The Leisure Review: World of Leisure

Wednesday 1 October
The Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester, and the Natural History Museum are named among the biggest offenders in the ‘buildings using energy’ stakes. The Natural History Museum spends £1.4m a year on electricity and gas, and expects the figure to double over the next year. The London concert circuit welcomes a new venue: Kings Place. A painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger is identified on the Dutch equivalent of Antiques Roadshow; it’s valued at around £80,000. Jonny Wilkinson resumes normal rugby activity: he’s carried off with a dislocated knee. MacDonald’s deny trying to influence the International Olympic Committee’s decision on the venue for the 2016 Games; when they said they would renew their huge Olympic sponsorship if Chicago was chosen they didn’t necessarily mean that if it wasn’t Chicago they wouldn’t and any inference to that effect must have been mistaken. The International Gymnastics Federation accepts documentation from Chinese officials as evidence that all the Chinese gymnasts were in fact sixteen, not fourteen as some had alleged. Extracts from Bradley Wiggins’ autobiography reveal a post-Athens nine-month bender and Paula Radcliffe says that she is well up for 2012.

Thursday 2 October
Olympic preparations include combating ‘the lone terrorist’ threat, officials reveal. The National Portrait Gallery launches an appeal to raise £350,000 to buy Marc Quinn’s frozen, blood-filled heads. Lord Coe is apparently helping out Chicago with its bid for the 2016 Games. It seems that Newcastle’s interim manager, Joe Kinnear, is upset by his treatment at the hands of the press and he tells them, becoming a star of print and web in the process.

Friday 3 October
UK Sport reveals plans to overhaul the structure of British boxing; former Sport England chairman, Derek Mapp, will run boxing’s elite arrangements under the auspices of the British Amateur Boxing Association. Leading rock stars, including Thom Yorke and Billy Bragg, launch a new union, the Featured Artists’ Coalition. Richard Serra opens an exhibition of his massive steel sculptures, the first in London for sixteen years. Economic activity surveys suggest that hotels and restaurants are taking a significant hit in the economic downturn.

Saturday 4 October
A piece of ‘research’ suggests that Barrow is the most working class town in Britain. The FA and representatives of the Women’s Premier League meet to discuss plans for a new league structure for women’s professional football; however, it seems that there may be a long way to go before British players and coaches come home from the USA.

Sunday 5 October
Vindolanda, the Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall, has been awarded a £4m Heritage Lottery Fund award to preserve and display the Vindolanda Letters. The city of Brighton is planning to bid for recognition by Unesco as a ‘biosphere reserve’. The European Commission is likely to rule against a government plan to provide Channel 4 with £14m to aid the digital switchover process.

Monday 6 October
The press are invited to see the new home of the Saatchi Collection, which now resides in the Duke of York’s headquarters on the King’s Road in London. Tina Brown, doyenne of New York’s publishing scene, launches an online magazine, as if that would catch on. No doubt through clenched teeth, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors suggests that there is likely to be a “sudden correction” in the market for contemporary art. Sports governing bodies receive details of their funding from UK Sport and reports suggest that athletics has not had its resources cut despite not having achieved its medal targets. In the four years running up to the Beijing Games UK Sport distributed more than £235m to Olympic sports. Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe suggests that regulations relating to the ownership of football clubs should be reformed. Chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, David Higgins, suggests that the furore over Wembley Stadium was the reason only one company tendered to build the Olympic Stadium. Lovable Mark Ramprakash is banned for two games following an abusive tirade against the umpire. Norway has abandoned plans to host the 2018 Winter Olympics owing to rising costs; £2.7 billion has been deemed to much. More Tour turmoil: retrospective tests of fourteen blood samples from riders in this year’s Tour de France result in three positives.

