Trouter Phil Koris looks happy with this 9lb rainbow (below) – but probably found it harder to smile earlier in the day when missing out on £500!

Fishing Ringstead he had netted an over-wintered 13-pounder, a superb fish by any standards but extra-special because of the tag it was carrying.

That piece of plastic should have meant that the captor had won the £500 top prize in the water’s tagged-fish competition which has been running since last spring.

But for Phil there was just one snag. He had to be IN it to win it – and he hadn’t been in it...having neglected to put his £1 entry fee in the jar before starting to fish.

All that said, his misfortune could be good news for someone else, as the tagged fish is back swimming around in Ringstead...waiting to be caught by someone who HAS put their quid in the jar.

SOMEONE who doesn’t need tagged fish (just a half-decent draw) to be in the money, town lad Steve Ringer has his name on a brand new book, published through Angling Times. AT claim his 132-page Guide to Stillwater Fishing ‘will help you put more fish in your net’. But they would say that wouldn’t they?

STANWICK carpers had a bank holiday ball with more than a dozen 20s – led by Pete Serasin’s 30lb Elsons’ common – caught.

Olly Cruden had a 26, Sean Gadsten a Mallard 25, Jim Tobin a 24, and Richard Tester seven bream to 8lb from Swan.

WHITE Hart Flore’s Spring Pools outing saw Dave Griffiths on 65llb followed by Gary Muddiman 49lb and Dale Gibson 47lb.

FLORE & Brockhall’s Flecknoe match attracted 15 rods despite bank holiday stayaways. It was carp or bust and Steve Smith won with 42lb ahead of Mark Collins 39lb and Reece Clulow 32lb.

TOWCESTER, Silverlake: Kevin Elliott 35-4, Dave Martin 21lb, Mick Goodridge 18-4.

CASTLE Ashby opens: Wednesday, Brickyard, Sean King 34lb, Frank Pizamenti 29-14, Steve Smith 25-12; Saturday, Brickyard, Andy Bazely 28-4, Chris Garratt 25lb, Chris Prigmore 18-12; Sunday, Grendon, John Kent 30-4, Garratt 28-6, Andy Jones 27-4.

WILLOWBROOK Lake: Paul Brand, pictured, 24-12, Richard Lattimer 20-5, Bruce Frisby 19-13.

COUNTY Vets silverfish, midweek, Canons Bottom: Alan West 20-8, Alf Gillard 13lb, John Lewis 9lb.

NEWPORT, Abbey Pits open: Mark Haynes 16-15, Nigel Bass 10-10, John Harvey 9-14.

DATS, Navigation canal: Paul Chapman scooped £186 on the golden peg, 16-3 of 
skimmers. No one else came near.

ABINGTON, Abington Park Lake: Vince Battams 15-8 (bream to 6-1), Richard Hawkes 8-9, Rus Colemen 7-14.

FIXTURES: Nene AGM, Monday, Yeoman of England, Wootton; May 3 AT & CRT national pairs champs round, Yardley cut, practice opens April 12, 19 & 26, 07711 086436.

Jamie Walker is gearing up to compete in the World Indoor Bowls Council’s World Championships in Jersey next week.

The competition, which takes place between Wednesday and Saturday next week, comprises of singles championships for both men and women and a mixed pairs championship, with a total of 16 players of each gender making up the event.

The players have been arranged into four groups of four for a round robin series of matches with the winners and runners-up of each group going on to play in the knockout stages.

Wellingborough IBC’s Walker has qualified to play in the event after he won the National England Men’s Singles title last season.

Other countries to be represented are Canada, Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, Netherlands, Scotland and Wales.

Walker’s first match will be against Scotland’s Mike Stepney on Wednesday and he will then play Garry McFarlane (Guernsey) on the same day before taking on Kevin Jones (Canada) in his final group match on Thursday.

In the Mixed Pairs, Walker will be alongside Sarah Seymour (City of Ely) and they will play play Chloe and Thomas Greechan (Jersey) before going on to face Norma Duin and Ralph de Rooij (Netherlands) and Laila Hassan and Jones (Canada) in their other group matches.

