A WORLD record holder has left for Singapore to perform the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest in 24 hours - on a step machine. Graham Whalley, 38, from Stanley, in County Durham, who set his most recent record after completing 3,972 press-ups in one
CRICKET fans and business leaders in the region are celebrating tonight after it was announced that Chester-le-Street's Riverside ground is to be given Test match cricket. The management board of the England and Wales Cricket Board awarded the ground
MONTY Python funnyman John Cleese has thrown his weight behind metric martyr Steve Thoburn. The comic legend compared the high-profile case to a Python sketch after the greengrocer received a six-month conditional discharge earlier this year for flouting
COUNCIL chiefs have signalled their intent to crack down on benefit cheats by bringing court actions against offenders. In recent weeks, Scarborough Borough Council has taken action against three people for defrauding the authority of housing benefit.
JANET McCrickard is among the Gadfly Irregulars, a bright firmament of kindred spirits to whom we are perpetually indebted - not least in Janet's case because Wednesday is the only day she buys the paper. For years we had egotistically assumed it was
FERDY MURPHY'S second-to-none record in northern staying chases should not be ignored when considering the prospects of Stan's Your Man (2.40) in the feature race at Kelso, the three-mile-and-one-furlong £10,00 Showcase Handicap. Murphy successfully plundered
SOUTHERN businesses are reversing the North-South divide by moving to this region. Of the many businesses located at Aske, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, four moved from the South. Two of them have been at the Aske Stables development for more than a
GRIEVING parents of a teenager killed in an unprovoked street attack want a stiffer sentence for his killer. Paul Smith, 18, died after a punch to his face ruptured an artery in his neck, in his home village of Thornley, east Durham, on September 8. He
TESTS for drugs are being carried out on a woman's body after she died in suspicious circumstances. An ambulance was called to a house in the West View area of Hartlepool after the 25-year-old collapsed. She was rushed to the University Hospital of Hartlepool
A GIPSY community came together for the second time this year to mourn the death of another family member. Devoted young mum-of-two Rose Ann Price, 20, was killed in a car accident last week. She was on her way to Ferryhill, County Durham, from her home
A MAN was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday after admitting a stabbing which left his victim fighting for his life. Sean Payne, 27, of Hartington Road, Stockton, Teesside, admitted wounding Alan Calpin with intent to cause him grievous bodily
THE ballot boxes had hardly been piled away after last June's General Election before Sally Morgan, a Downing Street aide of Tony Blair, was elevated into Baroness Morgan. Not only was she made a life peer, but she was also given a front-bench post as
JANET McCrickard is among the Gadfly Irregulars, a bright firmament of kindred spirits to whom we are perpetually indebted - not least in Janet's case because Wednesday is the only day she buys the paper. For years we had egotistically assumed it was
NEWCASTLE United last night drew a veil over the embarrassing Gang of Four episode which marred their trip to Spain last week. Kieron Dyer, Carl Cort, Craig Bellamy and Andy Griffin were yesterday disciplined by the club for failing to attend a dinner
CHRISTMAS shoppers will be able to park free of charge in Darlington town centre. Councillors have agreed to free use of local authority car parks on planned late-night shopping dates. The offer applies to the four Thursdays leading up to Christmas -
POLICE believe drugs may have claimed the lives of two young people in separate incidents in the North-East. Tests were being carried out last night on a 25-year-old woman from Hartlepool, after she died in suspicious circumstances. An ambulance was called
A DALES housewife is trying to save a children's adventure group. Lynn Ramsay has run the nine-member Beavers troop at Wolsingham, in Weardale, for three years. But she fears the group will fold if she cannot recruit other leaders to help with the work
THE WIFE of a man being held in a Swiss prison on suspicion of murder has been told her husband could be home for Christmas. A solicitor has told Alison El Hamri that husband Majid, 40, could be on his way back to Britain, and his Teesside home, within
ONE of the North-East's oldest football clubs has suffered a disappointment in its bid to save the club. Kevin Keegan, whose family hailed from the Stanley area of County Durham, had been asked to appear in a fundraising team of all-stars at nearby Annfield
A CAMPAIGN to help patients with incurable cancer has received a five-figure boost. The Rank Foundation has given £5,000 to the Macmillan Cancer Relief charity's County Durham Appeal to improve palliative care. It has been matched by another £5,000 raised
WALKERS are being warned that not all footpaths are open following the lifting of foot-and-mouth restrictions. The blue box zone restrictions around Hexham, Northumberland, and into parts of north-west County Durham, were lifted last week. The move means
TWO £20,000 regeneration projects in Darlington have been approved. The preparation of advanced design work for the projects in Faverdale and the Darlington gateway was agreed by Darlington Borough Council's cabinet yesterday. The projects have been funded
