Farnborough Town 3 Morecambe 1. MORECAMBE go into Saturday's battle with high-flying Woking without a new year point after their latest on the road defeat at Farnborough on Saturday. Two goals in the space of three minutes towards the end of the first
Lancaster City 2 Curzon Ashton 1 A SUPERB goal, a swirling wind and a bit of a battle summed up this top of the table clash at Giant Axe on Saturday. And that victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Curzon Ashton means that the Blues in first place and
LANCASHIRE firms looking to break into the Indian market are being offered a helping hand. India is being tipped as one of the top growth markets in 1996 with rising consumer spending and demand for manufactured products. The DTI is offering funding to
FIRMS in Lancashire will get the chance next week to peek into the future. BT has joined forces with the Henley Centre to host a one-day conference looking at the business world into the next century. The Henley Centre will present a detailed analysis
HIT musical Evita is coming to Blackpool and bringing with it a true lover of the resort. Marti Webb, one of Britain's most talented and popular musical stars, is taking the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End success which has been given a two-week
POLICE and safety experts are warning about the dangers of portable gas fires after a man died from poisonous fumes . George Berry, 50, was found dead by his landlord in his Church Terrace flat in Darwen. A post mortem examination at Blackburn Royal Infirmary
MYSTERY last night (January 10) surrounded Blackpool Football Club's reaction to reports that council planners had refused to accept new plans for a super-stadium. Senior officials of the club were locked in discussion and unable to comment and council
CHAMPAGNE corks are flying and it's smiles all round for the staff at Darwen Leisure Centre. That's because they have just heard National Lottery cash is heading their way - £148,000 of it. And as Lottery cash must be backed by a bidder's contribution
RED-FACED council officials are waiting to hear from insurers after assuring residents they would be compensated for a planning blunder. In September the Citizen revealed that 10 residents of Darwen's Avondale Road were told Weltonhurst factory, that
LIFE might have been hot on the coal face but it's simply sizzling when ex-miners bare their flesh on stage. Scenes shot in Astley and Tyldesley Miners Welfare Club won't bear much resemblance to afternoon shift at the Nook Pit as television viewers will
FUNERAL directors are warning some bereaved families they will have to wait up to 12 days to have their loved ones cremated. Major refurbishment work at Overdale Crematorium means that two of the five cremators are out of action. Local funeral directors
PUPILS and staff at Hesketh Fletcher High School are in mourning after the tragic deaths of one of their pupils. And specialist counsellors have been put on standby for children and staff following the death of pretty Melanie Ellison, 15, two weeks after
THE 1996 Atherton Festival is set for May. And the May 11-19 romp boasts a wide range of activities. But there is still room for more. And there is still plenty of opportunities for local charities and groups to rent stalls in the Jubilee Hall for their
TWO elderly Leyland women are whiling away their winter afternoons challenging the record books for playing Scrabble. Pensioners Marion Needham, 77, and her friend May Thompson, 86, play the word game up to ten times a day. They have saved all their score
PRESTON'S learner drivers are stuck in a log-jam - waiting for their tests The British School of Motoring claim a rush of learners taking their driving test before a new written exam is introduced has caused a four-month tail-back. From July 1 all learner
PRESTON'S creative genius Nick Park topped the TV ratings with his latest blockbuster A Close Shave - and left TV stars Cliff Richard and Michael Ball trailing behind. The double Oscar winner raked in a mammoth 10.62 million viewers for the Christmas
GREAT HARWOOD have called on Blackpool to help them out of their current predicament. The Showground side has unearthed a talented left-winger in 20-year-old Roger 'the dodger' Wilkins, signed from Langho two months ago. But the whizz-kid lacks stamina
FORGET records, it's back to reality now. From here onwards the promotion push gets more serious with every game. And that means beating Plymouth Argyle at Deepdale on Saturday. Regarded by many as the dark horses of Division Three, Plymouth will be a
