NO, there would be no press screening of Sex Lives Of The Potato Men. It was "not a review-driven film", reasoned Entertainment Films, but more of a "Friday night, after-the-pub type comedy, one for the lads". Such a banning order is always a red rag
HOLLYWOOD movie stars Sylvester Stallone, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise have become among the first Americans to take advantage of a blockbuster contract signed between a York mobile phone hire firm and Avis Rent-A-Car. Hirefone, the international phone rental
NO ONE can match Roger Benson for raising money for businesses in York and North Yorkshire. The innovation and technology adviser for Business Link York and North Yorkshire has now guided small and medium sized businesses in the region to more than £4
ARABLE, dairy and sheep farmer Edward Dennison is the new National Farmers' Union county chairman for North Riding and Durham, which includes North Yorkshire, northwards of Thirsk and Ripon. Mr Dennison, who farms at Thornton-le-Beans, near Northallerton
THE Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) provided £3 million for a project at the Manor House Nursing Home in Stamford Bridge. As a result, the 19-year-old family-run business has extended from 46 beds for nursing care to 107, and 30 close care apartments are
YORK City Knights half-back Danny Brough's sublime display in the big win at Dewsbury on Sunday has won him the latest Arriva Trains Cup 'Man of the Round' title winner. The Knights' scrum-half punished his former club by kicking nine goals and touching
YORK City Knights centre Damien Reid could be set for a return to Gateshead Thunder after expressing unhappiness with his lack of first-team opportunities at Huntington Stadium. The 19-year-old, who was Gateshead's leading try-scorer last season, played
Simon Ritchie talks to York author John Baker about his latest crime novel. STONE LEWIS is not your conventional hero. With tattoos of a teardrop under his eye and a swallow on his neck, the former jailbird is the sort many people would cross the road
MYRON Bolitar - former top basketball player turned sports agent-cum-private investigator - is one of contemporary fiction's unsung heroes. In One False Move (Orion, £12.99), Harlan Coben's leading man is asked to look after the interests of young and
AN IMPASSIONED plea has been made to stave off parking charges in a busy York city centre street. Micklegate postmaster Paul Abbott said the street would slowly die if pay-and-display plans were approved. He collected a 1,500-signature petition against
RALLYING should not be blamed for causing the death of a Ryedale mother-of-two, her grief-stricken family have stressed. Navigator Chris Francis died on Sunday while taking part in the Kall Kwik National Rally in Dalby Forest, Pickering, when a white
THE campaign to "save" York's Barbican Centre gathered pace when almost 100 people turned up to a public meeting and agreed to make their views known on a march through York. The meeting, organised last night in the upper foyer by the Save Our Barbican
FIREFIGHTERS are urging people to ensure their homes are fitted with working smoke alarms following four serious house fires in York. Three properties were badly damaged and an elderly man from Tang Hall narrowly escaped death as a result of the four
FIRE ripped through two houses in York this afternoon in what was the city's fifth blaze in three days. Householders in Alcuin Avenue, Tang Hall, fled both homes when the blaze took hold shortly before 1pm. The fire is thought to have started in an upstairs
YORK City have taken young Wycombe Wanderers striker Andrew Bell on trial in a big week of off-the-field action. City yesterday signed Sunderland midfielder Jonjo Dickman on a month's loan and player-manager Chris Brass was hoping to add another name
TEENAGERS in East Yorkshire schools will benefit from £500,000 worth of funding aimed at tackling the Local Education Authority's below average GCSE performance. The Excellence Fund, which is only the second of its kind in the country, aims to boost grades
A PRISON officer claimed today that York's worst young criminals are ending up at a "holiday camp without the redcoats." He said he believed Wetherby Young Offender Institution now operated as a "child-friendly regime," at great cost to taxpayers and
Yes says CHRIS WOOD, boss of York independent video production company, W3KTS The licence fee worked well in the early days of the BBC, when it was just one and a half radio stations. Then came television and that was all right, too. Things started to
TACKY in every sense, discarded chewing gum is a blight on our fair city. The latest solution is the "sticky board" where gum slingers can plant their leftovers once the flavour has gone. One councillor disapproves, saying they are not appropriate in
I AM concerned about the constant gridlock when the mid-week Murton auction market is held. Perhaps the Murton site has outgrown itself and needs to be relocated to one of the old airfields. Last Wednesday the Grimston roundabout was completely gridlocked
GOOD to learn that one of York's best pubs, the Blue Bell, is adopting a clean air policy. Smokers, don't panic. You can still puff away to your heart's discontent at the 206-year-old boozer. This restriction is aimed at an altogether different set of
YORK City have taken young Wycombe Wanderers striker Andrew Bell on trial in a big week of off-the-field action. City yesterday signed Sunderland midfielder Jonjo Dickman on a month's loan and player-manager Chris Brass was hoping to add another name
YORK City loan signing Jonjo Dickman knows this next month is a golden opportunity to up his chances of a place in Mick McCarthy's plans for Sunderland. The 22-year-old centre midfielder has been a regular face in the reserve side during the last two
YOUNGSTERS at Easingwold Primary School have been kicking out to raise money for new PE equipment. All 315 children at the school - and the teachers - yesterday took part in a Speedmark Challenge to score the hardest and fastest penalty, while raising
SELBY Warriors gave an awful first half performance at Wetherby but still led at the break and went on to a 40-14 Pennine League division five victory. After last week's cup win over Morley, it was always going to be hard for Selby to get up for this
IN 1895 the journalist, sociologist and historian HG Wells burst on to the literary scene with the publication of his first novel. The Time Machine was a classic tale of a Victorian scientist who designs a time machine and uses it to travel 800,000 years
