IT'S always satisfying when something you write sparks a big reaction and my recent piece about the 30th anniversary of MPs banning corporal punishment in British schools did just that.

A steady stream of letters to The Northern Echo and the Darlington & Stockton Times, as well as a phone-in on BBC Tees, shows that the cane still stirs the emotions.

And still it goes on, with Pat Mackin, from Normanby, Middlesbrough, getting in touch with an anecdote about his days as a teacher.

It was the day before the Government put a stop to corporal punishment and there was a knock on Pat's office door.

A pupil came in and announced that he was there to be punished. A female teacher - Eunice Mortimer - had sent him to be dealt with after some misdemeanor. Pat asked the lad if he thought that he deserved to be punished.

"Definitely Sir!" was the prompt reply, so Pat gave him a choice of punishments, including detention, lines, or the cane?

"Oh, give us the cane Mr Mackin and get it over with," he declared.

"We both decided that one on each hand was fair punishment for whatever he'd done," recalled Pat. "The first one was administered and he proceeded to perform the 'Middlesbrough Apache war dance' until I reminded him that there was still another wallop to come. And then I added that this was the very last time he would ever be caned."

"What do you mean, sir?" the boy asked.

Pat gave him his second whack and, this time, there was no war dance. The boy just stood with his hands on hips, demanding to know why he wasn't ever to be caned again.

"Because the Government is doing away with it as from tomorrow," Pat told him.

He says he will never forget the boy's reply: "Are they daft, Mr Mackin?"

Eunice Mortimer, by the way, was the mother of a certain comedian by the name of Bob, who shot to fame with the catchphrase: "What's on the end of your stick, Vic?"

THE new Premier League season is under way and it was a pleasure to be at the Riverside on Saturday to see Middlesbrough's return to the top flight.

However, I'm grateful to Stockton's Mike McGrother, best known as the lead singer of The Wildcats of Kilkenny, for keeping football in perspective.

He sent a message last week, telling how he'd been explaining to his children Rosie and Martha that football clubs buy players from each other. Mike asked the girls to guess how much a player might cost. Rosie guessed £100. Martha pushed it to £101.

"Imagine their hilarity, and then their outrage when I told them that Paul Pogba had just joined Manchester United for £93m," said Mike.

Martha went on to point out that she's the cleverest because she was closest.

ONE of my tasks last week was to go to Teesside University to interview a former graduate called Joe Tasker, who is now making quite a name for himself as a comedian and presenter.

Joe is being used by the university to make films promoting life at the university and I went along to see one of the videos being put together.

One sequence involved filming in one of the student flats in the Central Halls tower block in Middlesbrough town centre.

We were welcomed by a security officer who guided Joe and the camera crew into the lift but I had to make excuses because I suffer from terrible claustrophobia.

"Is it OK if I use the stairs?" I asked.

"No problem," replied the security officer. "The room we're using is on the 9th floor."

Sherpa Tenzing would have been puffed out.

IT'S always nice to hear from the Women's Institute - but I'm not so sure about the King James branch at Bishop Auckland.

They sent me the following message: "We've been planning our speakers' programme for 2017. Your name came up but we went with Chris Lloyd."

I demand a rethink.

FINALLY, my reputation as a market trader continues to grow faster than a bunch of bananas in the Caribbean.

It all stems back to me writing about my experiences of doing a day's shift in Darlington's Victorian covered market back in April.

Since then, the internet appears to have classified me as some kind of fruit of agricultural magnate.

There's been an request to place a large order for potatoes from a company in Shanghai and, as mentioned in last week's column, a Lincolnshire company got in touch to ask if I'd consider changing my fruit and veg supplier.

The best communication so far dropped last Thursday when a company called New Holland wrote to me asking me if I would like to test drive the latest combine harvester during a demonstration day in Durham.

"This is your first chance to get behind the wheel of the new CR8.80 Combine, in action with a 30’ Varifeed header," it said.

I have no idea what a Varifeed header does but it sounds exciting. I may don my wellies, chew on a bit of straw, and see if I'm rumbled.

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