Wicker Bus Gate

Councillors have agreed to consider relaxing the law on a 24 hour bus lane which penalises drivers with fines of up to £60.

The Wicker bus lane which picked up £100,000 in car fines within the first 7 weeks of implementation, was discussed at the City centre, south and east planning and area board meeting. A total of 2047 people have signed a petition to support a change in the current 24 hour operation.

Local business people and residents were present at the meeting, to discuss the current bus lane enforcement. Mrs. Bennett from Wicker Pharmacy spoke on behalf of businesses based in Wicker, she said: "Businesses around the area are struggling, the bus lane is putting customers off coming to wicker, and we see a restructure of the bus gate times as a lifeline for our businesses as well as a way of improving road safety."

The Bus gate has been in place since Monday 12th January 2008 and has caused controversy among local citizens, Highways Officer John Lashmar disagrees with a change in operating times by suggesting that changing bus lane rules would 'encourage more traffic and congestion whilst being a hindrance to public safety.'

The 2047 people who initially signed the petition brought the discussion to the council on 16th February 2009, but it was a petition of 88 signatures requesting an urgent decision which brought this topic up for further discussion.

The planning and highway board indicated that it would look into relaxing the 24 hour law by setting a list of criteria which officers need to monitor and submit for further discussion. The criteria will look into vehicle movement and traffic accidents within the area since the camera has been in use, as well as evaluating other factors relating to the bus lane. A final decision is due to be made once all the criteria has been presented to the planning board.


BY Sean O'Malley

sheffield hallam 1st team manager chris james

By Richard Moran

Sheffield Hallam Varsity preview- 1st team manager Chris James talks about the approaching varsity fixture against rivals Shef uni

Create, Write and Win

Sheffield Hallam University launched a new annual short story competition yesterday and they're giving away a full-time scholarship to the winner.

As part of the E.A. Markham Scholarship Prize, the university is giving students the chance to show-off their creative writing skills and win a place on their Masters of Arts (MA) Writing course for free.

Judging the short-stories will be author Hilary Mantel who wrote the award-winning Beyond Black, and Maggie Gee, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature.

Marina Lewycka, former student and best-selling author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian said: "I found the MA Writing course at Hallam enormously stimulating, both intellectually and creatively. It helped me to get my first novel published."

The deadline for the competition is Wednesday 1st April 2009 and the writer of the best short story submitted will be given the award in honour of Professor Emeritus E. A. Markham who was a tutor at Sheffield Hallam University who died in 2008.

There are also nationwide prizes for students with the best: linguistics essay, undergraduate dissertation on a literature or language topic, poetry work and overall performance by a first year English Studies student.

Applicants for the short story scholarship prize can receive further information by visiting: www.shu.ac.uk/english/prizes.

BY LIAM DAY

Event Sheffield - Sports and the law

On Wednesday 4 March in the Pennine Theatre, City Campus, a debate was held about the significant impact law can have on sport.

The evening was due to be hosted by BBC Sports editor Mihir Bose but the recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan on the Sri Lankan Cricket team meant he was called back to cover the story in London. Instead John Palmer chaired the discussion with the main question: Is it right a legal challenge can be made to influence sport?

The Panel included Birmingham Solihull Rugby player Alex Davidson, Michele Verroken, Director of Sporting Integrity (formerly in charge of anti-doping in the UK) Sara Friend, Director of Legal Services at the British Olympic Association and Mark Gay, DLA Piper - specialist in Sports Law.

It was an evening packed with interesting discussion and the panellists provided a great insight into how the law has intervened in sport for both good and bad reasons.

Lawyer Mark Gay provided most of the interesting comments having worked for the premier league in their case against west ham in the Carlos Tevez affair and having also worked on the Rio Ferdinand case.

At the start of the Tevez case West Ham were fined £5.5million and Mark described it as “Breathtaking” although he worked to get West Ham punished he said the fine “Was unprecedented at the time.”

The case was recently concluded with Sheffield United being awarded compensation upwards of £15million.

The other topic of popular debate was the Dwain Chambers case. Sara Friend said that Chambers made life difficult for himself in his quest to be able to compete at the Beijing Olympics because he delayed proceedings for so long.

She said Chambers ignored letters for months which could have started his appeal proceedings instead leaving it until 5days before the national trials at which time the judge dismissed any injunction to let him run at the trials as it would have been unfair to disrupt the other athletes competing.

However she went on to say that Chambers could have used to courts to his advantage as he “Could have got an injunction allowing him to run at the Games and then been found guilty and banned afterwards.”

Although Mihir Bose couldn’t make the evening it was still a very good event with many queries being answered and it’s great that hallam university is able to stage such evenings.

