SARAH Borwell's mini run in the Wimbledon singles came to an end on Thursday night when she was overpowered by the rising Serbian star Ana Ivanovic. The 26-year old from Middlesbrough was completely outplayed by the highly rated number 19 seed, who took
A TANKER overturned on a busy roundabout causing traffic chaos. The transporter crashed on the roundabout at junction 59 of the A1(M) with the A167 between Darlington and Newton Aycliffe during yesterdays rush hour. Both the A167 and southbound slip
THE Home Office has ordered a North-East town to do more to tackle loutish behaviour, insisting: 'The powers are there, use them!'. During a Commons debate, a minister said the ten anti-social behaviour orders (Ascbs) handed out in Hartlepool since 1999
A PILOT died when his twin-engine plane crashed into a field, narrowly avoiding the busy A19. The man, who has not yet been named, was the sole occupant of the six-seater Piper Aztec. It veered across the A19 before plunging into a field at the entrance
THE final shortlist in the national short story competition run by The Northern Echo has been announced. More than 800 stories were entered for Orange New Voices, 600 of them in the adult section for which the judges have now selected ten writers
COUNCIL bosses are searching for a lollipop man or woman to help pupils safely cross the road to their school. Durham County Council wants to appoint a permanent school crossing patrol to work at Rectory Row, near to Sedgefield Primary School. The post
NORTH-EAST families are helping with research that will shape the future of childcare services. Sure Start County Durham, which is managed by Durham County Council, has commissioned research to investigate the current and future needs of parents and
A BISHOP Auckland school has been recognised for its success in tackling bullying. Bishop Barrington Comprehensive School will be presented with an anti-bullying accreditation certificate by children's campaigner Esther Rantzen at a ceremony in September
YOUNG volunteers who helped to clean up a former Victorian ash pit were rewarded at a reception this week. The Bishop Auckland Prince's Trust Team 13 were given certificates to mark their hard work in a community project at Romany Way Industrial Recycling
A MARKET place was transported back in time as vintage and classic vehicles from yesteryear lined up to raise money for charity. A variety of vehicles including cars, bicycles, tractors, motorbikes, wagons and buses took over Bishop Auckland Market Place
HEALTH officials have moved to reassure residents of upper Teesdale worried about changes to out-of-hours GP healthcare. From Sunday, patients who use the Middleton in Teesdale surgery will have to travel to the urgent care centre in Bishop Auckland
A YOUNG artist has won the North-East heat of a national butterfly art competition. The Summerfield Butterfly Competition is aimed at changing misconceptions about children's hospices. Calum Johnson, nine, from St Mary's Primary School, Newton Aycliffe
ROADS Minister Stephen Ladyman officially opened a £13.2m road yesterday, despite it being two weeks from completion. The A695 Scotswood Road is being fully upgraded to two-lane dual carriageway from
A COMMUNITY carnival that was revived by villagers will take place for the third year next month. The St Helen Auckland Gala Day had been one of the village's annual highlights, with a procession of floats and stalls. However, it fell by the wayside several
A HEALTH campaign by The Northern Echo is being extended with a new partnership in Sedgefield. Working closely with Sedgefield Borough Council, the newspaper aims to tackle the area's high rates of coronary heart disease and obesity which are among the
A NATURE reserve's new warden is busy preparing for a week of activities. Sue Rowley joined Foxglove Covert, in Catterick Garrison, earlier this year. The reserve is preparing for Local Nature Reserve Week, from July 22 to 30. Activities will include
EXERCISE equipment has been donated to a mental health ward at a Northallerton hospital for use by its patients. A free-standing exercise bike and rowing machine, worth £600, were bought by the Friends of the Friarage and the Primary Care Trust for Hambleton
A COUPLE whose house was gutted in a fire five months ago were relieved yesterday after a request was made for planning consent to rebuild it. Robert and Wendy Scott have had to live in a caravan with their two daughters since the blaze at Field Head
