Buckland Newton Personalities

Buckland Newton is proving to be a village with some surprising talent.  To add something more personal to the website pages, we thought that the addition of a 'local personalities' page would be of interest.

Strongest Link

Facing up to broadcaster Anne Robinson in the general knowledge quiz programme "The Weakest Link" would not be everyone's cup of tea.  Local resident John Harden however had no such qualms and walked away the winner after beating 8 other contestants in this battle of wits where contestants successively vote off the 'weakest link'.  Anne Robinson (the programme's host) is known for her acerbic comments but John gave as good as he got and maintained his sense of humour throughout!  The programme was broadcast on BBC1 on 9th September 2008.
 

Did you know that the village has a highly-qualified sportsman in the person of Chris Mason?  A chance conversation in the Gaggle of Geese produced this information about Chris's successes:

Air Pistol Shooting Champion
Chris entered the Police Sports UK (PSUK) 10-metre Air Pistol individual and team competitions (Winter 2006-7); the team event was representing Dorset Police.  The preliminaries were a postal league for the team event and a single postal decider to determine the regional champions who would then be entered into the PSUK Championships held in Bournemouth on 31st March 2007.
 
Chris won the South West Region individual postal competition to become the South West Regional Champion and then went on to become the individual National Champion on 31st March. There were 6 regions represented at the finals.Chris is now the 2007 PSUK National Air Pistol Champion, winning the Brighton Cup.  In September 2007, Chris was reaffirmed as Champion, winning yet again, with a score of 552 out of 600 - see photo to the right.
 
 
Chris has been an Air Pistol competitor for about 30-years and was last a national champion in 1982/3 when he won the Top Under 21 Competition at the NARPA finals at RAF Cosford; following postal qualifying rounds.

Latest news (July 2011): For a lot more details about Chris's successes, click here - makes interesting reading!
 

Marathon Man!
Michael Motteram completed the London Marathon 2007 in 4:09:34. He was placed 9,113 overall (out of 36,000 runners) and 46th in his age group.  Michael was running for MACS (Micro & Anophthalmic Children's Society), which specialises in uniting families whose children suffer with partially developed, or no eyes, from birth. It arranges picnics and days out for them, creating relationships and friendships from suffering children. It is a small charity, and each volunteer working for the cause has a child suffering from the disease. More information can be found at www.macs.org.uk.   Many thanks for your sponsorship!!

Marathon Success for Adam and Fiona!  Adam (his parents live in the village) and Fiona Collins successfully completed the Gold Coast Marathon (in Australia), raising money for Cancer Research UK. Times were 3:43 for Adam and 4:51 for Fiona. They raised over £2,500.

Walking the Inca Trail with Annie Freak
Click here for information on this terrific challenge and how Annie's walk went, in support of Breast Cancer charities.

There's an aeroplane in my Living Room
Jeremy Collins has had published in a national model aircraft magazine an article and plans for a radio-controlled model aircraft.  Designed and built over a year, the 3.4 metre (10' 8") span model won the Eric Coates trophy in 2009.  The model is a one-quarter full size replica of a 1930's touring aircraft called the Swallow.  Powered by a 2100 watt electric motor and fully radio-controlled the model is capable of all the manouevres performed by the full-size aircraft.  Jeremy's 2007 project, the De Havilland 53 "Humming Bird", picked up the Shuttleworth Trophy for models of aircraft at this famous aircraft museum.  Several years ago, Jeremy also built a model of the Spitfire flown in 1944 by local resident Peter Graham.

If any other villagers have hidden talents, we'd like to know about them and celebrate them on this page.  If they're too shy to let us know, why not write and tell us? E-mail contact on the Home page.