Gran Alacant Advertiser April 2023

Gran Alacant Advertiser continues to bring you all the local NEWS including information from the local Town Hall representative. Working for the local community since May 2005.

If you have any QUESTIONS or PROBLEMS you would like us to discuss, please email on info@granalacantadvertiser.com

Q: Dog Mess

I have been coming to Gran Alacant for over 15 years and I am disgusted by the amount of dog mess that is being left along Clot de Galvany, Calle Bèlgica, Calle Luxemburgo and the rear of Masa Square.

My father and son have both stepped in the mess along Calle Bèlgica. This could pose a risk of bringing all types of germs and bacteria into the house.

It is disgusting that dog owners can be that irresponsible and not clean up after their dogs. The local council need to impose more fines, come round regularly to clean and install more poo bins.

Michelle

GA Advertiser Reply:

We have asked our local Vet Exotics to write more about this and diseases that can be transmitted from this. I hope that it will encourage dog owners to be more responsible and pick up after their pets.

Q: Speedbump at Novamar 3

Hello again

As nothing seems to happen regarding a speed bump outside our exit from Novamar 3, could you please remind Oscar of this? It is very stressful trying to exit there by car. Regards,

Rune

GA Advertiser Reply:

We have reminded Oscar about the speedbump at the exit from Novamar 3. We hope a solution will be found soon.

Q: Traffic Pattern

I am happy that the road at the church has been reopened and the drainage problem solved however, I am confused about the traffic pattern going forward. Are we getting a big roundabout there?

Laura

Oscar Valenzuela’s Reply:

Local police and the town council engineers are looking at options here. One option being considered is installing traffic lights and speed bumps at the intersection.

Q. Catterpillars

We walked from Gran Alacant to Santa Pola through the countryside and came across this train of caterpillars. We have never seen anything like it before. Can you tell us any more about these strange creatures?

Regards David

Juan from Hometurf Research:

The processionary caterpillar is mostly found in wooded areas and can be identified by the thousands of small fine poisonous hairs or bristles that cover their body. These stinging hairs can break off and float in the air, which can cause ear, nose, and throat irritation in humans, as well as severe allergic reactions.

When the populations of Thaumetopoea Pityocampa reach very high levels, they are capable of intensely defoliating trees, becoming a harmful forest pest.

The name processionary comes from the fact that they create a procession or a caterpillar style ‘conga’ from head to tail to form a long chain just as your photo shows. These are particularly harmful to pets and young children so avoid them at all cost.

Famous

A woman just spoke to us and said she had seen a photo of us in your magazine. She had been reading your magazine in her local hairdressers in La Marina. We are famous!

Thank you for helping introduce us to residents in La Marina.

Claudia and Brigitte

IMPROVED POST OFFICE SERVICES

The Mayor of Santa Pola, Loreto Serrano, Gran Alacant Councillor Oscar Valenzuela accompanied by the Production Manager, José Luis Sánchez, and the Post Office Products and Services Manager, Ernesto Adell, visited the Post Office of Gran Alacant

LARGE ITEMS COLLECTIONS

Tuesdays and Thursdays ONLY.

Please Whatsapp only this number any day of the week to let them know the name of the street you are leaving your large items on.

This would help to make the service more efficient and keep our Gran Alacant nice and tidy.

Improvements Include:

• Shaded entrance area and waiting room

• Improved opening times Monday to Friday 9am to 2pm

• Installation of Citypaq device that will facilitate collecting shipments without waiting. With this system, Correos will expedite parcel collection for residents in the area of Gran Alacant, providing an innovative solution. Among the advantages of the new Citypaq is saving time, maximum discretion, availability, ease and comfort of use and total accessibility.

Two additional Citypaq modules are due to be installed.

This Post Office has 24/7 post office boxes that have the advantage of having all ordinary mail available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The sixty boxes are operational and located in front of the Gran Alacant office with ease for parking and collecting mail and with a guarantee for the security of shipments.

Future plans to improve the service include cleaning up the surrounding area and planting 3 large trees to provide more natural shade and ambiance.

LATEST NEWS FROM THE GA COUNCILLOR OSCAR VALENZUELA

RUBBISH

We are looking forward to the great improvements that will materialize with the new cleaning contract however, in the interim period we ask that everyone be more mindful when disposing of their rubbish.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

In the lead up to the elections, local politicians were out in force to inform local residents of all the projects that have been completed during their term.

Images like the above only serve to make the neighbourhood look shabby and attract a continous and uncontrolled flow of waste.