Tuesday 7 October
Diabetes UK says that the medical consequences of the disease costs the NHS £1 million every hour. Yes, every hour. Boris tells the Commons culture committee of his vision of London 2012 as “the Cosy Games”; he also explains that he anticipates it being cheaper than it would have been had he not arrived at the helm and that they are still trying to find a tenant for the Olympic stadium, which will remain as a major athletics venue post-Games. Plans to convert a Parisian funeral parlour, the largest in the city, into an arts centre are unveiled; the €100 million project to restore the Centquatre building will, Parisian authorities hope, re-energise the modern art scene and bring some Tate Modern-style regeneration to the 19th arrondissement. FA chairman David Triesman sets out plans for his organisation to become football’s regulator; they would like to be in a position to enforce strict restraints on debt and spending among clubs for the good of the game. Culture secretary Andy Burnham backs him, telling TalkSport, “We need a strong and reformed FA [that] is responsible from grass-roots level to the England team.” Meanwhile, caught in the headlights of a new footballing culture, Frank Lampard admits that he and his multimillionaire colleagues have had some bearing on the outcomes of recent England matches. Still on Planet Football, the new financial culture is striking fear into the hearts of some of our major clubs, including West Ham, the owner of which is Icelandic and no doubt panicking, and Newcastle, the owner of which is trying to sell and hoping to be packing but not any time soon, according to his financial advisers. Oh, and Craig Bellamy is sleeping in an oxygen tent. IOC vice-president Thomas Bach suggests that the inclusion of road cycling in future Olympics may be in question as a result of continuing doping and British Cycling confirms that it is talking to Roger Legeay, chef d’equipe extraordinaire, about the project to take a GB team into the Tour. Bob Weir is to come back to Britain as the UK Athletics ‘heavy throws’ coach. Max Mosely, president of Formula One’s governing body, warns that the so-called sport may only have a year left if it cannot cut the costs of competing. Here’s hoping.

Wednesday 8 October
Aided by a £245 curry, the prime minister and the chancellor sort out a £500 billion rescue package for the banks and Olympic Price Watch goes into retirement. The Local Government Association admits that local authorities now spend more in compensation claims resulting from the poor state of roads than it spends on road repairs. Mick Imlah wins the Forward prize for poetry and Michael Grade, chairman of ITV, backs a plan by which regional news programming would be paid for by government. The Tate succeeds in purchasing a Rubens sketch but cuts it fine, finalising the £5.7 million funding on deadline day. John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, tells the London Assembly that the Olympic village may have to be funded by the government at a cost of £1 billion after Lend Lease, the company building the village, said it could no longer finance the project. The £400 million media centre is also being reassessed and may have to be scaled down but Armitt is still confident that, despite the global financial circumstances, the Games can be delivered in line with the budget set in 2007. The Six Nations rugby tournament may be looking for new backers as their current £4 million agreement with RBS, which at the time of going to press was still a bank, runs out at the end of the year. The IOC is to retest blood samples from the Beijing Games for Cera, the new-style EPO; six athletes failed dope tests in Beijing and another three cases are pending.

Thursday 9 October
The Local Government Association reveals that 108 UK local authorities had a total of nearly £800 million invested in Icelandic banks now under threat. French author JMG Le Clézio wins the Nobel prize for literature. The Pompidou, one of the great names of French culture, announces plans for a new branch in Metz, a city hoping to flex its cultural muscles by promoting itself as “the new Bilbao”; the news follows plans by the Louvre to open a gallery in Lens in northern France. The FA’s plan to take its young charges on a new Grand Tour, the infamous Game 39, is hastily resurrected after the Asian Football Confederation says that it doesn’t mind so much now. The World Anti-doping Agency confirms that a test for blood transfusion is imminent.

Friday 10 October
Famed tailoring house Hardy Amies calls in the receivers and Channel 4 cancels plans to launch a range of digital radio stations that were to have taken on the BBC’s output. Philip Pulman urges developers to abandon plans for residential development on the site of the Jericho boatyard in Oxford. Former sprinter and, until doping charges wiped the records, Olympic gold medallist, Tim Montgomery, is sentenced to five years in prison for drug dealing.

Saturday 11 October
Forty-two authors have written short stories as part of a campaign against the introduction of legislation that would permit 42-day detention without charge. It seems that the Department for Work and Pensions spent £2 million on cabs in a year. Self-righteous indignation fills the newspapers and airwaves after a section of the Wembley crowd gives Ashley Cole the bird during England’s game against Kazakhstan.

Sunday 12 October
A frieze by Paul Day that was to be added to the sculpture of the ‘couple embracing’ at St Pancras has been cancelled when an image within the work of someone falling under a train is deemed “unsuitable”. Governmental attempts to cut down on public drunkenness (for us rather than them) could include health warnings in pubs, an end to free tastings and the introduction of measured glasses in restaurants. Ray Kellock from Rushden, Northamptonshire wins the world conker championships, held in Ashton, just down the road from where he lives. Dwain Chambers says that he might like to coach when he retires, expressing the hope that “we can start working towards a clean sport for 2012”.

