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Saints survive the Sharknado to stage their biggest Premiership comeback

Steve
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Saints survive the Sharknado to stage their biggest Premiership comeback

It was Saints biggest ever Premiership points comeback but there are Sale fans today who are shrugging their shoulders, stroking their beards and grumbling about red cards, yellow cards and penalty tries.

Sale and England centre Manu Tuilagi was shown red in the 13th minute for throwing a fending forearm into the throat of Tommy Freeman and now that the dust has settled there are some who would say that was the key moment of the encounter.

It was an exuberant offence rather than malicious and was notable for the way both Manu and Saints players went out of their way to reassure each other no offence was meant and none was taken.

From that point Sale unleashed a first half performance of such smart energy and ferocity that it ended 7-24 in favour of the visitors despite the absence of Manu watching disconsolately from the touchline. For him a red means some kind of ban, which means his Six Nations chances with England are compromised and at the age of 31 who knows what that means for his international career.

The truth is, that extra man advantage after a sending off does not work as it might in soccer where the extra space can be exploited almost immediately. Sale’s powerful forwards ensured it took all Saints manpower to stop their charges or get the ball back from our own attempts to smash through their iron defensive wall.

Yes there was a vulnerability there waiting to be found but Sale did very well at making sure that quick clean ball Saints needed to take advantage just wasn’t coming.

And if cards were an issue for Sale in this game, injuries were the issue for Saints. One minute after the loss of Tuilagi for instance, Saints captain George Furbank hobbled off the field with a leg injury depriving the home side of not only the first choice fullback but also the emergency cover at 10. Sale notched up two yellow cards in the second half and were reduced to 13 men at one point but after injuries to Fin Smith and Tom James, Saints found themselves with Rory Hutchinson at fly-half and Callum Braley at scrum-half. Mike Tyson used to say that everyone has got a plan until they get punched in the face.

While Sale had to back their physicality under the pressure of reduced manpower, Saints had to back their talent pool to ensure that their replacements brought the attacking threat required to overhaul the enormous Sharks lead. It worked.

Dave Ribbans was awarded Player of the Match by commentator Austin Healey who had been revving himself up to hand it to Tom Curry just minutes before the final whistle. That was how close this contest was.

The list of Saints notables is long: a superb shift from Dingwall; Collins smelling space like a Shark smells blood; Proctor, Ramm and Freeman making yards against the tide; Hutchinson and James for being beloved by the god of kicking; Braley for expecting the unexpected like only someone who has played 9 for Italy can.

Most…SaintsSharks
CarriesAugustus 16Carpenter 16
MetresFreeman 69Carpenter 148
TacklesMoon 13Ashman/Curry 15
Figures from Premiership Rugby

You can look at rugby as a game that is about winning big smashes and recycling the ball out to the fast guys while the opposition defence is still picking itself up in a daze. You can have all the fancy moves in the world but they are no good to you if you are stuck under several hundred kgs of Shark. You can also look at it as a game where a lot of calories are expended on shock and awe collisions when the ultimate mission in any rugby game is to hit space, not people. That trade-off between big guy and little guy energy is the ying and yang at the heart of rugby union that makes it such a compelling sport.

Northampton Saints blow by blow match report

Sale’s fiery on the edge style gained them points but lost them manpower, we lost playmakers but we had more playmakers and by the end of the game more energy. I could make a Second World War analogy about tanks running out of fuel but that would be a bit tasteless and casts Sale in the role of the baddies. Not even their brilliant General George Ford could save them. Just saying.

Even with the cards at home in front of a rapturous crowd this win felt like an immense achievement. That is partly respect due to Sharks who many would have expected to find a way to muscle through anyway. But it is also partly due to that win against Leicester a couple of weeks back – a similar type of challenge that might have gone a different way for Saints a couple of seasons ago. Saints fans have been watching their team almost do things like this for a while, now they are doing it.

We are used to being cast as the underdog and right now Saints might be in that sweet spot before everyone else realises that’s not true. If you look at the current Premiership Team Stats, Saints are in the top two for every category (things like most metres gained, most tries etc) apart from Turnovers Won. Keep it under your hat for now, but we might be sneaking up on something here.

