Two years ago it was a novelty, last year it was a let-down, but this time around and there is a real determination among the players of Hartlepool United. For the third season in a row, Pool have a chance of promotion through the play-offs. Saturday's
MARK Robinson has looked at the play-offs from the outside - and now he is desperate to be a part of it. The Hartlepool United left-back will be part of the Pool side at Exeter this afternoon as Chris Turner aims to steer the club into the play-offs for
MIDDLESBROUGH boss Steve McClaren is closing in on Leicester midfielder Muzzy Izzet and Derby striker Malcolm Christie. McClaren is looking to make an early start to his summer spending spree by splashing out around £15m on Izzet, Christie and on-loan
Keeping and eye out for bears - but bravig the chipmunks - Mark Aspinwall finds there's more to California than urban sprawl I DESCENDED from the dusty Tehachapi Hills onto the brown floor of the San Joaquin valley, and engaged the cruise control for
THE Government has pledged to support UK steel companies fighting for exemptions from controversial tariffs imposed by the US. Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said she believed a number of firms had a strong case and she promised to lobby
A SOLDIER crashed a car after driving it at 80mph while drunk, a court heard yesterday. Teesside Crown Court heard that Terence Coburn, 28, had been driving a Ford Fiesta on a road rarely used by the public, in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, on
CALLS are being made to keep a piece of North-East footballing memorabilia in the North-East. Andrian Worsley looks back at the player they called the Golden Boy - Wilf Mannion FOR all the luck it brought him, it's perhaps not surprising that the North-East's
A GOODWILL mission, taking a fire engine to Kabul, has been hit by visa problems. The 5,000-mile trek, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, to the capital of Afghanistan, has been delayed while negotiations take place. A last-minute crew change left the group
A YOUNG man launched an attack on a fellow reveller as they waited for buses following a night out drinking in a city centre, a court heard yesterday. Terry Stavers was among a group who went to Durham bus station after visiting several city pubs on June
PARIS PIKE, who had his final tune-up for this afternoon's Scottish Grand National with a jog along the shore at Redcar beach on Wednesday, has a golden opportunity to record his second success in the Ayr showpiece, writes Colin Woods. "He's as fresh
A FAMOUS era in North-Eastern football is brought to a close today when Bishop Auckland, arguably the most successful amateur football club in the country, plays its last game at Kingsway, its home ground of 116 years. Bessie Robinson looks back at the
The Queen's Golden Jubilee provides the perfect opportunity to chill the bubbly, put up the bunting and don a tiara. Louise Grey has some tips for organising a right royal knees up THE Queen's Golden Jubilee promises to be a celebration like no other.
HALIFAX: Pool are hoping that Halifax can stop Rushden this afternoon, but the Shaymen's preparations have been thrown into turmoil. Today's game is their last in the Football League, but the players go into the game facing the sack by the club's administrators
Some of Britain's leading crime writers are converging on a North-East hotel this weekend. Christen Pears investigates IT could be the opening of a detective novel. A group of distinguished guests arrives at a luxury hotel for the weekend. The setting
HARRY Robinson, who was chairman of Darlington Football Club in the 1960s and mayor of the town in the 1970s, died yesterday, aged 83. His proudest moments included leading the football club to its first promotion in 40 years and greeting the Queen Mother
Another disappointing season came to a close with a double cause for celebration as Darlington secured a 2 - 1 win at Oxford and afterwards Tommy Taylor declared that Craig Liddle will not be leaving the club this summer. Taylor's surprise statement almost
THE inquest into the death of backpacker Caroline Stuttle was opened in her home city of York yesterday. The 19-year-old died ten days ago after being mugged and thrown from a bridge in Australia, where she was spending a gap year break. Caroline's body
PASSENGERS were facing fresh misery last night ahead of renewed strike action on Arriva Trains Northern services. The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) which represents station and retail staff announced a series of strike dates in a dispute
DEFIANT Black Cats defender Darren Williams insisted on the eve of today's tough away game at West Ham: "Everybody knows Sunderland are too good to go down." But the versatile England B international accepts that this has been a really bad season for
