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Liverpool FC has won another prestigious title to add to the 53 trophies won by the men’s team and the two Super League wins from the women’s team.
The club has bagged the 2026 Hedgehog Cup, beating Northampton Town FC 39–36 in the final.
Launched in November 2025 by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), the competition saw 32 clubs from the Hedgehog Friendly Football League compete across five rounds by carrying out hedgehog-friendly activities and conservation actions.
Liverpool’s activities included adding hedgehog houses to the wildlife area within their training ground and marking World Earth Day by creating space for hedgehogs and bees at the club’s allotment site.
Meanwhile players Beata Olsson and Cornelia Kapocs and members of staff learned about hedgehog rehabilitation.
BHPS chief exec Fay Vass said: “Huge congratulations to Liverpool for their amazing work in the final – a well-deserved win!”
Rishi Jain from Liverpool Football Club, said: “We’re proud of the work taking place to help create spaces where hedgehogs and other wildlife can feel safe and thrive.”
We can all do our bit to help hogs by providing them with fresh water and food and leaving areas of the garden to grow wild.
School children learn about growing food in the kitchen garden
Palace garden grows more food and opportunities
Blenheim Palace’s Walled Garden is helping local communities and providing an edible and visual feast throughout the summer.
The no-dig kitchen garden has doubled in size to provide produce for the palace kitchens.
Crops include mixed salad leaves, edible flowers, heritage beetroots, rainbow chard, spring onions, kale, fresh herbs, broad beans, mangetout and cherry tomatoes.
Vegetable gardener Harrison Fannon has also introduced weekly visits by students from Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools in Oxfordshire, alongside opportunities for rehabilitation groups and young people looking for employment.
He said: “We’re doing a lot of mixed planting or polycultures – planting multiple types of vegetables together – to make them more resilient to pests and drought and make the garden more visually stimulating.”
The distinctive wasp spider has spread from Europe
Wasp spider arrives from Europe
Arachnophobes look away: brightly coloured wasp spiders are making their way across from the Continent, according to The Wildlife Trusts.
These harmless arachnids, named for their flamboyant stripes, have been spotted in the south of the UK for the first time.
Wasp spiders won’t harm humans but are great pest predators.PIC bhl (please credit Biodiversity Heritage Library)
An image from the 19th century scientific botany journal Annales Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi, written in 1863 to 1864, at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Online library is free for all
More than 64 million pages of natural and scientific knowledge is now available to everyone, free, at the click of a button.
More than 640 museums from across the world have shared their archives at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, with subjects ranging from medieval manuscripts to discoveries within the natural world that can help our understanding of the climate crisis.
To access the library and donate to help its survival, visit www.biodiversitylibrary.org
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