Pictures by Dave Ikin

Exceptional beats with a modern twist that shows child exploitation is not just history

Hilary Scott
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Exceptional beats with a modern twist that shows child exploitation is not just history

Review of Michael Rosen’s Unexpected Twist, Royal and Derngate, Northampton

As latecomers were still taking their seats, two young male actors appear in front of the curtain to beatbox a message – this show has no instruments other than voice. And boy, do they use that voice well. Musical director Conrad Murray and song writer Yaya Bey’s work with a cast of incredible multitalented actors is the absolute heart of this show.

This is more than just an adaptation of Oliver Twist, interlinked by Michael Rosen into a contemporary setting, it’s a show, a spectacle, a musical remix of a story of exploited and abandoned children by today’s society, set to a banging original soundtrack.

Drew Hylton, Rosie Hilal, James Meteyard, Liyah Summers, Polly Lister. All photos by Manuel Harlan

Just as in Dickens’ original story of child exploitation, Roy Williams’ clever stage adaptation takes it a little further – bringing alive the truth of poverty and politics – and the message of the power of books to make sense of our society.

Reminiscent of previous R&D show Education, Education, Education, it opens in a contemporary classroom, with teacher Miss Cavani trying to get her unruly charges to engage with readings from Oliver Twist. With the exception of the keen-to-learn Rasheda (Liyah Summers), the class are disruptive and disengaged.

The staging is on two levels – a clever construction of stepped lockers and climbing bars allowing the Victorian and contemporary stories to overlap without set changes. The lighting is used effectively as an extra layer of staging – although in Row F of the stalls the light bursts into the audience are just too much – several times we had to cover our eyes to avoid another migraine-inducing blast.  

New girl Shona, (a brilliant performance by Drew Hylton), is grieving the death of her mother and frustrated by constantly moving house due to her dad’s inability to function, without recognising his own grief. Their relationship, like too many young people in poverty, has switched the parent/child responsibilities.  

The characters are all stuck in their own survival loops – Tino/Dodger (Alexander Lobo Moreno) is trapped in co-dependency and fear by Pops/Sykes while the teacher is fighting to ‘save’ pupils past and present from their fate while enduring her own unseen trauma. The child gang here is trapped by county lines and money laundering, and the bribery/blackmail of people in poverty thinking they can change their lot by agreeing to a ‘one-off’ favour that binds them to criminality.

Drew Hylton as Shona and Tomas Vernal as Dad

And the phones, the ubiquitous phones. The addiction and control that they exert is as glittery as a gold necklace to Fagin’s gang. They promise freedom but hold us back. Their presence runs through the show, brilliantly choreographed, like a poisonous fruit.

The music lifts the show in every way. Beats can scream anger and provoke laughter one minute and deep melancholy the next. Kate Donnachie stands out as disruptive Desree and her beatboxing and movement leads the entire cast, cleverly choreographed by Arielle Smith.

Alexander Lobo-Moreno as Tino/Dodger

There are some parts that grated – like the very odd attempt at cockney rhyming slang that is overused and just doesn’t land. There are some very simplistic resolutions, and by the end this was killing some of the justified rage at inequality and class bias I expect Rosen and Dickens intended. But remember this is a show for children (secondary age I’d advise) and as we went on press night, it felt odd to watch in an audience of, let’s just say it, privilege. Theatre can have a huge influence and I think, had I seen it on a matinee full of year 8s, it might have felt less awkward.

I urge any parents of teen to go and see it – the musical talent alone is worth the ticket price.

Unexpected Twist is a Royal & Derngate and Children’s Theatre Partnership production, and runs at Royal & Derngate until February 25, box office 01604 624811, before a national tour.

Saints are ready for the physical challenge of Sharks at Franklin’s Gardens

Steve
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Saints are ready for the physical challenge of Sharks at Franklin’s Gardens

Two from the top and five from the bottom as they say on Countdown. Those are Saints’ final seven games of the season, with Sale – second in the league – coming to Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.

The correct rugby understatement for this game is: “We expect it to be physical”. The north westerners will be bringing the smash, not least via their legion of South Africans but these days they also know a bit about the finer things thanks to influences like George Ford.

Suddenly Sale have assembled a glittering squad of talent in all areas and their reward for it is that only they are really keeping up with Saracens in the race to finish first at the end of the season.

