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Supermarket chain Morrisons has cancelled MFest, its first foray into the music event space, due to "adverse weather conditions" expected to hit the site at Harewood House in Leeds over the weekend. Morrisons MFest: adverse weather forces cancellation The ...Source: www.brandrepublic.com
There is something in Wimbledon water! Marray is first Brit into men's doubles final for 52 years - Daily Mail
By Neil Moxley
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The wait for a British winner in the men’s doubles has lasted just as long as in the singles competition.
But just minutes before Andy Murray etched his name into Wimbledon’s record books, wildcard entrant Jonny Marray did likewise by setting up a fairytale finale to his own championships alongside Frederik Nielsen.
The Yorkshireman and his Danish playing partner pulled off the shock of the tournament by defeating second seeds Bob and Mike Bryan to reach today’s final with an unexpected 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 triumph.
History boy: Jonny Marray (left) and Freddie Nielsen celebrate their path to the men's doubles final
It was a huge achievement for the pair to reach the last four, and few gave them hope of beating the Bryan brothers, who are doubles specialists with a whopping 122 titles between them — 11 in Grand Slam events.
But Marray has forged a formidable alliance with Nielsen, despite this being only their fourth outing together as a competition pair. They will share 260,000 if they win today.
Somehow, this rookie duo upset the odds to make Marray the first British man into a doubles final in 52 years. Mike Davies and Bobby Wilson were defeated in 1960.
In a staggering coincidence, it was 1936 when the nation last tasted men’s doubles success, with Pat Hughes and Raymond Tuckey joining Fred Perry at the Champions ball.
Marray is now in line to re-write that history as he helped defeat the red-hot favourites before an excited throng on Court No 12.
Despite being a professional since 2000, the 31-year-old Marray has never played on Centre Court — a statistic that will change this afternoon.
Giantkillers: Marray and Nielsen were shock winners over American pair Bob and Mike Bryan
Prior to this, the closest he had come was as a spectator at Tim Henman’s semi-final against Goran Ivanisevic 11 years ago.
‘I’m so happy,’ he said. ‘I’m delighted to be there and get the chance to play on Centre Court and share it with Freddy.
‘It means everything to me. It can be a hard slog, as Freddie knows. We have been to a lot of tournaments together over the years — to some not-very-nice places. But we do this because we love it. When something like this happens, it makes it all worthwhile.’
Nielsen’s success will be marked with some fervour in Scandinavia. He is the first Dane into a Wimbledon final since his grandfather, Kurt, managed it twice during the 1950s.
‘It’s a huge thing for me,’ he said, ‘I was raised into a fanatical tennis family and I came to Wimbledon many times as a child with my grandfather. This was always the thing. It was Wimbledon and then everything else.’
Volley good show: Nielsen (left) and Marray in action at Wimbledon on Friday
Marray and Nielsen came flying out of the blocks against a pair who had played a staggering 800 points of doubles tennis on Thursday. Whether that effort affected the Bryans is a moot point.
In yesterday’s final set tie-break, the Americans fell 5-0 behind before pulling level.
But a scorching forehand — which Nielsen revealed afterwards he had been teased about when practising by Marray — set up match point. It was left, fittingly, to Marray to thump the winner.
‘It was a pretty big thing to beat them, they are the second-best pair in the history of the game, so it was special,’ said Marray.
Unfortunately, while the British public has waited a long time for success, it did not come in threes.
Out on Court No 18, Colin Fleming and Su-Wei Hsieh were unable to make it through their mixed semi-final.
The Scot and his partner from Chinese Taipei were defeated 7-6, 6-3 by Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Wimbledon: Dunblane proud of its local hero Andy Murray - BBC News
Dunblane is an understated place, but people here are proud of their local hero and willing him on from afar.
There are Andy Murray masks in plenty of the windows and the local butcher has Wimbledon sausages for sale. The secret ingredient this year - strawberries.
Murray started playing tennis in the town when he was three. He won his first tournament when he was five.
On Friday afternoon about 30 junior players and their parents were at the local tennis club where he used to play to watch his semi-final clash with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on television.
The junior players were showing their support with T-shirts saying "Game, Set, Murray".
Just a short distance down the road in the Village Inn they were dishing out the traditional Wimbledon dish of strawberries and cream to their regulars to get them in the mood.
One of those regulars is Gordon Mann.
"Dunblane is proud of Murray," he said. "Many people here know him, and everybody wants him to win."
Dunblane of course had been here before. This is the fourth time the British number one has made it to the semis.
Tennis fans at Wimbledon say they support 'team Murray' all the way
Mr Mann says there has been so much hype here the last two or three years that most people here are now more of a mind to watch and wait and see.
There has been cheering yes, and also a few groans.
But the atmosphere is more subdued than in previous years.
Mr Mann, however, believes that will change come Sunday when "every single point will get cheered on".
His brother Derek Mann agrees adding, "If Andy Murray gets to the final you'll hear the lions roar. He'll put Dunblane and Scotland on the map".
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Morrisons' first music festival drowned out - Marketing Week
Morrisons’ first foray into music festivals has been cancelled due to the severe weather warnings and flooding due to hit the UK this weekend.