Walker has also been included in shortlist of players named by Bowls England to take part in the preparation programme for the 2015 Atlantic Games and 2016 World Championships (outdoor).

The Atlantic Games will be held in Cyprus between November 30 and December 13 this year and will act as a qualifying event for the 2016 World Championships in New Zealand in the same months next year.

It has been a busy time for Walker and he has also been selected for Bowls England’s Junior Men’s International Trial team to play at Victoria Park in Leamington Spa on Monday, May 25.

He is joined by county team-mates Callum Height (Thrapston) and Connor Cinato (Kettering Midland Band), who will be hoping 
to catch the selectors’ eyes in a bid to make his international debut later in the season.

Northants name team for biggest game yet

Northants have named their team to compete in the biggest game in the history of the County’s Indoor Bowling Association.

The Northants men will take on Lincolnshire in the final of the Liberty Trophy, the prestigious inter-county competition on Sunday.

It is the first time the county have reached the final and it will be played at Melton & District IBC (1.30pm).

Northamptonshire team

Rink one: Richard Lemon, Chris Bland (both Northampton & District), Darren Childs, Jamie Walker (both Wellingborough). Rink two: Mark Corbyn, Bob Fuller, Phil Exley, Neil Corbyn (all Wellingborough). Rink three: Dave Love (Wellingborough), Ben Sharpe, Jim McKee, Vernon Gearey (all Kingsthorpe). Rink four: Dave Flippance, Connor Cinato (both Desborough), Jason Bryan, Neil McKee (both Kingsthorpe). Rink five: Matt Pownall, John Haines (both Desborough), Dominic Graham (Northampton & District), Paul Broderick (Wellingborough). Rink six: Callum Height (Wellingborough), Andy Smith (Northampton & District), Andrew Manton, Mick Sharpe (both Kingsthorpe). Reserves: David Walker, Kingsthorpe, Chris Maden, Darren Lewis (all Kingsthorpe), Curtis Johnson (Wellingborough), Tony O’Leary (Northampton & District), Tony Dicks (Daventry).

Manton and McKee bow out in semi-finals

Kingsthorpe duo Andrew Manton and Neil McKee reached the semi-finals of the Men’s Pairs at the National Indoor Championships at Melton & District IBC.

The reigning champions enjoyed victories over Andy Colebrooke and Russell Francis (20-18), Stephen Harris and Martyn Dolby (22-21) and Tom Doig and Mike Cheeseman (18-14) to reach the last four where they were up against Berkshire duo Michael Knight and Robert Newman.

But that was where the run ended as they slipped to a 24-12 defeat.

Robbers attacked an 11-year-old boy in a Northamptonshire village before stealing his mobile phone and money.

Between 3.30pm and 4pm yesterday (April 8), the boy, who was walking through an alleyway off Rose Avenue, in Weldon, was approached by two males wearing balaclavas.

They pushed him to the ground and stole his phone and money, before making off towards Chapel Lane via the village hall car park.

Both attackers were described as white and about 5ft 4 inches tall. One of them was wearing a white Nike T-shirt and black jogging bottoms.

The second offender was wearing a blue Airwalk T-shirt and black jogging bottoms.

Anyone with any information can call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Brackley Town boss Jon Brady says his side have three cup finals to save their season – and their Vanarama Conference North status - ahead of Saturday’s tough test with leaders Barrow.

But Brady has more selection problems for the important game.

Goalkeeper Billy Turley is a doubt with a leg injury which prevented the veteran keeper from taking goal-kicks in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Worcester City,

Experienced centre-back Frank Sinclair looks unlikely to have recovered in time and Roddy Coddins is struggling with a hamstring problem while Will Green missed the Worcester game with a virus.

Dwayne Samuels is suspended until the end of the season but Tom Sharpe’s one-match suspension will come at Hyde the following week so it means Brady will be forced into more changes.

He said: “I still believe we can get out of it, we’ve just got to focus on the last three games now, three cup finals.

“We’re one point from safety but it’s between ourselves, Stalybridge Celtic, Leamington and Colwyn Bay.

“Barrow have got AFC Fylde breathing down their necks so they’re not over the line yet.

