Black Country Evening Mail from West Bromwich, West Midlands, England • 2

EVENING MAIL, MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1981 Good food guide slams cost of eating out The prices charged in many British hotels and restaurants are indefensible, and some are an "ever-so-polite says the 1981 Good Food Guide, published today. The edition, in its 30th year, said that in 1951 British restaurant eating was "by and large so terrible that it could only get better." In 1981, the standard had risen "but just feel the price," says the Guide's editor, Christopher Driver. "Some of the £40-plus-for-two bills for deplorable Vandals strike again at garage Vandals smashed a £250 plate glass window in the latest of a series of attacks on a Great Barr service station. Only three weeks ago intruders smashed their way into the Gateway service station, Birmingham Road and stole £751 worth of cigarettes, coats, spanners and watches. And a few days ago another plate glass window was damaged by vandals with air guns.

Service station manager Mr. James Pitt said: "We have had a number of incidents here over the past few months and no one has yet been caught. "For some reason vandals seem to be having a go at us." In the latest incident the 15-foot square window was smashed some time on Saturday night. Police have appealed for anyone who saw the incident to contact them at Wednesbury. Top boss quits Mr.

John Ray, who took over from BL boss Sir Michael Edwardes as chief executive of the Chloride Batteries group, has left the £57,000 job in a surprise move announced last night. Family announcements DEATHS COLE Benjamin 11 Northgate. Cradley Heath. on March 12 at the Guest Hospital. aged 72 years, will be sadly missed by his wife and family.

Funeral arrangements later. All enquiries to J. E. W. Hickton and Sons.

Lower High Street. Cradley. Tel. 66625. PAYNE Elizabeth home.

Manor Road. Passed away peacefully at her a Smethwick. on March 13. 1981. aged 85 years.

Funeral Wednesday, March 18. Service Lodge Hill Crematorium. a.m. PRETTY. Frederick, passed away March 13.

Funeral on Thursday. March 19. 2.30 p.m. at Perry Barr Crematorium. Sadly missed by his wife and family.

SMITH Joseph Of 4 Osborne Close. Quarry Bank. on March 12. at Wordesley Hospital. aged 75 years.

will be sadly missed by his wife and family. Funeral at Quarry Bank Congregational on Tuesday. a March 17. service Church at 1.45 p.m., followed" by cremation at Sturbridge Crematorium. All enquiries to J.

E. W. Hickton and Sons. Lower High Street, Cradley. Tel.

66625. TROMANS Gladys 14 Cherry Orchard. Cradley Heath. on March 9. aged 83 years.

will. be sadly missed by all the family, Funeral on Tuesday, March 17. 1981. from her daughters home, 4 Highland Road. Cradley Heath.

Service at Zion's HIll Methodist Church. Old HIll. at 11.30 a.m.. followed by cremation at Rowley Regis Crematorium. All enquiries to J.

E. W. Hickton and Sons. Lower High Street. Cradley.

Tel. 66625. FUNERAL DIRECTORS R. J. BILLINGHAM, formerly Preece and Billingham, Funeral Directors, 118 Ross.

Rowley Regis. Tel. 559 8789. Complete funeral furnishers. modern hearses and limousines.

burials and cremations arranged in any area. CAR Drugs raiders are used a car as a weekend raid on chemist's shop in thousand of pounds drugs were stolen. Detectives were today of the West Midlands discovery that the drugs heroin, Diconal and snatched from the of Hudsons Chemists, Hill. Det. Inspector Cliff Bennett, of the West Midlands Drugs Squad, said today: 44 Although the value to the pharmacist was about £100, the drugs taken are worth several thousand pounds in the illegal drugs market.

They are all hard drugs." Detectives believe there is evidence to suggest a car was driven up the service road and rammed into the back door to let the raiders in, said Det. Inspector Harry Penfold, of Brierley Hill CID. A total of £80 cash was also stolen. Tighter Mr. John Blackburn, Conservative MP for Dudley West, which includes Brierley Hill, last year asked the Home Secretary for tighter legislation concerning the storage of controlled drugs in chemists' shops.

He also asked if cash could be made available to chemists SO they could have more secure storage methods. Mr. Blackburn, a former detective sergeant, said today: "Some Drugs Squad officers tell me that most hard drugs sold street level come from chemists' shops originally." Youths on rail crash charge Two youths are to appear in court after a 100 m.p.h. express train heading for Birmingham crashed at Bletchley last Monday. Severe damage was caused to the locomotive pulling the 18.40 from Euston to New Street, but none of the 200 passengers was injured.

Two youths, aged 16 and 15, have been charged with obstructing a train and causing criminal damage. food in the English countryside they are ever so polite only disguise their incompetence caterers by charging ever customers," says the guide. The best restaurants in but the prices in others are when compared with restaurant the Channel, says the guide. For the large section of the can be seen for what rip-offs by people who can or misjudgement as prices to ever-fewer Britain are now very good, indefensible, especially and food prices across British population living it would actually pay them to near a Channel port, eat in France. Despite the criticisms, ten restaurants gained a distinction for cooking, wines or hotel keeping.

and the Black Country get the But Birmingham thumbs down. Jonathans at Oldbury, which specialises in old English food and the Tandoori at Wolverhampton are the only two to make the guide. 'BATTERING IN RAM' believed to have battering ram in a a Brierley Hill worth of "hard" which several IN SHOP liaising with officers Drugs Squad after the including cocaine, Palfium had been controlled drugs cabinet High Street, Brierley DRUG RAID Peril on the forecourt! Arthur in fear of women drivers by LOUISA PARTON Petrol pump attendant Mr. Arthur Guest reckons he deserves danger money for facing the perils of women drivers on his forecourt. Women pulling up for fuel have crashed into his cash kiosk five times in the past year, says 68- year-old Mr.