NEW POLICE STATION

For more details on all of these projects, please refer to our March edition. For more information on how to vote check out https://sede.ine.gob.es/

ROAD REOPENED

The road in Norway Avenue has been open and operational since the end of February. After several months of construction, the rain channel has been replaced to prevent flooding in the area.

Thank you to all the residents for your patience and understanding.

Five companies have bid for the construction. The space of 80 meters, with public service area and administrative areas will be located next to the Commercial Centre. The work is estimated to cost 118,000e and should take 4 months to complete.

Mayor Loreto Serrano visited the site of the new Police Station for Gran Alacant.

MOSQUITO

As the warmer seasons arrive, we have developed a campaign where periodic biological larvicidal treatments will be carried out to control the population of mosquitos.

There is a need to carry out tasks of surveillance and monitoring of simulids (black fly or beata) and culicids, especially the common mosquito (Culex genus) and the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) in the area of Gran Alacant.

ROAD ASPHALT

Santa Pola town council awards the first phase of the ASPHALTING plan for Gran Alacant for a total of 510,000e. The works will start in the next few weeks.

SEWAGE DRAINS

Sewage disinfection works are in progress. Disinfection is the destruction or inactivation of disease-causing organisms. The disinfection component reduces the concentration of the pathogenic constituents to an acceptable health standard level.

SPORTS

We also mention the importance in the control of the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) a species, which is in full expansion in the province of Alicante, and is a vector in the transmission of diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. Due to the biological characteristics of the species, it is capable of breeding in any small collection of water in the public or private spaces.

We hope that with these measures will reduce the amount of mosquito infestations as much as possible.

Construction work is progressing on the new Gran Alacant 8-a-side football pitch. The work should be completed in just 4 months. The Sports Department has planned the location of the pitch so that an 11-a-side football pitch can be built in the future.

If you would like to supply news or info for our next edition, or have a question for Gran Alacant Councillor Oscar Pedro Valenzuela, please email: info@granalacantadvertiser.com

Book of the month

by Beth

Looking for a book to read in the sunshine?

My Recommended Book of the Month

Fiona Valpy

The Dressmaker’s Gift

Beth worked as a Qualified Librarian in Aberdeen for 20 years. She loves reading and delights in finding exciting new authors as well as reverting back to favourite writers of all genres. Beth has lived in Gran Alacant for the last 15 years.

This is a story of three young women Mireille, Claire and Vivienne faced with impossible choices. How will history- and their families – judge them?

Paris, 1940. With the city occupied by the Nazis, 3 young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can. But all 3 are hiding secrets: Mireille is fighting with the Resistance, Claire has been seduced by a German officer, and Vivienne’s involvement is something she cannot reveal. In wartime the 3 seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal. Can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart

Two generations later, Claire’s English granddaughter arrives in Paris. Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardinal, Harriet slowly learns the true story of her grandmother’s life as a young woman during the War – and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined.

NEXT BOOK CLUB MEETING

Wednesday 26 April 2pm, Skipper Bar MASA Square

We meet up once a month, discuss the books we are reading now and suggest new ones. Anyone interested in joining us or looking for more information please contact Beth on Whatsapp +44 7853 363060

MONTEMAR BOWLS & SOCIAL CLUB

Sponsored by The Pub, Gran Alacant Insurances, Dialprix, The Belfry, Sunrise Builders and Dunbars.

CHICKEN RUN

Sunday 26th February

The February chicken run was well supported thirty six members took part which meant we played six rinks of trips, It was a very enjoyable mornings bowling. Lynne Armitage and Ian Hamilton won the chickens, Rita Towle and Colin Bedford won the eggs. Thank you Lesley and Graham Smythe who donated the chicken and Ian and Julia Hamilton who donated the eggs, with the help of the chickens!! John Freeman won the football card with West Brom.

RACE AFTERNOON

Thursday 2nd March we had another great afternoon horse racing at Dunbars, winners or losers it was fun. After the racing we enjoyed a two coarse carvery and a few drinks. Thank you to Kevin, Tony and Dave for the kind donation to the bowls club and Mandy, Sam and Shaun for looking after us all.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE

On Friday 3rd March after we played the last match at home to Greenlands, we enjoyed a lovely end of season lunch and drinks at the Belfry. After the lunch the Vice Captain thanked everyone for their support. We finished second in the Monday league and third in the Friday League, well done everyone.