PAUL Hannon could be the missing £14m National Lottery jackpot winner - and he's utterly devastated! For the 21-year-old part-time barman, says he picked the six money-spinning numbers . . . but he's lost his ticket. Paul ransacked his flat in search
BURY'S scoring touch returned at Gigg Lane on Saturday with a convincing 4-1 victory over Doncaster Rovers. It has placed the Shakers firmly in the promotion battle and put them in on the right footing after the dreadful start to the New Year. And Phil
IWOULD like to thank those people who have phoned and written to me in support of my views on restoring the death penalty. This response only proves to me how the majority of our MPs are out of touch with their constituents on this issue. However, ringing
PRESTON'S comic artist Bryan Talbot has finally finished his pet project - five years after he first put pen to paper. His graphic novel, A Tale of One Bad Rat, which hit the bookshops this week has already won two awards and has been nominated for another
WITH a total of 41 call-outs 1995 proved to be a record year for Rossendale Search and Rescue Team. And it ended as it started, with the team on stand-by duty for Lancashire's ambulance service in the face of some fairly serious snow conditions. Other
THE elegant Ray Wilkins is one of the most talented midfielders British soccer has ever produced. These days he is the manager of struggling Queens Park Rangers but on Saturday will be pulling on his boots to face Blackburn Rovers at Loftus Road. And
STAR teaching performances have been singled out by Government inspectors for Bury Metro's Radcliffe High School. Inspector Mick McManus described it as a "Grade 1" school and went on to say that it is "in the top handful of schools in the country for
HIGHLY potent cannabis plants worth tens of thousands of pounds were seized in a police raid on a drugs farm. Officers swooped on the rented unit, close to Eanam, Blackburn, after an attempted burglary on Tuesday night set off a security alarm. Police
COUNCILLORS visited St Philips Park, Whitefield, last Saturday morning to see for themselves the devastation to wildlife caused by insensitive planning and development, supposedly designed to make the park more attractive. The tour, led by pond ecologist
A HAPPY dad is celebrating after the controversial Child Support Agency dropped its demand for £7,300. Shaun Middleton was furious when the cash demand bombshell dropped through the door of his Colne home in November. But today he admitted: "I'm shocked
NOW that plans for the M62 Relief Road have been scrapped local MP David Sumberg is to urge the Roads Minister to make sure the blighted housing areas are restored to their former status as soon as possible. "Local residents have already suffered a great
AFTER trailing the TopCats for most of the game by ten points or more the WildCats at the end were a single field goal away from sending the game into overtime. With less than two minutes to go Mike Nichols sank a three-pointer that put the WildCats just
FIREMEN raced to Hoghton Tower today - and found themselves caught up in the middle of a £3 million Granada Television epic. Film crews had been at the 16th century ancestral home for the previous week, working on a lavish production of J B Priestley's
REGARDING the British institution of annually bestowing honour and status on selected persons such as the Beatles who got OBEs in the 1960s, I recall it was they that almost snubbed this award as being "hollow." Also they talked of themselves and their
IAM writing on behalf of the young people of the Accrington and Haslingden Methodist Circuit to thank you for your write-up on our sleep out for the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs' "Scandal" project (LET, December 18). It aims to expose the issue
ONCE again, the pious, hypocritical, patronising church sticks its unwanted nose into millions of people's business. What right have these interfering busybodies got to tell me it is wrong to play the National Lottery or that the jackpot should be capped
AT LONG last, the long-overdue upgrade of the West Coast main rail line is to happen. The £1 billion project starts within weeks. And, soon, passengers will be able to travel directly from Preston to the continent through the Channel Tunnel. But while
BULLY for Judge Ian Webster - for applying some good old-fashioned common sense to the problem of the shortage of hospital beds for the mentally ill. Up before him at Burnley Crown Court, on a string of charges involving burglary and theft, was a man