MORE than 250 people lined up at a Durham retail centre on Tuesday to take part in the opening of a new Marks and Spencer outlet. The 5,500sq ft store at the Arnison Centre, in Pity Me, Durham, will be selling only foodstuffs. The outlet is the latest
COUNTY councillors are expected to refuse extra funding to aid a long-running battle for a £1.1m village primary school. Estimates for Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe's new primary school were found to be £500,000 short. North Yorkshire County Council
A DIMINUTIVE Texan donkey stole the show recently when he beat his bigger counterparts to become a champion. The stud donkey, called Country Music's Johnny Paycheck, stands at only 31 inches high. Owner Ann French, from Ripon, North Yorkshire, bought
A RICHMONDSHIRE composter has won £100 of garden vouchers after she ordered her bin as part of Compost Awareness Week. Rebecca Alderson, from Hawes, was the district's winner of the Recycle Now Home Composting Golden Bin competition and won the vouchers
HAMBLETON District Council's communications team is celebrating success in a national contest to find the local authority Communications Team of the Year. The seven-member team came second to Darlington Borough Council in the Good Communications Awards
THE biggest youth arts festival in the county takes place in Northallerton next week. Thousands of teenagers are expected to attend the three-day event, which includes music, dance and theatre, games and market stalls at the Stone Cross Playing Fields
A grant helped a group of deaf North Yorkshire residents enjoy a trip to Legoland in London. The Big Lottery Fund helped 36 members of Northallerton and District Centre for the Deaf to visit the capital for two days. Cathy Farquhar, committee member of
THE campaign to bring more than 5,500 jobs to the region by expanding its biggest port has received a boost from the Government. The Department for Transport said last night it was considering part-funding an upgrade of the rail line between Teesport
A SCHEME offering cut-price admission to leisure centres in east Durham was launched yesterday. Savings of up to 50 per cent can now be made by eligible residents signing up to Easington District Council's Leisure Saver Card. The card, costing £1,
A RICH railway heritage has been celebrated with the help of talented local artists. Stockton Borough Council commissioned a colourful, 15ft mural, showing some aspect of the town's history. So, artist Zak Newton, from Trimdon Village, in County Durham
A DRINK driver fled after losing control of his car, mounting a path and pinning a pedestrian to a wall, a court heard. Matthew Alan Webb, 33, who was almost three times over the legal limit, having just left a pub on a one-mile drive home, was yesterday
A trail is being launched in Thirsk to help visitors to discover the town's famous people. Thirsk and Sowerby Civic Society is launching its blue plaque trail with Thirsk Past and Present. The trail will be launched by Thirsk museum curator Cooper Harding
A ROADSIDE flower bed that brightens up motorists' journey to work has received an award in an annual gardening competition. The display by Ron Kassell and Ken Williams, of Wathcote Cottages, Richmond, can be seen from Darlington Road - the main road
A THREE-DAY clean-up operation in Hambleton has been hailed as a success. Operation Enable, led by the Hambleton Community Safety Partnership, took place in Stokesley last week. It brought together officers from organisations, including the police, fire
THE search is on for wannabe drummers to take part in a record-breaking attempt in aid of Third World poverty. Hartlepool Global Peace and Justice Group is looking for people to help them in Beat the Drum for Trade Justice. The event is being held on
AN employment team has been rewarded for helping people into the workplace. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council won the Community Spirit category in the first Partners in Europe Award, from the Government organisation which manages European funding
A RANGE of issues, from sex education and off-road biking to yob culture and anti-social behaviour, were debated via video. Derwentside District Council leader Councillor Alex Watson on Tuesday last week fielded questions from people across the district