Maybe too often Saints have been the beauty to Sale’s beast when they clash and Saints frontline prop Paul Hill is clear in his mind about how Northampton will approach this game.

“Sale is a team we always look forward to. I don’t think we have won down there since I’ve been at the club but when they come here it’s always a fantastic game. It was the year of Covid, they had a very similar pack to what they have now and the boys put in one of the best defensive performances I have ever seen in a game of rugby. They’ve got a big old pack, very organised maul and their scrum has been doing some damage this year, so those are the bits we have got to target,” he said.

He’s not too concerned about the arithmetic of who can overtake who at this stage of the league.

“I know we are fourth and that’s about all I know. I’m one of those who just likes to rock up and play my best. We have got seven games left and every one of those is a massive game. We’ve got to build on that momentum for the last stretch,” he said.

George Furbank is among the internationals available to Saints this week and knows Sharks will be no pushover.

“They are obviously flying this season. They bring a big physical game, a big kicking game and they have really developed that running game so they are a triple threat. It’s going to be a big challenge for us this week, but one we are really excited for,” he said.

Director of Rugby Phil Dowson agreed that the grit that secured a win at Leicester needs to be shown at home now.

He said: “Yes we need to bring that physicality every week. There are not many teams that win games that aren’t physical, who aren’t winning physical battles. All the fundamentals of the game are essential, particularly against one of the top two sides in the country.”

Saints take on Sharks at 3pm on Saturday

One bite into this snack and I knew Duston Village Bakery has The Joy

Steve
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One bite into this snack and I knew Duston Village Bakery has The Joy

I have unfair expectations of many people – the sports teams I support, the politicians I don’t vote for, even Jesus – but perhaps the most unreasonably high expectations I have of anyone are for bakeries.

My expectations are so high I lie to myself about it. I kid myself that I am going into a bakery just because I am hungry when in fact that is the last reason anyone should go to a bakery. If you buy with your stomach in a bakery you will spend and eat way more than our puny human bodies and bank accounts can handle.

The real reason I go into bakeries (and I would argue most of us are the same) is for The Joy. I’m talking about everyday euphoria. Modest ecstacy. Ordinary wow. It’s the uplift of the spirit that comes from ranks of cakes, pies, slices and loaves bejewelled with toppings sweet and savoury and arranged like a gallery of desires for the common man.

We might coquettishly refer to this kind of offering as ‘one of life’s little luxuries’ but that’s not honest. I would be surprised, for instance, if there has been a single week of my life since I was 18 when I have not managed to get my chops round some fresh crusty bread of some sort. The Joy is not (or should not only) be a reward for living in a gentrified hipster hellscape. It should be a planning consideration on any new significant housing development along with all the other essential amenties. We need these places.

A good bakery is the kind of thing you unknowingly yearn for when you haven’t got one near you. And when you find one it hits you from all angles: the visuals, the aromas, the potential… sunny morning strolls to pick up some bread, technically a chore but no-one would deny you a coffee and pastry would they?

The point is, when you make your purchase, there is so much riding on the item you have in your pleasingly crumple-able paper bag it’s an almost impossible ask for any mortal baker to satisfy it. And yet somehow it happens.

This week it happened for me with a Chicken and Leek Pasty from Duston Village Bakery.

Chicken and Leak Pasty
Chicken and Leek Pasty from Duston Village Bakery

You’ve got a sense already of how animated I am about the bakery thing so I have decided to make it a little side quest of mine to seek out and expose the baking excellence that is around us in the Northampton area. The Good Loaf and Magee Street Bakery are the first thoughts but out there just beyond the suburbs in Main Road, Duston, is the gem that is Duston Village Bakery.

Dating back to 1925 it is located in a picturesque stone building on Main Road, Duston, easily distinguishable as the only property with a large Hovis sign on the front it. There is a cafe and a bakery and its displays are crammed with goodies. The bread now comes in from Weetabix Food and Drink Award winning Whittlebury Bakery (silver medal for white sourdough) but the pies, cakes and pastries are crafted in Duston.