A DISCOVERY in Colne could mean the history of the British film industry being re-written as celebrations begin to mark its centenary. Reference books around the country say the first purpose-built cinema opened in 1907 - but historian Bert Hindle has
JYL Oldham and her team of husky dogs never get snowed in. In fact, they love the winter weather, and next week they're heading north for Scotland's icy climate. Kali, Krista and Karel will be pulling 30-year-old Jyl's sled in the Aviemore Rally, the
THE soccer anthem You'll Never Walk Alone was a fitting tribute at the funeral of dog-attack victim David Kearney. The stirring song, which has accompanied Liverpool FC through triumph and tragedy, played as relatives, family friends, school pals and
TONY GREDECKI is BARLA's Man of the Month. The 18-year-old Leigh East stand-off earned the December award in the National Youth League Premier Division for some inspirational performances. Top try scorer for his club, he notched seven tries in three superb
DEPARTING Turf Moor director Basil Dearing has told the Turf Moor board: "You must act NOW." Dearing made his final decision to step down yesterday with an official letter to chairman Frank Teasdale. Now the five-man board will discuss director Clive
BACKERS who put their faith in an amateur rugby club have now witnessed the wealth of their community investment. After 17 years without a permanent home, players who are part of Britain's biggest junior club trotted out of their showpiece clubhouse for
POLICE are hunting a robber who threatened a terrified female shop assistant with a gun before making off with £60 in cash. The hold-up took place at an off-licence in North Road, St Helens, at about 8.55pm om Thursday, Jan 4. The assistant manageress
A FAMILY of five had a miracle escape on Tuesday night after a head-on collision on a notorious stretch of road. The accident happened on Blindfoot Lane, Rainford, just after 7pm. The lone driver of the Vauxhall Cavalier involved in the crash was not
A DISTRAUGHT breeder is offering a reward for the return of two rare dogs stolen during a regular afternoon exercise walk. Maxine O'Connor, from Moss Bank, had just finished giving the two pedigree German wire-haired pointers - a 20-month-old dog called
MONTHS of fund-raising efforts are set to bear fruit today (Thursday, January 11) when the first sod is cut on the site of the St Helens and Knowsley Hospice. Lord Derby will perform the official ceremony at about 10.45 am at the site in Portico lane,
REDUNDANCY payments in the NHS have rocketed to more than £110 million a year, it was claimed today. Labour said that the NHS had paid out more than £300 million for redundancies since the Tories' internal market reforms. Shadow health minister Alan Milburn
THE Bishop of Blackburn will not have to move out of his luxury £200,000 home - because anything smaller wouldn't do. Church Commissioners are to tackling a cash crisis by removing several Bishops from expensive-to-maintain homes worth up to £1million
ILLEGAL fly tipping may return to plague Lancashire with the introduction in October of the new landfill tax, county planning officer Graeme Bell has warned. The tax will apply to all landfill sites in the UK, and waste disposal contractors will have
SAINTS' fans will converge in their thousands on the McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, on Saturday, for the mouth-watering Regal Trophy Final showdown with deadly rivals Wigan, kick-off 3pm. No tickets remain unsold at Knowsley Road for a clash which looks
NATURALLY delighted but it was a one-off result. That was the opinion of Saints' boss Eric Hughes following his team's record 80-0 victory over Warrington in the Regal Trophy semi-final. WHITTLE: Both a feast and a freak! So said many fans as they regained
WHILE many of our own psychiatric patients end up sleeping in cardboard boxes, I read that Britain's psychiatric hospitals are being swamped with foreign patients seeking free treatment. Doctors estimate that at least 10 per cent of patients in London's
BURNLEY toppled runaway Pontins League Division Two leaders Middlesbrough with a splendid victory at Hartlepool last night. Middlesbrough boasted several stars with Premiership experience but the Clarets dominated long periods of the game. Liam Robinson
THE Burnley board today strongly denied asking director Clive Holt to quit his post. Now Burnley's directors will strive to thrash out the growing Turf Moor boardroom crisis at an emergency meeting next week. The development arrives after the Lancashire
A GRIEVING mum today revealed that she is considering legal action against the NHS after the tragic death of her little boy. Lewis Jackson, of Monk Street, Clitheroe, was taken 85 miles to a Stoke-on-Trent hospital because there were no intensive care
