ON CUE: Radcliffe's John Spencer defeated Cliff Thorburn 25 frames to 21 to win the World Professional Snooker Championship.

BORN FREE: Birtle woman Toni Champeau braved ice-cold waters to rescue a newly-born calf from a deep culvert. She struggled for a few minutes before hauling the dazed animal to safety. The mother was standing on a bank where she had given birth to the calf shortly before. The calf slithered straight down the bank of the culvert.

PUPPY LOVE: A puppy tied to a tree at the rear of Gorse Pit Cottages in Bury almost choked to death before being rescued by residents. The pup, all black and about two months old, was one of two abandoned by a callous owner.

CONCRETE JUNGLE: A development study which envisaged the building of 700 houses in the Hollins area, boosting the population of the former village by some 2,000 people, was criticised by Bury Council. Once councillor warned of a "jungle of bricks" spreading all the way from the Salford boundary to the centre of Bury. The Hollins feasibility study also foresaw the construction of shops and education facilities to go with the residential development.

MARTIAN INVASION: A mysterious object was seen hovering over the Holcombe area. Mrs A. Isherwood of Eagley Drive, Elton, described the UFO as "long, shiny and cigar-shaped".