A FOUR-STRONG team of dogs and handlers from Teesdale Flyball Club will be competing at Crufts under their own name for the first time next spring, after winning an event at Irvine in Scotland to qualify.
The success has delighted Doreen Bowles, Claire Todd, Sarah Heslop and Neil Malkin, plus ball loader David Bowles.
The club has sent teams to the big show at Birmingham in the past, but they had to go under the banner of Peterlee Flyball Club, as their own registration had not been formalised by the Kennel Club.
"We will have our Teesdale identity on display at last, so we hope to do really well," said Sarah Heslop, who will take part with her dog Penny.
It is an exciting event in which a dog places a paw on a pedal to release a ball, which it catches in its mouth before sprinting with it over a tough obstacle course.
The foursome will compete as the Teesdale Tornados, and the club hopes to send a second team as the Teesdale Bombers.
This squad, which will try to qualify in the coming weeks, is made up of Kath Harris, Mandy le Patteurel, Anne Spibey and Karen Foster.
"There are only 16 flyball teams at Crufts, so it will be wonderful if two are from the dale," added Ms Heslop.
All the members will be training hard to try to reach the final in the famous arena, and have their efforts screened on national television.
JEANETTE NEWELL, a member of Lynesack and Softley Parish Council and a keen historian, has a plan to encourage more people of all ages to read more books, now that she has taken over from Anne Briggs as manager of Barnard Castle library.
She spoke of it as tea and biscuits were served among the novels and biographies on Wednesday, at an event designed to help her get to know some of her customers.
She explained that she is to launch a group whose members will all read the same book and then meet in the library to give their opinions about it.
There will also be a section for juniors.
The members will choose a book every month, and Mrs Newell hopes that at times quite a number will say they didn't enjoy reading it.
"If everyone loves it, there won't be much of a discussion," she told me.
"It is best to have some attacking it and others disagreeing, as this makes for a lively debate."
Reading groups she started proved successful in a previous library role in Wolsingham. Her favourite author is Robert Goddard, whose novels have a historical background, plus some detective work.
"I buy all his books as they are a good read," she said.
"I'll possibly suggest one to the adult group, but I won't expect everyone to like it as much as I do."
She hopes the junior section will give a lot of children a love of reading.
She has been an avid reader since her days at Butterknowle School and Teesdale School, but has not had much time for reading books since taking over the task of looking after thousands of them.
EWAN BOYD revealed this week that it was his wife Jane who came up with the idea of turning the youth hostel at Langdon Beck into a green haven, with as many measures as they could muster to preserve the dale's natural resources.
Her suggestion, which got his full support, has taken shape over the past ten years, and has now resulted in the award of a European Ecolabel, the highest prize that can be gained for environment-saving efforts.
"I've been delighted to make our building so eco-friendly, but it is down to Jane for putting up the original thought," said Mr Boyd, the hostel manager.
"She has been exceptionally keen on it all the way."
Their latest installation is a Swedish system that flushes only four litres of water - which comes from a rain harvester that sends supplies to showers as well as toilets.
A wind turbine, solar panels, reed bed, switch timers and recycling scheme all play a role in saving energy and reducing carbon emissions.
The hostel is now on course to pass last year's record total of 3,500 visitors.
Many of these hikers and cyclists take a close interest in the special features, and go away thinking how they can make savings in their own homes and workplaces.
Other hostels all over Britain are also taking up similar campaigns.
CONSIDERING that she moved to Teesdale from Dorset only two years ago, after falling for the scenery, artist Jenny Angold has painted a remarkable number of local landscapes.
A large collection of her big, bright and bold work can be viewed at the Castle Gallery, in the Witham Hall, Barnard Castle, until Wednesday.
Has she got a favourite scene? "Not really, as there are so many wonderful views all around," she told me.
"Just about every time I go out I see a lovely new scene which becomes my favourite for a while."
She always carries a camera when she ventures from her home in Westwick to snap any setting that takes her fancy.
Then she transfers it to canvas in a bedroom she has turned into a studio.
She paints just about every day and also decorates fine bone china.
She seems to be never idle - when I looked in on Thursday, while she was looking after her exhibition, she was busy crocheting a blanket for a baby.
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