THE line-up for Burnley's world-famous blues festival has been announced, and this year the music will be played into the early hours of the morning. The eighth Burnley National Blues Festival has been given permission to carry on until after midnight
RED-FACED council chiefs have been forced to abandon plans to buy themselves luxury yuppie yearbooks - thanks to your crusading Citizen. Last week we reported that Lancaster City Council was considering spending more than £700 on Filofax organisers for
IT'S taken ten years to plan, three years to build and cost a total of £27 million but Lancaster's new hospital building finally opens its doors to patients on Sunday. The first step in the major re-organisation of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary starts
BUDGE up a bit everyone, we need to make some room for thousands more families. Acres of countryside around Lancaster could soon disappear as Lancaster City Council look for land to build new homes on - and the target they have set themselves tops the
THE sky's the limit for one Fylde school which has cashed in on lottery funds to build an all-weather artificial sports pitch. Lytham St Annes High School is set to receive more than £250,000 from the Lottery Sports Fund, as well as £100,000 from the
TRAVEL agent Carron Anderson has won Lunn Poly's employee of the month award. Carron, who works at the firm's branch in Cobden Court, Blackburn, won because of her "enthusiasm to help customers and colleagues alike," said Tracey White, northern sales
TENANTS are set to lose out because of changes in the law, according to a top Fylde lawyer. Amendments made by Lord Woolf regarding the limitation of arbitration came into effect this week. Before the legislation, claims for damages worth more than £1,000
THE name of a dedicated Fylde fundraiser, who raised more than £750,000 in his lifetime, is to live on at South Shore Hospital. Ken Goldbourne was the backbone of the Blackpool-based Queendeans charity before his death at the age of 66 in October. And
TALENTED young thespians are preparing to take their town by storm for the second time in 12 months. Hot on the heels of their award-winning summer production of Guys and Dolls, Darwen Youth Theatre's youngsters are back on stage next Tuesday (Jan 16)
HOSPITAL bosses have sacked their new supplier of Halal meat after Asian community leaders failed to give it their blessing. Burnley General Hospital awarded the £20,000-a-year meat contract to a Liverpool firm of importers, which easily undercut the
FORMER East Lancashire MP Sir David Trippier has been appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal Marines Reserve in Merseyside. Sir David, 49, was Rossendale and Darwen MP between 1979 and 1992 before he was ousted by Labour's Janet Anderson. The Royal Marines
THE tragic death of an East Lancs toddler has sparked calls for an urgent review of local hospital services. The request came from Hyndburn Council leader and county councillor George Slynn as the region's health authority bosses said they will not hold
A WORLD-TRAVELLED chef from the Ribble Valley has made her own dreams come true by earning the chance to run her own kitchens back home. Tosside chef Stephanie Moon begins the New Year as head at one of the north's prestigious restaurants after a hugely
THE SPLIT between Hyndburn Conservative members widened this week as would-be MP Hugh Neil returned to the borough to prepare for his de-selection meeting. Conservative association chairman Win Frankland described Mr Neil as being "on the verge of committing
ROVERS boss Ray Harford today refused to be drawn on the crisis facing English football following the Terry Venables decision to quit following Euro'96. "I'll let the others do the talking," said the reserved Ewood boss. "I do not know what the real situation
TRADING standards chiefs are demanding a change in the law after the conviction of a former Leigh travel agent. George Dudley Tice, who traded as A & T Travel in Chapel Street, was found guilty at Leigh Magistrates of seven offences contrary to travel
WAR comes to Holcombe Brook Iin Bury next Wednesday when a top profile prisoner will be abducted in a demand for ransom! The Mayor of Bury, Councillor Neville Singer, will be kidnapped from Holcombe Brook Country Primary School and taken prisoner by landlord
A DISABLED man from Hoghton, near Preston will be swapping his wheelchair for a sit ski when he jets off to Austria this month to join the British Disabled Ski Team. Steven Shaw, 38, of Station Road, has just come back from trials in Switzerland where