THOUSANDS of pounds worth of excavators, forklift trucks and other equipment has been stolen during a series of recent raids at building sites in a north Durham town. Contractors and site managers are being warned after thieves struck six times in the
A MAN caught with a drill which had been stolen from a workman's van was spared jail yesterday. Gary Patterson, 25, was seen by police carrying a black container in the early hours of March 8. When officers investigated, they found the case contained
A COUPLE who stored amphetamine to pay off a drugs debt were spared jail yesterday. Officers found 152g of the class B drug hidden in the grass box of a lawnmower in the garden shed of Angela Scott and Stuart Taylor. Newcastle Crown Court heard how the
A COUPLE from north Durham have celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. George and Joan Dance, of Sydney Gardens, Delves Lane, Consett, married at Christ Church, in Low Westwood. It was on June 15, 1946, after Mr Dance, now 85, was demobbed from
A VARIETY of cultures will be arriving next month when the Billingham Folklore Festival takes place for the 42nd year. For the first time, the carnival of colour will be held in July, rather than August, and organisers hope more people than ever will
POLICE are investigating what appears to have been a random attacks on cars. The incidents occurred between 2am and 4am yesterday, when cars parked in the Edenhill, Burdon Place, Manor Way and Hatfield Place areas of Peterlee were targeted. Six cars
TABLE TENNIS training for youngsters aged 11 and under is under way in Hartlepool. The sessions take place every Thursday, between 6pm and 7pm, at Owton Manor Sports and Arts Centre, Owton Manor Primary School, in Eskdale Road. The classes are led by
ENVIRONMENT watchdogs are teaming up to call time on fly-tippers in Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough Council and the Environment Agency are launching a joint project, Brew - Business Recycling Efficiency and Waste - to cut down the amount of waste that is
A MAN has been disqualified from driving for 18 months for being twice over the legal drink-drive limit. Scott Adam Rickman was also fined £150 and ordered to pay £34 costs after pleading guilty to driving with excess alcohol at Hartlepool Magistrates
A TEENAGER was given the chance to redeem himself after pleading guilty to punching another man during a street disturbance. Damien Andrew Hamilton, 19, admitted lashing out at Mark Morris in the brawl, but claimed he had acted under extreme provocation
SO what do you do if you find you've got the wrong briefcase and it's full of £1.5m of crime syndicate money in used £50 notes? Ray Cooney's hilariously complex tale of humble accountant Henry Perkins (the always excellent David Callister) attempting
The whole world will be a stage when the new Northern Stage theatre opens in Newcastle in August. Viv Hardwick talks to new chief executive Erica Whyman who explains why controversial playwright Dennis Potter has a big part to play in the opening season
She's the little girl who's never grown up, admits Lucinda Cowden to Viv Hardwick as she prepares to become Peter Pan for the fourth time. This year she takes the title role at Durham's Gala Theatre. LUCINDA Cowden got a 20th anniversary TV shock when
IT was part apology and part epitaph, but Bob Murray's final speech as Sunderland chairman provided a fitting bookend to a career that has been every bit as turbulent as his club's fluctuating fortunes during his 20 years at the helm. Sitting in the oak-panelled
The current state of British athletics is a subject of much conjecture and, with the SPAR European Cup starting last night, Sports Writer Will Scott took the chance to catch up with Daley Thompson to discover his views. THERE can't be many better qualified
KEN Barlow has always been the brainy one in Weatherfield. Give him a piece of chalk and a cane, and he's as happy as a pig in muck. He was pretty good at delivering six of the best (at least that's what his other half Dreary Deirdre told friends). The
WITH Niall Quinn's consortium expected to finally table a formal offer for Sunderland at the start of next week, outgoing chairman Bob Murray has angrily dismissed suggestions that his unrealistic price demands had placed the entire deal in jeopardy.
