Spennymoor reached the final of the Durham Challenge Cup for the first time in over a decade when they beat Esh Winning 4-1 at the Brewery Field last night. Moors scored twice in the first 20 minutes. Jamie Harwood drilled a low cross past
INFERTILITY experts in the North-East are claiming a major breakthrough after a new approach to processing embryos has led to a big increase in the number of pregnancies. The news could revolutionise IVF treatment across the world and give
Now I know that there’s lots of nonsense talked about women proposing to men on 29th February. I’ve even heard that traditionally if the man refuses the lady then he has to pay her a sum of money and buy her a pair of gloves (to hide the bare wedding
SCOTT Parker will captain England against Holland this evening as Stuart Pearce takes charge of his first game as caretaker manager. Parker has been handed the captain's armband ahead of Steven Gerrard and Joe Hart as Pearce looks to stamp his own mark
A HIGH-TECH solution is helping protect war memorials across Stockton borough from metal thieves. Stockton Borough Council is applying SmartWater, a liquid used to track stolen property, to all the war memorials in the borough which have metal plaques
A MAN was left battered and bruised after being beaten unconscious outside a Redcar pub at the weekend. The 33-year-old was attacked by a group of men following an argument inside the Crown and Anchor pub, in the High Street, before the altercation
THE best of Redcar and Cleveland's architects, property owners, builders and developers are set to be honoured through the borough council's sixth biennial Design Awards Scheme. The competition can be entered by anyone involved in a development and
UNDER-USED crossing patrols are set to be scrapped near several Middlesbrough schools in a bid to save more than £60,000. At present, 41 lollipop men and women are employed to help youngsters get safely to and from 34 of the town's 41 primary schools
A MAN was headbutted and threatened with a glass during an attack in a pub beer garden in Hartlepool at the weekend. The 20-year-old victim suffered minor injuries after he was assaulted at Loons Bar at 12.30am on Sunday. The man suspected of
RESIDENTS are risking death by electrocution after thieves tampered with electrical wires outside homes. Crooks stole a copper earthing conductor from outside a house in Ferryhill in a raid this week. The theft from the doorstep of a house in Watt Street
A COUNCILLOR says he has been verbally abused and accused of taking bribes over his backing for a new housing scheme for young parents. Dennis Southwell, a Liberal Democrat county councillor for Gilesgate, was a strong supporter of Durham County Council
ONE of the North-East’s best-known singer-songwriters will finally be honoured by his home city. Alan Hull was the main creative force of the 1980s pop group Lindisfarne and penned the Geordie anthems Fog on the Tyne and Run For Home.
MOURNERS are to be limited on how many memorials they can place on graves in a bid to improve the appearance of a cemetery in the town. Shildon Town Council has drawn up new rules to govern the grave areas in the town’s West Road Cemetery. The move
RESIDENTS at a Bishop Auckland care home are looking forward to day trips in their own minibus. Officials at Barrington Lodge Care Home have bought the vehicle to give residents more freedom after growing tired of relying on rental transport
MORE than 7,500 people in Bishop Auckland are overweight or obese, according to a champion slimmer. Former Slimming World man of the year turned consultant Graham Dickinson says much more needs to be done to tackle unhealthy lifestyles in the
RESIDENTS fighting plans to build three wind turbines claim that, if approved, they will be surrounded by eyesore wind farms. Energy firm Wind Prospect wants to build the 110 metre high two-megawatt turbines at Foxton, near Sedgefield. Locals claim
GUESTS of Miss Bridget Talbot, who visited her 17th Century home, Kiplin Hall, in the 1960s were served tea on an assortment of old and mis-matched crockery. Mary Exelby, tea room manager at the hall, near Richmond, is keen to revive this practice and
A STANLEY has described how a motorcycle came crashing through the wall of his bedroom in shortly after he had arrived home. The 61-year-old man, who does not wish to be named, said he rushed through to find the motorcycle inside the room with rubble
NEWCASTLE United striker Nile Ranger has today denied assaulting two revellers and two police officers during a night out. The 20-year-old forward faces counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Stephen Simpson and David Armstrong, and