A NATIONAL knife amnesty which has just over a week to run has had mixed success at local level. While the appeal, which was launched on December 20, has been largely ignored at Blackburn and Darwen police stations there has been a good response in Accrington
A BRAIN tumour has left Preston pensioner Frank Creeney brain damaged. The tumour was successfully removed, but he was left in a 'waking coma' and lost virtually all his powers of speech. Frank was sent home from hospital with little hope for the future
THOUGH water supplies have been restored following last week's chaos in which burst pipes wreaked havoc in Bury, reservoir water levels are still dangerously low. North West Water says it is steadily getting under control the large numbers of bursts and
A 78-YEAR-OLD man died in a blaze at his Preston home on Tuesday morning (January 9). Pensioner Charlie Fletcher, of Nevett Street, was found dead by firefighters and paramedics when they arrrived at the scene at 7am.. A neighbour raised the alarm after
THE LIVERPOOL anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone, was a poignant send-off for young David Kearney who was buried, yesterday, Wednesday (Jan 10). More than a hundred mourners, including relatives, teachers and school pals packed St James Church in Darwen
GIVING Bury Shopmobility a New Year cash boost is the Tesco supermarket chain which has weighed in with a £500 donation to help the town's disabled and elderly shoppers. The charity recently lost some of its outside funding when the Norwich pulled its
GAINSBOROUGH almost put Bamber Bridge out of the picture on Saturday. After a lay-off of three weeks during the freezing weather, Bridge returned to Irongate with a seven-point lead at the top of the Unibond League. But it was mid-table Gainsborough who
NORTH West Water has pulled the plug on funding important research into the level of lead in drinking water in the area. The company was expected to provide £38,000 towards the £55,000 cost of researching the lead content in milk teeth of children from
NORTH End's unbeaten run was ripped apart by Barnet on Saturday, leaving boss Gary Peters to pick up the pieces of the promotion jig-saw. What looked like a rollercoaster ride to promotion has become something of a rocky ride. Preston must now react swiftly
HOPPERS came close to staging a remarkable comeback in a high season match. They were 24-6 down after just half an hour, having gifted Worcester with two of their four tries. Hoppers struggled in the face of the wind, but Nick Bell landed two penalties
A LEADING Preston councillor has urged the council to bring in a security firm to guard areas of the town where, he claims, the police are failing in their job. Liberal Democrat leader Ron Marshall made the suggestion at this week's meeting of the Property
THERE'S nothing like a dame - particularly when she's played by one of the best in the business, Roy Barraclough. Roy, also known as Alec Gilroy the erstwhile landlord of the Rover's Return in Coronation Street, is currently strutting his stuff as Widow
SCIENTISTS at a Preston laboratory are breeding super-bugs to eat up nuclear waste. They hope the hungry micro-mites will munch away at tons of radioactive concrete - saving the nuclear industry millions of pounds every year. Boffins at British Nuclear
GRIEVING father Kevin Kearney has opened his heart and spoken out against the banning of rottweilers - the dogs that fatally savaged his son. Eleven-year-old David Kearney, of Broad Gate, Darwen, died 11 days after being horrifically mauled in the back
FOLLOWING the emergence of half a dozen recent cases of meningoccal meningitis in Bury and Rochdale the health authorities for both Boroughs are stepping up their public information programme The cases, three in each borough, are all unrelated and although
HUNDREDS of anxious brewery workers were today expecting an announcement from company bosses about their future. Rumours were rife at Blackburn giant Thwaites that jobs were to be lost, but the company had so far refused to confirm or deny workers' suspicions
AFTER reading your report about chain letters (LET, January 6) I looked up the one which I received before Christmas. Both my wife and I are well into our seventies. My wife has been in a home for about three years and she is very disabled and ill. I
BURNLEY'S wing magician Ted McMinn has emerged as a red-hot favourite to take over Scottish Second Division strugglers Queen of the South. McMinn's name was linked to the vacant post today following the sacking of manager Billy McLaren after a crushing
