Ice Tea melts, letting James Price romp home

Owner George Threlfall and jockey Annabel Roberts receive their prizes from Chris Graham, of race sponsors Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester

Bookies’ favourite Ice Tea melted in the heat, allowing James Pine to romp home in The Pegasus Club Members Race at Siddington Point-to-Point on Saturday.

Ridden by Annabel Roberts, the hunter – who won the Colin Nash Memorial Hunter Chase at Cheltenham in 2008 – ran the three-mile race in six minutes and eight seconds, crossing the finishing line ahead of Autumn Red and Ice Tea in a thrilling three horse race.

More to co-operatives than shops, West Midlands businesses discover

Guest speakers Len Wardle and Kevin Rye with Nick Matthews

A wide range of West Midlands professionals gathered in Birmingham on Friday (March 23) to network, do business, and find out more about the co-operative enterprise model.

The meeting was held at the lavish banqueting suite of Birmingham Council House, and was attended by Anita Ward, the city’s first female Co-operative Lord Mayor.

Anyone under the impression that this meant dividing her time between leading a city and running a supermarket was soon put straight.

Old bears go head-to-head with plastic action figures

In a toy story worthy of Hollwood treatment, a group of teddy bears clashed with the combined forces of goodies and baddies from Star Wars, some heavy-hitting Transformers, He-Man, the Thundercats, a platoon of GI Joes, and martial arts experts the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at an auction in the Cotswolds last week.

The Force was with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, as a collection of toys from the late 1970s to the 1990s sold for nearly £8,000 at Moore Allen & Innocent’s antique and general sale in Cirencester on Friday, March 16.

But the teddy bears – some of whom were around 100 years old – stood their ground, with one achieving the accolade of highest single lot price of the day, at £780.

Secrets of PR industry revealed

Pete and Louisa Davison of Secret Agent Marketing at the inspirational Rabley Drawing Centre

Secrets of the public relations industry will be spilled next month as journalists and PR consultants Pete and Louisa Davison show Wiltshire business people how to get the media talking about them.

In February Pete and Louisa, who run Marlborough-based PR and marketing company Secret Agent Marketing, published a guide called How to Write a Press Release to help local business people gain media exposure.

The free guide was so popular that the pair have decided to offer their expertise as a day-long course, during which delegates will learn how to spot newsworthy stories within their organisations and produce press releases and photographs that journalists will want to use.

Historic homes go under hammer

Cricklade Street, Poulton

Period properties to suit all pockets will be going under the hammer in the Cotswolds next month.

From £165,000 to £600,000 there’s a historic home to meet most budgets at Moore Allen & Innocent’s property auction in Cirencester on Monday, April 16.

Fairtrade means getting more than peanuts for your peanuts

Peanut farmer Rosemary Kadzitche of the Mchinji Area Smallholder Farmers’ Association

The real difference that a Fairtrade economy makes to the world’s poorest people was expressed by some of the beneficiaries of the movement at a conference in London this week.

Joy as hammer falls on Chinese vases

A pair of Chinese amber vases, which achieved £22,000

An innocuous-looking pair of matching vases caused a great deal of excitement at an antiques auction in the Cotswolds today (Friday).

Pulled out of a box of miscellaneous items from a deceased estate by an eagle-eyed valuer, the Chinese amber vases were sold to a Beijing buyer for £22,000 – the top price of the day.

Standing at 21.5 cm, the vases were decorated with lion mask head handles, Chinese script amongst foliate scroll, and dog finials on the covers.

“It’s fair to say the vendors had no idea that the vases were valuable,” said auctioneer Philip Allwood of Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester. “To the untrained eye they look like pieces of plastic.”

JooMo formulates a solution to youth unemployment

Nick Wallen and Linda Russell, co-founders of the JooMo co-operative

Young people facing an uncertain future in a challenging job market are being given the opportunity to become owners and shareholders in a new skin care business.

JooMo is the first 100 percent truly natural face wash – considered the Holy Grail in cosmetic formulation.

Designed especially for young skin, the face wash deals with existing skin problems such as spots, repairs the damage caused by synthetic products, then rebuilds the skin’s natural defences.

Now the developers are looking for entrepreneurs aged between 16 and 24 to not only sell the product, but eventually take over the company, which aims to be a co-operative enterprise run by young people for young people.

Finance expert finds dream job – thanks to Connect

Rob Johnson

A Wiltshire finance expert has escaped the rat race and found his dream job – thanks to Swindon-based outplacement specialists Connect.

Robert Johnson, who left a senior position at a firm specialising in employee benefits, says the professional advice and guidance he received from Connect allowed him to jump off the big corporate London-based treadmill and win a directorship at a niche financial services company in Wiltshire.

West Midlands businesses to network at co-operative lunch

Guest speakers Kevin Rye (left) and Len Wardle (right)

A wide range of West Midlands business people, interested in finding out more about the co-operative enterprise model, are being invited to a networking lunch at the attractive banqueting suite of Birmingham Council House on Friday, March 23.

High profile guest speakers will include Len Wardle, Chair of the Co-operative Group, the UK’s largest consumer co-operative society, which is owned not by shareholders but by over six million members.