A PUB that witnessed an uprising against Elizabeth I and public executions is reclaiming its heritage, after three years as a theme bar. Bishop Auckland's Australian theme pub, The Outback, has attracted little attention, sandwiched between fast food
A DROP-IN centre which started up in a bowling green hut is appealing for more volunteers. The Newton Aycliffe drop-in centre run by the mental health charity Mind started in 1996 in the hut in St Oswald's Park. Since then the building has been modernised
BOXERS have criticised a local authority, saying it has let them down in the search for new premises. With 84 national finalists and 82 English Internationals to date, Shildon Boxing Club is well-respected throughout the country as a training ground for
The business community and many politicians are preoccupied with the opportunities and the pitfalls presented by the European Community. I believe if a community is to work in an economic sense, then it must also have a reality in a social sense. This
Mystery locations around a city centre provide a puzzling poser for people who receive a civic calendar for next year. Images of Durham 2002 features 13 close-up shots of buildings in and around the historic core of the city. Unlike previous years, there
A HEAD teacher has described seeing his school's gym collapse after it was torched by arsonists. Eddie Brady, head of Chester-le-Street's Hermitage School, says it will cost at least £1m to make good the damage done. The blaze ripped through the school's
HEALTH chiefs are looking for people with experiences of cancer services in Teesside, South Durham and North Yorkshire. The Cancer Care Alliance is holding a meeting at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield, County Durham, on Tuesday, November 27, from 10.30am to
UGO EHIOGU has revealed his bitter disappointment after being overlooked by coach Sven-Goran Eriksson for England's game against Sweden. Middlesbrough centre-back Ehiogu, included in Eriksson's squad, was a mere spectator as England drew 1-1 at Old Trafford
A VISIT to a North-East police club by former brothel keeper Cynthia Payne, alias Madam Cyn, has been cancelled after complaints from staff. Ms Payne was invited to speak at South Shields police social club earlier this month. But straight-laced staff
THE ballot boxes had hardly been piled away after last June's General Election before Sally Morgan, a Downing Street aide of Tony Blair, was elevated into Baroness Morgan. Not only was she made a life peer, but she was also given a front-bench post as
TWO Durham schoolboys have special reason to watch Harry Potter's film debut. Twelve-year-olds Daniel Madden and Alexander Treliving, pupils at Durham Chorister School, appear as extras in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which is set to take
PERFORMANCE poets Nick Toczek and Paul Cookson were on stage at the Cleveland Centre shops in Middlesbrough, entertaining scores of school children with readings and verse, yesterday, to celebrate the Northern Children's Book Festival. Their enthralled
UNTIL now, it has been the stuff of Hollywood science fiction - a first generation of intelligent robots which can survive a bullet, rebuild themselves and come back stronger. But electronics experts are on the verge of bringing the fantasy to life in
THE daughter of a pensioner found dead after a blaze in his home appeared in court today charged with his murder. The badly beaten body of 77-year-old Bill Pyle of Stanley Street, Close House, Eldon Lane, was recovered by fire fighters when they were
STAR STRIKER Kevin Phillips has set himself a double-barrelled target of winning a place in the next England squad by shooting Sunderland away from the Premiership danger zone. And the 28-year-old hot-shot hopes his clubmates can provide him with the
A MYSTERY benefactor handed a huge donation to surprised volunteers collecting for Poppy Day. The elderly woman, who did not give her name, gave an envelope to charity collectors outside Binns, in Darlington, on Saturday. The envelope was marked for the
CHRIS Turner last night left the door open for Ian Clark to stay at Hartlepool United. Darlington boss Tommy Taylor revealed on Tuesday that he expected a £10,000 deal for the left winger to go through yesterday. But Clark was still a Pool player last
A CONVICTED sex offender who evaded justice for nearly two years has been jailed for six months. Stephen Glen Featherstone, 34, known as Glen, went on the run in December 1999 after a jury found him guilty of six indecent assaults against children. The
BOXERS have criticised a local authority, saying it has let them down in the search for new premises. With 84 national finalists and 82 English Internationals to date, Shildon Boxing Club is well-respected throughout the country as a training ground for
BUSINESS confidence across the UK has slumped, putting up to 30,000 manufacturing jobs at risk, new research has suggested. The latest Regional Trends Survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Business Strategies showed optimism about
POLICE began a city centre search yesterday for the weapon that wounded a shop manager during a foiled robbery. The 45-year-old manager of North Road Jewellers, in Durham, needed 12 stitches to the back of his head and stitches in his left hand after
AMID the scenes of jubilation, the taxis honking and the crowds cheering, as Northern Alliance fighters, accompanied by journalists, entered Kabul yesterday, they were greeted with the sight of men shaving off their beards and women casting off their
