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TENTH BYRON FESTIVAL READY TO ROLL
By Denis Robinson
Hucknall Today
http://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/hucknall/T enth-Byron-Festival-ready-to.4189314.jp
June 16 2008
UK
THE sport-packed International Byron Festival is set to be Hucknall's
version of this year's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The tenth festival, which gets under way on Tuesday June 17 and runs
for three weeks until Saturday July 5, boasts a rich sporting theme.
It will even incorporate the Hucknall-based Festival Of Sport gala
day at Titchfield Park.
Cricket features strongly in the festival programme, including a
Twenty20 cricket match at Papplewick Hall in memory of Hucknall
tram-accident victim Matthew Dear.
There will also be an encounter between Hucknall's Holgate and National
Comprehensive Schools for the Byron Cup.
And the two schools will take each other on again for a corresponding
trophy in athletics.
Byron himself was justifiably proud of his sporting accomplishment
in swimming the Hellespont, the strait between Europe and Asia.
So it is fitting that a primary schools' swimming final at Hucknall
Leisure Centre is another of the festival items.
Boxing, another sport which Byron enjoyed, will be demonstrated at
a bumper family fun day on Hucknall Market Place.
And other sports covered in the festival include bowls and golf. There
will be a sports quiz and the Canon Fred Green Memorial Lecture
will be given by Dudley Savill, who has written a book called 'Byron
The Sportsman'.
Byron's boxing gloves, given on loan from Newstead Abbey, will form
part of an exhibition in Hucknall Parish Church, together with a copy
of a letter by the poet in which he somewhat exaggerated a batting
performance for Harrow School against arch-rivals Eton on August
2 1805.
However the festival is by no means confined to sport and provides
a host of other attractions, including drama, music, dancing, arts
and crafts.
Main organiser Maureen Crisp, secretary of Newstead Abbey Byron
Society, said: "In many ways, the 2008 festival is the most ambitious
yet.
"It will run for three weeks and it comprises more than 50 separate
events..
"I think the programme we have lined up is really wonderful and I am
confident that the festival will reach double figures in style.
"With the Hucknall community's widespread interest in sport, I am
hoping that any image of the festival being elitist will be well and
truly laid to rest."
Maureen pointed out that Byronists all over the world had been made
aware of the festival via the Internet.
An international highlight will be an Armenian garden party at the
parish church, which will include consecration of a new plant-container
at the front of the Armenian cross known as a khatchkar.
By Denis Robinson
Hucknall Today
http://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/hucknall/T enth-Byron-Festival-ready-to.4189314.jp
June 16 2008
UK
THE sport-packed International Byron Festival is set to be Hucknall's
version of this year's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The tenth festival, which gets under way on Tuesday June 17 and runs
for three weeks until Saturday July 5, boasts a rich sporting theme.
It will even incorporate the Hucknall-based Festival Of Sport gala
day at Titchfield Park.
Cricket features strongly in the festival programme, including a
Twenty20 cricket match at Papplewick Hall in memory of Hucknall
tram-accident victim Matthew Dear.
There will also be an encounter between Hucknall's Holgate and National
Comprehensive Schools for the Byron Cup.
And the two schools will take each other on again for a corresponding
trophy in athletics.
Byron himself was justifiably proud of his sporting accomplishment
in swimming the Hellespont, the strait between Europe and Asia.
So it is fitting that a primary schools' swimming final at Hucknall
Leisure Centre is another of the festival items.
Boxing, another sport which Byron enjoyed, will be demonstrated at
a bumper family fun day on Hucknall Market Place.
And other sports covered in the festival include bowls and golf. There
will be a sports quiz and the Canon Fred Green Memorial Lecture
will be given by Dudley Savill, who has written a book called 'Byron
The Sportsman'.
Byron's boxing gloves, given on loan from Newstead Abbey, will form
part of an exhibition in Hucknall Parish Church, together with a copy
of a letter by the poet in which he somewhat exaggerated a batting
performance for Harrow School against arch-rivals Eton on August
2 1805.
However the festival is by no means confined to sport and provides
a host of other attractions, including drama, music, dancing, arts
and crafts.
Main organiser Maureen Crisp, secretary of Newstead Abbey Byron
Society, said: "In many ways, the 2008 festival is the most ambitious
yet.
"It will run for three weeks and it comprises more than 50 separate
events..
"I think the programme we have lined up is really wonderful and I am
confident that the festival will reach double figures in style.
"With the Hucknall community's widespread interest in sport, I am
hoping that any image of the festival being elitist will be well and
truly laid to rest."
Maureen pointed out that Byronists all over the world had been made
aware of the festival via the Internet.
An international highlight will be an Armenian garden party at the
parish church, which will include consecration of a new plant-container
at the front of the Armenian cross known as a khatchkar.