Author Archives: Hugh Sullivan - Page 8
FOOTBALL: Two Red Cards, Two Home Points Dropped
Hastings United had to settle for a 1–1 draw at home to Guernsey last Saturday after conceding a first half penalty, then two dismissals – leaving them to play nearly…
Social Media Storm Diverts Palestine Solidarity Talk
A public talk by Baroness Tonge entitled Everyday Life in Apartheid Israel and organised by the Hastings Palestine Solidarity Campaign (HPSC) for 24th January was twice re-located after hostile attacks…
West Marina Development Inches Forward
The former bathing pool site at West Marina, on the West St Leonards seafront beyond Grosvenor Gardens, has been vacant for over 30 years. From the point of view of…
CRICKET: Horntye – BOWLED OUT
Hugh Sullivan talks with Priory chair John Morgan It’s a Friday night at the beginning of February, and snowing outside, but John Morgan, chair of Hastings & St Leonards Priory…
Jerwood Bust-Up
As reported in the national press and websites last weekend, the Jerwood Gallery at the Stade looks likely to lose virtually its entire permanent collection of around 300 artworks and…
Pier Sale: The Reckoning
A formal account of the sale of the pier to Sheikh Abid Gulzar last June has finally been released into the public domain by the administrators of the Hastings Pier…
HOCKEY: Rampant Saxons Stretch League Lead
South Saxons Ladies hockey team have hit new heights this month. Unbeaten since the start of the season they had won nine victories in ten matches in Division One of…
FOOTBALL: Mongoy Hat-Trick Keeps United Bubbling
Hastings United gave what many observers considered to be their best performance of the season in defeating promotion rivals Whyteleafe 3-0 at Pilot Field last Saturday. Particular plaudits went to…
Back To School – Retired Language School Director Back In Business
Reg Veale, former principal of Embassy English Language School in St Leonards, has revealed that he is renewing the business under his own brand, titled Majors Study Tours. Embassy, which…
FOOTBALL: Agutter – A Forthright Interviewee
Hugh Sullivan asked questions of United manager Chris Agutter shortly before the match with Sittingbourne last Saturday. He is never afraid to give straight answers HS: You’ve explained in the…
FOOTBALL: United In Cruise Mode
On a cold afternoon last Saturday Hastings United consolidated their second place in the Bostik League with a 5-0 home victory over Sittingbourne. All five goals came in the first…
An “Appalling Process”: Political Opposition Gathers
On 3 January Amber Rudd, MP for Hastings and Rye, launched a petition with to challenge HBC’s proposal to install two solar farms at the Milking Parlour within Hastings Country…
Sports Review 2018
The most celebrated sporting moment for Hastings in 2018 came arguably on New Year’s Day when former local electrician, Rob Cross, who had turned professional less than 12 months before,…
Getting Hastings To Work
The community interest company The Work People, a re-branding of the Hastings Works recruitment and training enterprise centred in Robertson Street, has secured new funding totalling £107,000 from a joint…
Friends of the Pier: “We’ll be here when the time comes”
Friends of Hastings Pier (FoHP), the community group whose bid to buy the pier in June was unsuccessful, remain buoyant despite the withdrawal from frontline action of two leading activists,…
HORNTYE: Cricket, Hockey Clubs Stay Put
A year ago it all looked so promising. The directors of Hastings United FC and trustees of the Horntye estate were proceeding with a joint venture to sell off their…
Protest over Hastings Firm’s Links to US Child Detention
Around 12 activists from Global Justice Bexhill and Hastings demonstrated in protest last Friday 23rd November outside the Castleham offices of General Dynamics UK over the role of its parent…
Think Big, Act Local
North-east Hastings is not an obviously distinct neighbourhood. With a population of around 8,000 residents, it ranges from Down Farm and Red Lake at the north end to the streets…
College Proposes To Cut 40 Jobs But No Frontline Teachers At Risk
In March, Sussex Coast College in Hastings announced that it was merging with Sussex Downs in Eastbourne, Lewes and Newhaven to form a new sixth form and adult learning centre,…
United Rue Missed Chances
Hastings United lost 2-1 to Cray Wanderers in their top-of-the-table clash at Bromley on Sunday. Cray thus march on with 34 points from 12 matches in the Bostik League South-East,…
