Contents
Around Town
Minaret Woes
Eek! After one of these windy days recently, a piece of wood from the scaffolding that props up the minaret of the Neratze Mosque ended up in the road. So when the engineer went up to see where the damage to the scaffolding was done, he had a bit of a ‘holy schmozy’ moment when he reached the top. And it wasn’t the scaffolding but the minaret which caused this horrified reaction. In other words the minaret has started to fall to bits and the top section has become detached from the scaffolding. All by all, this is not really surprising after so many years of neglect of the monument by the so called ‘responsible’ government departments who have been ignoring pleas from local authorities and parliamentary representatives. If immediate action is taken, the minaret could still be saved, and it just does not bear thinking about that Rethymnon could lose such an important architectural monument. Time to pull your fingers out, mates, methinks!.
Sport: It’s only a Game
So as you can probably guess from the headline, we’re not exactly singing ‘Joy to the world’ on the sporting front here. It’s not all doom and gloom, though! Anyway, let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
ASTERAS: the sooner the season ends the better it will be for our local football team. ‘Dismal’ is the most appropriate word to sum up their form since February. Since the carnival parade they have only won one game. We are not sure if there is a connection between being in the carnival parade and being bad at football, but Asteras certainly haven’t been the same team since!
OPER: After the appalling referee’s decision last month which we are still fuming about, justice was done on the last day of the regular season for our female volleyball stars. Results went their way and OPER ended third in the league table, securing a play-off semi-final against Ilysiakos and thus avoiding AEK, who will play Artemis Korydallos in the other semi. Two victories will result in a place in the final play-off. Go for it!
AGOR: As for how it is going for the Rethymnon basketball team, unfortunately it is ‘more of the same’. They are winning their home games and losing their away games. As we said last month, they’re not really an exciting act to follow at the moment! Perhaps now is the point that the team should draw a line under this season’s performance and try and start focusing on next year instead?
SUMMER SPORTS: Time flies when you are having fun! It seems incredible to some of the Bugle sporting pundits (who have barely recovered from the New Year festivities) that summer is rapidly approaching. With the change of season we get a whole load of new ball games. Hopefully, here in Rethymnon, we’ll have another great season of beach tournaments this year. In the meantime, here are a couple of dates that we already know about. On July 7th the 26th Vardinogiannis International Athletics Meeting (EAA Premium) will take place at the sports stadium in Gallos.
For the more sedentary inclined….July 13th-20th: Second International Chess Tournament organised by the Municipal Sports Department and the Rethymnon Chess Club. More info on
http://www.daor.gr/index.php?chessen
Market Practices
You’d thought we’d given up on the Thursday Market saga, didn’t you?! Not a bit’ of it. And for those of our newer readers who haven’t a clue what we are talking about, let us give you a mini re-run of some of our favourite episodes of this long running soap opera. For some time the Thursday Market was based at the marina. This had to change last year when the penny dropped that a market can’t be a marina at the same time and that serious withdrawal of euro funding might be involved if the market carried on pretending it was a marina (or the other way round). Since then, there have been several ‘lively’ discussions about where to move the market to. In the meantime, the market has pitched up at various temporary locations, none of them incredibly legal. Last November we reported on what we thought might be a final spot for the market. The council had found a plot of land in the Kalithea area, which it was going to turn into a square – which would be ideal for a market. Optimistic voices at the time were predicting the square would be ready by the beginning of 2010. So, here we are in May and where is the Thursday market? Generally still at the car park by the Four Martyrs’ Church. ‘What about Kalithea, then?’. Well, not a lot has happened, really, as after all this time they still haven’t worked out the exact perimeter of the plot – so work has not started yet. We’ll let you know when we hear more!