CLUB COMPETITIONS FINALS DAY

On Saturday 4th March we held the Ladies and Mens Single competitions, Joan Harding v Rita Towle and Phil Goble v Keith Young. After two well played matches Joan won the Ladies and Phil the mens, well done to you all. After the matches the Club Captain announced the winners of all the club competitions and presented them with a trophy.

WINNERS:

Mixed Rinks: Gina Hindle, Steve Hindle, David Eades, Phil Goble.

Mixed Trips: Julia Hamilton, Graham Smythe, Ian Hamilton.

Mixed Pairs: Lynne Armitage and Neil Crawford.

Drawn Pairs: Des Freeman and graham Smythe.

Ladies Trips: Sheila Roberts, Sue Bounds, Joan Harding.

Mens Trips: Keith Young, Ronnie Cairns, Barry Watson.

Ladies Pairs: Sheila Roberts and Joan Harding.

Mens Pairs: David Eades and Phil Goble.

Ladies Singles: Joan Harding.

Mens Singles: Phil Goble.

RUNNERS UP:

Mixed Rinks: Sheila Roberts, Chris Harding, Ronnie Cairns, Joan Harding.

Mixed Trips: Colin Bedford, Cindy Bedford, Barry Watson.

Mixed Pairs: Sheila Roberts and Graham Smythe.

Drawn Pairs: Sheila Roberts and Phil Goble.

Ladies Trips: Sheila Roberts, Sue Bounds, Joan Harding.

Mens Trips: Graham Smythe, Ian Hamilton, Neil Crawford.

Ladies Pairs: Des Freeman and Cindy Bedford

Men Pairs: Ian Hamilton and Graham Smyth

Ladies Singles: Rita Towle

Mens Singles: Keith Young

For further information about Monte Mar Bowls and Social Club check out our website www.montemarbowls.com or email us at info@montemarbowls.com

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WE ARE THE ONLY API REGISTERED AGENT IN GRAN ALACANT

Home Turf

Greener Gran Alacant? - a missed opportunity...

Several months ago we wrote about our concerns regarding the over development of Gran Alacant and the need for proper modern urban planning to replace the current policy of pouring more concrete. We followed that article with another about our visit to Valencia where the city council is actively pursuing an urban greening policy to make that city a more pleasant place to live and to prepare it for the challenges of climate change. We noted that our local council, Santa Pola, had in fact participated in an important urban greening pilot project (“Urban GreenUp”); we expressed hope that our council would initiate similar measures here in Gran Alacant to improve our community’s quality of life and environment. Since Santa Pola had also received very substantial EU regeneration funding we were hopeful that the council now had both the knowledge and funding to make real improvements to our little community.

Santa Pola council has now published its plans for regeneration in both Santa Pola town and Gran Alacant. Santa Pola town itself is to benefit from a number of projects that could be described as having at least an element of urban greening thinking. Whilst not an especially ambitious set of projects, there will be some features of the planned Santa Pola schemes that include modern urban greening practices and characteristics, showing what the council learned from its participation in the Urban GreenUp project.

So what about Gran Alacant? From the plans so far published it is difficult to see any real commitment to a modern approach to urban design or planning. The schemes announced largely involve correcting existing deficiencies in service provision for the growing permanent population in our community; much needed

but not aimed at protecting or improving the physical environment in Gran Alacant. The council has promised what it describes as an “ecopark”; it is not clear what this will be, where it will be located or how large. Whilst a new park is always to be welcomed, a single small park is not an alternative for a proper contemporary integrated urban plan to bring nature and greening onto the streets and public spaces of Gran Alacant. Many towns and cities are now transforming their streets into parks, why not us?

More worryingly, the bigger picture in Gran Alacant is actually a commitment by Santa Pola council to considerable further commercial building development. In January we attended a public meeting of Talaoila, a local environmental group. The leaders of the group explained the future development plans that the council have for Gran Alacant. These include hotels and golf courses; a distinctly 1980s model of development. The first of these big projects is a five storey hotel to be built on the cliff edge between the Brisas del Faro and El Faro urbanizations. The hotel will be accompanied by a housing development. The site of the planned hotel is adjacent to a nature site on Margallons Ravine. Access to the hotel

will be difficult due to Avenida Escandinavia being a dead end; this will be solved by the building of a large ring road through the sierra. No environmental assessment has yet been published for this project and we await sight of it with interest. A further “grand project” is the construction of new golf courses and associated apartments and shopping on the farmland next to the National road at the lower entrance to Gran Alacant. The council is fully committed to all of these huge building projects. What

are frankly not a pleasant place to walk or be for much of the year. We lack almost any public green space in the immediate urban