The Duston Pasty is the local version of the Cornish classic (you can’t call it a Cornish Pasty, I don’t care why) and they are, by anyone’s standards, large but between them and the Steak Slices was the Chicken and Leek. In a world where pastry enclosed chicken never seems to come without mushrooms in a suspicious looking gelatinous goo it caught my eye straight away. I thought of the famed Pork and Leek pies of Earls Barton which have become their own kind of subculture. Could this be Duston’s answer to that cult pastry dish? I was in.

With a takeaway coffee in one hand and the warmed up Chicken and Leek in the other I headed out to the nearby public bench by the railings where I had locked my bike. Flaky pastry that’s been through a microwave loses its structural integrity and by rights I should have been in trouble. But with a bit of careful handling the excellently constructed pasty held its form perfectly. It didn’t flop over my fingers and drool hot filling, nor did it drop onto my clothing the moment I looked in the other direction. And the filling was so much better than I was expecting, so much fuller, so much tastier. There were ribbons of leek, with their oniony kick intertwined with chicken flesh you actually have to bite, rather than the spongey mass produced commercial pie nonsense that is meat in legal terms only.

I don’t know if it is the best thing they do although if I’m honest, it looks like their cabinets are packed with favourites. Their own website describes their bacon rolls as ‘infamous’ which goes some way to revealing our complicated relationship with culinary pleasure in this country, where it is meaningful to describe something in terms of the food guilt you will get from an item rather than The Joy it brings. That’s what I’m having next time.

Duston Village Bakery will bake cakes to order and also offers Sugarcraft courses. The link to their website is above. Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions about bakeries that are worth a try.

If it’s good enough for the King of England… 19 places that put Northampton at the centre of shoe and boot making

Steve
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If it’s good enough for the King of England… 19 places that put Northampton at the centre of shoe and boot making

If no lesser figure than King Charles III likes a rummage around in the shoe factories of Northampton then why should you deny yourself the pleasure of picking up some real quality for a real bargain.

He visited Trickers in 2019 to help them celebrate 20 years of their Royal Warrant and is just one of many famous men (Daniel Craig, David Beckham) who like to treat their feet to footwear made in Northamptonshire.

The Google Map above is a guide to some of the top shoe and boot related places in Northamptonshire, the button at the map’s top left hand corner operates a slide out index.

The list is not exhaustive and feel free to add your suggestions in the comments. There are one or two novel inclusions.

Springline in Moulton Park is the last maker of bespoke lasts (a kind of carved replica foot that shapes the shoe during construction) while JuJu is the home of the Jelly fun shoe often seen on beaches.

The leather centre at the University of Northampton is a specialist research facility that also tans leather for industry. Meanwhile the Museum of Leather in the Grosvenor Centre houses a fascinating collection of historic leather and hide-based items, showcasing how important the material has been in human development.

Northampton Museum is already famous for its shoe collection that has a permanent gallery in the recently redesigned building. It traces the history of shoe design and features shoes from a number of celebrities.

Once you have added your factory shop trips why not round the day off with a selfie at the Cobblers Last statue in Abington Street or even at Sixfields, the home of Northampton Town FC aka The Cobblers.

Northampton Saints ready to ‘show what they have’ at Welford Road

Nene Quirer
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Northampton Saints ready to ‘show what they have’ at Welford Road

Saints Director of Rugby Phil Dowson expects a tough but exciting East Midlands derby as international selections force Northampton and Leicester to delve into their squads.

Dowson has welcomed the return of domestic action after a tricky European campaign that concluded with another hefty defeat at home to La Rochelle, writes James Logan.

An injury to Courtney Lawes as well as red cards for Fraser Dingwall and Salakaia-Loto had proved too costly last time out as they struggled to keep out the European champions. 

Dowson said: “It was frustrating because it was 7-3 at half-time and we lose somebody through a red card. I still thought it was a point game with 60 minutes gone and the last 20 minutes we couldn’t deal with their power and that put us under an immense amount of pressure. 

“It’s not all doom and gloom, but yet again it’s another hefty defeat to a top side and it is disappointing, and we need to keep kicking on and getting better.”

Dowson believes that there is still a lot to do before the team is to be considered one of the top teams but feels that his side is on the right path, despite comments from La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara that there was no ‘fear factor’ when they played Saints.

“You look at our season finishes the last four years we’ve been fourth, eighth, fifth and fourth and in the context of the European game I don’t think we are a top side, maybe that’s the truth of it. Do we aspire to be? Of course. Are we ambitious? Of course. 