POP princess Zoe Birkett is to hit the road again on a new Pop Idol tour. Darlington's singing sensation will support competition winner Will Young and runner-up Gareth Gates on a nationwide tour, it was announced yesterday. Zoe will give 14 performances
I READ that people had been picking wild daffodils in Farndale (Echo, Apr 15). Some might think that this is bad for the plants. Actually it is a good thing, because if the flower is picked, the fruiting part will be removed. If the fruits are left on
Fast-sinking Sunderland - in Premiership freefall - have now offered Ipswich Town a tantalising life-line. And on the rock-bottom form shown in a comprehensive drubbing at Upton Park, which left Peter Reid's men in fourth bottom position, only five points
BAA has announced an £8.1bn investment programme at London's three main airports. The ten-year programme, some of which will need planning permission, assumes air traffic will double over the next 20 years. The programme includes £6.6bn for Heathrow airport
NORTH-EAST former model Heather Mills has sent her support to a concert organised by two brothers to raise cash for children at a hospital. Graeme and Mike Ross, from Durham City, decided to raise money to have a children's gym installed at Newcastle's
SUNDERLAND manager Peter Reid last night called upon FIFA to introduce an automatic compensation scheme after losing the services of his £1m midfielder Jason McAteer - probably for the rest of the season - through an injury received while training with
A CORONER examining the death of a baby, who suffered brain damage at birth, has called in a team of detectives. A major investigation has begun into the death of the four-day-old boy, who was born at Harrogate District Hospital in North Yorkshire. Hospital
NEWCASTLE United skipper Alan Shearer has assured teammate Kieron Dyer he will come up smelling of roses at the World Cup after his self-professed "stinker'' in England's victory over Paraguay. Midfielder Dyer disappointed himself and many others with
ENGLAND boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has confessed that picking his 23-man squad for this summer's World Cup is proving the most difficult decision of his career - and it's little wonder. Eriksson is understood to already know his starting 11 to take on Sweden
WHEN Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren called for his players to show 100 per cent until the end of the season last week he would not have expected his demands to fall on such deaf ears. And against Blackburn at the Riverside on Saturday that is exactly
QUEEN'S LOGIC makes her much-awaited reappearance in the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury today. Mick Channon's unbeaten filly, installed as hot-favourite for the Sagitta 1,000 Guineas following a dazzling success in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes
A PREMATURE baby who survived major heart surgery when he was only one week old, celebrated his first birthday yesterday. Thomas Jack Callaghan, of Fishburn, County Durham, is one of the smallest babies in the region to survive after he was born 16 weeks
Alan Shearer believes that only Robbie Fowler or Michael Owen are capable of matching the 200-goal Premiership benchmark the Newcastle skipper established at St. James' Park on Saturday. He led his team to a 3 - 0 victory over Charlton Athletic. In the
A DRY surface and two attack-minded teams promise to turn the Durham Cup final into an extravaganza of open rugby at Durham City today. Darlington Mowden Park might be expected to use their extra muscle and the experience of national league rugby to tighten
BARKSTON Plastics Engineering has opened new manufacturing premises in the North-East to take advantage of the region's willing and able workforce. The Leeds plastics fabrication business has opened the operation in Victoria Road, Hebburn, in South Tyneside
AS one of only two clubs to vote against two overseas players per county next season, it seemed rather cruel for Durham to be on the receiving end of a dour debut century from Sven Koenig yesterday. As the 28-year-old South African has an Italian mother
The Police Complaints Authority has been brought in to investigate the death of a teenager while being pursued by a patrol car. The youth, who has not been named, died when the car he was travelling in collided head-on with a bus. The police pursuit started
A TEENAGER died in a head-on road crash after he had missed the bus, an inquest heard. James Patrick Woodworth, 17, of Newby Wiske, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, died when the car he was travelling in collided with another vehicle near Thirsk,
