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After several months playing catch-up, DaC
driver and Bedfont Green goalkeeper Lee Pearce (J71),
has told Call Sign that BG have hit form at exactly
the right time as they continue to top the Cherry Red
Combined Counties Premier division. "Since we knocked Epsom and Ewell off the top spot, we’ve hit our best form. We’ve had our bad patch that the law of averages seems to dictate every team should go through, so I can’t see anyone now stopping us taking the title and promotion. Epsom do have two games in hand, but they have to win them and then they have to come to our place on 18 April and beat us. Even then it would still be close, so I think that makes us strong favourites. We are playing with so much |
DaC’s Lee: I think we may have the title! |
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 Bedfont Green’s Chris Henry scores against Sandhurst Town Pic Stewart Cook |
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Combined Counties Premier Division…Top
5 (of 22)
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confidence that we go out expecting to
win every match." A 3-0 away victory at Sandhurst Town on 21 March – thanks to scorers Craig White, Chris Henry and Russell Miner - gave BG a 10 point lead in a match where Lee hardly had to make a save and could have covered a few DaC trips to keep warm! Epsom, meanwhile, could only manage a goaless draw against bottom side Hartley Wintney. |
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Manganese Bronze takes hit for £14million! And they apply to HMG for a bail out… |
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Manganese Bronze Holdings Plc, parent
company of TX4 manufacturers London Taxis International,
saw their worst nightmare come to fruition when declaring an
astronomical full-year pre-tax operating loss of £14.2million. It
scrapped any final dividend for 2008 as sales of taxis slowed and
the company cut costs. What undoubtedly turned a bad year into an horrendous one were the exceptional costs of £8.1 million, which included £3.8million for the TX4 recall program of 1500 taxis following last year’s fires in 8 cabs. The company’s operating loss for the year before tax was £5.4million. The previous year had shown a healthy profit of £5.6 million from a total of £144.5million in sales, although that covered a 17 month period. MBH added in their audited preliminary results that they expect to return to profit next year when the Shanghai side of their business is in full flow, with the Chinese version TX4 having now passed its European homologation – ie moving from prototype to legitimate production model. They are said to have orders for 8000 taxis, although not all have yet been confirmed. However, the company admit that their UK side of the business may be challenging in both margin and |
 MBH CEO John Russell |
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volume with Coventry currently building 12 vehicles over a four day
week. According to the report, Manganese have also sought the "working capital" that HMG have provided to some in the car industry under the government’s special assistance scheme. This working capital, when provided to others, has been described as a bail out. MBH CEO John Russell said the company were looking at special assistance from the viewpoint of increasing their research and development spending on green technologies. The total number of vehicles sold fell from 2,480 to 2,124, while their workforce was cut by 20%. After release of the statement, their shares fell by 16% to 57p. The share price had reached a high of 542p over the past 12 months. |
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Jim Creask – the end of a brave battle |
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Many of those drivers that have been on Dial-a-Cab
for over 10 years will remember golf-loving Jim Creask. His
time as a DaC and taxi driver was tragically cut short in February
1997, following a motorbike accident that left him paralysed from
the chest down. At the young age of 37, he suddenly became unable to
continue with the job he loved. Jim’s wife Debbie has told Call Sign that he sadly passed away on 14 February 2009 from cancer, just one week short of his fiftieth birthday. During the time of Jim’s paralysis, he had been helped by an organisation called the Back-Up Trust. This is a national charity that supports people, young or old, with spinal cord injury. The organisation encourages self-confidence, independence and motivation following a traumatic life changing incident resulting in spinal cord injury. They also support friends, families and colleagues |
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encourage integration and promote disability awareness and
collaboration. Indeed, Jim went to Colorado with the Trust and
Debbie would like to help them raise much-needed funds in memory of
Jim.If you would like to give an amount, no matter how small, any donations in Jim’s memory would be gratefully received and be put to good use. Just go to The Back-up Trust at www.justgiving.com/debbiecreask1 Jim’s sister Terri is now carrying the Creask name on in the London taxi trade. To all the family, the condolences of everyone at DaC… |