JAMES Murdoch is to step down as executive chairman of News International, it was announced today. Parent company News Corporation said in a statement the move would "allow him to focus on expanding the company's international TV businesses". Mr Murdoch
VEHICLES left on the roadside have been targeted during a day of action in Stanley. The crackdown by Durham County Council, Durham Constabulary, DVLA and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) came amid concern by local councillors about the
POLICE say they will act quickly to prevent trouble at Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby match. There will be a big police presence in and around the Sports Direct Arena and about 2,700 Sunderland fans are expected to attend the game. Chief Supt Dave Pryer
A SENIOR member of the House of Lords will offer political insights to students as part of a school visit this week. Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Harris of Richmond, deputy speaker of the Lords since 2008, will visit Stokesley School on Friday, as
AS you may have seen, this morning's Memories concerns the fantastic Deepdale viaduct which once carried the Stainmore line over a deep ravine at Lartington, near Barnard Castle. Although it may not seem like it, I do go out and research a few of these
POLICE are appealing for help in tracing a 1980s car that was stolen from outside its owner’s home. The light blue Vauxhall Nova, which dates from 1985/86 and only had 15,000 miles on the clock, was stolen from Heather Way, Stanley. On Friday night
NCIS (Channel 5, 9pm) The Fisherman’s Apprentice with Monty Halls (BBC2, 8pm) Love In The Wild (ITV2, 9pm) “I’VE been a professional actor for quite a long time,” remarks David Mc- Callum, ever the king of understatement. Next year, one of Glasgow
IT sounds alarming – and it is. Unless we stop the perpetrators in their tracks, two thirds of the English countryside will soon be open for development. A call to halt the disaster comes from an unexpected source, the former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew
THE Northern Echo has been cheerleading for Hitachi to win a Government train-building contract and open a factory in Newton Aycliffe. This campaign has been successful, and work should start on the Amazon Park site within a year. The project has
RALPH MUSGRAVE seems to have some difficulty in grasping the concept of “British identity” (HAS, Feb 23). This may be because he is a member of the BNP. The BNP’s main objective has always been to preserve the supposed “racial purity” of an imagined
AS a lifelong cyclist let me express my apologies to Mark Anderson (HAS, Feb 25) for being an inconvenience to him. Also my apologies to the many careful and considerate motorists for whom he claims to extol his intolerant views. As well as being
A HOSPICE hopes to raise vital funds for its work by people making wills. Willow Burn Hospice at Lanchester hopes that people will take advantage of its annual make-a-will month in March. Local solicitors are offering to waive their usual fee for
A HOSPICE hopes to raise vital funds for its work by people making wills. Willow Burn Hospice at Lanchester hopes that people will take advantage of its annual make-a-will month in March. Local solicitors are offering to waive their usual fee for
RESIDENTS of the Baba Amr district in the Syrian city of Homs are being shelled by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. The Syrian Land Forces has a professional standing army of 500,000 men. Parts of Homs have been targeted by snipers and tanks
UNFORTUNATELY, Michael Baldasera (HAS, Feb 24) completely misses the point of my earlier letter. Humanists and the non-religious do not deny that Christians can do good. Quakers saved Jewish children from the Nazis and, as Mr Baldasera says,
I BOUGHT a copy of the new Sun newspaper on Sunday just to see what it was like. I turned the page and spotted the headline “British Forces Ready For War With Iran”. That was as far I got. I hope we are not to naive enough to
THE idea that we should provide subsidised employment for the unemployed goes back a very long way. As far as I know, Pericles, in ancient Athens 2,500 years ago, was the first to try the work experience idea. Then there were numerous similar
POLICE have appealed for information following a spate of thefts of wheely bins in Easington Colliery. A police spokesman said half a dozen wheelie bins had been stolen from sheltered accommodation complexes in Comet Drive and Manisty Terrace
A DRIVE to increase the number of volunteer sports coaches has been hailed a huge success. The Derwent Valley Area Action Partnership (AAP) recently funded the Derwent Valley Sports Club Coaches project, which was delivered by Leisureworks. The
THE leader of a town’s Labour Party has come out fighting after he was one of six cabinet members sacked. Hartlepool borough councillor Gerard Hall said Mayor Stuart Drummond had made a mistake by sacking six cabinet members for failing to