DARLINGTON Football Club's sacked commercial manager has blamed bad publicity surrounding her industrial tribunal case for her difficulties in finding a new job. But at a resumed hearing yesterday, Helen Coverdale, 34, admitted she had sold her story
THE search for a missing ex-miner will continue this weekend. Edward Donnelly, 52, was last seen at the home he shares with his sister in Fynway, Sacriston, County Durham, before he went missing on March 25. Two weeks ago, the Teesdale and Weardale Search
THE funeral of Leonie Shaw will be held on Tuesday. An inquest into the death of the six-year-old, who was hit by a car on the Bishop Auckland bypass, County Durham, last Saturday, was opened and adjourned yesterday. Meanwhile, Leonie's friends are holding
A MAN involved in a church burglary avoided a prison sentence yesterday. Teesside Crown Court heard there had been a break in at the Church of Christ the King in Trenchard Avenue, Thornaby, on May 30 last year. Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said the canon's
Strike bowler Chris Silverwood has overcome an injury scare and turns out today for Yorkshire in their three-day curtain-raiser against the Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence at Headingley. But Yorkshire go into the match without five of
YOUNGSTERS took part in a sponsored sit at a football stadium to raise money for charity yesterday. St Aidan's School's year ten XL Club undertook the challenge at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland, in aid of the SAFC Foundation, Sunderland football club's
VISITORS to a folly are being promised a game of cat and mouse at a new attraction. The underground labyrinth at the Forbidden Corner, at the Tupgill Park Estate in Coverdale, North Yorkshire, has taken nine months to build at a cost of £150,000. Called
A SOLDIER died after driving to buy cigarettes after a heavy drinking session, an inquest has heard. The inquest into the death of Jonathan Parr-Ford, 21, who was stationed at Alanbrooke Barracks near Topcliffe, Thirsk, was held in Northallerton Magistrates
DURHAM County bowlers scored a magnificent double on the final day of the EIBA National Finals at Melton Mowbray. The Domnick Hunter-sponsored senior team became the first county to win the coveted Liberty Trophy in three successive decades, while the
A NURSE who cares for cancer patients has reached the final of a national award for the second year. Mother-of-two Clare Brookes, a Marie Curie nurse who cares for patients throughout the region, has been selected for England's Marie Curie/Clinton Cards
Seaham Red Star have announced that they have withdrawn their resignation from the league. Seaham who were runners up only two years ago, submitted their resignation to the league three weeks ago because of a lack of committee men at Welfare Park. But
A NORTH-EAST woman got a surprise when she became a a new attraction's 500,000th visitor. Ruth O'Leary, enjoyed VIP treatment at Sunderland's Museum and Winter Gardens with her mother Kathleen O'Leary. After being informed of her significance to the attraction
BBC Royal correspondent Jennie Bond is taking part in an event to help raise money for a County Durham cancer charity. The Golden Jubilee luncheon at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield, on May 3, is the only speaking engagement Miss Bond has agreed to do this
IN the ageless argot of journalism, April 12-13, 1902, wasn't a good news weekend - by which the innocent would infer the exact opposite. Nothing at all horrible happened: that was the bad news. Just about the most exciting thing in the following Monday's
A SPONSORED walk will take place next month in memory of a 20-month-old girl who died from heart disease. Claire Cook contracted dilated cardio-myopathy in January 2000 and died six months later. She had been fitted with an artificial heart while waiting
Neil Wainwright last night conceded Darlington's season has been a massive disappointment - but believes the club's off-the-field problems are not the only reason for Quakers' downfall. Darlington's season, especially the latter half, has been plagued
Bishop Auckland are set to wave goodbye to Kingsway today as their future starts to grow a little uncertain. Bishops bring down the curtain of more than a century of glory when they play their last ever competitive match at home to Bradford Park Avenue
JOBSEEKERS with a head for heights and an interest in food could end up working in one of the region's most prestigious buildings. North-East unemployed people are being offered the chance to receive job training for the three catering spaces that will
Television takes its turn to roll out the red carpet next week as it presents its awards at a star-spangled ceremony. But, do awards matter, and who cares ayway? The good, the bad and the soap stars from the TV world will be out in force on Monday night
