Donkeys graze by fields of breezy sugar cane, and minarets rise phoenix-like from seas of palm trees, their fronds swaying together like a corps-de-ballet.

From humble beginnings since their establishment in 1980, the Lucas Lane outfit have risen phoenix-like through the South of England League pyramid, celebrating three memorable promotions.

It was a boisterous, be-damned-to you confidence risen phoenix-like from the humiliation of the early days of the war.

Then, the devastation had been terrible, though the United Federation of Planets did rise phoenix-like from that conflict's ashes.

Institutions Reborn Two New York institutions have risen almost phoenix-like.

And there would be no finite period of penitence on the backbenches before rising phoenix-like into the cabinet again.

Indeed, Philoxenia, which rises phoenix-like from the 1993/95 programme contains fewer priorities, better targeted funding and a concentration on projects with a higher average value.

But it also had the extraordinary provision that it rose phoenix-like from the ashes if we blew it in a year.

The crest was a blue eagle taken from the East Riding County Council arms rising phoenix-like from flames, suggesting a new authority emerging from the ashes of the old.