we had hoped to see was a much smaller scale (and cheaper) set of plans to improve our existing community environment at street level by adopting urban greening methods and projects. Techniques such as local wilding, tree planting, micro gardens, community huertas, permeable surfaces on roads and pavements, water conserving drainage schemes and numerous other measures are being adopted in other towns and cities, why not in Gran Alacant? Our naked concrete streets bake in the sun and

areas and what little exists is now planned for development. Our environment is dominated by roads and cars. Gran Alacant is trapped in a model of urban planning forty years out of date. There is no excuse for this, our council now has the technical knowledge and funding to start the greening of Gran Alacant but is in fact doing the opposite. Even the modest plans for Santa Pola town are absent from Gran Alacant.

Gran Alacant is being left behind. In a few years the difference between the experience of living and visiting places like Valencia which have ambitiously adopted urban greening and out of date places like Gran Alacant will be obvious to everyone. When we started this series of articles we promised to invite our readers to look AND see; well, we beg you now to look and SEE the opportunity being missed by Santa Pola council to transform our home for a better future.

May

CLINICA VETERINARIA

GRAN ALACANT EXOTICS

Calle Holanda 9, MASA Square I T: 966 698 569

Monday - Friday 10:00 -13:00 & 17:00 - 20:00

Saturday 10:00 -13:00

Liliana Aldeguer Cerdán 793

English translation by Sergio Reina Esteban col 747

WHEN THE STREETS BECOME DOG TOILETS

Hi Lou,

Could you please publish a BIG thank you to Sergio and Liliana for there input about dogs on leashes and how important it is for them to be on leads in public places.

Not only can it cause traffic accidents, dog fights, be a problem to other pedestrians, environmental dangers etc but the diseases from dog poo that can be transmitted to other dogs and people, some of them can be fatal:

Salmonella, Giardia, E-Coli, Roundworms, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis, Coccidiosis, Adenovirus ... the list is endless.

Perhaps Liliana & Sergio could do there next article about the diseases that can be caused and about how it harms the environment.

Kind regards Lynne

Since the new Spanish Animal Protection Act hasn’t been passed yet, the long awaited article explaining it, and separating definitively truth from hoaxes, will have to wait a bit more. Meanwhile, I’m going to present a list of facts that shouldn’t be reminded if we really were what we are supposed to be: civilized adults. I’m talking of a fact which everyone has suffered several times: dog poo that hasn’t been picked up by negligent pet owners. Some people may thing this is a minor problem, but the truth is dog poo may be a real health problem, for both pets and humans. I have tried to classify the problems from less to more important:

THE WAY THEY LOOK AND SMELL

Disgusting, isn’t it? Picking up your dog’s poo and carrying it in a plastic bag till you find the nearest dustbin is not nice, but making our common green areas turn into pig pens is far worse, and, besides, you’ll be fined if caught. In some places you can

get caught even by DNA techniques, as we described in an article some years ago.

STEPPING IN DOG POO

A really embarrassing moment, despite we usually say in Spain this means you are to win the lottery.

INFECTIOUS AND PARASITIC DOG DISEASES

As anyone can imagine, every dog poo is a small ecosystem, where lots of microorganism, which can be good and bad ones live. When other dogs smell the poos coming from ill individuals, the odds of catching a disease are high.

INTESTINAL PROTOZOA AND ROUND AND FLAT INTESTINAL WORMS

Infested animals eliminate via faeces millions of eggs, which will colonize the digestive system of any dog which contact the poo. They will produce gastroenteritis (in case of certain worms such as Ancylostoma caninum, that bites the intestinal walls because they have teeth, the diarrhoea may be haemorrhagic).

VIRAL DISEASES

Despite the number of cases has come down these last years thanks to vaccines, we should never forget about diseases such as Parvovirus, digestive Coronavirus and canine distemper, whose mortality rates, specially in puppies, are very high. A haemorrhagic gastroenteritis will appear (and, in case of distemper, respiratory and neurological symptoms as well), and, since they are produced by viruses, antibiotics don’t help.

PARASITIC HUMAN DISEASES We

INFECTIOUS AND

are talking about zoonosis, that is, diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans (and vice versa!). This is a public health problem, and the prejudice in certain cases can be very important.