THE full extent of the turmoil surrounding a debt-ridden £9.5m flagship arts centre for the North-East finally became clear last night. A damning report obtained exclusively by The Northern Echo slams "fatal weaknesses" of the management board at Stockton's
A MAN who stabbed his friend has gone on trial for murder - even though it was a surgeon's operating table blunder which killed him. Barman Andrew Ferguson, 29, stabbed 33-year-old Paul Cardella during a violent row, driving the seven-inch blade into
A SCHOOL had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in a classroom cupboard. The blaze started just before the end of lessons, at about 3.30pm on Monday, at the Loftus site of Freebrough Community College, east Cleveland. After smoke alarms alerted staff
teenagers have the chance to see how their counterparts in Europe live. Young people aged 14 to 18 are being offered the chance to sample life in France and Germany by Durham County Council, the county's education authority. Two exchange visits are being
SNORERS no longer have an excuse for making the nights of other guests' a misery at a County Durham hotel. Bosses at the Chester-le-Street hotel have gone one step further than No Smoking Rooms by introducing No Snoring Rooms. The Innkeeper Lodge, in
THE controversial sacking of a North-East health boss was criticised by North-East MPs last night. Labour backbenchers Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, and Gerry Steinberg, MP for Durham City, said the removal of Kevin Earley as head of North Durham
THE first brick in the construction of the Hall Garth Golf and Country Club's extension was laid yesterday. The extension of the hotel in Coatham Mundeville, near Darlington, will include new conference and banqueting facilities, as well as ten executive
TWO women were taken to hospital after separate serious road crashes today. One woman who had been driving a horse box suffered leg injuries after a crash at about noon near Muggleswick, near Consett and was taken to Hexham General Hospital. Consett firefighter
A STUNNING array of classic vehicles will be going under the hammer tomorrow in the biggest transport sale to be held in the North. Hundreds of collectors' cars, motorbikes, military and commercial vehicles will be paraded before eager punters at the
A SPECIAL needs teacher accused of physically and verbally abusing autistic children who were entrusted into his care has denied cruelty. Malcolm Phillips, 51, is accused of mistreating six autistic youngsters at a residential school over a two-year period
FIREFIGHTERS who have campaigned for two months to boost funds for their New York colleagues have raised £113,000, it was announced yesterday. North Yorkshire firefighters will close their campaign fund at the end of the year and have thanked local people
A GRIEVING father spoke yesterday of his anguish after his teenage son died during a school lesson. Jamie Bucknell, 14, collapsed in front of classmates during an English lesson at Huntington School, York, on Monday. His father, Keith, said: "Jamie was
IF we want to clean up our streets, then let's call for the Rev Dr Andrew Macintosh. Who? He's the Dean of St John's College, Cambridge. And when the students there got hopelessly, helplessly over-the-top drunk, he named and shamed them. What's more,
THE battle to become the North-East's first directly-elected mayors will hot up in the New Year as the political parties announce their candidates. Labour is hoping to have its candidates in place by Christmas for the three areas which have so far opted
THE death of an elderly wom-an who was engulfed by flames is being investigated by police. Nursing staff found 83-year-old widow Madge Carter with her clothes on fire at the Stoneleigh nursing and residential home, in Annfield Plain, County Durham, on
A MOTHER who was told she had six weeks to live and had made elaborate plans for her funeral had been wrongly diagnosed with cancer. Margaret Miller, 59, was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer six weeks ago, but she has now been told she is free of the
A North-East killer has lost his bid to strip the Home Secretary of his power to decide how many years he should spend behind bars. If John Hope Taylor had won the Appeal Court action, it would have had a profound impact on all murder cases - including
MAGISTRATES have issued a strong warning that violence on the streets, particularly against the police, will not be tolerated. The caution came yesterday after a man punched one officer when it took half a dozen policemen to bundle him into the back of
THE swimming pool at Loftus Leisure Centre has been temporarily closed to allow for repairs. The pool was closed at lunch- time yesterday and is not expected to re-open until the New Year. The centre's dry areas - including gym, squash, sauna, steam room
SMOKED fish and computer chips are providing the ingredients for further growth at Bleiker's Smoke House. A special computer programme is helping the Glasshouses business, in North Yorkshire, to carry out an in-depth analysis of its operation to enable
VANDALISM that has endangered several trees in a Darlington park has been condemned. A number of trees in the field, in the Brinkburn area of the town, are likely to die as a result of the damage. It is thought that youths had been using the wood to build
A RECORD number of readers rang to offer homes to six labrador-cross puppies featured in The Northern Echo. More than 70 people contacted the National Animal Sanctuary Support League to find out more about the puppies, which were taken from their mother