“They will be under pressure to get three points on Saturday and so will we but for contrasting reasons.

“We’ve been okay at home this season so we’ve just got to make sure it’s our day on Saturday.

“We will need to impose ourselves on Barrow from the start.

“I’d love to have Frank [Sinclair] back but I don’t think he will recover in time.

“Billy [Turley] was basically playing on one leg at Worcester.”

The game at Worcester in midweek was to have a heartbreaking conclusion for the Saints, who conceded in injury time to surrender two of the three points on offer.

Greg Kaziboni had given the away side the lead with a brilliant dipping drive, but Mike Symons blasted the ball home three minutes into added time to level things up.

“We have to take the positives out of it again,” said Brady. “It was disappointing to concede such a late equaliser but it’s a good point.

“Teams have found it 
tough to get something at Worcester, even Scunthorpe struggled there in their FA Cup replay.

“It’s a tough place to go and we can do is consider it another point gained.”

Travellers who pitched caravans on Delapre Park in Northampton last night have been given until 10am tomorrow to leave.

A group of around six caravans gained entry to the Northampton Borough Council-owned park by the historic abbey, off London Road, last night at around 6.30pm.

Police were informed and officers arrived shortly after the vehicles had moved onto the site.

A spokesperson for Northamptonshire County Council said the authority is working with police to move the travellers on.

A spokesperson said: “A public order notice has been served by Northamptonshire Police and the Countywide Traveller Unit which takes effect at 10am tomorrow (Friday).

“If the group refuses to vacate the site by that time, they can be arrested and we have the power to seize the vehicles.”

Councillor Brendan Glynane (Lib Dem, Delapre) has described the actions of the travellers as ‘outrageous’, as he believes a perimeter fence may have been pulled down to gain access to the land.

He said: “Yes we have to respect the rights of travellers, but they also have to show responsibility.

“This is one of Northampton’s premier parks, it’s disgraceful.”

Northampton Borough Council did no wish to comment on the matter.

The field travellers pitched caravans on will play host to the Alive @ Delapre concert in July.

Josh Devine, drummer for boy band One Direction, made a visit to Northampton this morning to pick up his new car and shared his childhood memories about visits to the town.

The self-proclaimed “petrol-head”, who lives in Market Harborough, said he used to come to the town to visit friends, go to Sixfields cinema and his dad once even took him to see a Cobblers game.

Sitting in the Volkswagen garage in the Riverside Business Park, shortly before driving his £38,000 Scirocco R, the 23-year-old said: “I like Northampton - it has a lots of good roads.

“I’ve always been into cars, ever since I started driving at 17 years old. I live to take Niall Horan around (One Direction singer) and give him a bit of a scare from time to time.”

A multi-talented musician, Mr Devine last month released his first serious single Here to Stay in which he plays drums, guitar, bass and sings. A lot of his time is also spent doing session work in Los Angeles where, he says, he enjoys the American cars and the speed camera-less roads.

Before settling on the oryx white, automatic Scirocco - which boasts R-Line trim, diamond-tone wheels and a panoramic roof - he said: “I was thinking about a Golf, the Ferrari 458 or a McLaren MP4-12C.

“My real favourite is the Audi R8 V10 but I don’t spend enough time here to enjoy it. Plus I’ve been buying a new car every year for the past four years so I like to keep things changing.”

Mr Devine often goes to the Northampton Volkswagen garage when considering his next purchase. He said: “I spend a fair bit of time here - it’s almost like a second family.”

Sales manager, Mark Barrow, returned the sentiment and said: “We love having Josh here.”

After taking the cover off his new car to see it for the first time, Mr Devine said: “I absolutely love it, it’s gorgeous,” before taking it for its first drive to Bournemouth, where he is considering buying his first property in time for a summer by the beach.”

Dorian West says Saints will leave it late to decide whether to select Alex Corbisiero and Courtney Lawes for Sunday’s game at Exeter Chiefs.

Corbisiero took a bang to the knee in the 37-5 Champions Cup defeat at Clermont Auvergne last Saturday, while Lawes was taken off at half-time with a shoulder injury.