Labour leader Ed Miliband has condemned union leader Len McCluskey for threatening strike action during the London Olympics. Mr McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, called for the public to engage in civil disobedience to defend public services
A SINGING duo have got into the swing of raising money for a hospice by performing in pubs and clubs for free. Professional singers Bev Hutchinson and Tom Harker, 72, are putting something back by shaking a bucket for St Teresa’s Hospice as they entertain
AN ANNUAL pilgrimage retracing the footsteps of the monks who carried St Cuthbert to his final resting place is to take place later this month. The 11th St Cuthbert’s Day Walk from Chester-le-Street to Durham will see the first public unfurling of a
A RECOVERING heroin addict stole headphones then sold them to a second-hand shop because he was short of cash, a court heard. Alistair Robert Dow exchanged 20 sets of headphones stolen from Boyes in Darlington at Cash Converters for £20 on January 30
EMERGENCY services were called to the Passport Office in Durham this morning after white powder was found in application. A spokesman for Durham Police said: “Shortly before 8.30am a member of staff at the passport office in Durham city reported
AFTER making a return to Middlesbrough’s training base this week, former manager Gareth Southgate has reassured the Championship club that changes to the academy system will not have a negative impact on their exceptional record. Boro boast
ALAN KING has plenty to look forward to as the Cheltenham Festival creeps ever closer, but Sweet Irony can keep the bandwagon rolling for the yard in the Weatherbys Bloodstock Insurance Handicap Hurdle at Bangor. Last seen when third in a ’jumpers
A HIGH-FLYING tee-totaler drank a bottle of vodka and crashed his car into a tree as he drove the 600 metres to his home, a court heard. Engineer Andrew David Smedley was more than three times the legal drink drive limit when police arrived on the scene
A HARDLINE stance on people who harbour young runaways is being taken by police in Darlington in a bid to provide greater safety for children who go missing. Durham Police have launched a pilot scheme in Darlington to which means anyone who
SIXTY new affordable homes could be built in Cockerton after a developer obtained a grant towards their construction. Darlington Borough Council is hoping to work with Dunelm Acorn Homes after the Homes and Community Agency granted it £900,000
A MAN was killed when he was struck by a train in North Yorkshire this morning. Rail services have been cancelled and others delayed for about two hours after the man was struck by a cross country service between Copmanthorpe and Dringhouses, near York
SUN-WORSHIPPERS poured into Durham City as it enjoyed its hottest February day since records began in the 1880s, with temperatures topping those in Alicante, Corfu and Tunis. As the city became Britain’s warmest location yesterday, with thermometers
THE number of teenage pregnancies in the North-East has fallen – although County Durham has seen a rise in under-16 cases – new figures have revealed. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the teenage pregnancy rate in England
A MAN pulled from the burning wreckage of his car after it exploded in a fireball in a head-on collision has admitted careless driving. Father-of-one Andrew Basham, who fractured the base of his spine in the incident near the A68’s junction
A SCHOOL bus driver supplied a teenage passenger with cigarettes and on one tobacco handover indecently assaulted her, a court was told. Charles McKenna, now 61, was said to have indecently touched and kissed the 15-year-old girl in his people
A TWISTED tube, hidden from view, led to the death of an insulin-dependant diabetic aged 11, an inquest heard yesterday. Adam Littlejohn, of Burns Close, Stanley, County Durham, had type one diabetes and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a condition
A SELF-CONFESSED gangster jailed for a murder he says he did not commit has revealed that he met Lord Lucan in Africa. Dennis Stafford, 78, was on the run from the probation service after serving 12 years for the killing of one-armed bandit collector
CONCERNS raised by a North-East surgeon two years ago about the health risks of metal hip implants have been vindicated after a report suggested hundreds of thousands of people may be affected worldwide. A joint investigation by the British Medical
THE company bidding for a £1bn train-building contract has dropped its biggest hint yet that they will be built in the North-East – if the Government gives it the go-ahead. Hitachi was named as one of four short-listed bidders to supply 60 trains for
