THE most heartening sight of the week for Spectator came on the old A1 at Barton, between Richmond and Darlington.

Somewhere near the King William IV pub an unmarked white pick-up truck stopped in the Darlington-bound direction, hazard lights flashing.

Spectator duly slowed and pulled up, followed by three other cars, all the drivers wondering whether there had been a breakdown.

All soon becames clear. From behind the pick-up appeared a tough-looking 20-something skinhead tenderly carrying a plump hedgehog, its tiny legs propelling it nowhere in mid-air, to place it out of harm's way in its natural habitat at the start of its nightly foraging.

It was a touching gesture because hedgehogs have a hard enough time as it is at the hands of humans, some of whom use them as footballs. It is also well known that they have no road sense and Spectator, who has long been worried that he is seeing more dead hedgehogs than live ones, now hears the disturbing theory that some drivers may be deliberately running over the bumbling creatures.

If that is the case, then white pick-up man deserves a special place in the Tiggywinkle roll of honour for going to the rescue.

Writ large

It was hardly surprising that Darlington Football Club's shiny new stadium - almost complete we are assured - would be called the Reynolds Arena.

The club's owner George Reynolds has not developed a reputation for, how shall we say, being backwards in coming forwards, so it was surely too much to expect him to resist the temptation to glory in his endeavours.

However, Mr Reynolds' name is now writ large, not once but twice, on the side of the stadium. At night the ten foot-high letters are also back-lit in red - rather in the style of a Spanish City amusement arcade.

The signs must be visible for miles around, which is probably exactly how Mr Reynolds wants it. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England would call it light pollution. Quite so.

Seeing the sights

Spectator took to the train in a week when the rail network came in for more criticism for deteriorating services.

A mid-morning meeting in Newcastle close to the station seemed the ideal opportunity to forsake the A1 for GNER.

All was well until the return journey, which whisked Spectator to Coatham Mundeville in 23 minutes - and then proceeded to take 50 minutes to crawl into Darlington station.

Thanks to a points failure south of Darlington, services were having to form an orderly queue to pass through.

So after an initial pause at Coatham Mundeville, it was 15 minutes near the White Horse Hotel, another 15 minutes near Thompson Street, and 10 minutes at Parkgate Junction before arrival at Bank Top.

A points failure is not GNER's fault but, sadly, we'll be letting the A1 take the strain again the next time.