Volume 3, Issue 8, August 2009 Journalism as never before  

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Around Town

Hot Potatoes

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - New Square - Plateia MikrasiatonThe Thursday Market saga continues. Last month’s proposal by the municipal council to relocate the market to Machis Potamon (parallel to the Beach Road in Kallithea) has been rejected by the prefectural council. A new proposal to relocate the market to the same place as the Monday market (by the DEH building) was instantly rejected by market traders. Finally, though, someone with a bit of sense suggested a meeting between the Mayor, the Prefect of the Province and representatives from local market traders and producers. They’ve had their first meeting, which was described as being ’very civilized’ (which makes a change). People now seem optimistic about the prospect of reaching consensus. Eventually. We’ll keep you posted.

Another recent local ‘hot potato’ has been the naming of the New Square in the Old Town. By a majority vote at a recent council meeting it was decided that the square will now officially be known as the Mikrasiaton Square. This is in recognition of the important contribution made to the town in the early part of the twentieth century by refugees from Asia Minor. Not everybody is happy about this, though. Some people think that the name of the square should be geared more towards looking forward and emphasising unity, rather than reflecting a dividing past. And a relatively large proportion of locals are not sure that an official title (whatever it might be) is going to make much difference. We’ve all been calling it New Square in the Old Town (or New Old Town Square) for months now!

The World of Sport

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - 25th Vardinoyiannia Athletics Meeting

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - 25th Vardinoyiannia Athletics Meeting

The 25th Vardinoyiannia International Athletics Meeting which took place at the Sports Centre in Gallou (just outside Rethymnon) on 20th July, was just fantastic. Vardinoyannia is one of the sporting highlights of the year for us here at the Bugle, and once again we were thrilled to witness some fabulous performances from some of the world’s top athletes. This year, several meet records were broken during the course of the event. Here just a few of the highlights: American hurdler Lolo Jones won the women's 100- metre hurdles in a world-leading 12.47 seconds. Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas also ran a world-leading time of 22.33 seconds in the women's 200 metres. In the men’s 200 metres, Alonso Edward of Panama won in 20.00 seconds, smashing his previous personal best of 20.34 seconds. And off the track, the field events were great to watch too! Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - 25th Vardinoyiannia Athletics Meeting

The atmosphere at the stadium was just lovely. It is a great setting, of course, up on the hill with a sea view. Even so, despite it being one of the hottest days of the year, everybody seemed to be in a good mood, and local officials were friendly and relaxed. Once again the meeting was free to spectators (we never cease to be amazed by this), and we were even offered free soft drinks and snacks whilst we were watching the heats. Now that’s Cretan hospitality for you!

At a local level, as far as competitive team sports are concerned, we are still on our ‘summer break’. But there has still been plenty of activity behind the scenes. Last season, Rethymnon Aegean (basketball) failed to gain promotion, and they are now in the process of completely rebuilding their team. They have employed a new coach and have so far signed up seven new players to the squad, with more expected to join soon. Their aim for the next season? To try and reach the top level of Greek competitive basketball, of course! Asteras Rethymnon (the football team) has had a lot of soul searching to do after a nightmare of a season. Problems on and off the pitch resulted in them being relegated to the Cretan Regional League, which was a bitter blow. Drastic measures were called for. New directors, new coaches, new players….they will start next season with an almost completely blank slate. Things can only get better. In contrast to the blokes, OPER, the women’s volleyball team had a fantastic season and gained promotion to the national league. All of last season’s players were given new contracts, and in addition, four (more experienced) new players have been signed to the team. Onward and upward!

Cars and New Brooms

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Cars and BroomsFinally, something is being done about the problem of car dumping in Rethymnon (in a town where parking spaces are at a premium, it’s a bit surprising that it has taken this long to do anything, but there you go). Police have been recording the locations of all abandoned vehicles in the area and will shortly be engaging in a major clear-up exercise by towing away and impounding all abandoned vehicles that do not have number plates.

Dealing with dumped vehicles that do have number plates is going to be a bit more complicated. Firstly the police will have to place stickers on the car windscreens notifying the owner that their vehicle needs to be removed within 15 days, whilst providing owners at the registered address with the same notification. The owners will then be given a further grace period of 15 days before the vehicle is officially declared as abandoned and towed away. Or, at least this is our interpretation of the situation. We’ll keep you posted.