A PROMISING young junior doctor hanged herself in her student digs after coming home from a Christmas party, an inquest heard yesterday. Student medic Katie Pollock was found hanged in The New Residence, at the University Hospital of North Durham
A BUSINESSWOMAN has told how her life was made hell after her company was targeted by a Facebook scam. Clair McGregor’s business, Party Godmother, in Bishop Auckland, had its Facebook site hacked and several of her customers were duped into signing
A MAN who stabbed his sister’s boyfriend in the head and chest was yesterday found guilty of his murder. John Blackburn, 20, said he was protecting his sister, Jade, from Cole Wilson, 20, after the pair argued, and feared being attacked himself
AT MANCHESTER United it’s all about the comebacks of two golden oldies. Some 15 miles down the road from Old Trafford last night and two of Hartlepool United’s stalwarts proved their own value. Two days after Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes gave the
Two former Darlington heroes have donated shirts for a fundraising auction that the players have organised to take place after Saturday's game. Ex-skipper Jamie Chandler has handed over his Wembley match-worn signed shirt, while Robbie Blake
By Chris Glancey Temporary England Under-21 boss Brian Eastick insists it will be business as usual when England entertain Belgium at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium tonight. With regular manager Stuart Pearce taking charge of the senior
UP to 150 jobs will be created by a Danish packaging company which is poised to begin production at a mothballed factory near Durham. Faerch Plast has pledged to recruit and train local workers, as it aimed to restart the former Veriplast site
A TAXI driver was taken to hospital with serious injuries following a two-car collision on a busy road near Bishop Auckland The accident, which involved a white Skoda Octavia taxi and silver Volkswagen Polo, happened on the A689 at a junction
DESPITE speculation linking him with a move back to the Midlands in January, Sunderland midfielder Craig Gardner insists he is settled on Wearside and says scoring the winner in Sunday's Tyne-Wear derby would make him "the happiest man in the world
NEWCASTLE UNITED should have their first-choice strike pairing fit to face Sunderland on Sunday after Papiss Cisse was withdrawn from the Senegal squad. Cisse was set to face a 12,000-mile round trip to play in Senegal's friendly against South
Stuart Pearce will not formally tell his players who the latest England skipper is until this morning. The interim boss said last week it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before made his decision public. And after one full training session and
Holland striker Robin van Persie is a doubt for tonight's friendly against England with a groin injury, coach Bert van Marwijk has confirmed. Van Persie sat out the last ten minutes of Holland's hour-long open training session at Wembley last night after
By Chris Glancey England Under-21 midfielder Henri Lansbury is adamant Stuart Pearce would make a great manager of the senior national team mif he is given the job on a full-time basis. On-loan West Ham United midfielder Lansbury believes
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea has revealed he would be "delighted" to be part of the panel that helps select the new England head coach. O'Shea and Sir Ian McGeechan have been linked with a role as Premiership Rugby representatives on the
THE controversial sale of Northern Rock to Virgin Money is the best deal for the taxpayer, a report said yesterday - and could help deliver a long-term profit of up to £11bn. UK Financial Investments (UKFI) - the body that controls the government's
THE housing market is showing signs of improvement according to one of the regions house builders, which expects to create about 100 new jobs this year. York-based Persimmon predicted its sales and profitability would also improve in the upcoming months
TODAY'S Memories touches upon the Cleveland Car Company which was housed in one of Darlington's most distinctive buildings on Grange Road. Until the mid-1960s, of course, Grange Road was on the Great North Road, and so ideally placed for passing
Team director Andy Flower has warned Eoin Morgan there will be no easy return to England's Test side after being dropped for next month's trip to Sri Lanka. The Dublin-born batsman has paid the price for a disappointing tour of the United Arab Emirates
Dereck Chisora has been handed an indefinite ban and heavy fine by the World Boxing Council following his behaviour before and after his heavyweight title fight with Vitali Klitschko earlier this month. In a statement the World Boxing Council declared
