Wind Turbines - The gift that keeps on giving

Monday, 2 December 2013, page 23

The completion of the Wind Turbine on Severn Trent's Wanlip site prompted the following article from the Mercury:

Not only has the journalist, Adrian Troughton, repeated the error from the 23 June 2011 edition with            " Structure is tallest in county" but has a closing paragraph that would have baffled Albert Einstein!

Let us consider this tallest structure, which the Mercury say will to rise to 426 feet. Clearly, the Mercury's "cut and paste" department do not research beyond the city boundaries as if they did they would find that the television mast at Waltham-on-the-Wolds, completed in 1968, is 1033 feet tall.

This is a proper puzzle! Especially as St.George's Tower is stated to be 269 feet tall ( 82m) and the London Eye is 443 feet (135m).

Could do better - but it wouldn't be as funny!

Incidentally,  the tallest building in the city at 276 feet (84m) is the Cardinal Telephone Exchange tower on Humberstone Gate.

Show Stoppers or Shop Stoppers ?

Tuesday, 9 July 2013 - Mercury Mailbox, page 15

Once again an example of what happens when there is no attention to detail. Spell checkers are no replacement for proof readers.

Question: When is Watford not Watford? .... Answer: When it's Leicester!

Thursday 4 July 2013, page 55

Accompanying James Sharpe's column of "City News"  is a photograph with the caption " THE END: Manager Nigel Pearson consoles Anthony Knockaert after City's play-off heartbreak at Watford"

The key phrase here is ... at Watford.

Let's look at the clues:
 1. The Watford game was in daylight.- this photo' appears to have been taken at night and under floodlights.
 2. The Vicarage Road seats are yellow and red - the ones in the background are blue.
 3. Isn't that the start of a King Power advertisement next to Knockaert's shorts?

To think they've put the price of the paper up by 11% for this standard of work ...the inhabitants of Twycross Zoo could do a better job! 

Grateful thanks to all correspondents who pointed out this howler.

Leicester Mercury or Leicester City - which one took their eye off the ball?

Monday 13 May 2013 -  page 61

Possibly still suffering from post traumatic stress, the Mercury went to town in their pages of reporting on the Udinese Watford v Leicester City play-off semi-final second leg.

Chris Wood suffers twice as he is called Woods in a photograph caption and in the players "scores" his squad number has changed from 39 to 29.

In another photograph, the Mercury have Andy King tackling Almen Abdi. Clearly, this is not Abdi  (below) in the shot but the Scot, Ikechi Anya.

 Thanks to Bobby George for spotting these errors.

King heads it to Pratley... or was it Davies?

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

In the reports of City's game against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday evening, the Mercury managed to have Andy King heading the ball to two people at the same time.

Rob Tanner's City News on the back page has "Andy King flicked a long throw back into his own box and Pratley gratefully accepted the gift to make it 2-2".

Page 55:
Match Stats gives King a score of 6 with " His poor defensive header gifted the equaliser to Davies..."

The minute by minute breakdown of the action has "71 min Goal (2-2) King's header from a long throw falls to Darren Pratley all all of City's hard work is undone."

It must be the excitement of a home win!