“We may not be the finished article or be the end product, but I know that there is a huge amount of desire and effort to make sure that it is the case and that in the future there will be that fear factor for those big teams in Europe,” said Dowson.

Injuries and international call-ups will undoubtedly play a part in what is promised to be an “exciting” Midlands derby on Saturday at 2pm.

“It is a shame to miss people through injury, through England call-ups and disciplinary issues and that will obviously make it tough and make you look to the depth of your squad and we have some cracking lads that haven’t had a lot of rugby recently and will be ready to show what they have.

“Leicester are in the same boat. They lost seven in their squad, a couple in double positions, both nines and both tightheads. Again, they will be looking towards the depth of their squad, and I know they have a very strong squad and have started to play some cracking rugby, their result in Clermont was very impressive.

“I think we are two points off third and three points off ninth, pretty tight and these next rounds of games, the next four or five games, will be integral to who makes that top four. We need to put a run together and we know that and the best way is to train well and perform and give ourselves the best chance of winning games,” said Dowson.

There are no more guaranteed wins says Alex Waller

Alex Waller
Alex Waller by Dave Ikin

In a league where the competition is closer than ever veteran prop Alex Waller described how much a win matters. 

He said: “I think we are only two points off third and the other way round as well. It’s close and it makes it as a spectacle pretty interesting for the fans. Obviously one minute a win can put you back in contention back up in the top four and a loss the other way, so it’s tense and it’s stressful.

“Back in the day, back when I first started you could have one or two games that you could maybe write off and give lads the rest and they’re guaranteed wins, but this just doesn’t exist anymore. The standard of the game is pretty high, it’s exciting and it is tense and hopefully we can get the win at the weekend and climb our way back up.”

Saints will want to replicate their clinical play style when they face last season’s semi-final opponents. 

“We were unfortunate we didn’t quite execute the few opportunities we had last time out, but it is a different team, different style, but we can’t base anything on last season,” said Waller. 

“I’ve played in enough games at Welford Road to know that you need to play at the top of your game regardless of form, so we need to focus on our process and our game on the pitch and hopefully the result will match the performance.”

Saints line-up for East Midlands derby

15 James Ramm
14 Courtnall Skosan
13 Matt Proctor
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Ollie Sleightholme
10 George Furbank (c)
9 Tom James – 50th Saints Appearance

1 Alex Waller
2 Mike Haywood
3 Paul Hill
4 Alex Moon
5 Alex Coles
6 Angus Scott-Young
7 Aaron Hinkley
8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements:
16 Robbie Smith
17 Ethan Waller
18 Alfie Petch
19 Brandon Nansen
20 Karl Wilkins
21 Sam Graham
22 Callum Braley
23 Tom Litchfield

The thunderous sound of everything slotting into place

Steve
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The thunderous sound of everything slotting into place

The Cinch Stadium at Franklins Gardens reverberated to the sound of everything going right as Saints put together one of their most complete performances of the season to earn a bonus point win over Quins.

Saints went into the Christmas break with a string of defeats behind them but came out of it aggressive, accurate and disciplined as they drove the visitors backwards with combinations of guile and gristle.

Scores came from James Ramm twice, Alex Waller, George Furbank, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and replacement Rory Hutchinson. Fin Smith kicked two conversions before being replaced at half time and Furbank added two penalties and three conversions.

Harlequins had only a Tommy Allan penalty until Jordan Els and Nick David managed consolation tries late in the game, both converted by Will Edwards.

The obvious question, after the pre-Christmas struggles, is what went right this time? The answer is not straightforward. The usual things went right. It would be nice if it was as simple as saying Salakaia-Loto at six or Ramm on the wing gave Saints the turbo-charge that made the difference. For sure Ramm and Freeman attacking on the same wing was a potent deployment of chaotic good but Saints overall improved discipline was equally significant.

Saints players talk about getting their processes right and when that happens other problems don’t seem so big or they don’t happen at all.

This was Saints biggest win against Quins who were certainly not on top form but it says something about the quality of Alex Dombrandt at 8 for the visitors that he still looked like a class act.

