CAST ne'er a clout till May be out - so the saying goes, but an upsurge in sunny weather during parts of April and early May have certainly been very welcome.

However, one thing is for sure, the warm weather must have made this year’s London marathon an even more gruelling event than expected, which is why on our front page this month we honour Tony Howard and Steve Aynsley from Melbourne and Aston-on-Trent who pounded their way through 26.2 miles to raise vital funds for charity during the hottest marathon in the capital on record. This was a remarkable achievement for both runners - both the run itself and the thousands raised for charity - and we salute both of them.

Achievements of different kinds are dotted around our inside pages. Page three features Jo Slater at the Welcome Café in Melbourne invited to Buckingham Palace at the end of this month because of her long-standing commitment to providing low-cost, honest food to the people of this village - and, we now discover, for many miles around, after her name was put forward to meet the Queen by Cardiff-based record-holding sky-diver Dilys Price!

Meanwhile, on page five, we hope you will enjoy reading about the remarkable work of blood bikes, an organisation in which motorcyclists give their time for free to ferry vital blood and tissue samples, and even breast milk, to hospitals across Britain.

The inside spread features the second year of the annual MELs - Melbourne awards - and we congratulate all the winners.

It's been exciting times for local sports teams, with Melbourne's first and reserves football teams winning cup finals at the season close, with further success for the under-18s side who also won their league trophy. Congratulations also go to Christina Jowett of Melbourne who has been called up to play hockey for England.

Things haven't been going so well for Melbourne Rugby Club, unfortunately, after a shock relegation decision due to a points admin mix-up - we wish them all the best with their appeal.

Meantime, here at the Village Voice we wish all our young people sitting for GCSEs and A-levels over the coming weeks - not to mention year 6 SATs - all the very best.

Let's hope the good weather continues. We could get used to this.