News in Shotley Peninsula

There are many ways to celebrate a centenary, a message from the Queen, a Melchizedek of Champagne, or a huge cake. For Woolverstone United chairman Craig Catchpole it would be Division One football.

United mark the 100 milestone next year but Catchpole is already planning the anniversary and has made it clear to manager, and son, Clive, playing at the highest level the club has ever reached since it was first accepted into the Suffolk Ipswich League (SIL) in 1948, is the goal.

The junior football season may have fizzled but that has not stopped a peninsula club from continued success.

Holbrook Hornets has been honoured by Suffolk FA after being highly commended in The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards of the Season, for the whole of the county.

Fears that domestic abuse on the peninsula has worsened during the coronavirus crisis has sparked renewed efforts to reach out to anyone affected, male or female.

Suffolk County Council working with Anglia Care Trust has today extended its Domestic Abuse Helpline to offer 24 hour support and is urging anyone experiencing, or at risk of, domestic abuse to make contact, when safe to do so.

Ipswich Town are one of six league One clubs holding out to complete the League One season on the pitch.

A meeting involving all 72 EFL clubs today concluded that talks between the league's governing body and League One clubs would continue, while reaching a conclusion regarding the Championship and League Two.

With the peninsula's sports centre at Holbrook closed, along with every other gym in the country, people are having to get inventive to keep fit at home.

Local fitness instructors, like Warrior Woman from Chelmondiston, are doing their bit to keep all generations motivated but figures released by Sport England today showed 38% of adults in England are doing less exercise than normal during lockdown despite 63% saying they think exercise is more important at the moment.

Did you know?

A lot of us may chomp on chocolate eggs at Easter, but originally eating eggs was not allowed by church leaders during the week leading up to Easter (known as Holy Week). So, any eggs laid that week were saved and decorated to make them Holy Week eggs, that were then given to children as gifts.

Producing food for the population is a key role, pandemic or otherwise but one Peninsula farmer certainly does not consider himself to be 'in the firing line' in this Coronavirus outbreak. 

For farmers like Will Wrinch, one of the younger members of the Wrinch family, which has farmed on the peninsula since 1840, getting out into a field to produce the food that ends up on the nation's tables is an everyday occurrence. 

Ipswich Town women's management and players have reacted with dismay after learning their epic efforts this season will be wiped from the record.

With the increasing uncertainty over whether organised sport can resume in the foreseeable future, the Football Association took the unprecedented step of cancelling the season for all women's football leagues below the top two divisions.

Liverpool may be facing an agonising wait to see if they can secure the Premier League title, but there are such worries for one young Holbrook side.

Unbeaten Holbrook Hornets under-14s have already clinched their league title after a close 1-0 win Saturday, which was more enough to get them over the line, with a game to spare.

It is game on for junior football today after the Suffolk FA ruled no youth matches needed to be cancelled due to the Covid-19.

However, Brantham Athletic's game against Ely City has been cancelled after the Thurlow Nunn League decided to follow the example of elite football and suspend all fixtures until April 3 amid the coronavirus outbreak.