July 2008 Archives

A CAT whose Crewe owner feared it was lost forever turned up in Middlewich after hitching a ride in a skip. Four-year-old Murphy disappeared from his home at Simpson Court in Crewe three months ago.

But the black cat named after the Emerald Isle stout proved he had the luck of the Irish when he landed on his feet 10 miles away in Glastonbury Drive, Middlewich and took up residence with Paul and Kate Clarke at nearby Fountains Close.

Owner Vanessa Harratt believes his journey started when they had a skip delivered. The lorry driver then took another skip to Middlewich.

She said: "He must have climbed in it while the truck was still here. We were all distraught when he went missing but I never gave up hope."

The Clarkes spotted Murphy when he ate food left out for hedgehogs.

They took him to Middlewich Veterinary Surgery and he was reunited with his owners thanks to his micro-chip.

Vanessa said: "It was like having a newborn baby when he came back home because everyone came round and brought him toys. I'm so grateful to Mr and Mrs Clarke who took him in. He's fatter than he was when he left here!"

A HUSBAND and wife are planning to become Mrs and Mrs following his revelations he wants to be a woman.

Nantwich father-of-three Karl Ellis, 27, changed his name by deed poll to Lucy Jayne last October.
Although wife Lorna knew her husband was a cross-dresser she was taken by surprise when, earlier this year, Karl told her: "I want to become a real woman."

Their story has now been highlighted in our Trinity Mirror sister publication, the Sunday Mirror.
"I just couldn't believe it," said 23-year-old Lorna, "This was my husband saying he wanted to be my girlfriend. All I knew is I wanted to be with him. He was my first love and I couldn't imagine life without him.
"I blamed myself and felt a complete failure as a woman. Should I have been able to convince him that he was a real man?"

Karl, now Lucy, said: "I hope we can work it out and stay together."

The couple first became friends at school more than 10 years ago. They then moved into a flat together in August 2002 and soon afterwards Lorna, then 17, discovered she was pregnant.

The couple, who now have three children, were married at Crewe Register Office in August 2006.
Karl, who is 6ft 5ins tall, continued to cross-dress and one night Lorna asked if he actually wanted to be a woman.

Lucy, then still Karl, replied he did - that he had tried to bury it, but couldn't.
When Lorna, who is 5ft 4ins, then asked Karl if he wanted a sex change operation he said he wasn't sure.
Karl, now Lucy, added: "We sat down and talked about it then we went to the doctors to see if they could help me with Lorna's support."

He now has to live as Lucy, a woman, for two years before a sex change operation can even be considered.

A TICKET mix-up cost a couple their £240,000 lottery win.

Jeanette Dodd, 45, was jumping for joy when she checked her Lucky Dip ticket for last Saturday's draw because she had five numbers, 2, 12, 22, 28, 30 and the bonus ball 39.

But then her husband Andrew, who works at Shell UK (Stanlow), double-checked and dropped the bombshell news - their winning ticket was not for that night, Saturday, but the following Wednesday instead.

Mrs Dodd, who lives with her husband in Eastham, said: "It's like a cruel joke. One minute I thought I'd won a fortune - and the next it had gone."

The couple bought the ticket at 5.45pm at Asda in Bromborough on Saturday of last week.

Mrs Dodd explained: "As we left the store Andrew said he was going to get a Lotto ticket but I said I would get it because I had just found a penny on the floor.

"You know the expression: 'See a penny, pick it up and all the day you'll have good luck'. I normally do the Lotto online but I went to the counter with a blank play slip to ask the bloke what I did.

"He put the slip straight through the machine and when it registered nothing he asked me what I wanted.

"I told him three lucky dips for that night but as I said it he was talking to someone through a perspex screen next to him. That's the only reason I can think of for the mistake.

"All I can say is I now know what it feels like to win an awful lot of money... and it's a fantastic feeling.

"Unfortunately, I know what it is like to have it taken away."

And of her tickets, she said: "You don't think to check the day and date."

Mrs Dodd - mum to Kelly, 24, and Michael, 22 - has since received an e-mail of apology from Asda.

A spokeswoman for Camelot, which runs the National Lottery, said: "While we understand the customer's disappointment, all lottery tickets clearly state that it's the customer's responsibility to check the details. If a mistake had been picked up by the customer at the time, we would of course have re-issued fresh tickets for the Saturday draw."

RACING pub regulars will take to the River Dee in the shell of a Lotus car.

The team of ten regulars and bar staff from Old Harkers Arms in Canalside, Chester, will don dinner jackets before arming themselves with an oar each and taking to the waters on Sunday for the James Bond themed raft race.

They will battle it out against 39 other wacky creations from a cross section of the business and local community.

They have christened their makeshift vessel 'The Man With the Golden Pump' and will be captained by landlord Paul Jeffery.

Contestants will paddle for more than 400 metres, from the Meadows, past The Groves, over the weir to the finishing line which is adjacent to the Old Dee Bridge.

The oarsmen are raising money for this year's main beneficiary, Age Concern at the Rotary Club event.

Thwarted last year after the event was cancelled because of dangerous river conditions, they have taken part in the charity race in year's gone by so know exactly what to expect.

One of the would-be special agents, Rob Blackwood, said: "It takes half an hour going down there and three hours going back up! It's chaos on the way back with everyone throwing things at each other."

Borrowing the use of a warehouse in Riverside Trade Park, Saltney and receiving material from local builders and barrels from the pub's suppliers, the team have been hard at work making their craft riverworthy.

Rob added: "We knew someone who had the shell of a Lotus Elite so we thought 'that's the raft sorted!' We've painted it battleship grey and will be racing in dinner jackets."

Sue Littler is official cheerleader for Cheshire Waste Skip Hire's entry 'The Skip' and says her 17-year-old daughter will help to set the pace.

She added: "Everything in the raft is salvaged from skips. It's all aluminium tubing and barrells.

"There's going to be someone at the front banging a drum. We're not in it to win it but we'll be noticeable!'

"But we're going to win."

Tony MacDonald, licensee at the Greyhound Inn, Farndon will board 'Live and Let Dee', constructed from the carbon fibres of a yacht's mast, with five pub regulars.

"The year before last we came 13th, so we might try to go for a podium finish this year," he said.

Prizes will be given for the best interpretation of the theme, as well as for the three fastest time classifications of 'Overall', 'Ladies' and 'Hostelry'.

Willaston worm charmers are the best in the world - and there's no wriggling out of it!

Once again villagers triumphed in the annual World Worm Charming Championships on Saturday with last year's winners, father and daughter Mike and Clare Gaukroger, taking the title with 125 worms.

Second were Year Five Willaston Primary School pupils Alice Wilson and Lauren Abbot, while Warrington headteacher Steve Plant charmed the heaviest worm at 4.6 grams.

But there was trouble with the celebrities - with Phoenix Nights star Paddy McGuinness using underhand tactics.

Organiser Mike Forster: "It wasn't that he was trying to cheat but he was trying to beat Rory McGrath. He got 69 compared to Rory's 12 but when they were all counted Paddy's were a different colour to Willaston worms!"

Mike added: "We raised about £2,000 for Willaston Primary School funds and, although I don't know exactly what went to all the charities represented, I would estimate probably about £5,000 was raised in total on the day."