By Tom Wright

Gordon Ramsey Cook and Review

‘Roast Lamb with Paprika and Oranges’

1 Leg of Lamb (part boned) 1-2 kg

2 tea spoons of Paprika (sweet and smoked paprika mixed)

1 tea spoon of ground ginger

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 table spoon of olive oil

2-4 cloves of garlic

2 sliced oranges

(Recommended serving with potatoes and salad)

Serves 4-6

In current times many people have been affected by the global credit crunch and are looking to spend small amounts of money on meals, but if you have a few pounds to spare or fancy treating someone special then this offering from Gordon Ramsey is definitely for you.

To give a bit of background on Gordon Ramsey, he is a world renowned chef who is ranked third best in the world in terms of Michelin stars awarded, with an impressive total of 16. He is one of only three British chefs who have held 3 michelin stars at one time and known as a ‘TV celebrity chef’. Gordon Ramsey has also featured in a number of successful TV programs including ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’.

With all this in mind, I decided I would cook and review one of his recipes.

'Roast Lamb with Paprika and Oranges' is taken from his ‘Healthy Appetite’ cook book which was released in 2008 and the ingredients for this dish can be bought for around £15.

To begin, you trim any excess fat from the leg of lamb before creating a criss cross pattern on top of the thin layer of surface fat, this is instructed so that the spices and flavours can soak into the meat. You then mix the recommended amounts of paprika, ginger with salt and pepper in a bowl before spreading them all over the outside of the leg and the boned cavity. This is followed by stuffing the boned cavity with the garlic cloves and half the orange slices.

Then put the lamb on a rack and baste with olive oil, with a splash of water on the bottom of the rack before heating the oven to Gas Mark 7-220c and roast for 20 minutes. After this put another splash of water at the bottom of the rack and roast for further 20 minutes per 500g, half an hour before the lamb is done cover with the remaining oranges.

When cooked rest the lamb on a platter for 10 minutes before carving and serving. This dish is recommended to be served with potatoes and salad, I opted for mashed potatoes with herbs and a salad, the oranges can be added with the serving as well. After this eat and enjoy.

Overall I feel that this dish is full of flavour and very filling, the only down point would be that people may want to add more paprika to suit their taste as the recommended amount may not suit everybodys taste. Apart from that it was an easy recipe to follow with every stage explained in detail and the oranges added a surprise element to the meat which worked very well.

Gordon Ramsey has been hitting the headlines recently for events in his personal life, but this recipe is another of example of why he is such a popular chef and it is hard to criticise what he creates in the kitchen. I would personally recommend this to everyone who enjoys lamb but due to cost it is worth saving for a special occasion.

BY Sean O’Malley

A Vintage Clothes Fair

Sheffield's Vintage Clothes Fair was a big hit last Saturday at The Basement,in the city centre, with people turning up in the masses to buy cheap unique clothes.

The Basement, which is normally a busy bar on West Street, was transformed into an 'old skool' clothes market on Saturday between midday and 5pm encouraging people to buy second-hand clothes and unique new labels at a cheap price.

Admission to the event was only £1 and there were between 30-40 stalls in total each one selling mainly men and women's handmade, reworked or vintage clothes at wholesale or sale prices.

Many stalls were predominantly selling women's clothing including vintage and uniquely designed reworked dresses, trousers, blouses, t-shirts, handbags, belts, hats and many other garments. Other creations being sold were greetings cards, crafts, postcards and 1950s style feathers to put in your hair.



Although the bar was open as usual, most people were refreshing themselves with cups of tea and homemade fairy cakes with flamboyant multi-coloured icing priced at a not-so credit crunch friendly price of £1.75 for a large one. However, if you bought some Asian-influenced handmade jewellery at one stall, you automatically received a free chocolate brownie.

Louise Whitehead, organiser of the Sheffield Vintage Clothes events said: "It was a very successful day with many well-dressed people turning up. I'm very happy with how it's gone and look forward to the next one."

The next event Louise is holding is a Vintage Clothes Swap on Wednesday 25th March at Bang Bang Vintage in Sheffield. The idea of the event is that you bring vintage clothes (rules apply) and swap them for other clothes. Tickets cost £5 and more details can be found on their website www.sheffieldvintage.com.

By LIAM DAY

CREDIT CRUNCH MUNCH

Credit Crunch Munch- The Green Banana Curry

5 green (under-ripe) bananas

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, finely sliced

1 tbsp curry paste

400ml coconut milk

Serves 4

It seems like most people in these times of recession are constantly looking for meals to cook for under a fiver. Jamie Oliver has been doing his best on TV to promote cooking pasta as one of these cheap meals, but Jamie "people have been doing this for years, for under a pound!"

Wouldn’t it be nice to cook something exotic for once that doesn't break the weekly food budget? The green banana curry is the ultimate taste of African cuisine and the best bit is: it's easy to cook.

After a recent trip to Zanzibar, which is a mostly Muslim populated island in East Africa, I was amazed at the dishes they cooked up at their sunset-feast during Ramadan. The tastiest of all these dishes had to be the green banana curry, which was always accompanied with a spicy porridge drink.

The curry seems to be a very simple recipe consisting of only five ingredients: curry paste; under-ripe bananas, onions and coconut milk. All ingredients came to under £3 at Tesco's; this is potentially a credit-crunch student fantasy.

