A DIFFERENT CLAIM TO FAME...

The photo above shows the main bit of the Hampshire town of Andover.   It`s the place you drive past on the ring road as you whiz down the A303 between Basingstoke and Stonehenge.  A good friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, came from Andover and to be fair didn`t rate his home town too highly.   Nonetheless it has a few things going for it.

For example, it was the birthplace of Nigel Spackman, a more than useful footballer who played for Chelsea, Liverpool and Rangers in Scotland;   Lucinda Green and Kate Howey, both Olympic medal winners;  Lord Denning, former Master of the Rolls, James Blunt who cannot be named for legal reasons;  and Reg Presley and The Troggs.

On a less happy note, Andover was named "among the worst places in England to live" in a recent survey in which over 125,000 people voted.  Among the scathing reviews was one suggesting the town "is the most depressing place in the northern hemisphere."  Another advised visitors to avoid Andover "at all costs" whilst comparing the attractions and facilities in the town with Chernobyl.

But a recent report has highlighted another aspect of life in Andover and provided it with the dubious claim to fame as officially being `the raunchiest place in Britain` with sales of - how shall I put it? - personal intimate gratification accessories, far in excess of those sold anywhere else in the country during the course of the pandemic.

An intriguing prospect, given the history of the town, its relatively quiet location despite the A303 and its reputation for being able to offer a fortnight`s holiday in an afternoon.   But, as the much missed and loved Reg Presley wrote, " I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. love is all around me and so the feeling grows......."