Dead Reckoning

‘EASTERN mysticism holds a deep fascination for many people.

So when the chief cleric of Sriguru Ashram in India eastern Orissa state said he would die a natural death last Wednesday between 6.00 am and noon, many believed him.

Here was a man who said he could and would die by the power of his own will. Who could not be interested in such wonder?

So the police made arrangements to keep the crowd at bay, as 15,000 people turned up to see the miracle.

On Wednesday morning, the seer prayed at the break of dawn and then sat down to meditate as the crowd watched him in awe.

As noon edged closer, the crowd fell into a respectful hush. And when noon passed and the seer was still alive, they went berserk and hurled abuse at him and temple officials.

The police resorted to a baton-charge to disperse the crowd.

‘Perhaps the will of God was somewhat different,” said the cleric. “I am very shocked to have given you so much pain. I wanted to leave my mortal body, but I could not. Please forgive me.’

Not on your life, mate…’

Posted: 24th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Unlucky Beggar

‘NEXT time you buy a copy of the Big Issue, and are walking off feeling all virtuous and noble, try not to give the seller a good kick as you go or stab him with your umbrella.

Poor Michael Burns, 43, may well have been grateful to the kindly trucker who leant from his cab window and handed over a dollar bill.

At the time, Burns was standing near an interstate slip road in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, holding a cardboard sign on which was written: ‘Homeless. Need Help. God Bless.’

The lorry driver saw the sign. But as he drove off, the truck started making a left turn and its trailer knocked Burns down. Two sets of its tyres ran over him.

He is now of a fixed abode. He’s dead.’

Posted: 23rd, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Driven Mad

‘WITH England’s game in Spain still fresh in the mind, news now of how much worse things could have got had, for instance, Sven Goran Eriksson commandeered the mobile stretcher and made for the referee.

Thankfully, the Swede is not overly given to acts of spontaneity – and, perhaps, would have emptied the team’s dishwasher before starting her up.

But Mihai Macovei, president of second division Moldovan side Roso Floren, is more hot-headed.

When referee Vitaly Onike awarded a penalty against his team in the first half of last week’s match against rivals Politehnika Chisinau, Macovei knew exactly what he must do.

‘I’ve had enough of these refs, they are so corrupt and biased that you just can’t stand still anymore. You have to do something to stop this,” said he.

‘I didn’t punch or threaten him.”

No, but he did get in his car and drive it onto the pitch and straight at the ref, who managed to get out of the way in time.

The referee decided to abandon the match and this week the disciplinary committee of the Moldovan soccer federation awarded Politehnika a 3-0 win and fined the Roso boss.’

Posted: 22nd, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

After The Watershed

‘CILLA and Les have always caused a splash in the Street with their ‘colourful’ (ie hideous) love life.

‘You might recognise these from the last soap awards ceremony…’

This week they’ve taken it even further by crashing through the ceiling in their illegally installed Jacuzzi – sending water, cocktails and Hawaiian pizza everywhere.

Neighbours Norris and Emily have been trying to put a stop to the Battersby’s Baywatch re-enactments for weeks. “I can’t sleep for the banging,” he told Cilla. “Tell me about it,” she leered back at him.

It looks like their prayers have been answered, however, as Cilla and Les’ tropical night came to an abrupt end when Chesney’s dog Schmeichel came bounding into bathroom and leapt into the hot tub, sending the whole thing through the floor.

Thankfully, as it was before the watershed, Cilla was demurely wearing a bikini in the tub, sparing ten million people post-traumatic stress for life.

Vera is also about to come crashing back down to earth after telling everyone that she’s expecting a famous visitor. “Big ears, tall bloke,” she told the Rovers, having been sworn to secrecy. “Is it Martin Clunes?” asked Kirk, earning him a clip round the head from Fizz.

Jack and his mate Henry have hatched an elaborate plan to convince Vera to let Jack keep pigeons again.

Henry, the President of the Weatherfield Pigeon Fanciers Society, promised Jack that he had a foolproof plan that would mean Vera was begging Jack to start keeping pigeons again. It’s just as well it’s foolproof considering Henry’s working with Jack and Vera.

Henry tuned up at the Duckworths’ claiming to be a representative from National Heritage. He told Vera that their house had been singled out for a special award for being “one of the last remaining untouched working class houses” in the area.

But unfortunately, the award, to be presented by “a member of royalty, but it’s all very hush-hush,” would only be given to a house with a fully working pigeon loft.

“Let’s fill the house with pigeons,” Vera screamed hysterically to a smirking Jack. Poor Vera, the closest she’s ever going to come to royalty is holding a ten pound note on pension day.

The madness of Karen McDonald continues apace. In the space of two episodes she’s thrown Steve out and then taken him back.