Saints will hope the England duo are available for this weekend’s trip to Sandy Park as they bid to keep their bid to claim the Aviva Premiership top spot on track.

And forwards coach West is remaining hopeful over the fitness of two of his key men.

“We’re pretty good injury wise,” West said. “We’ve got some knocks in the squad, which we always have.

“Courtney’s been carrying a bad shoulder for a few weeks and we’ve been looking after him.

“We’ve trained well during the past couple of days and we’ll see how the lads turn up tomorrow, see what they’re like and make some decisions on what team we’re going to play.

“Lads improve day to day so we’ll see where he is in the next couple of days and make a decision on what’s best for Courtney and the team.”

And on Corbisiero, West added: “Corbs banged his knee, took a kick and it’s only a bruise so it was something that takes a few days to get over.

“We’ll keep a check on that to see where he’s at.

“Most people will be available for the weekend. Sometimes things improve quickly and then steady off, not going where you think they’re going to go.

“But we’ll assess that over the next couple of days and see where it’s at.”

Ben Foden, who is out for the season with a knee injury, and George North, who is being rested after being knocked unconscious in last month’s game against Wasps, are definitely out of Sunday’s game against the Chiefs.

A man has been airlifted to hospital after police found him at a house in Northampton, which they have cordoned off.

Police are currently at an address in Cliftonville Court this afternoon after the man, who is believed to have been attacked, was discovered at about 1pm.

He was taken to University Hospital Coventry by air ambulance with what police described as “serious injuries”.

A police spokeswoman added: “Three men who were at the property have been arrested and police are appealing for anyone who may have any information about the incident to contact them.”

Witnesses or anyone with information are asked to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Yorkshire folk singer, Kate Rusby, returns to Royal & Derngate in Northampton next weekend.

One of the UK’s most-lauded folk musicians, Rusby released her latest album, Ghost, at the end of last year.

During her career, the singer has won numerous BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and collaborated with acts including Ronan Keating and Roddy Woomble.

In 1999 she was nominated for a Mercury Prize for her album, Sleepless, and had her cover of The Kinks’ The Village Green Preservation Society used as the theme tune to BBC show, Jam & Jerusalem.

On this tour, she will be joined by the cream of British folk musicians who form her band. Rusby returns to the Derngate stage on Saturday, April 18 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £22 before fees.

The Simon and Garfunkel Story is at the theatre tonight (Thursday). Led by Dean Elliott, it tells the story of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel from their humble beginnings as rock and roll duo, through their success, dramatic break-up and finishes with a recreation of the 1981 Central Park reformation concert.

Using a huge projection screen, the show features 1960s’ photos and film footage while a full live band perform all their hits including Mrs Robinson, Cecilia, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Homeward Bound.

Doors open at 7.30pm, ticket cost from £19.50 before fees.

Tenor Russell Watson headlines the venue tomorrow night (Friday).

Watson is one of the world’s most prominent tenors and has sold more than seven million albums worldwide.

His first album offering, The Voice, held simultaneous number one slots in the UK and the USA and spent a record-breaking 52 weeks at number one in the UK.

Watson is the UK’s best-selling classical artist and has won four Classical BRITS.

Doors open at 7.30pm, tickets cost from £31 to £46 before fees. To book tickets for all shows, call 01604 624811 or visit www.royalandderngate.co.uk

Cara Dillon returns to the region next weekend to headline The Castle in Wellingborough.

The singer, who is one of the finest exponents of traditional Irish song, was recently nominated in the Folk Singer of the Year category of the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Dillon released her fifth solo album, A Thousand Hearts, last year.

She also features on the soundtrack to Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue.

She headlines the venue on Saturday, April 18.

Doors open at 7.30pm, tickets cost £18 before fees.

Classic Clapton headline the Wellingborough venue tomorrow night (Friday) as part of their 30th anniversary tour.

Formed in 1985 and led by Mike Hall, Classic Clapton have become something of a rock institution and the cream of the rock ‘n’ roll tribute genre.

The show is on Friday, April 10. Doors open at 7.30pm, tickets cost £15 before fees.

For information about all forthcoming shows, call 01933 270007 or visit www.thecastle.org.uk

Dance music festival, the Electric Daisy Carnival, will return to the Milton Keynes Bowl in July.

