​You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I reported that my daughter, Elizabeth Webb, was off to Helsinki to take part in the WPC European Championships, weight lifting.  She waited until she had returned to tell me that she came third in the competition overall and that she beat the British record for the dead lift in her weight class!  Given that she has only been doing weight lifting since the beginning of the year, this is an excellent result.  Well done, Elizabeth.  Apparently, the competition did not tick all the correct boxes, so her record may not be officially recognised, but she is still quite new to the sport, so I don’t doubt that she will be able to repeat the effort at an officially recognised competition.  I believe she will next compete in the British Championships in September in Bristol.

I very much regret that my speculation as to the reason for Venners closing was wrong; I am even more sorry that the real reason is the serious illness of the owner.  He and his family have my sympathy.

Bad news for the High Street: Venners has already closed and The Photo Shop will close shortly.  In retrospect, neither is too surprising.  Venners is the wrong end of the High Street, and sells products at a relatively low price, so needing a good turnover.  What with rent and business rates (which pay little attention to how profitable a business may be) that have to be paid before you have even sold a bun, perhaps the more surprising thing is that they have kept going for so long.