The M Fest family festival in Leeds, whose line-up included Cher Lloyd, The Human League and Bob Geldof, was scheduled for this weekend.
To limit damage to its reputation, Morrisons has launched a communications campaign using all media channels including TV, radio and digital to make sure that all ticket holders know that the event, is cancelled.
It will also make sure that all store staff and customer service desks are prepared to communicate the cancellation to customers.
Morrisons is already facing an angry backlash from Facebook users with one customer, Lorna Whittaker, saying: “This is pathetic … Most people go prepared for the weather we live in the UK for crying out loud. it’s disgusting!!!!!”
The supermarket will evaluate the cost of cancelling the festival after the weekend but a spokesperson says the important thing today is “getting the message out and making sure people don’t set off for M Fest”.
Morrisons partners including the festival organisers, ticketing partner TicketMaster and camp site organisers Tangerine Fields and many of the artists on the line-up are all communicating the cancellation through their own channels.
A spokesman for the supermarket says: “We were all set for a great weekend - it was practically sold out - our chefs were ready the food was going to be fantastic, but we can’t control the weather. It’s a family festival and you don’t want young children in a festival in this weather.”
Readers' comments (6)
Ouch. However, as they said, you can't control the weather.
You either cancel and be damned, or get flooded, electrocute a few people, and be damned.Not a nice position to be in at all - really don't envy their PR job now.
Feel for the punters. That said a certain airshow happening next week are in constant touch with the Met Office and receive regular weather updates so they can plan for every scenario. They have left it until the last minute. What a mess
I can't believe they are facing backlash for cancelling the festival after having severe flood warnings across the UK.
It's better to be safe than sorry, it would most certainly be worse if they let it go ahead and had to cancel half way through or people were hurt and stranded in very bad weather conditions.
Good luck to Morrisons and their PR people over the next couple of days.
Morrisons has made the best decision, based on the information they have, for their audience. Safety has to be paramount and its actually quite refreshing that a large company - who lets not forget has invested thousands of pounds and hours - has chosen to cancel this event. Instead of blaming Morrisions for the cancellation, they should be praised for putting safety first, profits second.
They have made the right decision, its extremely unfortunate and the head has to rule the heart on these decisions and public safety comes first. I'm sure Morrisons can with stand the potential financial loses
They have made the right decision, its extremely unfortunate and the head has to rule the heart on these decisions and public safety comes first. I'm sure Morrisons can with stand the potential financial loses
Source: www.marketingweek.co.uk
Farmers demand reversal of milk price cuts - BBC News
Farming unions have demanded the reversal of recent cuts in the price of milk as hundreds of UK dairy farmers prepare to meet in London next week.
Farmers are considering protests and disrupting supplies in response to the price cuts that they say are driving small dairies out of business.
Major milk firms cut prices in the spring, and more cuts are on the way.
"We are in desperation street," David Handley from Farmers for Action told the BBC.
The National Farmers' Union said it would support any action that was peaceful and legal.
Hundreds of farmers have gone out of business in recent years, and following recent price cuts by milk processors, the industry says it has had enough.
The NFU and the Tenant Farmers Association have called for all price cuts since 1 April to be reversed by 1 August.
They have also called on dairy farmers to turn out "in force" in London next Wednesday at a "crisis summit".
"The catastrophic cuts will drive farmers out of the dairy industry and we are united in our demand for an immediate reversal of recent planned cuts," the unions said.
"There has been an unprecedented outcry of anger and frustration among farmers."
'Disruption'Robert Wiseman, Britain's biggest fresh milk company that was taken over by European dairy giant Muller in January, cut the price of a litre of milk by 2 pence in June and plans to cut it again by 1.7p in August.
Wiseman's standard litre price would then be 24.73p. This is well below the cost of producing a litre of milk, farmers say.
Other milk processors in the UK announced price cuts last week.
In the dairy industry, the processors set the price they pay farmers for their milk.
They say they have had no choice but to pay less for the product, because the price of cream on the commodities market has fallen sharply in the past 12 to 18 months.
Milk processing in effect involves skimming off cream to make milk more palatable for consumers. So the processors say if they are making less money selling cream, they have less money to pay for the milk.
'Robbery'Some farmers say they have no option but to take direct action unless all price cuts since April are reversed.
"There are a number of things we are working on, such as disrupting the milk supply," said Mr Handley.
"We just want a fair share of the supply chain and direct action, in whatever form it takes, will be carried out to make sure we get the ultimate gain, and that is to get our money back which I think has been robbed from us."
Farmers can also deal direct with retailers such as supermarkets, which have their own processing facilities.
According to the NFU, Tesco and Sainsbury's offer farmers "good" contracts, whereas those offered by Asda and Morrisons are "not so good". Supermarkets will often buy milk directly from farmers and also through third-party processors.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Duchess of Cambridge to attend Wimbledon final, Queen 'free on Sunday' - Digital Spy
Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk
Fantastic win and they've been playing so well throughout. Very impressed with how well they've held their nerve considering they're a fairly new partnership. Would love to see them win tomorrow! Just wish the press was making a bit more of them instead of concentrating solely on Murray in most places.
- Sally, Derby, 06/7/2012 22:47
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