of a teenage boy who got stuck at Brimham Rocks at the weekend.
Volunteers from Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association were summoned to the National Trust-owned site at about 2pm on Saturday.
A 13-year-old boy had climbed to the top of one of the rocks but then felt unable to navigate his way down safely.
The rescue association’s website said:
“Local members were able to calm the casualty until team vehicles arrived and a safe means of lowering the casualty back to the ground was rigged and a successful rescue was carried out.”
Derek Hammond, a volunteer for the rescue association, told the Stray Ferret it was a simple rescue and the boy did the right thing by seeking help rather than putting himself at risk of harm by trying to get down when he didn’t feel safe.
Eleven volunteers took part in the incident near Pateley Bridge, which was the group’s first call-out for two weeks.
While they were dealing with it they then received a second call, alerting them to concerns that a cave diver at Goyden Pot, near Lofthouse in Nidderdale, had not returned at the expected time.
The rescue association’s website said:
“As the controllers were working to call in specialist divers for this incident news was received that she had returned safely so the team stood down and diverted attention to an ongoing incident at Brimham Rocks.”
Read more:
Missing Ripon man found
A missing Ripon man has been found safe.
North Yorkshire Police issued an appeal at the weekend for anyone who had seen the man to get in touch.
But three days later they said he had been found safe.
We have consequently updated this article to conceal the man’s identity.
Read more:
- Harrogate mental health crisis team remains in Ripon
- Ripon’s Jack Laugher wins second gold medal at Commonwealth Games
Police find missing Ripon man
A missing Ripon man has been found safe.
North Yorkshire Police issued an appeal at the weekend for anyone who had seen the man to get in touch.
But three days later they said he had been found safe.
We have consequently updated this article to conceal the man’s identity.
Read more:
- Ripon’s Jack Laugher wins second gold medal at Commonwealth Games
- Developer granted time extension over 30-home plan in Ripon
Woman who lost 12 stone launches crowdfunder to remove loose skin
A Harrogate slimmer who lost almost 12 stone has launched a crowdfunding appeal to pay for surgery to remove her loose skin.
NHS worker Debs Smith embarked on her epic weight loss after her dad died in December 2019.
Ms Smith, from Jennyfields, started off weighing more than 21 stone and had 68-inch hips at less than five feet tall. She said:
“I was literally wider than I was tall.”
Over the next two years she shed eleven-and-a-half stone, now weighing just below 10 stone, and says she’s never felt happier.
Debs Smith, right, before her weight loss
But she has already spent £35,000 dealing with the impact of her dramatic weight loss by paying for two operations to get rid of what she describes as “the loosest skin I’ve ever seen”. She says:
“I looked and felt like a tiny skeleton stuck inside a giant hot sleeping bag made of skin.
“Not how anyone wants to live, this affected my mobility, daily hygiene and dignity.”
The two operations, which took 16 hours in total, lifted and reconstructed everything on her upper body. Removing the loose skin from her stomach alone got rid of one-and-a-half stone.
She flew to Cairo for the operations because the cost is far less in Egypt than the UK, but her funds are now depleted.
She said:
“To make those earlier operations happen I took out a bank loan and an extra mortgage.
“The two procedures would originally have included my thigh areas but I have bleeding issues, which slowed down what could be achieved each time.
“A final procedure is needed for the huge amount of sagging skin on my thighs.”
Ms Smith, who was helped in her weight loss by Slimming World in Jennyfields, has launched a £5,000 crowdfunding campaign. So far it has raised almost £500. She said:
“Before I lost weight I could walk only a few yards before becoming breathless; I now often walk with my dog for two to three hours and its still a wonderful experience.
“However, my thigh skin hangs like big loose curtains flopping around inside trousers, so I can’t wear patterned trousers without looking very odd.
“Either leg can easily get stuck to or under the other leg in bed.”
You can donate to Ms Smith’s campaign here.
Read more:
- Beech Grove road closure in Harrogate to end in 10 days
- No hosepipe ban for Harrogate district despite falling water levels
Missing Boroughbridge teen found
A Boroughbridge woman who failed to return home on Friday night has been found.
North Yorkshire Police issued an appeal for help finding the woman after she went missing.
It issued photos and a description and asked people to get in touch with details of possible sightings.
Police said yesterday the girl had been found.
Consequently this article has been updated to conceal the women’s identity.