The events leading up to last Saturday's football action, or lack of it, spelled out some important lessons about community affection for their local club, or lack of it.

The potential row involving Boro's early postponement of their match against Newcastle has been well documented, but the response of the Hartlepool public is, in many ways, the bigger story.

Once it became clear that the Pools game against Torquay was under threat from the snow, there was an amazing response from the local population as word spread through the town like a bush fire. The motto "the town's club" was demonstrated in practice as many willing pairs of hands, including Mayor Stuart Drummond, turned out to do their bit in the clear-up operation.

The result was a game played in fine conditions watched, among others, by the rueful looking Alan Shearer who should have been playing thirteen miles away at the Riverside. It was an average performance by the table-toppers' standards, but I suspect that the players gave that extra bit out of respect for their fans who had sweated to save the game. As you'll know, the day ended with a 3-2 win for Pools and an extension of their lead at the top of Division Three.

Whether Boro really wanted to save their game is an argument for elsewhere, but there's no doubt that the mutual affection between Hartlepool United and their loyal fans was strengthened even more last week. We'll all enjoy the championship party that bit more!

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Talking of winners, there's no doubt that GNER's service on the East Coast Main Line is a vital tool in the cultural and business life of our area.

The recent announcement by the Strategic Rail Authority regarding a scale down of improvement programmes disappointed many people, but the situation as if affects us travellers is worth looking at more closely.

For regular passengers problems exist during very busy King's Cross rush hours, and, of course, there's a desire to see reliability and quality keep on rising.

To be honest, I don't envy the SRA's task in getting Britain's rail network up to top quality after many years of neglect and under-funding. It is an enormous and complex jigsaw with work needed at Peterborough and Grantham, never mind London. Add to that, the cross-channel facilities being developed at neighbouring St Pancras and you can see the size of the job.

GNER seem to have their priorities right, and in tune with their passengers, and it's in the interests of the region as a whole that their upward trend in quality and reliability is maintained.

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Let me recommend to you the current issue of Which Magazine, published by the Consumers' Association, which has an excellent feature on one of the biggest rip-offs in the retail industry.

Extended warranties make amazing profits and Which's estimate is that it costs UK consumers about £800 million a year.

Misleading advice is rampant in electrical stores, with claims that "it's bound to break down" being one of the more unusual sales techniques. It's clear that, happily, modern appliances are usually well made and often perform for many years with no problems. With, for example, a warranty for a new TV often costing hundreds of pounds, it's worth knowing that the chance of claiming within a three year warranty is only 6%.

Before your next sally into the electrical story, get stocked up with some very useful knowledge. More on www.which.co.uk

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Thursday evening (the 6th) takes me to take Hartlepool College where I'll be compering their Celebration of Achievement event. I'll tell you more next week, but it looks like being a cracker. Events like this give me a real buzz, and a fierce pride in the quality of our people.

Published: 05/02/2003