ROUND INTESTINAL WORMS

When somebody asks about deworming, I normally reply is much more important than vaccination, since the diseases you are preventing with vaccines (except rabies!!!!) rarely affect humans, but when living with an infested dog, their worms can easily go to your intestine, specially in case of children. So, apart from picking up your dog’s poo from the street, it’s very important to keep worming treatments up to date. The minimum acceptable is every 3 months, but the more the better. If you provide a monthly treatment, you are also covering heartworm (which is not transmitted via oral-faecal, but by vectors such as mosquitoes).

Very important: the fact that you have your dog’s worming treatments up to date, doesn’t exempt you from picking up your dog’s poo!

HYDATID CYSTS

I left this one for the end because it’s, by far, the biggest health problem dog poo may cause. We wrote about it at our first GA Advertiser article, but because that was about 15 years ago, I think it’s a good moment to present a small reminder.

The cause of this problem is a tapeworm called Echinococcus granulosus. This parasite has a 2 hosts life cycle, which means it spends the larval part of its life in some species of hosts, and the adult part of its life in other species. The first group of species are called intermediate hosts (in case of E. Granulosus they are ruminants and HUMANS), and the second group are called definitive hosts (in this case, DOGS). One very important thing is the transmission is ALWAYS from intermediate to definitive and vice versa, never from intermediate to intermediate or from definitive to definitive.

What do we have so far? Well, now we know that larvae only live in ruminants and humans, and adult worms only live in dogs, and the transmission will always be from ruminants or humans to dogs, or from dogs to ruminants and humans.

What are the transmission mechanisms?

A dog catches the disease when eating contaminated ruminant viscera (this is why it’s so important to do frequent worming treatments in case of shepherd dogs which work with livestock), and ruminant and humans catch the disease when contacting contaminated dog poo. At first sight it doesn’t sound very alarming, isn’t it? Dogs carry adult tapeworms, and ruminants and us carry larvae. A minor problem. Well, it would be a minor problem if E. Granusosus was like many other parasites, but the terrible thing about it, is the adult phase (the one which live in dog’s intestine) is a microscopic tapeworm which doesn’t produce practically any damage, BUT the larval phase, the one which live in ruminants and humans, called hydatid cyst, is a real monster, even more terrifying than the alien foetus displayed at the sci-fi movie “alien”. A hydatid cyst is a sphere that can be over 40 cm diameter and weigh several kilograms, which may appear at liver, lungs, or even brain. The internal surface of this sphere will produce millions of future adults.

As anyone can imagine, the only way of treating the cyst is surgical, and the risk of death, specially if the cyst is located at the brain, is very high.

So, let’s be clean and don’t leave dogs poo at the environment.

• Luis - Zest x 123

League Table Season 2022 / 2023

Most 180’s

Sponsored by:

GA SOCIAL CYCLISTS

Manu (Zest) x 4 Klaus (Turpins) x 1

different routes but, we always meet up at a designated stop for a coffee, and importantly, a natter. Sometimes the group is just two cyclists, whilst other times it can be as many as 10-12 and as a testament to the group, in the years we have been meeting, many strong friendships have been formed.

There is a vibrant group of social cyclists in Gran Alacant who meet up outside of Molly Malones most days of the week at around 10:00am. We ride hybrid and off road bikes, are of varying ages, fitness levels and both sexes and usually cycle the rural roads and paths around Gran Alacant, Santa Pola and Elche which means 12 – 25 miles per ride.

Fitter, stronger cyclists can opt to take

As we don’t all live in Gran Alacant we communicate via a Whatsapp Group so it is best to check on the Whatsapp group who is around and who is going out on any particular day.

Please note, there is a Road Bike group in Gran Alacant who can be found on Facebook under Gran Alacant Road Cyclists (Bici Gran ALACANT group) where you can find their various meet up places and times.

If you want to join us please contact us on Whatsapp 00353 / 87 991 6020

GRAN ALACANT WALKING FOOTBALL

Members continue to enjoy our weekly Wednesday sessions at 11am at the Indoor Sports Centre next to the outdoor market on Av. D’Escandinavia. All nationalities are welcome to participate in the Walking Football and also join us for drinks in Tommy’s Bar afterwards.

Our April social get-together will be in Molly Malones, Carabassi on Tuesday 4th at 2pm. Anyone interested in finding out more about our playing sessions is welcome to join us. We hope that Julie Broderick will join us to give an update on the launching of a Female Walking Football Group in Gran Alacant.

The excavation work for the 8-a-side astroturf football pitch is almost complete and we hope to be playing on it before the summer. Once construction is completed we hope it will attract even more members to our club.

Those members who are also in the Elche CF Supporters Group can give us a first hand report on their home match against Barcelona at the weekend.

