AddThis SmartLayers

News In Brief – from around the regions

WHAT A MOUTHFUL: A pub regular swapped beer for a gigantic chocolate bar in a charity challenge at his local.

The Lancashire Evening Post reported that engineer Geoff Evans guzzled nine pounds of Toblerone in nine hours. The stunt, at the Blackamoor pub in Blackburn, raised £190 for a hospice and a primary school.

Landlord Dennis Sturgess told the paper: “Geoff managed to keep going all day long with the help of lots of cups of tea and coffee. He wasn’t even sick at the end of it all.”

ME AND MY BABY: Michelle Watson had other things on her mind when boyfriend Alan Barton popped the question – she was giving birth.

But the 31-year-old nurse managed a “yes” just as their 7lb baby girl was delivered by midwives at a Smethwick hospital, the Birmingham Evening Mail reported.

Alan (33), who had planned the surprise for months, promptly placed a sparkling engagement ring on Michelle’s finger.

COMPUTER CHIPS: The Colchester Evening Gazette brings more proof of the cyberspace revolution with news of a chip shop online.

The paper says web-surfers can now “plaice” their orders with Hicks, in High Street, Colchester, by using an e-mail form on the shop’s new website.

YOU DIRTY RAT: A breeder who released 400 rats into the wild has been covicted of causing unnecessary suffering.

Magistrates in Newtown, mid-Wales, heard that John Thomas set up the breeding business in an old lorry container, intending to sell the animals as food for reptiles. But the business did not have planning consent and was shut down by the local council, the Wolverhampton Express and Star reported.

Many of the rats released by Thomas turned to cannibalism for food. He was banned from keeping rodents for five years.

SOFA SO GOOD: A grubby, moth-eaten, graffiti-covered leather sofa is going on display at Sheffield’s National Centre for Popular Music.

The sofa, from the dressing room of the Duchess of York public house in Leeds, seemed destined for the rubbish skip when the popular live music venue closed last month, said the Yorkshire Evening Post. Duchess promoter John Keenan originally bought the sofa at auction for £6. Hundreds of bands sat and scribbled on it over the years and rock icon Kurt Cobain slept on it after Nirvana played only their second British gig at the Duchess in the late 1980s. Nowthe sofa has been snapped up by the Sheffield centre, which has described it as a rock and roll treasure.

ARCHERS’ STAR DISRUPTED PLAY: From the Bath Chronicle comes the revelation that actress Patricia Gallimore – best known as the voice of Pat Archer in BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers – made an inauspicious start to her theatrical career at school in the city.

Aged seven, Patricia was playing third prince in a fairytale production when nervousness overcame her and she accidentally said the lines of the other two princes’ causing the play to dissolve in chaos.

The other actors, and the teachers, were furious but Patricia’s parents thought she was wonderful and the only one who could remember her lines.

BREAKING THE GENDER RULES: Teenager Lucy Cockerline has won the role of Jesus in a Middlesbrough school’s production of the hit 1970s musical Godspell.

Stuart Leeming, the show’s producer, said: “Gender isn’t an issue here. It’s about the right personality and Lucy has got it. She’s really bubbly and charismatic.”

Lucy (15), sings, dances and plays saxophone in the musical being performed by 60 pupils from Hall Garth School this week.

WHISKERED AWAY: Daisy the Persian puss silenced her owner’s obsession with Ibiza dance music – by eating the tape.

Thirza Barnard rushed Daisy to the vet’s after noticing a solid lump in her abdomen. And there, the Southern Daily Echo reported, an X-ray confirmed that an unusual variety of tapeworm was playing havoc with Daisy’s intestines.

The story signalled a pun-tastic time for Echo staff, with “Puss in toots” for the picture caption and a panel listing “Daisy’s top ten cat-alogue of moggie music” including You’ve Lost that Loving Feline, by the Righteous Brothers; Careless Whisker, by George Michael; Moggie May, by Rod Stewart; and A Good Heart, by Furrball Sharkey – adding, however, that eight out of 10 moggies preferred anything by Cat Stevens.

ROOM WITH A VIEW: A roman relic was discovered when a family removed plaster from their living room.

They exposed a wall that is believed to nearly 2,000 years old at their farmhouse in Cheshire.

Archaeologist Mark Olly told the Manchester Evening News that the wall was “an amazing feature” and involved Roman cement, superb masonry and perfect horizontal and vertical construction which must have been achieved with plumb lines.

IT’S A STICK-UP: A 54-year-old disabled man sparked a swoop by armed police – with his walking stick.

Terry Park was shopping in South Shields when he heard a voice shout “freeze” and turned to see two police officers pointing guns at him.

The scare had been prompted by Terry’s extendable walking stick, which a member of the public had mistaken for a gun, the Shields Gazette reported.

IN A CLUB OF HIS OWN: Golfer Rod Downing earned himself a place in history by completing a course of 18 MILES.

He drove and chipped his way across fields, roads, rivers and gardens in what, said the East Anglian Daily Times, might be described as North Suffolk’s answer to Burt Reynold’s journey through the glamorous pools of Hollywood suburbia in The Swimmer.

Using a three wood, a five iron and a putter, Rod took just 231 shots – 13 per mile – to complete the course in less than six hours, raising £629 for the local Sea Sports.

TORVILL AND DEAN STORY CLOSER TO HOME: Jayne Torvill returned to her home city of Nottingham to open its new National Ice Centre to be greeted by ten-year-old Nichola Kirkham, who plays Jayne in a Notts educational production being performed at the Millennium Dome.

By a strange coincedence, Nichola and her family live in the Nottingham house in which Jayne’s ice dance partner Christopher Dean was brought up, reported the Nottingham Evening Post.

GREEN GREEN GRASS: From the pages of the Sheffield Star comes the story of backstage crew members at the Lyceum Theatre who have had to turn their hands to a spot of gardening.

Some 90 square metres of lawn has been laid on the stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull – and it has to be watered after every performance. There are also a selection of real flowers including freesias and daisies which need tender, loving care.

TOON TRIBUTE: The former lead singer of north east Bon Jovi tribute group Bon Jordi is going solo with a new Toon Army anthem in honour of Newcastle United football club.

The local Evening Chronicle reported that Danny McCoy hopes the song Here is Newcastle, due to be released this week, will be a big hit with fans hoping for glory in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

BLOW ME DOWN: Stunned police in Dorset stopped a windblown cyclist who was doing 63mph.

Garth Hentley and a friend were pedalling a customised low-slung tandem recumbent bicycle downhill on the A37.

“The police have stopped me before and told me I am raving mad but most just wave at me. This time they gave me another ticking off,” Mr Hentley (58) told the Western Morning Press.

Recumbent bikes have much less wind resistance than normal models and the position of the pedals means they can travel much faster.

TREK ON THE NET: A 51-year-old drama teacher will carry a pocket computer to chart his progress on the Internet each day as he tackles a 2,000-mile walk across Europe.

Bob Horne, from Lightliffe, near Halifax, told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus that he had a boyhood fascination with great explorers. Yesterd
ay, he set out on his own great voyage, from Cape Wrath, at the north-western tip of Scotland, to Nice, in southern France.

His progress can be followed on www.craghoppers.com and www.ramblingbob.co.uk

MUCKY BUSINESS: Dog dirt is a subject guaranteed to provoke a shoal of readers’ letters – and the Worcester Evening News freshened up the topic with a shocking statistic.

The paper reported that on one footpath alone, the local council had collected THIRTY carrier bags full of the stuff.

For last month’s nibs click here

Do you have a story for us?
Ring the HoldTheFrontPage newsdesk on
01332 291111 x6022, or e-mail us now