Nothing could have emphasised more that Quins were living in Saints world than the bizarre sudden hailstorm that accompanied Hutchinson’s try ten minutes from the end. For Quins it must have felt like the end of some horrific initiation ceremony, the ice bucket challenge after a bad old day at the office. But for Saints it was as close as you get to a champagne supernova on January 1, in the East Midlands.

Pictures by Dave Ikin

A warm and welcome way to escape reality – Review of Jack and the Beanstalk at Royal and Derngate

Hilary Scott
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A warm and welcome way to escape reality – Review of Jack and the Beanstalk at Royal and Derngate

Fun show runs at Northampton theatre until the New Year.

It’s a mark of dedication to sign up for those early bird theatre tickets when you don’t know who is likely to be in the cast or what the show might be, but with panto, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy yourself regardless.

Bob Golding as Dame Trott, photos by Pamela Raith

Such is the case with this year’s Royal and Derngate show, Jack and the Beanstalk, which is a welcome and warming way to escape the cold and misery outside a spend a couple of hours just laughing – especially with family beside you.

Keala Settle as the Fairy, Cara Dudgeon as Jess and Alex Lodge as Jack – photo by Pamela Raith

Enter stage right the utterly delightful Fairy Sugarsnap, played by actual Hollywood star of The Greatest Showman, Keala Settle, with an unnervingly brilliant English accent. You could honestly look away and assume you were listening to Dawn French.

Luke Backinanger (geddit?)

This is the second year that the Derngate panto has been produced by Evolution Productions, giving it a more tailored Northants feel, and zippy bit of technology, compared to the old touring behemoths of old which just rotated from town to town. I would heartily point out though, to the baddie Luke Backinanger (Richard David-Caine, off of CBBC and Horrible Histories), that Northampton is proudly NOT a city.

Onwards and ultimately upwards we go, meeting both Jack Trott (Alex Lodge) and his panto Dame mum (Bob Golding), both actors returning to the Derngate panto stage. Golding’s joyous teasing of several nervous dads in the front rows is pitched perfectly. A tethered drone drops and surveys for potential new husbands for Dame Trott. A screen drops, kiss-cam style, showing the terrified men’s faces in real time. Poor chosen dad Darren has to play along for the whole show.

There’s also Jack’s mates Billy (Ben Thornton) and Jess (Cara Dudgeon) and Fairy Sugarsnap’s actual real dog Biggins, and they all go off on a quest up the beanstalk (do I really need to explain the beanstalk?)

Stealing the show, of course, is the lanky Luke Backinanger (yes) doing a wavey Russian/Middle Eastern baddie accent, albeit with an edgy disclaimer about stereotypes if you listen up at the start.

He’s fabulously angular in his performance, one minute camply throwing shapes and then rather suggestive hip thrusts, which might need toning down for the school matinees.

The plot might be trying a little too hard, with a convoluted set-up of some kind of environmental disaster that no-one really followed, all redeemed by a cheesy song.

It’s cheesy, naturally, with the expected multi-layered patter flying blissfully over the heads of both young and old from one moment to the next. My companions were three teenage girls, who moved from first half nonchalant observation, to second half fully on-their-feet, whooping participation.

Ultimately it’s funny, and predictable, and you leave feeling less pessimistic, more braced to face the cold outside. Times are hard, so if you can manage it, book yourself in for a couple of hours of real warmth.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs at Royal and Derngate until Monday January 2.

The Night Before Christmas, a special show for under 7s, is also running in the Underground space.

You can book via the online box office, or call 01604 624811.

What does being a winner at the Northamptonshire Weetabix Food and Drink Awards really mean?

Steve
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What does being a winner at the Northamptonshire Weetabix Food and Drink Awards really mean?

The organisers of the Northamptonshire Weetabix Food and Drink Awards have been gathering feedback from this year’s winners about the impact of having their achievements recognised.

The Mallows Company released the following details from some of the top food and drink venues and producers in the county:

Paul Hunt from The Curious Vegan Co who won Gold in Heygate’s sponsored Artisan Local Vegetarian/Vegan Product of the Year category for their delicious ‘Oinkin Patties’ was over the moon with his winnings.

“We’ve only been trading since March and to win an award, especially a local one that puts us on the map, it validates that we are doing everything right. We’ve got a tremendous team. To win the award in our first year is super important.”

