Community Yearbook

APRIL

9 Thursday, 21 January, 2021

Newbury Weekly News

So near yet so far for couple

Queen’s Award for Xtrac

“So to receive such prestigious recognition for the highly-skilled accomplishments of our people is a very welcome boost to morale for all of us. “And it’s particularly good news, of course, for our fast-growing High- Performance Automotive business unit, headed by James Setter, which led the implementation of the winning Integrated Lightweight Electric Vehicle transmission project.” While global motorsport takes a temporary pause, Xtrac deferred its celebrations and joined the UK motorsport industry’s efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic by repurposing parts of its factory and staff to manufacture medical ventilator components for the Ventilator Challenge UK initiative.

THATCHAM-based company Xtrac received the Queen ’s Award for Enterprise. Xtrac, a vehicle transmission specialist, won the award in the innovation category for its development of an Integrated Lightweight Electric Vehicle (ILEV) gearbox range spearheaded by chief executive Adrian Moore. The company, based in Gables Way, is a world-leader in the design and manufacture of transmission systems and driveline components for top-level professional motorsport and high-performance automotive applications. Mr Moore said: “Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has afected us like all other businesses in our industry, in the UK and around the world.

From gin to hand sanitiser Just three days before extraction, however, the FOR three weeks, Newbury couple Ella Tomkins and Jessica Warr traversed the length and breadth of the country, on the run from a team of specially- trained ‘hunters’ . The girls were taking part in Channel 4 reality TV series Hunted , aiming to avoid detection for four weeks to scoop a share of the £100,000 prize money. They camped in the wild and took shelter in strangers’ houses, desperate to keep hidden from the hunters.

Olympic dream dies FOR British athletes, the news of the postponement of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a result of the coron- avirus pandemic was hugely disappointing. The amount of training and preparation they put in for their event – both physically and mentally – is enormous. It’s no different for Newbury brothers Matt, 30, and George Rossiter, 28, who were both selected to represent Great Britain in rowing events in Tokyo this summer. George, who was named in the pairs squad, said: “Although it’s disappointing, everyone knew the severity of it all and nobody was getting ahead of themselves or too excited. “It puts us in a situation where another year has been added on to the cycle.” The brothers, who train in Caversham, moved back to their parents’ house in Donnington where they continued their training. No escape for Blues NEWBURY Blues head coach Paul Archer was disappointed his side were unable to complete a great escape in South West Premier. The RFU announced that all rugby in England would be concluded and that the playing record would determine promotion and relegation. Unfortunately Blues were one of two teams in the relegation zone and as a result they’ve dropped down to level 6. “It was the right decision to end the league, but we’re disappointed ,” said Archer. “ We didn’t get a chance to pull of our big escape, as we left ourselves with too much to do.”

devastated to be caught so close to the finish. She said: “We were absolutely gutted – when you get as far as we did, you start believing you can do it.”

duo – who had returned to Newbury to replenish supplies– found them- selves cornered in wood- land and were captured. Jess admitted they were

Racing to the rescue

A MEALS on wheels hub was set up at Newbury Racecourse to provide food for the most vulnerable elderly people in West Berkshire during the Covid-19 crisis. The racecourse teamed up with Age Concern Newbury & District and Swift Couriers to create the hub in a dedicated area. The hub used available kitchens and chefs at the racecourse to support the

A NEWBURY gin distillery has been making its first deliveries of hand sanitiser to frontline workers in the town. The 137 Gin Distillery, run by Pete Lumber at The Newbury pub, on Bartholomew Street, began producing the all-important sanitiser after seeing an online plea from Fair Close Centre. Gin blogger and Thatcham resi- dent Debbie Burgess suggested the switch from gin to sanitiser to Mr Lumber and the pair worked hard to raise money for the expensive raw ingredients. Mrs Burgess set a target of £3,000, which was boosted by a £1,000 grant from Greenham Trust, and production was to the recipe set out by the World Health Organisation. The duo were joined by councillor Steve Masters (Green, Speen),

escalating number of vulnerable people who required the service. The racecourse also

who was searching for hand sani- tiser for local voluntary groups. “We saw that Steve had put out a post saying he wanted hand sanitiser for Fair Close, particu - larly the drivers for meals on wheels,” Mrs Burgess explained. “We have had people coming forward to donate any surplus hand sanitiser they have and empty plastic bottles are being donated too.”

“We want to play our part as much as we possibly can for the most vulnerable groups within our local community and have the resource and extensive space here at the racecourse to allow us to assist with a coordinated and safe response to the unprecedented situation we all find ourselves in.

“Working closely with the team at Age Concern Newbury & District and Swift Couriers, as well as the West Berkshire CCG, hopefully we can ease some of the pressure on the services across the district and provide much larger quantities of meals to the most vulnerable.”

donated £1,000 worth of food from its existing supplies. Newbury Racecourse chief executive Julian Thick said: “There is a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety around the current Covid-19 pandemic.

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