So it’s that’s all folks for another week, then. A week in which we decided to look at the positive side of the grey lid that’s been sat over the town for the last two months, occasionally letting in a peek of sunlight, but more frequently shedding its watery load. The hills are alive, green as they’ve ever been. A sort of Blitz spirit has developed in town. And it’s going to be a bumper year for apples. Also a week in which Alistair Campbell revealed Tony Blair’s nickname for him - Roy Keane - and beleaguered smokers were at last given a bit of good news. Due to a bureaucratic mix-up, they can still smoke in pubs in Stoke, though not for long.

This week we’d like to thank the following people, without whose help this issue would have been more of a wispy contrail than the heavily-laden cumulonimbus it has turned out to be: Ali Bishop, Caroline Dorling, Paul Austin Kelly, Victoria Thompson, John Blezzard, Susannah Waters, Jane Wateridge, Colin Grimes, Peter Talbot, Mike from the Mad Jacks, Gill Emerson, Sophie Orloff, Sally Gimson, Tara Gould and Polly Tuckett
Contributors this week were: Justin Wood, Emma ‘Chappers’ Chaplin and Emma ‘Bertie’ Robertson, Nick Williams, Antonia Gabassi, Steve King, Adrienne Campbell, David Jarman, Scott Chowen, Katie Moorman and Alex Leith.

Next week’s highlights include:
The inaugural column of Stephen ‘The Curmudgeon’ Catlin
Thursday 19th: Concertina legend Steve Turner at the Oak
Friday 20th: Pelham House Summer Ball
Saturday 21st: Youth music with Starfish in the Park
Wednesday 25th: Southampton FC visit the Dripping Pan