Monday 13 October
The National Trust warns that 173 miles of coastline in the south-west of England are under threat from rising tides. The Tate Modern welcomes Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s work, a post-apocalyptic ward room, as the latest installation within the Turbine Hall. The speaker of the House of Commons agrees to investigate the circumstances of Formula One’s exemption from the tobacco advertising ban in the early days of the New Labour experiment; there is a tantalising prospect of Mr Tony being called back to the bar to answer charges of misleading the House. Uefa president, Michel Platini, lets it be known that he was pleased with the recent experimental match with four linesman assisting the referee. Bernard Kohl, this year’s Tour de France king of the mountains and third-place finisher, falls foul of retrospective testing for Cera, the new EPO. Adam Watene, 31-year-old rugby league international who played for Wakefield Trinity, dies suddenly during a training session.

Tuesday 14 October
Aravind Adiga’s debut novel, The White Tiger, wins the Man Booker prize. Chancellor Darling authorises a £95m payment to keep work going on the 2012 Olympic village; negotiations regarding a deal that would see the government foot the whole billion-pound bill are ongoing. Broadcasting giant John Simpson suggests that the BBC is “in its last stages” and that he expects to be sacked soon. Lonely Planet, the travel guide publisher, names Glasgow among its top ten ‘must visit’ cities. The British Library announces that it has bought the literary archives of the late Ted Hughes for £300,000. Eddie, the cadaverous mascot of British heavy metallers Iron Maiden, is now making a regular contribution to Spanish politics; it seems flags with Eddie on are being used to counter Basque flags during town council meetings in Villava, Navarre. It was all the Wags’ fault, says noted historian Rio Ferdinand. Uefa punishes Atletico Madrid for its fans’ racist abuse of Marseille players with an instruction that Atletico play their next two European ties at least 300km from Madrid; only Liverpool fans will be upset, particularly those who have already booked their flights to Madrid for next week’s game.

Wednesday 15 October
The UK Film Council gives a £250,000 grant to artist Steve McQueen’s directorial debut, Hunger, as part of an initiative to get art house films more widely distributed. Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision, says 50% of all BBC programming will be made outside London by 2016. Anetwork of tunnels under Kingsway in London used as an alternative war room and sensitive government storage is being offered for sale by BT. The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association launches an appeal to maintain the Keats-Shelley house in Rome. Publishing house Bloomsbury announces plans for a new Arabic-language imprint, titled Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing; they hope to find new talent and new markets for literature. Cycling’s international body, the UCI, announces that from 2009 competitors found guilty of “wilful cheating” will be subjected to a four-year ban.

Thursday 16 October
A common nighthawk, a bird common in the USA but rare in the UK, is spotted in the Scilly Isles; a tourism boost is on the cards until the feathery visitor is run over shortly after arrival. Research figures show that the audience for digital radio continues to grow and the Queen visits Google’s London office to show she knows her way round a computer keyboard, or at least a mouse; HM’s subscription request to The Leisure Review cannot be far away. Foreign visitors to the UK rose during August in comparison with the same month last year; visitors this year to date are 2% up on last year. A London dry cleaning company has pledged a quarter of its takings from cleaning formal wear for the next three months to the preservation fund for the English Cemetery in Florence. Paul Evans, head of the royal collection of arms and armour, resigns with the inquiry into “potential irregularities” ongoing; Evans was employed five years ago to boost the commercial performance of the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the Tower of London, among others, and has been suspended on full pay since May. The Olympic parade moves through London with plenty of public acclaim and bunting along the way. The British Lions has requested the help of five of the Welsh rugby side’s management team as assistants to Ian McGeechan on next year’s tour to South Africa. Culture secretary Andy Burnham challenges the football authorities to sort out themselves and the game in the interests of the fans and the greater good; club ownership, finance and competitive balance are among the key points. A match between Derby and Norwich is to be investigated following the emergence of unusual betting patterns.

Friday 17 October
A mile of tunnels deep under Holborn previously used as a wartime shelter and secret storage are put up for sale. The Greek nation is to honour the memory of George Gordon, Lord Byron with a national Byron Day on the anniversary of the poet’s death. Buckingham Palace will welcome a number of tour groups to tour the palace gardens next spring, although it will be balancing its democratic urges by charging £20 a head for the privilege. Sachin Tendulkar scores his 11,954th Test run for India against Australia to overtake Brian Lara’s record for career runs. Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops, dies in Detroit.