Firstly I peeled and chopped the green bananas about 3 centimetres thick, then threw them into a deep pan of the heated vegetable oil. It's now when you realise why it has to be hard green bananas rather than yellow soft ones as they tend to stick to the bottom of the pan. Treat it like a stir-fry and keep them moving in the pan until they've browned slightly.

Take the bananas out of the pan and put them on kitchen paper, two fold, to let them dry a bit as they seem to act like little sponges in a sea of oil. This is the time to add the onion to the remaining banana-flavoured oil and stir until soft.

The bottom of the pan shouldn't be too oily now and the onions should be silky. Add the slightly drier bananas to the mixture along with a tablespoon of the curry paste and mix them all together until it smells like your favourite balti-house.

Pour over half of the coconut milk and stir on a low heat for ten minutes. Notice the mixture transcending from white to orange like a British girl at a fake-tanning salon.

The curry should now be bubbling like lava, so pour over the rest of the coconut milk to cool it down. Leave the concoction for a few minutes and serve when the bananas start to mush and breakdown a little. Garnish with coriander and accompany with rice. Bon-appetite or "ufurahie chakula chako" as they say in Swahili.

Green banana is a perfect ingredient for a curry, tasting like a mix between potato and parsnip. Do not be fooled in thinking that this curry is going to be too sweet on the palette as the under-ripe banana provides perfect balance with the spices in the curry paste, no matter how hot you want to make it.

This tasty, cultural, bittersweet, spicy, simple, cheap recipe will impress your friends and is definitely something tropical and different that will engulf your home in the aromas of an East African beach at sunset in Ramadan. Enjoy!

BY LIAM DAY

Sheffield Tigers reach EDF Semi Finals

Sheffield Tigers 21-13 Newport(Salop)

Sheffield Tigers roared to victory against Newport (Salop) in the Quarter finals of the RFU EDF Energy Intermediate Cup in a convincing display at Dore Moor.

The match ended in a 21-13 score line with Centre Charlie Spon-Smith capping an excellent 80 minutes with four conversions to help the Tigers book a place in the Semi-finals of the competition.

Newport started the stronger of the two sides and within the first five minutes they pushed the Tigers back into their own 22. Possession then changed and Tigers were on the attack, Spon-Smith found fellow centre Tom Bray who sprinted 40 metres to the corner before being illegally high tackled. A penalty try was then awarded which Spon-smith swiftly converted to give Tigers a 7-0 lead.

On 15 minutes Spon-Smith struck again for the Tigers as he converted a penalty to stretch the lead to 10-0, with Newport being penalised for entering the ruck from the side.

Newport began to get back into the game and played some high tempo rugby which was rewarded when Matthew Curvengen brought the ball over the try line whilst holding off three players. This was followed by Jamie Simpson’s Conversion to make the score 10-7.

Newport drew even after 30 minutes of play when Tigers were penalised for infringement, causing another Conversion to be slotted away for Newport by James Curgenven from 40 metres out. In a match full of penalties another was awarded 10 minutes later for Newport at the stroke of half-time, this was converted by Jamie Simpson ensuring a 13-10 lead.

Sheffield Tigers came out after half time full of confidence and dominated from the start with slow, powerful rugby which lead to a number of penalties being given in their favour. Spon-Smith levelled the scores from a penalty and he also converted another penalty on 53 minutes, allowing the Tigers to regain the lead at 16-13.

Newport kept pressing the Tigers in the hope of getting back into the game but on the 67th minute Tigers Captain Richard Joel sealed the match with a try from a metre out to ensure Tigers a 21-13 victory and a place in the Semi-Finals.

Sheffield Tigers will travel to Clifton in the semi-finals on the 21st March, with a place in the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup Final at stake.

By Sean O'Malley

Car Crash Demo

South Yorkshire fire-fighters recreated the scene of a serious car crash last Saturday in Sheffield city centre to highlight the dangers of reckless driving and not wearing a seatbelt.

The Valentine's Day demonstration took place on the Moor at the rear of Sainsbury's at 11am as part of the South Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership’s ‘Kill Your Speed, Not Your Girlfriend’ campaign aimed at 17 to 24 year olds.

It's calculated that 32% of all people killed or seriously injured on South Yorkshire's roads were aged between 17 and 24, from 2000 to 2008. These shocking figures helped to inspire the car-crash demo.

Paramedics were also at the fake crash last weekend to attend to Sheffield University and Hallam students who were acting as casualties of the collision.

Shayne Tottie, from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s Community Safety Team, said: "We made the scenes as true to life as possible, even using make-up artists on the casualties."
He adds: "We hope it had an impact on those watching, and they will understand what the consequences of reckless driving can be."

Steve Betts, Communications Manager for the South Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership hopes the campaign will also encourage passengers in a car to "speak up and tell their drivers to slow down" as often they feel uncomfortable to do so resulting in fatal consequences.

The car-crash demonstration also took place in Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley on the same day.