She’s also smacked Tracy in the mouth – which, let’s face it she deserved – and is now demanding that Steve has sex with her three times a day in spite of the fact she’s not speaking to him.

Poor Steve doesn’t know if he’s coming or going – quite literally.’

Posted: 19th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Judge For Yourself

‘YOU may well think that Judge Antonio Marreiro from Rio de Janeiro is a pompous git. You may think he is a self-important pillock. You may think he is a bombastic berk.

But you wouldn’t say so to his face.

Indeed, the only way you would address Judge Marreiro is as ‘Your Excellency’ or ‘Your Honour’ – unless you want to risk a fine.

The Brazilian judge went to court to insist that everyone, even his neighbours, have to address him by his formal titles – and won!

Strangely, he has not made many friends as a result.

President Octavio Augusto Brandao Gomes, president of the Brazilian Lawyer’s Order, said he found the judge’s request ‘totally insane’.

‘We are all human beings,” he said. “No one in this life is better than the other just because they have a title.

‘When I see absurd requests like this winning in court, I wonder if people like this judge do not have anything better to think about or to accomplish!”

Posted: 19th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

On The Pool

‘A SWIMMING pool attendant in Germany had to be rescued by police after being trapped in a lost property office by a randy hen party.

The man was tricked into the office by the bride-to-be, who then tried to bully him into having sex with her.

‘She locked the door, and without further ado, started trying to undress the man,’ said a police spokesman in Schweinfurt, Bavaria.

However, a colleague heard his cries for help and called the police.

The bride, who has not been named so as ‘not to endanger future marital peace, said she ‘wanted to fool around one last time before the wedding’.

She was quickly released and, said a police spokeswoman, ‘all she had to do was promise us to be a good girl and drive straight home.”

Posted: 18th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Extramarital Text

‘WHEN Sally Maiden saw text messages on her husband’s phone such as ”Don’t do too much down the gym, save your energy for Wednesday ****”, she jumped to the obvious conclusion.

No, not that she had married David Beckham, but that her husband was having an affair.

“I went nuts,” admits Sally.

However, it turned out that the text messages were not meant for her husband – he had only borrowed the mobile from a phone shop while they fixed his own and the shop had not wiped the steamy texts first.

Mechanic Stuart said: ”We can laugh now. But she was set to chuck me out at the time.”’

Posted: 17th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Bare-Footed Cheek

‘STANDARDS of decorum may be slipping here in the UK, but in the Netherlands even members of the criminal fraternity know how to behave – as a 41-year-old Dutchwoman found out.

She arrived home from a shopping trip in Utrecht to find arguably the world’s politest burglar in her house.

Not only had the 18-year-old taken his shoes off at the door and left them under the stairs but, when the woman entered her home, he came down the stairs, shook hands and politely introduced himself.

Sadly, such politeness wasn’t good news for his criminal career.

The woman unsurprisingly didn’t believe his claim that he had been looking for a ball on the roof and called the police, who caught the man on his bicycle nearby and arrested him.

Nothing was taken from the woman’s house, but the intruder was found to have other charges of theft and entering houses without permission against him.’

Posted: 16th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

The Grey Pound

‘IT’S hard to make ends meet in retirement these days – and crime is at least an equal opportunities employer.

So it is with little surprise that news reaches us that police in Austria have recently arrested a gang of drug dealing pensioners – just days after their colleagues in Germany nailed a gang of OAP bank robbers.

The Vienna police caught the four senior citizens, all aged between 55 and 70, after a tip-off from a fellow drug dealer who told how they had been supplying local prostitutes with cocaine.

”They would go on ‘day trips’ to Belgium by car to get the cocaine,” a policeman said. “Then they sold it off themselves.”’

Posted: 15th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Spanking Aloud

‘EVER woken in the middle of the night, poked your partner in the ribs and asked: “Did you hear something?”

An unnamed German man in the city of Nuremburg woke in similar fashion. He had heard something go bang in the night – followed by what seemed to be the sound of a metal spoon slapping onto pink flesh.

But he had no need to ask what this noise was. He did not even have to guess. He knew what it was because he lived next door to a sadomasochism parlour.

So he went next door to ask his neighbours to keep the screaming down. But finding no dominatrix or club owner, he used his gas pistol to shoot a client.

”He couldn’t take it any more and decided to take the law into his own hands at 1:45 am,” said a spokesman for police in the southern German city.

Officers called to the club confiscated the 22-year-old’s pistol before charging him with causing grievous bodily harm and violating weapons laws.

His victim is said to have smiled and begged for him to do it again…’

Posted: 12th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Tracey Quizzes Steve

‘STEVE McDonald triumphed on a new quiz show called Top Of The Tree this week, but when wife Karen finds out he’s been playing happy families with Tracy Barlow, he’ll be hanging from one.

