Friday Folk

BRIDEGROOM Ian Parker's best mates are so determined to get him to the church on time they are flying thousands of miles to make sure.

Ian is marrying American fiancee Dorie in Detroit, Michigan, the motor capital of the USA and his three best friends from home will be there to attend his stag night and see him tie the knot.

Robert Farrar, Paul Guest and Alec Bell waved 47-year-old Ian off last week when he flew back to the States to make the final wedding plans.

Now the three left behind are making their own travel plans to be with him on his big day.

The four had been friends and drinking companions at the Boar's Head, Newchurch, Rossendale, for years when Ian, a footwear market trader left for America in 1995.

He lived first in Florida before settling in Detroit where he works for Chrysler.

When he returned home to Newchurch and announced his wedding plans his three friends decided it was time they made the big trip.

Paul who has known Ian since childhood when they were both pupils at Lea Bank School, Higher Cloughfold. said: "We're going to give him a traditional English bachelor do, then take him to the wedding."

In return, Ian is giving up his honeymoon to show his friends - on their first visit to the USA - some of the sights.

"We're hoping to go to the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls and to Windsor, just over the border in Canada where there are gambling casinos," said Robert. The wedding in a Detroit church is set for May 2.

The three friends fly out from Manchester Airport via New York on April 30.

Ada is thrilled by royal reply

ROYAL letter writer Ada Gibson is thrilled with a speedy reply to her get well wishes for the Queen Mother.

Ada, right, sent the Queen Mum a card covered in corgis to welcome her home to Clarence House following her recent release from hospital.

Ada, 82, of Grange Street, Clayton-le-Moors, said: "One of the corgis was being tossed on a blanket and I wrote inside that I hoped they did not toss her like that when she got to Clarence House."

Within days the royal fan was delighted to get a reply, on behalf of the Queen Mother, thanking her for her kind thoughts.

Ada said: "I never expected a reply so quickly, it was quicker than Damon Hill!"

The sprightly pensioner has also dropped a line to Prince Charles' new press aide, Colleen Harris, wishing her luck in her new job.

Meanwhile, when the octogenarian is not putting pen to paper she is clocking up the miles at Great Harwood swimming baths.

The pensioner has already completed 150 lengths as part of a Sharron Davies challenge to swim the length of the Channel Tunnel. She now plans to send her best wishes to Princess Margaret, the royal who suffered a minor stroke earlier this week.

She added: "I love our royalty."

Lawman Adrian makes moot point

A LAW graduate whose studies have already taken him to Switzerland has been selected for a premier legal competition in America.

Adrian Barham, 23, of Windermere Drive, Darwen, is studying at the highly-acclaimed Institute Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, whose former students include United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, the man who has ended the threat of war with Iraq.

Now Adrian, pictured left, and other students from the institute have been selected to represent Switzerland at the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which will begin in Washington DC at the end of March.

The competition, run by the International Law Students' Association, is set up like a real case at the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The team who make the best job of arguing their case throughout the competition's four rounds will be awarded the title of "World's Best Moot Team".

The competition was first run in 1959, and many previous competitors have gone on to hold high-ranking legal and political posts. Adrian was selected because of his previous experience in legal competitions - he was head bailiff for the United Kingdom National Competition in 1996. To qualify for the Washington finals the team had to undertake detailed research into international law covering areas such as genocide, extradition of war criminals, the break-up of states and bank secrecy laws.

The former Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, pupil will start work as a trainee solicitor for Bristol-based law firm Burges Salmon in September.

School's reunion party

A JOINT reunion party is being organised for former pupils of Clitheroe Royal Grammar Schools for Boys and Girls.

Former pupils who left either of the two schools in 1988 are invited to attend.

In those days the schools were separate and former pupils Julie Knowles and Darren Taylor have teamed up to organise the bash.

It will take place at the Clitheroe Cricket Club in Chatburn Road on May 16.

Further details are available from Julie on 01200 425197 or Darren on 01200 424640.

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