A YOUNG father killed when he crashed his girlfriend's car down a 200ft cliff was "rallying" the vehicle, an inquest heard. An inquest in Richmond, North Yorkshire, heard that Luke Dempsey, 18, lost control of the Ford Escort while driving at speed on
A COUPLE who have adopted 11 children and fostered a further two plan to build the UK's first camp for children with a psychological disorder caused by abuse and neglect. David and Diane Griffiths want to transform the back garden of their Darlington
BOB MURRAY bid an emotional farewell to Sunderland yesterday and admitted: "I wish I had walked away four years ago." The Black Cats chairman will officially leave his post tomorrow after agreeing to accept Niall Quinn's £10m offer for control of the
CELEBRATIONS were under way last night after it was announced the North-East would once again host the Tall Ships Race. Hartlepool beat off competition from Newcastle and Gateshead, Aberdeen, Leith and the Shetland Islands to host the 2010 event, which
GLENN Roeder welcomed Newcastle's players back for the first day of pre-season training yesterday and immediately insisted his squad would hit the ground running when they kick off their new campaign next month. Having failed to achieve a top-six finish
THE Tees Valley is in line to gain new powers over transport, skills and regeneration if it agrees to a directly- elected mayor covering five council areas, the Northern Echo can reveal. The Government has placed the area - stretching from Darlington
PARENTS spoke of their anger last night after two boys, aged five and six, crossed a dangerous main road and roamed a housing estate alone after going missing from a North-East primary school. The youngsters' mothers blamed staff at Sherburn Hill Primary
FIRST-TIME homebuyers need an average household income of more than £50,000 to afford a home in the North-East. Even in disadvantaged parts of County Durham, buyers need an income of more than £30,000 to buy a home, taking them well out of the reach
AN urgent cash boost is needed to save a wildlife sanctuary from closure. Rocketing insurance premiums and high bills could force owner Gill Robson to close The Kirkleatham Owl Centre, near Redcar, east Cleveland, after nearly 17 years. An appeal has
THREE Belgians who served with an RAF squadron, which is now based in the region, have attended a reunion to mark its 70th anniversary. Former members of 609 (West Riding) Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force were treated
A NEWLY-BUILT £3m school has been officially opened - three years after the former building was destroyed in an arson attack. St George's CE Aided Primary School, in Middleton St George, near Darlington, was opened during a ceremony conducted by the
As the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme approaches, The Northern Echo is campainging to win pardons for the 15 First World War soldiers serving with North-East regiments who were shot for cowardice. Today, Tony Kearney reflects on the executionof
AN infulential jazz lover was highly impressed with a performance by a legendary band leader. Alan Heesom was among admirers of veteran musician Chris Barber and his band at last summer's Whitley Bay Jazz Festival. The dean of arts and humanities at Durham
Kenny Rogers doesn't think of himself as one of the legends of country singing, he tells Viv Hardwick. The man worth millions in terms of cash and album sales is on his way to the UK for an autumn tour with Don Williams and Rita Coolidge which takes in
A DRUG-DRIVING campaign is targeting young drivers in the most painful way - their ego. The TV advertisement for the "Don't drug drive ... you'd be off your head" is the first of its kind in the country and shows the consequences of being stopped by police
SHOT AT DAWN: I FEEL it should be explained that not all of the 309 men for whom pardons are being so vociferously fought were the young, shell-shocked, innocent soldiers that Shot at Dawn campaigner John Hipkin refers to as "my boys". More than 90 of
A year ago, a quarter of a million people, many from the North-East, descended on Edinburgh to beg world leaders to Make Poverty History. Twelve months later, Olivia Richwald speaks to someone who took part and reports on why more debt cancellations are
IT seems there are three groups of sports fans when it comes to the World Cup and Wimbledon. Those who watch all the games regardless of who plays; those who watch the big matches, or the ones that have anything to do with England; and those who couldn't
NEWCASTLE-BOUND Rio Riva (3.20) bids to prove his recent diabolical effort at York can simply be put down to a bad day at the office. Normally, Julie Camacho's four-year-old is an extremely reliable customer, a point underlined by his fast-time Redcar