The line-up features some of the most talented and popular acts in dance music who will perform across the Kinetic Field, Circuit Grounds, Cosmic Meadow and Neon Garden at the venue.

The Kinetic Field will feature sets by Carnage, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Hardwell, Philip George, Robin Schulz, Steve Aoki and Tiesto.

Circuit Grounds will include Friction, High Contrast ft. Mc Wrec, Kove, Linguistics, Matrix & Futurebound, Mistajam, a Pendulum DJ set, Verse, Shy Fx Feat Stamina Mc, Sigma and a Sub Focus DJ set.

Cosmic Gate, Ferry Corsten, Ilan Bluestone, John O’callaghan, Jordan Suckley B2b Bryan Kearney, Markus Schulz, Paul Van Dyk, Pure Nrg, Simon Patterson, Will Atkinson and Neongarden will perform on the Cosmic Meadow stage.

Art Department, Claude Vonstroke, Jamie Jones, Marco Carola, Miguel Campbell, Richy Ahmed, Route 94, Visionquest and Waff will play on the Neon Garden.

Electric Daisy Carnival UK is a collaboration between Insomniac and Cream.

It is on Saturday, July 11 and runs from noon-11pm.

Tickets cost from £66 including fees. For full details and information about camping, hotel packages and coach travel, visit www.electricdaisycarnival.co.uk

American singer songwriter Jimmy Webb headlines The Stables this weekend.

Webb has influenced generations of musicians worldwide from Billy Joel to John Mayer and Keith Urban to Rumer.

He has topped the country, disco and pop music charts and remains a trailblazer among songwriters 50 years after his first hit.

The man behind songs including Worst That Could Happen and The Highwayman will be performing hits from his multi-platinum playlist, accompanied with tales of the inspiration behind some of the songs. Webb plays the venue in Wavendon on Saturday, April 11.

Doors open at 8pm, tickets cost £22.50 before fees.

On Sunday, The Blockheads return to the region to headline the venue.

Formed in 1977 by Ian Dury, The Blockheads are now fronted by Derek Hussey, who was the late singer’s best friend.

The legendary Brit-funkers will be playing all the old favourites along with some new material.

Doors open at 8pm, ticket cost £21.50 in advance before fees.

A pop-up refreshment facility is due to open at Delapre Abbey in Northampton in Saturday, following the closure of the site’s popular tea rooms.

The final blow was dealt to the Friends of Delapre Abbey run tea rooms at the end of March when its board took the decision to change the locks of the premises and move all the cash off site.

The FODA board claimed it had been operating at a loss and was no longer a viable business.

When it was announced tea rooms would be closing at the start of March, the borough council said it would provide a ‘temporary’ cafe facility in the walled gardens of the abbey throughout summer.

It is not yet known exactly who will be running the temporary facility, but a white marquee was erected in the garden area ten days ago.

A spokesperson for Northampton Borough Council said: “Following the sudden announcement by the Friends of Delapre Abbey to close their tea room we are working as quickly as we can to open a new refreshment facility in the walled garden at Delapre Abbey.

“New equipment is being installed and staffing arrangements being organised, which will allow the new refreshment facility to open on Saturday, April 11.”

The borough council is also set to reconvene for a one-off ‘extraordinary’ meeting on Wednesday (April 15) to discuss a motion it passed on the tea rooms in November, which resolved to keep the facility on ‘a rolling lease’ in its current location, “until the time work makes the location uninhabitable”.

The meeting has been called at the behest of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, which says the authority has gone back on its word.

The concil’s Labour group is understood to be supportive of the motion.

Richard Levi is back at Northamptonshire for a third season - but this time with a slightly different brief.

While in the past couple of years the South African has arrived to play a leading role in the one-day cricket, this time he is here for the duration.

It seems likely he will open the batting with Stephen Peters when the LV= County Championship kicks off against Gloucestershire on Sunday.

And, while it is not a completely new experience for him having appeared in four first-class matches for the County in the desperate summer of 2014, it is definitely a new challenge.

Levi made his reputation on a global scale as a big-hitting star of one-day cricket.