Saturday 18 October
Andy Murray beats Roger Federer again, taking him to the final of the Madrid Masters. David Beckham is named as an official ambassador for England’s bid for the FIFA world cup in 2018. Yoko Ono opens her Skyladders exhibition at the Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Art. Liu Zhihua, former Beijing vice-mayor suspended in 2006 for corruption during the Olympic construction process, is given a suspended death sentence commuted to life imprisonment for good behaviour.

Sunday 19 October
Andrew ‘Lord’ Lloyd Weber has put his head in the Eurovision noose and is to write the UK’s entry for next year’s comp. John Adams, revered classical composer famed for his opera Nixon in China, tells Radio 3 that he is now “blacklisted” by his native USA; it seems he is routinely interviewed at great length by security officials when entering America. Natalie Richards, who used to ply her trade as a roadie for Catatonia, is named as outstanding new teacher by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The Doncaster Belles are kept afloat thanks to the takings from a fundraising match held by Doncaster Rovers. Andy Murray wins the Madrid Masters.

Monday 20 October
The Policy Press publishes a geographical map of mortality for the UK and the Scout Association issues guidelines for sexual health advice for scouts. Sotheby’s sells only 60% or so of lots in its contemporary art auction, reinforcing suspicions that the art market boom may be at an end. LOCOG, the 2012 organising committee, admits that it is not expecting to sign up any more top sponsors. Kevin Pietersen says that he doesn’t expect England players to be cavorting if they should win the $20 million challenge match. Famed literary agent Pat Kavanagh dies aged 68.

Tuesday 21 October
The Woodland Trust publishes a report that shows half of all woods in the UK more than four hundred years old have been lost in the last eighty years; a further six hundred ancient woods are under threat. The British Library is to release a series of recordings of celebrated authors reading and in conversation. Camelot says that scratch cards and internet ‘instant win’ games now account for a quarter of lottery revenue. Ben Ainslie, Olympic sailor par excellence, is appointed director of the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy, sailing venue for the 2012 Games. India beat Australia in the second Test in Mohali; actually they give them a 320-run tonking.

Wednesday 22 October
Becks is off to Milan to sell shirts on his holidays from Major League Soccer in the States. British engineers reveal plans for a car to take the land speed record to one thousand miles an hour. It seems that the fire at the Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare could have been dealt with more speedily had the immediate response contract with an alarm company been cancelled some months earlier. Sir Peter Blake is among artists gathering at the National Gallery in London to highlight the appeal for £50 million to save Titian’s Diana and Actaeon for the nation; the deadline is the end of the year. It’s official then: we’re in recession and among the casualties is the government’s plans to privatise the Tote. It is rumoured that Sir Willard White could be in line to be president of the Royal Northern College of Music. The route for the 2009 Tour de France is unveiled to a waiting world but Lance is not present and may be sulking; meanwhile British speed machine Mark Cavendish is licking his lips and looking for a green jersey in Paris. A United Nations report on the urban environment points to inequality as a cause of social unrest and increased mortality.

Thursday 23 October
Alan Bennett explains that he is giving the archive of his entire literary career to the Bodleian Library in recognition of the debt he feels he owes to the state for a free education that included grammar school and an Oxford scholarship. The Millennium Bridge in London is closed for ‘routine repairs’; rumours that they are reinstalling the wobble are thought to be groundless. Disney launches its first animated feature film in Hindi; Roadside Romeo was made in India. A 43-year-old Japanese woman is on trial for crimes relating to the ‘killing’ of her ex-husband’s online avatar; she has been charged with illegal access to a computer and illegally manipulating electronic data. The FA has upset the Jamaican Football Federation by requesting the repayment of a £135,000 debt; the Jamaican dudgeon could, some think, threaten England’s bid to host the 2018 world cup. Brands Hatch will not be hosting a race in the World Superbike series next year as the price for the rights to stage the race has gone up. It seems that the Beckham loan to Milan is news to the LA Galaxy, who still think they are his employers.

Friday 24 October
Stradey Park, the cathedral of Welsh rugby, hosts its last game before the developers move in. Pedigree ends its sponsorship of Crufts dog show after forty years. National Express is to end its bus shuttle from the West End of London to Heathrow as a result of falling tourist numbers.

