Chippenham & Beyond original

This is how Sylvia Plath put it, hard and clear, in her last poem, "Edge": "The woman is perfected./ Her dead/ Body wears the smile of accomplishment,/ The illusion of a Greek necessity/ Flows in the scrolls of her toga,/ Her bare/ Feet seem to be saying:/ We have come so far, it is over.." Dead indeed. The bare feet suggest the slab, which makes "toga" only a fine word for a morgue shroud. And knowing what we do, about what the poet herself was about to do, we can't help reading these lines as an imaginary, anticipatory self-portrait, post mortem. The cause of death and of "the smile of accomplishment" is suicide.

It is usually supposed that if you win the toss and insert the opposition in a Test match you should bowl them out for 250. Any more than 280 and you have either bowled badly or the captain made the wrong decision.

Dean Stocking is 19. When he left school, he trained in light vehicle mechanics, but he is now studying for a three-year NVQ in HGV engineering as an apprentice with Essex County Fire Service. The service is one of five in the country to have signed up to a "blue-light scheme" to address skills shortages.

A Lancaster bomber swooped over a Peak District reservoir today to mark the 65th anniversary of the Dambusters raid.

The Hampshire first innings ended more abruptly than even Surrey had intended. After their strike bowlers Chris Jordan and Pedro Collins had each taken a wicket everyone was surprised when Tom Burrows walked off the square with James Tomlinson - the ninth batsman to be dismissed.

Janieann Wightwick, 17, is studying for an NVQ level two in hairdressing at Mid-Kent College. Before she left school she worked in a local hair salon for some extra cash, and is now training full-time at the same salon.

Having drifted for a few years after leaving school, Kris Spearing, 21, is studying for an NVQ level two in sea fishing at Whitby & District Fishing Industry Training School

Lancashire's slender hope of pulling off an unlikely victory had probably disappeared even before Adam Voges provided some entertainment for a cool morning with a 42-ball half-century as Nottinghamshire knocked off the 112 more runs they needed to win.

Zimbabwe said today it would hold a delayed presidential election run-off on 27 June in which the opposition hopes to oust veteran leader Robert Mugabe after almost 30 years in power.

Osama bin Laden released a new message today saying al-Qa'ida will continue its war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.

Jeremy Bamber, serving life for killing five members of his family in 1985, must never be released from prison, a judge decided today.

The House of Commons has lost its High Court battle over an information watchdog's decision to force disclosure of MPs' expenses.

Nine people, including seven policemen, were killed when a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber on a motorbike rammed a bus in the Sri Lankan capital today.

An electronic system for patients' records will not be introduced to every NHS Trust in England until 2014-15 - four years later than planned - a public spending watchdog said today.

The High Court will rule today on whether the House of Commons has won its bid to overturn an information watchdog's decision to force disclosure of MPs' expenses.

British Airways announced annual pre-tax profits of £883 million today, but warned it was braced for a "challenging" year ahead due to sky high oil prices and following its troubled move to Heathrow Terminal 5.

Before Portsmouth's last game of the season at the weekend a trestle table was carefully carried out, sagging under the weight of enough player of the year awards to fill even a pair of mantelpieces. All had been voted for by various supporters' clubs, and each went to David James. Then another award was announced, the players' player of the year. That went to Sylvain Distin.

Dwain Chambers will pursue a twin-track policy today as he seeks to make a third comeback to athletics. He will decide whether to seek an Olympic future in the High Court, and then sit down for a long-awaited meeting with UK Sport's anti-doping chief John Scott to offer a chapter-and-verse account of the drug regime that led to him being banned for two years in 2003, bringing with him a lengthy document from supplier Victor Conte.