PICK'N'MIX, the entertainers from Winston featured here recently, have used money raised at this year's shows to help disabled children.

The money has been given to a Riding for the Disabled group based at Miniature World, in East Layton, where boys and girls are helped to get onto docile ponies.

These outings are the highlight of the week for most of the youngsters.

Some of them can't get about much normally, so they are thrilled at being able to ride round the centre on their visits.

They love the ponies, which are all particularly patient and seem to understand they have special people on board.

Susan Clarke is one of the team of entertainers, as well as a helper for the riding group, so when it came to deciding where the money should go, everyone agreed she could take the cheque and hand it over.

Mrs Clarke, who used to ride with a pony club when she was a girl, said the sessions do the young ones a lot of good, but they are costly. Apart from the hire of ponies, there are bills for insurance and safety equipment, so £2,500 a year is needed. Helpers usually have to lead the animals and walk on each side of them, though a few children are able to go it alone once they have gained experience.

Anyone who would like to raise money or help at the sessions, which are held during school term time, can call the group's secretary, Elaine Wood, on 0845- 241-4300. "The children adore the ponies and it is lovely to see them getting so much enjoyment," said Mrs Wood. "I'll be glad to hear of any help."

Mrs Clarke claims, by the way, not to be able to sing. "Some of the others are really good, but I'm just there to make up the numbers,"

she insisted modestly. But the rest of the group won't agree with that.

FOLK singer John Wright's little dog, Stanley, has become a star on the Continent since being featured on the cover of his latest album. Audiences in Holland and Germany, where the disc is selling rapidly, started calling out for the fouryear- old Jack Russell cross during John's latest end-of-year tour.

The former stray, from a rescue centre, can be seen most days being taken for walks around the Scar Top area of Barnard Castle.

John and his partner, Barbara, are thinking of getting a pets' passport so he can be taken on future overseas trips and make personal appearances at concerts.

Stanley was photographed beside an old-fashioned gramophone, in the style of the scamp which has been seen for decades on the cover of His Master's Voice records. The picture has been printed on the front of the new album, Requests One, and has become an instant hit.

"The response has been absolutely enormous," said Barbara.

"Fans have been asking for him and shouting his name at all the Continental gigs. We are thinking seriously about getting him a passport. It would cause a sensation if he was carried onto the stage at some of the big concerts.

The crowds would be certain to go wild."

Stanley now has his own page on John's website, at www.john wrightmusic.co.uk. It may not be too long before fans are queuing up after performances to have him put his paw mark in their autograph books.

JOHN MOORE, a former Army sergeant, has changed his mind about retiring from the Scout movement.

After three years as a leader in Germany, then five years in Barnard Castle and 16 years in Staindrop, he decided he had done enough. But then he heard the Gainford troop was on the verge of folding.

"It was on the point of closing down because of the lack of a leader, and I felt I couldn't let that happen," he said. "So in I went, and here I am, loving it as much as ever. It is like a breath of fresh air to be involved once more. It is superb fun and I am totally enjoying the experience and the challenge."

There were only four members in the village when he stepped in, but this has speedily grown to 12 - ten boys and two girls - and he can accept a further six.

Can girls join in the fun on an equal basis? "Absolutely - they take part in exactly the same activities as the boys," said Mr Moore, who served for 12 years in the Royal Signals, part of the time in Germany. He is ably assisted by Ian Sowerby.

Sessions are held in the Gainford Scout hut on Monday evenings. Boys or girls aged ten years six months to 14 wishing to join can go there, or call him on 01833-660667. Explorer Scout units for boys and girls aged 14 to 18 are being set up in Barnard Castle and Staindrop. Anyone wishing to join can call Terry Hutchinson, on 01833-637851.

ALLEN BARTLEY stopped me in the street this week and said he felt I wouldn't be able to say what a yule doo was in olden days. He was correct.

A doo in my part of Scotland was a pigeon, so I guessed that it might be a pigeon cooked by a poor family for Christmas dinner. Mr Bartley put me right: it was a kind of small dough figure, usually a woman, baked and given to children in the festive season.

Some people thought of it as Mary, but to others it was simply a comical figure. It had raisins for its eyes and nose, in the style of today's gingerbread men (or gingerbread persons, as some shops call them).