Saturday 25 October
Palestine play Jordan in Palestine’s first home football international. The San Diego Chargers face the New Orleans Saints at Wembley as part of the regular NFL season; the Saints are apparently ‘at home’. The Original Mountain Marathon falls foul of severe weather conditions, with hundreds of fell runners stranded on the moors overnight. The British Beer and Pub Association says that September sales in pubs fell by over 8%. Harry Redknapp takes over at Spurs and Andy Murray wins the St Petersburg Open, his second ATP title in eight days.

Sunday 26 October
South African rugby international Luke Watson is to be disciplined following his comment that the presence of a springbok on the South African shirt alongside the protea logo is unacceptable in a post-apartheid nation (“It makes me want to be sick” is how he puts it). Michel Platini says that England will never win the world cup while the Premier League is dominated by overseas players adn Chelsea are reported to be undertaking a cost-cutting review of club expenditure. AC/DC’s new album goes to the top of the charts, twenty years after Back in Black went to number one.

Monday 27 October
Feargal Sharkey is named chief executive of UK Music, an industry umbrella group tackling music piracy. The Bank of England has calculated the global banking crisis to have cost the world’s financial institutions $28 trillion; that’s a dollar sign, a ‘28’ and eleven zeros. It seems that plans have been drawn up by Manchester City Council to bring a season from the Royal Opera House to a refurbished Palace Theatre in the city. Ferrari suggest they might not play with Bernie if Formula One moves to compel teams to use standard engines. Australian swimmer Grant Hackett announces his retirement at the age of 28.

Tuesday 28 October
Tens of thousands of people contact the BBC to complain about a radio show they may not have heard following newspaper outrage at the Russell Brand show on Radio 2; two people complained immediately after the show was broadcast late on Saturday night. Google appear to have done a deal with the US publishing industry enabling the digitisation of books. The Globe theatre in London is having its roof – the first thatch in London since the great fire of 1666 when it was built in 1996 – carefully repaired. Plans are afoot to lift HMHS Britannic, the sister ship of the Titanic sunk in Aegean in 1916, to create a visitor attraction. Harry Redknapp shows a special mix of sensitivity and resilience by nipping back to Portsmouth to accept the freedom of the city. Noted socialist Boris Johnston urges Premier League football clubs to pay all their staff the ‘London living wage’ of £7.45 an hour, above the national minimum wage of £5.52 an hour. The Indian Cricket League launches a match-fixing enquiry and the House of Lords is scheduled to debate an extension of daylight saving arrangements to provide more daylight for sporting activities.

Wednesday 29 October
Russell Brand resigns from the BBC following the furore over his phone manner; Jonathan Ross is suspended without pay. Lisa Hawthornthwaite becomes the first full-time cowgirl in Britain for two hundred years following her appointment by the National Trust. Planners give the go-ahead for the St Columb Major resort near Newquay to install a £25m standing wave pool to allow surfers to take to the waves on dryish land. Maradona was right: he actually is the new manager of Argentina’s national football squad. Afghanistan launches a campaign to build museums and repatriate the national treasures looted over the past seven years of war.

Thursday 30 October
The England and Wales Cricket Board are reported to be having a rethink of their relationship with Allen Stanford following some problems with the ‘Twenty20 for 20’ circus in Antigua. Who would have thought the simplicity of greed could lead to such confusion? The Westfield shopping centre opens in west London. The Yorkshire and Humber Historic Environment Forum is to restore the Dales hydroelectric plant, last used in 1946. Tottenham Hotspurs reveal plans for a 60,000-seat stadium. IOC head honcho, Jacques Rogge, says that the 2012 Olympic stadium could be converted for a use other than athletics if the economics of the venue dictated; Locog says that the legacy will have “athletics at its heart”.

Friday 31 October
Andy Burnham welcomes plans for a Manchester branch of the Royal Opera House, which could be in place by 2013. Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are to star in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in London next year. Alex Ferguson lays out his extensive plans for a winter break for the poor oppressed footballers of the English Premier League. Hope Powell, head coach of the England women’s football team, is named as vice-president of the FA’s bid for the 2018 world cup; John Barnes and Becks are also in post. Studs Terkel, author, broadcaster and voice of 20th century Chicago, dies at the age of 96.