McFly have high hopes that playing themselves in a US-set movie with Lindsay Lohan might be a major boost for the British band's future. Steve Pratt reports. POP bands on screen have had a chequered history. The Beatles tried it twice with A Hard Day's
DARLINGTON new boy Martin Smith last night set his sights on achieving back-to-back promotions and insisted he had not returned to the North-East to start winding down his career. Smith signed a two-year deal with the Quakers yesterday after completing
SPEcial constables have been celebrating the 175th anniversary of the creation of the role with the help of actors starring at Darlington's Civic Theatre. The landmark birthday takes place in October but the County Durham service started celebrating early
STUDENTS leaving Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, in Darlington, were treated to a night of Hollywood glamour. The Leavers' Ball, organised by the Student Association, was held at Blackwell Grange Hotel with a theme of "Hollywood Glam". For the first
A DARLINGTON teaching assistant is to appear on the TV show Bargain Hunt wearing a Saxon costume. Annette Rowbotham, who works at the Haughton Education Village as a Key Stage Two teaching assistant for Springfield Primary School, filmed the programme
COUNCIL bosses are searching for a lollipop man or woman to help children safely cross the road to their school. Durham County Council wants to appoint a permanent school crossing patrol to work at Rectory Row, in Sedgefield, near to Sedgefield Primary
DARLINGTON Neighbourhood Watch is appealing for any information on the following incidents, which took place on Tuesday, June 27: HILDON DRIVE: Overnight into Wednesday, a green Suzuki motorcycle, registration N154PJR, was stolen from a driveway. The
CHILDREN across Darlington have been getting to grips with the world of science this week as part of a joint project. The Federation of Abbey Schools, which incorporates the infants and juniors, is hosting the Primary Learning Network initiative. As well
SEVERAL bus stops that were temporarily moved as part of Darlington's pedestrianisation project are to be moved back to their original positions. Completion of more of the town's £6.5m Pedestrian Heart project has meant that the stops, moved earlier
IF there is a town in the North-East which has demonstrated what can be achieved through hard work, vision and ambition, it is Hartlepool. For so long a joke town, Hartlepool has transformed itself in recent years in a way that sets an example to the
A business which delivers local produce to restaurants, hotels and delis has won a national award. Moorsfresh, of Pickering, North Yorkshire, was named best food service enterprise in the National Farm Awards run by the National Farmers' Union (NFU).
A TEENAGER has gone missing from a North-East care home.Irene Thompson, also known as Lulu, 15, went missing from her local authority home in Lanark Drive, Jarrow, South Tyneside, at about 11pm on Saturday. She is known to have friends in Gateshead, the
Nottinghamshire Outlaws v Durham Dynamos (Twenty20) ON THE day they announced that advance ticket sales for a Twenty20 match had topped 5,000 for the first time, Durham slumped to another depressing away defeat.For the second successive evening only
THE World Cup is clearly getting to us dads... Blokes who are usually reliable, straightforward types are being turned into gibbering wrecks with bizarre superstitions coming out of their ears.My mate Phil, a father-of-two and respectable police officer
THE director of the region's foremost science park said last night it was "only a matter of time" before the park attracted a major US investor. Professor John Anstee, scientific director of Netpark, in Sedgefield, was speaking after it hosted a delegation
THE company planning a £47m investment in a new rape seed oil processing plant yesterday revealed the plant will be at Seal Sands in Teesside. Tees Valley Biofuels, a private company, has applied for planning permission from Stockton Borough Council
ENGLAND away. In terms of football and its past history the phrase has a sinister, almost nightmarish quality to it. It brings to mind images of the dark side of Rule Britannia - marauding hooligans dressed up in the St George's flag fighting pitched
SUPERMARKET group Asda will today take legal action in an 11th-hour bid to head off a planned five-day strike by thousands of workers at its distribution depots. Members of the GMB union are due to walk out from depots including one at Washington, near
ALMOST 125 years after 74 men and boys died in the Trimdon Grange Explosion, villagers have been warned against marching in their memory on Durham Big Meeting day.Police say that they won't supervise the traditional early morning parade through the village
