Charities & Volunteering

Bright future for footballers

Tomorrow’s stars in the making

The future of Corwen FC has been secured for the next 20 years after Rhug Estate gave a long-term commitment of land for a sports field.

Corwen Community Football Organisation has a thriving junior section, with over 110 boys and girls playing in a variety of teams, between the ages of four and 16. They currently train at Dee Park under a provisional agreement, but the club is pleased to have agreed a 20-year lease with Rhug Estate. Michael McNamara from CCFO said: “The

“The future of all football teams in Corwen future of is now secure. We all teams would like to express is now our sincere thanks to secure” Lord Newborough for facilitating this and the generous terms he has offered. We would also like to thank Llewellyn-Jones Solicitors who offered their services on a pro bono basis.”

The launch at Aico’s Oswestry base Borderlands doubles its effort

More riders than ever were able to tackle the popular Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge, thanks to additional sponsorship from home safety specialists Aico and Mule Cycles, Oswestry. A total of 300 entrants, double the usual number, took on the 22-mile off-road route to raise funds for charities including Midlands Air Ambulance.

Borderland Rotary, who have organised the annual event since 1994, joined Aico’s community liaison Jane Pritchard to launch the event at the company’s headquarters, alongside Tim Gray, managing director of Dairi-Pak, a long-standing sponsor of the ride, and James Davies, owner of Mule Cycles. Jane said: “As an employer committed to supporting our local community, Aico were delighted to be given the opportunity to sponsor the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge 2022. The event was even bigger and better than ever before, attracting many more riders and raising much-needed funds.”

Anna Openshaw of Miwtini: “We are here for you”

Blossoming businesses do battle

Ambitious entrepreneurs have been pitching their ideas in the hope of investment in an Apprentice-style scheme at a Colwyn Bay enterprise hub. Experts from the world of business joined forces with Hwb Menter/Enterprise Hub @M-SParc to share knowledge, advice and experience with participants from across Conwy county.

The Miwtini programme this summer featured workshops on topics including web design, PR, marketing and customer service before participants pitched their business ideas, with £3,000 investment for the winner and £2,000 for a runner up, from

“We can the Community Renewal Fund. help you Hub manager Sara Roberts said they move forward with want to help people begin their journey to commercial success. “It’s about opportunities, providing anyone with the spark of an idea the platform to bring it to reality.”confidence” Anna Openshaw, senior project officer for Miwtini, said: “Whether it’s a hobby you want to take to the next level or a great big idea that’s going to change the world, we are here for you and confident that Miwtini can play a part in helping you move forward with confidence.”

To find out how the Enterprise Hub can help you, email post@ hwbmenter.cymru, call 01248 858 070 or visit hwbmenter.cymru

SPINNING TO VICTORY

Cycling: Steve and Sian

Two Derwen College sports instructors have completed a punishing 24-hour spinning session, smashing their £5,000 target to raise a phenomenal £7,300 so far, with donations still coming in. The money will be used to purchase bespoke sports equipment for people with learning difficulties and disabilities.

Sian Thomas and Steve Evans took on the non-stop indoor cycling challenge to pedal all through the day and night, and say they couldn’t have done it without the support of students, staff and supporters. With a dozen spin bikes going altogether, a constant stream of spinners joined them for the event. All embarked on their own personal challenge, with some joining for an hour while others kept going for up to 12 hours at a time. The event was a first for the Gobowenbased further education college for 16-25 year olds with special educational needs and disabilities.

Sian said: “It was definitely a challenge and the struggle was real, especially in the small hours of the morning. But we all got through it and the event was a huge success.”

“The struggle was real”

If you would like a charity event to feature on these pages, just email the details to editorial@shire magazine.co.uk

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Have you heard the one about red clover, the mouse and the telegraph pole? Well, it all starts with the increased demand for red clover seed…

DID YOU KNOW? Red clover is just as useful as a soil improver in your garden

What with Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and fertiliser prices on the face-blanching side of £600 a ton, red clover’s nitrogen-fixing capabilities and high protein level make it an essential constituent of any grass ley. Most of the red clover seed used over here is grown in Holland and Germany. Should you find yourself in that part of the world, you may be perplexed to see telegraph poles (minus wires) dotted around the perimeter of fields of red clover grown for seed. Why are they there? Let us start with very basic ‘birds and bees’ nature. To produce seed, the clover’s magenta flowers have to be pollinated, and for this they need the help of insects. The insects carry the pollen from plant to plant in return for nectar produced at the base of the flower. However, red clover’s problem is that it possesses a long, narrow, tubular flower and needs an insect with an inordinately long proboscis in order to reach the nectar. Enter the humble bumble bee, ideally equipped for the purpose.

FIT FOR A QUEEN

So, for good crops of clover seed, you need a healthy population of bumble bees. Now, as more land was put into clover seed production to meet the demand, it emerged that those fields near towns and villages produced heavier crops than ones further away from human habitation – and no-one knew why. So a detailed study into the

lifecycle of the bumble bee was commissioned as a starting point in solving the quandary. The queen hibernates for the winter, not in hives or hollow trees but alone in holes in the ground, and being incapable of excavating such a hole, she looks to muscle in on someone else’s. Voles’ and field mice’ burrows provide an ideal winter ‘des res’ for bumble bees. The downside is, these particular rodents are not over-keen to Eryl Jones was brought have large insects as lodgers, so the bees have to look up on a small Welsh farm for unoccupied holes whose former owners have fallen and studied agriculture in “Fields near towns victim to predators. The conclusion was that more mice Aberystwyth. He became produced heavier and voles end up as dinner in fields near urban areas, farm manager on a large estate and later farmed on his own account. Eryl does voluntary environmental work with crops than ones further away – and no-one knew why” thus enabling more queen bees to survive the winter to produce a larger crop of bumble bees the following summer, in turn fertilising more clover flowers, etc, etc. But what was the predator laying waste to the voles Denbighshire Council and mice in close proximity to man? The answer was and has a passion for blindingly obvious – your common or garden domestic cat. the rural way of life.

TWO WINGS GOOD…

So the answer to increasing the yield of red clover seed in outlying fields is to control the rodent population. It would be a bit impractical to re-locate cartloads of moggies to the countryside, and the solution lay not on four legs but two wings. Purpose-built owl nesting boxes were placed in trees near the clover fields and the nocturnal predatory birds did not need much encouragement to take up residence. The last piece in the jigsaw was to ensure the owls controlled the mice and voles in the vicinity of the clover fields and not elsewhere. To facilitate their hunting, numerous high perches were obligingly erected, from which the owls could easily detect even the slightest rustle in the undergrowth. And these took the form of – telegraph poles! Hope you managed to keep up.

Bumble bees are best to pollinate clover