AS a team of ghostbusters check out whether any spirits have checked in to the Dean Court Hotel tonight, the Diary's attention has been drawn to another spooky story.

York's Ghostfinder General Rachel Lacy discovered it on an urban legends website. This tale hails not from York - Europe's most haunted city - but centres instead on the village of Monk Fryston, near Selby.

The website suggests that a frightening apparition was seen in a cottage found close to the bridge that crosses the York to Doncaster railway line.

After 35 years the couple living there had become used to feeling they were being watched, and the fact that their pet dogs and cats would never go upstairs.

Then one hot day in the scorching summer of 1976, three of the couple's nephews were playing nearby. One of them went to the house to use the toilet and soon after his loud screams echoed down the street.

Everyone dashed into the kitchen and found that the door to the staircase was jammed. While they worked to open the door, an icy blast of cold air blew through the cottage causing every open window and door in the cottage to slam shut.

Finally the door opened, and the terrified young boy emerged. He said his way had been blocked by an old, ugly man. But there was no sign of anyone.

Fast forward to a night three years ago. The woman resident could not sleep, turned on the bedside lamp and started to read.

Then she heard rustling from the other side of the room. Looking up, she saw a scruffy top hat on the dressing table, and a few seconds later spotted an ugly old man in a tatty suit sitting down in an invisible chair. He reached out and picked up the hat.

By the time she had shaken her husband awake, the vision had faded.

No further sightings have taken place. Unless you know different...

FIRST Roger Black missed out on selection to join Sally Gunnell and Steve Cram in the BBC's Olympic squad of interviewers at Athens 2004. Now, there is another black day for Roger, the former 400 metres pin-up of British athletics.

Up Close With Roger Black, his motivational talk this evening at 6pm at the Grand Opera House in York, has been pulled.

The reason: insufficient businesses and individuals felt motivated to book tickets (at £27.50).

Now Roger can work on inspiring more bookings for the postponed show's planned rescheduling some time in 2005.

PARKED at a jaunty angle at the foot of York's Lead Mill Lane, the car had seen better days.

The battered G-reg Astra's exhaust was in the back and the hubcaps were in the boot.

A note scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper on the dashboard explained its presence in the on-street parking bay. "Broked down. Will recover tonite".

First spotted last Thursday, the car was still there on Friday. But yesterday it had disappeared. Perhaps it is broked no more.

HOW about this - a sign with an Italian accent.

The notice was spotted in the window of the Il Paradiso del Cibo deli on Walmgate.

"Unfortunataly we will be closed from the August Monday 30th to September Sunaday 12 for summer holidays".

Fortunataly they are backa soon.

Updated: 11:14 Tuesday, September 07, 2004