VETERAN fundraiser Brian Hunter has been honoured with a new award to recognise diabetes sufferers who have achieved personal success. Mr Hunter, from Sedgefield, has overcome his condition to raise thousands of pounds for charity. The runner and long-distance
A MAN was jailed for three years yesterday for an attack that left his victim unable to eat solid food for nearly two months. Yoshinori Hardy was left with his jaw broken in two places after the incident outside Hartlepool's 42nd Street nightclub on April
PROPOSALS to regenerate some of the most deprived areas of Teesside are to be discussed in a consultation process involving local people. Yesterday, members of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's executive approved the findings of a report by Nathaniel
A VERY unusual fish has been caught in the River Tees near Darlington by a young angler. Fifteen-year-old Tim Watson caught a 6lb 2oz bream at Hurworth Place a couple of weeks ago. Bream like deep, slow-moving water whereas the river near Croft Bridge
BELEAGUERED telecoms group Marconi made a massive £5.1bn loss in the last half-year, one of the worst corporate figures in history. The group, which has shocked the market with profit warnings and thousands of job cuts, and has been ejected from the FTSE
OIL company BP is cutting about 1,000 jobs at a Scottish refinery. Bosses blamed the move, which is to be phased over the next two years, on depressed markets and operational problems. The company said the decision followed a ten-week review of the Grangemouth
Letters from The Northern Echo HOUSE OF LORDS I WAS glad to see the Government's second stage of the House of Lords reform White Paper. The removal of the remaining 92 hereditary peers was long overdue. Of course, the Tories don't like it and carp on
NORWEGIAN students have helped prepare Sunderland's Christmas tree - their homeland's traditional gift - to mark Britain's fight against Nazism. Norway has provided a tree for festive celebrations snce 1947, as a thank-you for the support Britain gave
A FISH and chip shop in the North-East is hoping to be named Britain's best later today. The Fryers Plaice chip shop in Hexham, Northumberland is one of eight finalists in the Fish and Chip Shop of the Year at the competition final in London. A total
SUPERMARKETS in Darlington have come under fire from an action group for people with disabilities. Darlington Association on Disability has threatened to take legal action if store bosses fail to stop shoppers using disabled parking bays. Members of the
THE findings of a long-running inquiry into care offered to child killer Dominic McKilligan will be published later today. The savage murder of Newcastle schoolboy Wesley Neailey in the summer of 1998 shocked the region. It later emerged that his killer
A GREAT deal of time and thought is going into creating a vision for the section of our region now known as "the Tees Valley". How do we help the area find a new identity, replace lost jobs, improve the environment, tackle poor health, generate new wealth
IF we want to clean up our streets, then let's call for the Rev Dr Andrew Macintosh. Who? He's the Dean of St John's College, Cambridge. And when the students there got hopelessly, helplessly over-the-top drunk, he named and shamed them. What's more,
POLICE are hunting the operators of a cottage cannabis growing business uncovered by accident in the loft of a disused house. Cannabis plants with an estimated value of tens of thousands of pounds were recovered from the empty property in Dawdon, east
A PUB that witnessed an uprising against Elizabeth I and public executions is reclaiming its heritage, after three years as a theme bar. Bishop Auckland's Australian theme pub, The Outback, has attracted little attention, sandwiched between fast food
THREE middle-aged men from the North-East have been arrested as part of a huge nationwide drugs bust. The National Crime Squad yesterday swooped on homes in Tyneside, Merseyside and Scotland, arresting a total of 13 people and smashing what is thought
LINGFORD'S made baking powders of distinction, but the most distinctive part of the Bishop Auckland brand was the picture on all of its tins and posters, showing a dainty young woman tripping happily across some stepping stones. Today, Echo Memories can
A DISABLED group will benefit from new transport thanks to a £2,000 council donation. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's Employees Loan Fund handed over the cash to the Eston Handicapped Fellowship to help pay for a minibus. The Fellowship caters
WHEN the First World War broke out, Belgium was a small and comparatively new country. It was formed in 1830 with Britain promising to protect its borders. When, in August 1914, the German Kaiser marched into this tiny, proud and neutral nation, the British
COUNCIL workers are doing their best to ensure that birds are not disturbed by lake maintenance work. Sunderland City Council has launched a clean-up of the water in Mowbray Park. The scheme includes removing debris and carrying out planting on the island
YOU get the strange feeling that even old Noah himself could not have steered this particular Arc to dry land. This is the Arc sunk by a financial iceberg. In almost three years to the day, the glass-fronted, £9.5m building in Stockton town centre, has
A MAN was jailed for three years yesterday for an attack that left his victim unable to eat solid food for nearly two months. Yoshinori Hardy was left with his jaw broken in two places after the incident outside Hartlepool's 42nd Street nightclub on April
