BLAZE A TRAIL: Vandals caused over £10,000 damage when they set fire to a lorry and bulldozer on a Bury motorway site. The firebugs struck at the M66 construction site at Bentley Lane, off Walmersley Road.

BIRD SHOOT: A young boy was recovering in hospital after an operation to remove an air pellet from the side of his head. Nine-year-old Robert Bird of Brierley Avenue, Whitefield, was shot at by thugs during at walk at Burrs in Bury.

LAND ROVER ROVERS: After two-and-a-half years in South Africa , three local lads decided to return to Bury. But, rather make the 15,000 mile journey in a luxury jet, the trio made the hip trip in an old Land Rover taking over six months to complete.

Kevin O'Byrne (23) of Scobell Street, Tottington, Bob Hodgson (22) of Wilton Avenue, Prestwich, and Jack Tebay (24) of Lomax Street, Greenmount, had originally emigrated to South Africa but it was talk of life back in Bury that made the adventurers determined to return. PPPPPICK UP A PENGUIN: Police were seeking a thief who raided a garden in Bury and fled with a polar bear and a penguin. The thief also helped himself to a squirrel, a rabbit and a tortoise from the garden in Fletcher Fold Road. But police were not alerting wildlife experts, for the animals were concrete and plastic garden ornaments.

NEW PUB IN TOWN: Thwaites Brewery was given planning permission to build a new public house in Clerke Street, Bury. The pub will be known as The Flying Shuttle.

HERO HOUSEWIFE: A Radcliffe housewife dragged a neighbour's child to safety from a smoke-filled room from a blazing armchair. Mrs Pauline McNaulty of Haworth Walk, saw thick smoke coming from under the lounge door of the house next door. She found five-year-old Paul Bates alone in the room with the fire and grabbed him.

OMNIBUS CONDUCTOR: Celebrated conductor Andre Previn spent the weekend in Whitefield preparing and recording a brass spectacular featuring Besses o' th' Barn Band for the BBC television programme "Omnibus".