A CHARITY effort to visit all the country's ice hockey rinks will visit Durham - even though the city's rink closed nine years ago.

Six supporters of the Nottingham Panthers team are spending a week travelling from Elgin to the Isle of Wight, calling at 50 venues, to raise £3,000 for Cancer Research.

On Friday afternoon, the Rink Rush team will visit the city's former riverside rink, now a ten pin bowling alley.

The 50-year-old rink, which was also popular with skaters, closed in 1996 because of spiralling building repair costs and the city also lost its Durham Wasps ice hockey team.

The County Durham Ice Foundation has been campaigning to get a replacement facility in the county and members will greet the fund-raisers.

Foundation chairman Michael Vasey said he was delighted the city was on their itinerary, which showed how important Durham had been to ice sports in this country.

"A group of supporters from Nottingham still recognises Durham as an integral part of the ice sports community some nine years after the closure of the rink.''

He added: "The visit of these supporters once again highlights the fact that County Durham is one of the few areas in the country where people have no access to a recreational and sporting ice facility.

"That this situation exists in an area, which has had such huge influence in the development of ice sports, is deeply disappointing.''