John Fraser, Administrator

WhatsApp +34 630 582322

Gran Alacant’s Elche CF SUPPORTERS GROUP

A group of football fans in Gran Alacant have set-up their own supporters club to watch the local professional club, Elche CF, at their home games at the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero, and their away games in local bars around Gran Alacant.

Members include football fans from England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and of course Spain. And while the first love of these might be Newcastle United, Liverpool, Manchester United, Celtic, or Rangers, the common ground is that on match days everyone is green and white in support of Elche.

It has not been a great season for the Franjiverdes in what is their centenary year. Elche have found themselves in last place in La Liga all season and face a mammoth task to survive relegation to Segunda. Though March did bring a win, a draw, and a defeat in their fixtures, it also saw the end of Pablo Machín's spell as manager, ridiculously sacked after just 12 league games and with the club now looking for their fourth permanent manager of this disastrous season.

For away games, depending on the kickoff time and date, and what game bars will be showing to accommodate their numbers, the group usually meets 30 minutes before the start to watch the match together.

Home games see the group move around different bars in Gran Alacant as their meeting place, with bars used this season including the Jolly Roger, Naty’s, Shooters, The Pub, and Tommy’s.

From there, the group arranges carsharing to get up to the ground in time for some pre-match beers and food before returning to Gran Alacant afterwards.

Travel to the ground historically was problematic with no easy public transport links, other than changing buses in Santa Pola which would take an age, and would also leave you stranded in Elche after some of the late final whistles. With the group sharing driving duties, the group has managed to shift larger groups of fans to games.

Tickets are always easy to come by via the club website at www.elchecf.es apart from for the visits of Real Madrid and Barcelona. There is also the occasional spare ticket available through the group as well.

Jornadas in Spain have games all spread out with each match being televised. It is normal for the actual date and time of the match to not be announced until 2 to 5 weeks beforehand.

April starts with the visit of championselect Barcelona on Saturday 1 at 9pm. There’s a home derby against Valencia on the weekend of 23 April and the month ends hosting Rayo. Away fixtures see Elche make long trips to Osasuna, Girona, and Vigo.

If you are interested in watching an Elche match, find the group on Facebook at ‘Peña Elche CF de Gran Alacant’.

¡Mucho Elche!

GRAN ALACANT RUNNERS

THE (CONTINUING) ADVENTURES OF THE GRAN ALACANT RUNNERS

Sponsored by GA-Homefinders

The weather in March has been remarkable, well for some of you it has, but for us in the UK and Northern Europe, it has been cold. Andy took on the Elche 21k on 12th March and said the conditions in the heat made running quite difficult and he saw, in the last 4 Km, a few runners being treated by the side of the road, with what looked like heat related conditions. However, he slowed his pace to suit the conditions and while he didn’t break any records, he finished safe and sound. Well done Andy!!!

A big shout out to Staffan our Viking snow monster. During March, he completed his run streak of running every day for 365 days. Many congratulations to Staffan for such a great achievement, and a big thanks to his wife for supporting him through the year. He hasn’t given up running but has hidden his trainers and put his feet up for a few day

Don’t forget, if you see us in Gran Alacant join us for a run or say hello. No matter your ability, If you are visiting the area and want to run with someone, please get in touch on 0044/747 685 1356.

GRAN ALACANT GOLF SOCIETY

GAGS are now back to playing twice a week, Tuesday and Friday at 8am. We are looking forward to meeting up with our regular players and welcoming new members whether they be residents or visitors.

SOCIETY DETAILS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Where: El Plantio Golf Resort. The official address is A-79, Km3, 03114, Alicante.

When: the formal Society Day is Tuesdays weekly when all golfers are most welcome. In addition we have an informal get together every Friday which has always been a Gentleman’s Day.

Time: on both days normally 8am so please be there by 7.40am. Occasionally the Starter may request we change the time so unless you are a regular golfer it would be best to check with us beforehand.

Cost: usually €50 per round at peak times to include a buggy plus €1.50 mandatory insurance charge. It can sometimes be cheaper during less busy, off peak seasons. In addition the Society requires €5 sweep money which is all paid out at the end of the round.

We look forward to seeing you.

For more information please contact:

Michael (966 698 925) Tony (966 183 004)

TENNIS CLUB - EURO TENIS

For players of all standards near Gran Alacant, Santa Pola, La Marina & Elche

Playing Tuesday and Friday mornings, 10.00 - 12.00 at Club de tenis Elche

For more details email: eurotenis2@gmail.com