His Twenty20 exploits - including helping the Steelbacks become title winners in 2013 - have made him a hot property in the shorter format.

That was borne out as he led Cape Cobras to triumph in the Ram Slam T20 at home - becoming the leading scorer in the competition in the process - and to become beaten finalists in the Momentum One-Day Cup.

However, he also opened up for the Cobras in the Sunfoil Series - his country’s domestic three-day competition - where he scored 466 runs at an average of over 33.

And he insists the longer game is not beyond him.

“I made my name in South Africa in the three-day stuff and didn’t do very well in the one-day cricket,” Levi explained. “That was how I got my contract the first time.

“It’s not that I can’t play it. It’s just that we’ve got four or five Test players in our top order so it is very hard to break in when they are around.

“I’ve made that breakthrough now and taken the opportunity - but now this is obviously a very different challenge.

“It was a little bit different before only being here for the one-day stuff.

“But now to come in and challenge myself in the four-day stuff and try to cement my place there is an exciting thing I’m looking forward to and going to enjoy.

“I’ve played the most first-class cricket I have in about four or five years.

“It went well but it could have gone better.

“I averaged what I wanted to but didn’t quite get anyone big ones.

“I learned a lot and now I want to take that and implement it here.”

Chris Wilder admits defeat at Stevenage on Saturday would be fatal to Cobblers’ play-off hopes.

But the Town boss retains the belief that his men can get the result they need to keep them on course for a top-seven finish.

Monday’s 1-0 defeat to Cambridge United at Sixfields means Cobblers are currently five points adrift of the play-off places with five games to go.

And with Stevenage currently in range - they are sixth, five points ahead of Town -a win at Broadhall Way this weekend would be a sizeable shot in the arm.

“We’ve got to put a big performance in on Saturday and try to get three points,” said Wilder.

“Whatever game it is, we’ve got a responsibility to give our maximum, whether we’re not playing for anything or if we find ourselves in a situation where we can do something this season.

“You look at the fixtures on Saturday and we all do, we all look to see who can beat who and what results can happen, and the biggest favourites in and around us are Plymouth (who host Mansfield).

“All the others have potentially got games where they might not pick up any points and we understand we need to go to Stevenage and win.

“They’ll be looking at us and thinking they can put us to bed by knocking us out of the race, and I do believe if we’re being realistic then if they do beat us on Saturday that is our aspirations gone.

“But any result can happen on Saturday and we can quite easily find ourselves two points outside of the play-offs with four games to go.

“That’s what we’re aiming to do. We are looking to make sure we get our result and relying on other results, which is a disappointing situation because we feel if we’d had a decent Easter it would have been in our hands.

“But it isn’t and the only thing we can affect is a decent performance on Saturday and doing what we need to do.

“We have to keep believing and go right to the end.”

Ken Pisi believes a single-minded approach will enhance Saints’ chances of retaining their Aviva Premiership crown.

With the LV= Cup and Champions Cup bids having reached their conclusion, Jim Mallinder’s men now only have one piece of silverware on the agenda.

And with a 10-point lead at the top of the Premiership table, they are in a good position to secure a home play-off semi-final.

They head to Exeter Chiefs on Sunday for the first of a four-game run-in, which will be punctuated by two rest weekends, when the Champions Cup semi-finals and final will take place.

And Pisi said: “Now we’ve only got one focus and that’s the retain our Aviva Premiership title and it will help the boys to have a couple of weeks off.

“It will freshen everyone up and help them get away from rugby to refocus.

“It’s a tough schedule, not only physically, but mentally. At times, it’s tough getting up for training and you just need that little break to clear your mind a bit.

“But at the same time, it’s our job and we love doing it - we’ve just got to mentally get there.”

Saints’ conclusion to the regular season could be easier as they face three play-off hopefuls - Exeter, Saracens and Leicester - as well as relegated London Welsh.

And Pisi knows this weekend’s trip to Sandy Park is important for his side as they bid to boost morale after last Saturday’s 37-5 drubbing at the hands of Clermont Auvergne.

“Exeter are a bit like Clermont - they like to play with the ball and they’ve got some good, strong runners,” said the Samoan wing.

