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Durham cricket chief buys Newcastle Local Wine School

Powell opened the first Local Wine School in Newcastle in 2000 and has expanded the network up to 13 covering most of the country including London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Lancashire, Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Hampshire, and is soon to open in Bristol and Glasgow. The Newcastle school has held classes for over 20,000 people over the last 13 years.

Powell said he wants to focus now on taking the localwineschool.com franchise local school format in to overseas markets, as well as developing the network further in the UK, and working with UK Trade and Investment to find suitable business partners who share his vision of "wine tasting for everyone", and can help expand the successful wine education franchise into US, Europe, and China.

Powell said: "David has a true passion for wine as well as cricket, and I'm very happy to leave the future of Newcastle Wine School in his capable hands. I know he has some exciting ideas for the school over the coming years and I wish him every success."

Harker, who recently completed his WSET diploma, said: "I felt that in this Ashes year (Durham hosted one of the Ashes test matches) was the right time to look for a new challenge, and when the opportunity arose to turn my long term passion for wine into a new career, it was too exciting to pass up."

Powell said he wants to focus now on taking the franchise local school format in to overseas markets, as well as developing the network further in the UK, and working with UK Trade and Investment to find suitable business partners who share his vision of "wine tasting for everyone", and can help expand the successful wine education franchise into US, Europe, and China.

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