”Now Steve, here is the big question: Who would you like to spend the rest of your life with: Karen, Tracy or your mum?”

Karen popped over to Dublin for the weekend to visit Linda, which gave Tracy the green light to move in on Steve.

By an amazing coincidence, it just so happened that Blanche had won a place on a new family quiz show which was being filmed that very weekend.

It featured four generations of the same family competing for a car.

Liz had been invited to take part on the grounds that she was little Amy’s grandmother and had managed to persuade Steve to drive her down to London.

“I’ll pay yer,” she pleaded – probably not the first time she’d uttered those words to a young man, it has to be said.

Steve, who has all the will power of a Premiership footballer, not only agreed to take Liz to London but also to appear on the quiz show.

“It’ll never be shown to TV,” Liz lied to him, “Karen will never know.”

The irony was that it was actually Karen who won the ‘McDonald-Barlows’ the car in the end as the final question was about shoes and Steve was allowed to ‘phone a friend’ – so, of course, he turned to his wife, who could take a degree course in the subject of shoes and accessories.

After the show was filmed, Tracy managed to lure Steve back to her room with the excuse that she wanted him to see their baby daughter asleep.

“I mean it Steve, I’m so over you,” she lied as it’s pretty clear to everyone that she’d like nothing more than to be under him.

Although Tracy kept her promise not to tell Karen about the London weekend, Blanche, the Weatherfield Witch, had no such qualms.

“Know where yer husband’s been this weekend?” she taunted Karen in the Rovers. “Playin’ ‘appy families with his little girl and Tracy – where he should be.”

If looks could kill, all the ‘McDonald-Barlows’ would now be in intensive care.

Elsewhere on the Street, Maria also has to make some relationship decisions. Tyrone won her a holiday for two in Spain in a game of darts (well, it’s better than a Bullseye caravan) and assumed that she’d be taking him as a thank you.

Maria’s got other plans though. “I don’t want the missing link hovering around, cramping my style,” she told Fizz. Maria’s ‘style’ being to go out with men who chuck her after she’s slept with them.

Happier relationship news for Claire and Ashley. Ashley’s finally realised that Maxine’s never coming back (however much she begs the producers) and has set a date for the wedding.

“The church was fully booked,” Ashley told a disappointed Claire. “The only date they’ve got available was Christmas Day.”

Well, what an amazing coincidence – Coronation Street just happens to have a 90-minute special on that very day!’

Posted: 12th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Pet Names

‘JUST as babies have been given pets’ names like Oscar and Max, the trend has also gone the other way and now more and more pet owners are calling their adorable balls of fur and fleas human names, like Day-vid, Romeo and Brooklyn.

But one man is not happy. Pastor Reinaldo, from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, says it is terribly embarrassing when someone finds out they share their name with a pet.

So the MP has tabled a new law under which anyone who gives their animal a human name could be fined and also ordered to carry out community service.

There is a long way to go before the proposal becomes law in Brazil, and then perhaps even throughout the world. And until it does, Lassie Beckham remains a possibility…’

Posted: 11th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Blind Ambition

‘DISCRIMANATION against the handicapped is a terrible thing. But strides have been made in bringing about equality between able bodied and disabled people.

And now, Alin Popescu, a blind 24-year-old Romanian, has done his bit to level out the playing field – by proving that he can be every bit as big an idiot as an able bodied lad.

“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do anything I wanted despite my handicap,” says Popescu, who is now helping police with their enquires.

The local upholders of law and order want to know how Popescu happened to break into a car, start the ignition with a screwdriver and then set off down a busy road.

Less mysterious is how he came to career straight into a tree.

“I only crashed because I was not sure of the way home,” said the fearless campaigner.’

Posted: 10th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Fire Drill

‘AS Katharine Hepburn said: “Without discipline, there’s no life at all.” And her famous words are given added weight by news from the US of A.

Who can blame American students for routinely attending American schools while clad in full body armour and clutching assault rifles to their surgically-enhanced chests when at any moment their own armed forces can fire on them at will?

The US air force is investigating an incident in which an F-16 fighter on a training mission strafed a New Jersey school with non-explosive rounds of 20-mm ammunition.

Lieutenant Colonel Roberta Niedt said the F-16, which was assigned to the District of Columbia Air National Guard, was in the airspace of a New Jersey gunnery range when it accidentally discharged 25 training rounds.

”An undetermined number of rounds hit the Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School,” she said.

”The National Guard takes this situation very seriously,” she said. ”The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern.”

Quite.’