Since winning Gold for British Pepper and Spice sponsored World Cuisine Restaurant of the Year, Alacati Grill has been booming, having seen a boost in bookings. Owner Pammy Raydemir said: “This was an amazing event for local businesses. The restaurant business is such hard work with long hours. It was especially much harder, the last few years, due to the pandemic. It was really awesome to connect with other business people in such a happy and exciting atmosphere!”

The venue has also had a whirlwind media promotional journey since receiving their prize. They had been contacted by BBC Radio Northampton and were interviewed on the early evening show and on the morning show, as well as by the local newspaper, The Chronicle and Echo. The article was also in the Daventry Express too!

Helen Fospero, Chris Jackson (The Curious Vegan), Devon Malcolm, Paul Hunt (The Curious Vegan), John Clarke (Daily Bread)

Winner of the Booker Dining Venue of the Year Award, The Snooty Fox, Lowick explained how much the award meant to them after a tough few years.

“Winning Gold Booker Dining Venue of the Year meant everything to us, we battled for two years to open the Snooty Fox through the pandemic which came at a huge cost, so to finally open and six months later to win Gold was simply the icing on the cake! All the hard work from the team, the long hours and dedication paid off and to now proudly hold this title. It has lifted the business to another level and to proudly display the Awards Logo next to ours, as we work closely with Bookers, is really the proudest moment of our careers to date.”

Things look set to get even more exciting for The Greedy Gordons Pub Company, who since the Awards have further expanded and opened a café in Woodford called ‘The Buttery’ with plans to add a farm shop in the New Year.

Whitco, sponsors of the Awards for another year saw Bart Polinski of T.H.E Hospitality Ltd Hibiscus Fine dining restaurant at Delapre Abbey, take the crown for their Whitco Chef of the Year Award.

Bart said: “It’s fantastic to see companies like Whitco sponsoring events that let chefs be noticed and step up in their careers. For me it was never about winning, it was about the experience, the chance of learning something and seeing other chefs in action and maybe a little test to see where I am in my career. Whitco made it possible for me and made me believe that I am better than I thought.”

Award winners of Whitworth sponsored One to Watch, The Flavour Trailer, have been reaping the rewards since taking Gold back in October, having now launched their third takeaway truck offering takeaway seven nights a week from across more than 15 locations across the county.

Mario Sheppard said: “The feedback and the response from our audience has been wonderful. It seemed for a few weeks we were being congratulated everywhere we turned. It was intense. We are so grateful and feel so honoured to have been part of a wonderful and memorable process.” 

The Awards team caught up with Towcester Community Larder, Gold winners of the Moulton College sponsored Local Food Hero Award who are now trying to launch new exciting initiatives that they have found a need for. Some of these great projects include Larder for Schools – providing breakfast provisions for Teachers and family support workers to distribute; Feed and Read, where volunteers can help young people to read and give them a healthy snack whilst the parents are shopping; And lastly, Larder Club, focusing on the elderly where they can come and have a chat and a warm lunch. 

Katie Steele from the Towcester Community Larder said: “We were over the moon to win this award and would sincerely like to thank the Weetabix Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards and Moulton College for recognising what we do. Special thanks to South Northants Volunteer Bureau and Roade Community Larder for being our partners on this journey but most importantly I want to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers, past and present, that give their time and energy so cheerily and willingly to make the Larder the special place that it is today. This award is for all of them as they are the true heroes.” 

Fresh from their interview with ITV, Weetabix Sustainability Gold Award winners Ian and Lauren Horton from Ganders Goat said: “Sustainability is not just an idea for us here at Ganders Goat, it is the foundation of all we wish to achieve and the continuation of every decision weighted towards nature and how we can do better. Ganders Goat is a dream come true as we set out to live sustainably to provide for our son, nature and the future. The Award we have received has given us another boost to keep going, keep working with nature and that our ethics and approach to production and wellbeing is on the right track. Being sustainable can pay through efficiency gains and the like but you don’t get the recognition, the pat on the back from nature to say thanks, that’s where the award really comes into its own.”

The successes and triumphs of this year’s awards has not only revealed the fantastic level of talent across the country but also the vital need to support and appreciate local! For more information on the Award winners and the spectacular evening back in October, please visit the Weetabix Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards website

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