News blog, March 17: Waaia’s Evans claims Lightfoot, fuel prices continue to climb, St Patrick’s Day snaps
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Gday Shepparton, Max Stainkamph with you for the day’s news blog.
Thursday has started off cloudy and we’re heading for a muggy top of 30 degrees with some rain in the morning and early afternoon.
UPDATE, 4.30pm: St Patrick’s Day wrap-up
To finish up the blog for today, we’ve got a gallery of St Paddy’s Day snaps which Monique Preston popped down to St Luke’s Primary School to take.
They’re all crackers, so have a gander here! That will do me for the day, too — my esteemed colleague and Kath and Kim giffer extraordinaire Caitlyn Grant will be with you on the blog tomorrow when we can let out hair down because it’s Friday!
UPDATE, 3.00pm: Rising prices hit SPC
Not the baked beans and canned tomatoes! A “perfect storm” has combined to drive up prices of supermarket staples from SPC.
Managing director Sam Prentice said the SPC Factory Sales outlet in Shepparton and Food Factory Sales outlets in Melbourne and Geelong had seen a dramatic spike in sales since SPC warned rising fuel prices would increase costs.
Check out the full story and the full breakdown from Darren Linton here.
UPDATE, 2.30pm: Gee whizz, petrol’s a bit expensive hey?
If you’re someone who drives a car, or you know someone who drives a car, or you occasionally make your way past a service station, you might have noticed the numbers telling you how much to pay for petrol are a bit how you going.
Daneka Hill used some valuable petrol to hit up service stations around town to chat to drivers and managers about the rising cost of petroleum.
Check out the full story here.
UPDATE, 12.55pm: Families giving back to RCH
Stop what you’re doing right now and read this gorgeous yarn from Anna McGuinness, who’s spoken to some families who are giving back to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Read the full story here, talking to Mitchell Serra, who made a full recovery despite fracturing his skull at Waranga Basin on Christmas Eve, and also to the Cheong family in Kyabram.
UPDATE, 11.45am: Everything happening this weekend
My wonderful colleague Caitlyn Grant has done all the hard work for you ahead of the weekend — tracking down everything on in the Shepparton region.
We’ve got the Shepp Festival opening celebration to CFA state championships and sporting grand finals there turly is something for everyone.
Check out the full list of events here and see what tickles your fancy.
UPDATE, 10.45am: Crime statistics revealed, sexual assault numbers jump
Reporter Georgia Rossiter has given me (and by extension, you) a look under the hood at a yarn she’s got coming a bit later today.
She’s digging through the Crime Statistics Agency’s 2021 report on crime, and a few figures have jumped out.
Recorded counts of sexual offences in Greater Shepparton rose by more than 200 per cent last year, according to the latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency.
Breaching family violence order is still the top offence, with more than 1700 recorded in 2021.
Meanwhile, other top offences from last year include criminal damage, steal from a motor vehicle, and other theft.
UPDATE, 9.55am: Fiddle-dee-dee: It’s St Patrick’s Day today
Really should have opened with this today on the blog, but I was very distracted and FORGOT it was St Paddy’s Day.
Shepparton Park Bowls Club is holding its annual fundraiser today, with all donations going towards Foodshare.
I believe some of the other pubs around town are also putting on dinner and lunches if you want to head out and order a pint of Guinness.
UPDATE, 9.20am: Waaia’s first Lightfoot, man knocked unconscious in Shepparton home
We’re getting some cricket chat up and running straight off the bat this morning as Cricket Shepparton has crowned Waaia’s Liam Evans the league’s best.
The awards, held last night, had the all-rounder poll a staggering 25 votes. My good mate Aydin Payne has the full wrap-up of his win, check it out here.
Meanwhile, Monique Preston is back from leave and is back up at court, hearing about a man who was knocked unconscious in a Kialla home invasion.
The man in court, along with five others, allegedly punched, kicked and stomped on a man at a Kialla house for about one minute in January, with all six kicking him on the ground at the same time.