SHOWMAN, troubled genius and snooker prodigy, Ronnie O'Sullivan's life has been one long roller coaster ride. It has also been the stuff of soap opera. His parents ran an Essex porn empire, his father was jailed for murder. Yet Ronnie rose above such
ADVENTURER Ranulph Fiennes lists what he has learned from his incredible journey through life in this well-illustrated book. Civilian life held little attraction for the former Scots Grey after the excitement of fighting for the SAS in Borneo and battling
A YORK vicar has spoken of his concerns about Philip Pullman's best-selling trilogy His Dark Materials, claiming the books have deeply anti-Christian overtones. The Rev Martin Baldock, vicar of Dringhouses, says the stories cast the Church as a dark,
PROMOTION contenders Heslington had to settle for a point in division two of the Leeper Hare York and District league but they had to make a remarkable comeback from 5-1 down against bottom of the table Huby. They scored first but then let Huby take over
FIRST-TIME buyers in North Yorkshire are being squeezed out of the housing market by dominant buy-to-let investors, according to a new survey. Hungry investors are gobbling up rental properties and becoming landlords of tenants who would otherwise be
With the Ouse low, cold and clear many of the 101 anglers struggled in Sunday's open match on the Leeds amalgamation water from Dunsforth to Thorpe Underwood. The area at the bottom of Linton was once again favoured, with Mick Scott (Waterline Wibsey)
YORK City Knights centre Damien Reid could be set for a return to Gateshead Thunder after expressing unhappiness with his lack of first-team opportunities at Huntington Stadium. The 19-year-old, who was Gateshead's leading try-scorer last season, played
YORK City Knights half-back Danny Brough's sublime display in the big win at Dewsbury on Sunday has won him the latest Arriva Trains Cup 'Man of the Round' title winner. The Knights' scrum-half punished his former club by kicking nine goals and touching
Grieving mourners at the funeral of a "gentle giant" whose addiction to drugs blighted his life were told to come together and help other users to kick their habit as a tribute to his memory. More than 70 people gathered at York Crematorium for a memorial
YORK City loan signing Jonjo Dickman knows this next month is a golden opportunity to up his chances of a place in Mick McCarthy's plans for Sunderland. The 22-year-old centre midfielder has been a regular face in the reserve side during the last two
ICY roads caused a flurry of accidents in York and North Yorkshire overnight and today. Two people were taken to York Hospital after a three-vehicle crash on the A59 at Whixley crossroads, between York and Knaresborough, at 7.43am. At about 6.30am, a
A COUNCIL tax rise of 8.5 per cent was agreed for York after a stormy budget meeting. The city council's ruling Liberal Democrat group had proposed a rise of 9.3 per cent. But the concession was made possible after the council raided £200,000 from its
A FINANCE package to fund new school buildings has been introduced by York-based modular building manufacturer Yorkon. The company, part of the Shepherd Group, has joined forces with UniLink to allow local authorities to fund new school buildings by using
NO one would suggest that young offenders be locked in a cell for 23 hours a day. Rehabilitation is a key role for any prison, and it is essential that teenage inmates are taught skills which could gain them a job on their release. But juggling lessons
HARDLY a week goes by without letters or articles featuring protests against proposed residential development in York. The emerging trend is of bandwagon-hopping activists whose objectives are to delay and block planning applications with worrying consequences
I FOUND Jo Haywood's feature extremely disturbing and a little frightening ("Cheeky girls slap on warpaint", February 23). This excellent article brought an all- too-often neglected area of modern parenthood into the light. What Jo described was nothing
THE tragedy of the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers and the discovery of the squalid conditions in which the illegal immigrants are housed called to mind an experience, a few years ago, of myself and my daughter. She was wanting to buy a house and found one
I APPLAUD D Goldman's abhorrence at the suggestion that the tree in the middle of the Eye of York should be cut down, (February 13). It's a young oak and from little acorns... However, his view that York is a virtual tree desert compared with London leads
IN response to your article on 'Fast buses' (February 18), I used the No 1 bus that travels this route through Haxby and Wigginton recently, and not for a long time have I had such a "violent" ride in a vehicle. It was comparable to the Magnum Force rollercoaster
FOLLOWING the letters querying ways of improving York's traffic congestion in the Holgate/Poppleton Road area (February 9), I want to forewarn A59-users that a third major problem along Boroughbridge Road is about to be made, adding more delays on this
CAN anyone explain to me (in words of one syllable please, because I am a simple bloke) the modern craze for changing names and calling it a relaunch? For example: I used to clean the bath with Jif, now it is Cif. My wife used Oil Of Ulay, now it is Oil
THERE appears to be a rumour which is giving the impression that the French people are reluctant to welcome back the Normandy Veterans to the remembrance services and events to take place this June. The rumour is not true. I have a copy of the programme
I WAS sorry to read about Ms Sellars' experience at Acomb Green ('Disgusting park', February 20). I hope she contacted the York Pride line on 551551, details of which were in the City of York Council leaflets which she received. Although the green is
Norway has bestowed one of its highest honours on a York man - for events that took place more than 1,000 years ago. Dr Peter Addyman, who was director of York Archaeological Trust and the man behind the city's world-famous Jorvik Viking Centre, was presented
PULL up a chair; you'll need to be sitting down when you hear the latest. Apparently, food tastes nicer when you're hungry. Shockingly enough, scientists have discovered that burgers, chocolate and chips go down better if you've skipped a meal than if
Tom O'Ryan's nap selection from Thursday's meetings: Huntingdon: 3.30 Garde Champetre (7.30am inspection) Updated: 12:25 Wednesday, February 25, 2004