Guest, of Vernon Court, Kingsway, Oidbury. He says he cannot understand how some women manage to even pass their driving test. Mr. Guest is lightheartedly contemplating a danger money claim from his bosses at the Halesowen garage where he works pert-time. "One woman came hurtling towards me as 1 was ringing up the cash till the counter collapsed and £1,000 worth of till went on the fioor," he said.

"Another time, the plate glass in the kiosk was smashed. "The kiosk has been shattered around me So many times now, and I am afraid it's been a lady to blame on each occasion. "Women drivers don't seem to be able to judge the width or length of their cars as they pull up between me and the pumps. Mr. Guest's wife, Olive, aged 61, said: "I think it's probably coincidence that women drivers always seem to be responsible when that kiosk comes to grief.

"I'm not a women's libber by any means but I say a woman can do things as well as a man any day." Skinheads attack boy Smethwick police are hunting a skinhead gang who punched and kicked a 12-year-old boy to the ground. The youngster had been to a Shireland Road. Smethwick, fish and chip shop, when he was attacked. Three skinheads punched him, knocking him AN 0890 Charles to Safe raiders use try again Prince Charles, none the worse for last week's Sandown riding mishap, teams up again with Good Prospect in the Kim Muir Memorial Challenge Cup at Cheltenham tomorrow. The partnership foundered in the Horse and Hound Grand Military Gold Cup when Good Prospect was making up ground on the leaders.

The unseated Prince escaped with a bloody nose. Good Prospect carries top weight of last. 10lb. in the Cheltenham Handicap Chase, over three miles, which he won 12 months carrying just 12lb. firm's cutting gear Safe raiders use a fruitless.

firms' own cutting Det. Inspector Brian equipment in two factory raids within 300 yards of each other on the LyeCraldye boundary, police said. About £2,000 was stolen from two safes in the first raid at Hayes Shellcast, The Hayes, Lye. But the other raid on Dolex Enginering at the nearby Hayes Trading Estate, Hingley Road, is believed to have proved Club curfew rapped dancing at the Baylies Hall youth centre in Tower Street after complaints of noise and vandalism. Club members have submitted a statement to the management committee deploring the move.

The management committee is studying the statement from the members, but has refused to comment. Members of a West Indian youth club in Dudley have launched a scathing attack on their own management committee after it decided the club must close at 10 p.m. on club nights. Youngsters say the committee is trying to restrict the growth of the Black community in the town. The management committee has banned drinks and TONIGHT: Showers, cold TOMORROW: Sunny periods.

-UP: 6.43 p.m. to 5.50 a.m. Weather Ford say imports not to blame for job cuts Ford motor chiefs today defended themselves against union claims that a wave of their own imported goods are responsible for the need to cut as many as 25,000 jobs. The Transport and General Workers' Union, whose members are in the majority among the 70,000 British workforce, have been demanding import controls on a wide range of components. They also want Ford to cut down on the number of cars being brought in from places like Spain for sale on the home market.

But a company spokesman said today: "This is a misleading picture. Overall, with tractors, commercial vehicles and engines we have a balance of payments surplus of many millions of pounds last year. "Our last figures showed us to be the second biggest exporter in the whole of manufacturing industry after ICI. "We have simply found it necessary to integrate our British and European workforces to make the whole of the company more viable and to perpetuate jobs. "Britain's best selling car, the Cortina, is manufactured almost entirely at Dagenham, while engines for most Ford cars in Europe are built at Bridgend.

The company are asking for as much as 40 per cent. of their workforce to be phased out over the next five years. But Mr. Ron Todd, national organiser of the TGWU, said: "We have made repeated pleas for the company to cut down on the amount of car components they import. Our case has fallen on deaf ears and now in the car division 50 per cent.

of what they hold in the market comes in from overseas." Top Midland comedian dies at 58 Comedian Derek Roy, has died, aged 58. He was the pop star of his day who became a top comedian and virtually a resident headliner in Midlands pantomimes. Although he made his first stage appearance at 14, it was not until he joined the Geraldo Orchestra as a singer that he first became a household name. In the postwar years he swiftly established his career as a comedian, sharing top billing with another up-and-coming comedian by the name of Frankie Howerd in the BBC's Variety Bandbox. The comedian died in the arms of his third wife, Carole.

The couple were divorced in 1971, but remarried 18 months ago. Staying single Birmingham Planning Davies said that at Hayes Shellcast, the raiders broke in some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning and used the company's own cutting equipment to successfully open the safes. At Dolex, the manager Mr. Len Beale said: "They carried our safe to th works and used our own cutting gear. I do not know if we have lost anything because we are awaiting for fingerprint examination.

"However, our impression is that they did not get ito the safe. They may have been distrubed." Inspector Davies said: One of the things we are looking at is to determine if there is any connection between the two raids. Dolex was broken into some time between lunch time on Saturday and 8 a.m. this morning. Police are appealing for anyone who saw strangers loitering in the vicinity over the weekend to come forwa 1.

down and then kicked him as he lay on the ground. The boy suffered bruising and cuts to his mouth which needed stitches. Detective Chief Inspector John Massey, of Smethwick C.I.D. has appealed to anyone who saw the incident on Friday night at around 7.45 p.m. to contact him.

Committee has rejected an application for a secondstorey extension over a recently-built single-storey store at 87 Soho Road, Handsworth..