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Dunlop
British Open Unveils International Sport At
Liverpool
Echo Arena
THE
Dunlop British Open Squash Championships, the longest-established
and most prestigious event in world squash, comes to
Liverpool
for the first time next month - and will become the first
international sporting event to be staged in the city's new Echo
Arena.
Widely
regarded as the 'Wimbledon'
of Squash, the British Open was first held more than 80 years ago
and attracts elite international fields from all over the world.
The Dunlop British Open - Liverpool 2008 boasts a
galaxy of squash stars, led by the world's top ten men and women -
and also features the world's largest and most successful annual
Masters Championships, with 13 events ranging from men's and women's
Over-35 age group categories to en's Over-70.
With
the qualifying competitions and early rounds of the main events
getting underway at the Liverpool Cricket Club
from Tuesday 6 May 2008, action moves onto the spectacular all-glass show
court in the Echo Arena from Friday 9 May through to the
finals on Monday 12 May 2008.
Promoted by internationalSPORTgroup on behalf of England Squash, the
Dunlop British Open - Liverpool 2008 is also backed by the Liverpool
Culture Company, Liverpool City Council, the Northwest Regional
Development Agency and the
ATCO
Group.
Liverpool Echo Arena
is a state-of-the-art
10,000-seater arena, situated in the Kings Dock on the River Mersey.
Opened in January this year, the arena hosted the opening
ceremony of the Capital of Culture Year.
Due to
unprecedented demand for places in the Masters Championships, Crosby
Northern Sports Club will become a hosting partner alongside the
ECHO
Arena Liverpool and Liverpool Cricket Club, staging Masters matches
on 8
May
and 9 May.
World
number 1s Amr Shabana and Nicol David
will head the distinguished casts in
Liverpool.
Shabana, from
Giza
near
Cairo,
celebrated 25 consecutive months at the top of the men's world
rankings this month, thereby becoming the longest-serving number one
since
Pakistan's
legendary Jansher Khan more than ten years ago.
Now in
her 3rd year as women's world number one, Nicol David has become
Malaysia's
most successful international sportsperson of all-time - and last
December was voted the 'Asian Sportswoman of the Year'.
EU TRANSPLANT HOPE FOR NORTH WEST PATIENTS
EUROPEAN MPs have voted to introduce a new organ donor scheme
that could bring hope for transplant patients across the North West.
As many as 10 people die each day across the continent while waiting
in vain for an organ donation and some 40,000 patients are on EU
waiting lists for a transplant.
Now a new EU-wide donor card and 24-hour emergency hotline is to be
introduced in a bid to save lives by easing the task of matching
patients with suitable organ donations.
North West Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies has welcomed the
decision. He said:- "This is the best possible instance
of the EU not only adding value to health services in individual
nations, but also giving many people the chance of life itself...
We already have an EU-wide scheme in place for the storage of blood
plasma which is based on British practice and sets the same high
standards for everyone."
An opinion poll published last year found that 81% of EU citizens
support the use of organ donor cards; but only 12% actually carry
one.
It also found that 56% of Europeans are willing to donate one of
their organs after they die.
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Are
you an Ideas Hamster or ready to Plug and Play?
WHEN The
Apprentice’s Simon Smith, got the chop from the BBC’s hugely popular
show and watched back footage of himself trying to manage a task for
Sir Alan, even he admitted he should have been fired for some
hideously embarrassing ‘Brenty’ moments.
So what other
pitfalls should any wannabe apprentices trying to climb the career
ladder avoid? officebroker.com, the country’s leading online
office brokerage business, has spoken to businesses across the UK to
compile a top 10 list of the latest cringe worthy office terminology, all of which should be avoided if you want to steer clear of
looking like David Brent or being fired yourself.
The officebroker.com Top 10
1. Calling a colleague a
‘404’ (as in the web error message
404: Not Found) for being completely useless.
2. Saying you will ‘knife
and fork’ a task – in other words, manage it bit by bit.
3. Claiming at an
interview that you are ‘ready to plug and play’ – in other
words you are fully trained and can start the job immediately
without any support or training.
4. Offering to ‘bookmark’
someone you meet at a conference (taking note of someone and their
contact details).
5. Inviting
colleagues or staff to a ‘thought showering’ session – the
supposedly now PC term for brainstorming.
6. Referring to your
PC as the ‘square headed spouse’
7. Declaring that
there is an ‘elephant in the room’ or indeed a ‘100lb
gorilla’. What you actually need to do is be the one to admit
that there is a big problem that everyone is ignoring.
8. Describing
yourself as being ‘behind the curve’ – in other words,
claiming you have a grip on modern technology and life.
9. Talking about ‘swallowing
the frog’ when tackling a particularly horrible task.
10. Talk about
spending the afternoon ‘in the field’ – everyone will know
you are skiving!
“There is a lot of inane office terminology out there, picked
up by ambitious people who adopt it as part of their language in a
bid to fit in. But we say there’s nothing like good,
honest straight talking to see you on your way to success in
business. We are sure Sir Alan Sugar would cringe at some of
the management speak heard in offices across the land on a daily
basis, and the ‘cringometer’ in our own office certainly goes off if
we ever hear anyone from officebroker.com attempting to use such
terminology! My business
partner Andy and I find we ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’ when it
comes to straightforward honest business talk. We’re ‘batting
for the same team’ and like to ‘work hard, play hard’ to
ensure the success of our business.
We use lots of ‘blue sky thinking’ to come up with creative
ideas and are always ready to ‘bite the bullet’ or ‘grasp the
nettle’, often ‘pushing the needle’ to take things on to
another level,” explains Jim. “Sometimes it feels like we’re having
a ‘salmon day’ and swimming against the tide, but we ‘touch
base’ regularly to keep on top of things and Andy often gives me
a ‘heads up’ on certain issues which, a lot of the time don’t
need ‘a degree in rocket science’ to overcome.
Like most companies we often find ourselves indulging in a session
of ‘blamestorming’ if something doesn’t go according to plan,
but we are both such little ‘ideas hamsters’ that we always ‘get
the ball rolling’ again quickly!” says Jim Venables, Managing Director of
officebroker.com. |