THE Beatles to be knighted? It would not only be a travesty (Letters, January 3), but a grave miscarriage of justice. I grew up with the Beatles and yet they never did a thing for me in musical terms. But, then again, maybe it was because I wouldn't allow
BURNLEY MP Peter Pike is only sticking up for his constituents with his last-ditch call for neighbouring Blackburn not to be given independence from the County Council. It would harm Burnley, he says. We support his right to make the claim, but do not
A GOVERNMENT minister has confirmed that three Liberal councillors will not be allowed to take part in the vote to decide whether Pendle sells its share of the buses. Pendle's Mayor, Councillor Gil Gilhespy, her husband Ian and former Mayor John David
CONSUMER watchdogs are calling for tougher laws after almost 250,000 dangerous fireworks were seized and destroyed this year. Trading standards officers confiscated 55 tonnes of fireworks in the run-up to November 5 and arranged for their destruction
DOCTORS wanting to set up a care home for young women with Princess Di-type eating problems have been turned down. But supporters of the Burnley Health Care Trust idea may still get their way. They are appealing against a decision by Pendle councillors
TOWN hall chiefs aim to keep circuses with wild animals off their land by tightening up restrictions. Hyndburn Council was recently forced to drop a six-year blanket ban on the circuses following a landmark legal ruling. But councillors have voted for
ROYAL OAK are striding clear in the Leigh & District Amateur Football League. They beat Blue Lion 3-1 to extend their lead to three points at the top of Div One. Goals from Paul Taylor, Mark McHugh and Paul Cotterill secured it, though Lion kept in
A MAJOR shake-up to give a new lease of life to Brackenbridge - the former Blackburn-based bridalwear firm Cupid - has been announced. The loss-making firm hopes to raise £1.7 million through a rights issues and convert £1.75 million of debt into new
CHORLEY Rugby League Club returned to winning ways when they defeated bottom club Highfield 40-14 at Victory Park. Chorley struck in the sixth minute when from a penalty, Carl Parker slipped a pass to John Costello who barged over the line to touch down
GLADIATORS star Saracen muscled his way into the Town Hall to take tea and sandwiches in the mayor's parlour. He is playing Little John in Robin Hood, this year's pantomime now playing at King George's Hall, and joined the other members of the cast in
BRAVE youngster Amy Allen has started going to playschool. Two-year-old Amy, of Southworth Street, Blackburn, suffers from the extremely rare genetic disorder Batten's Disease. The condition will firstly make her go blind, and then eventually, lead to
THE death of David Kearney, the 11-year-old Darwen boy, savaged by rottweilers on the eve of Christmas, was a desperately tragic event and the wholesale chest beating which followed was totally predictable. He was buried yesterday (Wednesday) and it is
PAUL Warhurst and Jason Wilcox came through this Pontin's League test with flying colours as Rovers took another stride away from the lower reaches of the Pontin's League table. Warhurst showed the finishing touch which Ray Harford rates so highly, but
DAVID Shaw is the Army's new boss in the North West. Brigadier Shaw has taken command of 42 (NW) Brigade, which has its headquarters at Fulwood Barracks, Preston. His appointment follows the recent retirement of Brigadier Jeremy Gaskell. The 49-year-old
FIRE STATION closures and the loss of up to 262 jobs in the Lancashire brigade are under consideration as the county council fights to slash £45 million from next year's budget. Options for massive cuts in the service are detailed in a report to go before
THE cream of junior karate enthusiasts in Burnley need a bit of help. They have been invited to take part in European and World championships and are looking for sponsors to meet some of the costs. The youngsters, ranging from seven to 13 years of age
VICIOUS thugs kidnapped and brutally assaulted a young man as he walked home from a restaurant with a female friend. Police say the dazed 21-year-old was suffering from facial injuries, severe bruising and a broken wrist at the M6 services near Burton
EXPANSION has led to a £60,000-plus move for advertising agency Scott Dawson. The firm has relocated to new premises on the Billington Road estate in Burnley, just down the road from its previous address. "Staying in the East Lancashire area and expanding