COMMUNITY SPORT: Sport For Life’s Sake
Martin Eglington, Active Communities Officer for Freedom Leisure, has always looked for opportunities to involve himself in sporting activity. Born and bred in Hastings, he aimed at becoming a professional…
SEcamb Still Understaffed – Here’s Why
The NHS ambulance trust which serves the A & E department of the Conquest Hospital remains in special measures following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between July and…
Ark Merger: Opinion Split
Following a six-week consultation process reviewing the proposal to merge Ark William Parker and Ark Helenswood Academies, the Ark company has released results of an online and paper-based survey conducted…
FOOTBALL: Turn Off The Pilot Light
Hastings United want new stadium on the playing fields of Tilekiln The proposal to build a new sports complex for Hastings at Combe Haven, which was floated with such pride…
Pier Plans: ‘Lord’ Brett Explains
Sheikh Abid Gulzar, owner of Hastings Pier, submitted long-anticipated planning and listed building consent applications to Hastings Borough Council (HBC) last week for enhancement of facilities on the pier. The…
Showdown At Bromley On Remembrance Day
Hastings United had won six out of seven Bostik League games this season and lay fourth in the table with several games in hand on teams above them prior to…
The Continuity Of Sport
A century of sports reporting in Hastings Sport is generally a conservative cultural form. The aims of running faster, jumping higher, showing greater strength - citius, altius, fortius, as the…
FOOTBALL: Another Saturday, Another Cup Round
Heroics at Leiston, now it’s another 220-mile round trip to Hitchin It’s not often that a team has three players sent off in a match, yet receives universal plaudits across…
House-Building In Hastings
Public Inquiry To Test Council Figures Few observers will have been surprised when earlier this year a planning application made by a Hove property company BBCN to build nine houses…
RUGBY: H&B Leave It Late (Again)
In their opening game of the season on 8 September Hastings & Bexhill achieved an astonishing 26-26 draw with Park House by scoring two tries, the second of them converted,…
GP HOURS EXTENDED: But Not For Walk-In Patients
By Hugh Sullivan and Lindsey Williams David Cameron’s Conservative Party manifesto of 2015 promised seven-day access to NHS services. And shortly after the election was won, then Health Secretary Jeremy…
A Day in the Life of a Weather Volunteer
The weather kiosk on St Leonards seafront, erected between the pier and Warrior Square, has been there since the 1930s – part of Sydney Little’s grand seafront scheme. Maintenance of…
FOOTBALL: Up For The Cup
All football clubs, great and small, are bound to regard league matches as their bread-and-butter. Whether you’re English Premier League or Bostik League South East, it is the league schedule…
Climate Change – Or Just A Good Summer?
We check the data with Hastings Met Office The official figures are in. If summer is defined as the three months of June, July and August, the 2018 season has…
Mixed Message From Ark
Single Sex Education Set To End In Hastings Ark is an education charity that, according to its mission statement, “exists to make sure that all children, regardless of their background,…
FOOTBALL: United Go Top
Hastings United continued their winning ways last Saturday with a comfortable 3-0 victory at Pilot Field over Phoenix Sports that puts them top of the Bostik League South East…
Marianne North Celebration at the Bohemia Walled Garden
On Sunday 16th September the Bohemia Walled Garden, situated in Summerfields Woods, will host a celebration of one of Hastings’ greatest historical figures, the Victorian artist, botanist and explorer Marianne…
Hot Air about Regulation
In all civilised countries there is legislation which protects tenants from summary eviction. In England it is less protective than many people think it should be. Under the Housing Act…
GOLF “A Club Close To My Heart”
Former Pro Returns to Manage Beauport It didn’t take too long after all. We reported in these columns two weeks ago that the disastrous tenure of Chris and Kellie Hawes…
Notes From A Previous Court Appearance
One reason why Sheikh Gulzar may have felt reluctant to attend his recent tax appeal hearing in Brighton, might be the short shrift given to his evidence when he last…