“We’ve got to target them early, shut them down and keep their crowd quiet.

“If we can win this it will build our confidence up again, leading into the last games.”

Exeter are the only English team to have won at Franklin’s Gardens this season, securing a 24-18 success in Northampton in November.

But Saints have a good record at Sandy Park, winning there on a number of occasions since the Chiefs were promoted to the top flight.

And Pisi said: “It’s quite similar to where we were last week, but we’ve won tight games there and we know we can do the job.

“It’s going to be an exciting game.

“Exeter are a quality team but we’ve got the players to do it.

“The boys are looking for a reaction and we’ll see what happens this week.”

A raunchy show based on real stories from real women will be staged at the Royal & Derngate on Friday, April 17.

Sex In Suburbia, starring West End regular Claire Sweeney, explores the mysteries of men, dating, finding Mr Right and motherhood. Co-written and starring Sweeney, Sex In Suburbia is filled with fun, laughter, emotion and truth as it follows Penny Crowe (Lindzi Germain), a late-night radio presenter and Britain’s leading agony aunt who hosts a late-night phone-in.

Penny takes calls about every date from hell and the occasional one from heaven.

She is more than happy to dish out the relationship advice, but can she take it?

Sweeney joins Penny on her show as a “relationship expert”, while Carl Patrick revels in multiple roles, which take the form of frigid footie fans, karate-chopping kids and the outrageous radio host, Rory Reynolds.

The raunchy storyline is set to a backdrop of sensational musical anthems such as I’m Every Woman and I Want To Break Free. Tickets are £23 and are available by calling 01604 624811 or at www.royalandderngate.co.uk.

Carry On legend Jim Dale comes to The Core at Corby Cube on Saturday, April 11, and Sunday, April 12, for his only UK show dates before starting his highly acclaimed show Just Jim Dale on the West End stage.

Born in Rothwell, Dale began his career as a stand-up comic and his talents have seen him perform across the world and starring as a regular member of the Carry On cast.

Praised as one of the greatest stage entertainers in recent years, Dale’s talent for singing, dancing, acting and comedy is in his new show Just Jim Dale.

He will take audiences on a journey through his career with a myriad of showbiz tales, songs and performances beginning with snippets from when he was the youngest professional comedian on the British Music Hall stage through to starring in 11 Carry On films, Barnum and Me and My Girl.

Jim Dale will be at The Core at Corby Cube on Saturday, April 11, and Sunday, April 12.

Tickets cost £22.50 or £25.50, with concessions available. Call 01536 470470 or visit www.thecorecorby.com.

Top comedian Andy Parsons will be bringing his Live and Unleashed – But Naturally Cautious tour to The Castle theatre from 8pm on Wednesday, April 22.

The multi-award-winning star of Mock The Week started his career writing for Weekending and went on to become one of the main writers on the ground-breaking Spitting Image satirical puppet show.

He has performed on numerous radio and television shows including Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week, QI, Saturday Live, The Stand Up Show, They Think It’s All Over, The PMQ show, Scrooby Trevithick and Parsons & Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections.

Having won the Time Out Comedy Award in 2002 he has performed his stand-up all over the world from the prestigious Montreal and Kilkenny comedy festivals to touring Australia and New Zealand. To date he has done three sell-out national tours and in 2009 he released his debut DVD, Britain’s Got Idiots, which was followed up by Gruntled in 2011 and Slacktivist in 2013.

Tickets for this hilarious night of stand-up are priced £15 and are available by calling 01933 270 007 or online at www.thecastle.org.uk.

The Royal & Derngate’s Screaming Blue Murder Comedy Club continues at 8.15pm on Friday, April 17, when compère Dan Evans is joined on the Underground stage by comedians Joey Page, Anthony King and Sally-Anne Hayward.

Joey Page, right, has spent the past few years bouncing around the comedy circuit supporting the likes of Josie Long and Noel Fielding. Anthony King has more than 20 years of experience on the national comedy circuit, and Sally-Anne Hayward has proven her writing talents with numerous Edinburgh Fringe shows.

Tickets are £12.50 on 01604 624811.