Posted: 9th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Mind Games

‘LOOK out for the newest imported American street slang coming to a Midlands market town near you –“get brain”. So hip is this phrase that not even everyone in New York is up with it.

Take the case of the city officials who approved an advert carrying the slogan to be plastered all over 200 of the Big Apple’s buses.

The advert from hip-hop clothing label Akademiks depicts a woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan: ‘Read Books, Get Brain.’ The message is that reading is good for you, it exercises the mind – it also exercises the head. In short, reading gets you oral sex.

Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Tom Kelly condemned the ‘vulgar street phrases’ in the racy ads, which he said were ‘demeaning women.’ He went on: “To me and I believe to everyone else, while it was done by a clothing line, it would give the impression that it was also promoting reading and literacy.”

Kelly said that after he was alerted to the alternative meaning of the phrase when he consulted some young MTA workers. ‘I went downstairs to the mailroom and showed some of the young guys a copy of the ad,’ he said. ‘I was watching their faces and they all start smirking.’

Posted: 8th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Game Over?

‘LOCK up your lycra, ladies – Liz McDonald’s back in town. Unfortunately, no one seems to have told her that Halloween’s over for another year as she returned dressed as some sort of S&M witch.

‘That’s the one, your honour!’

It’s a look that Charlie seems to favour, however, as he’s been trying to get into her clothes (her pants specifically) ever since she got back.

Shelly, whose lobotomy was more successful than even Charlie could have hoped for, believes that it’s Liz who’s after her man and chucked her out of the Rovers – yet again. Liz has – yet again – moved in with Steve and Karen, much to Karen’s disgust.

“Yer mum’s been trowelling on the make-up for almost an hour in the bathroom,” Karen screeched. “Some of us have jobs to go to,” she continued. “That’s right, love,” Liz replied, “the fish market is shockingly understaffed.”

Karen’s job at Underworld is actually looking a bit shaky after all the girls decided to go on a go-slow in protest at Danny Baldwin’s attempts to monitor their work. All the girls that is apart from Kelly Crabtree.

Kelly, or ‘Crabby’ as the girls charmingly refer to her as, has set her sights on bedding Danny Baldwin. “He’s a terrible womaniser,” said Hayley. “Great!” replied Kelly, “then I’m in with a chance!”

Danny took Kelly out for a drink. “You know I’m married, don’t you?” he told her, “and that I always will be. But I always think there’s room for more than two in a marriage.”

Mad Maya is also of the same opinion – she’s got seven husbands, although the men all think they’ve married someone called Sunita.

As Sunita rots in jail for a crime she didn’t commit, Dev and her mother have joined forces to try and prove her innocence.

Frankie Baldwin let slip to Dev that she’d bumped into a taxi driver who told her that he’d driven Maya to her wedding and the pair – a kind of Asian Cagney and Lacey – amazingly manage to track him down within a couple of episodes.

Well, less amazingly when you stop to think that the population of Weatherfield is about 25. He agreed to help after Maya’s mother gave him a passionate speech about helping your children in need (well, it is getting to that time of year).

They set up a sting and lured Maya to The Rovers for the taxi driver to identify her. “Is that the woman you drove to her wedding? The woman who told you her name was Sunita?” boomed Dev, coming over all Rumpole of the Bailey. “Yes, it is,” the cabbie told a packed Rovers.

But it takes more than that to wipe the smirk off Maya’s face. “Thanks Dev,” she laughed. “I’d been worried about him coming forward, but now you’ve blown your only ace. A judge will strike his evidence out now as inadmissible.”

And with that she picked up her broomstick and flew out of The Rovers.

More scary woman behaviour in Weatherfield this week as Cilla is on the prowl again. Les’s attempts to woo her back into bed (why?) resulted in him buying a dodgy Jacuzzi from Charlie.

Cilla tells Les that her ‘friend’ Billy can fix it. “He can turn ‘is ‘and to anything,” she purred. “He’s a dab hand at fixing dodgy pipe work.” Well, Cilla should know.’

Posted: 7th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

We’re Jammin’

‘SCIENTISTS have hidden 100 jam sandwiches in remote forests in England in an attempt to catch a pine marten, a mammal believed to have been extinct here for 100 years.

Local naturalists have logged 35 suspected marten sightings on the densely-wooded fringes of the North York Moors since 1990.

And, although Brian Walker, of the Forestry Commission, says most of them were probably mistaken identity, “some were very convincing”.

”It could be that there’s always been a presence in this area, but we feel it’s more likely that they are recolonising from Scotland, where colonies are well-known.

”They often travel up to 20 miles a day while foraging and they could have easily worked their way back south.”

Scientists will monitor the traps, which also contain shredded chicken wings (another pine marten favourite), for hairs and other DNA traces.’

Posted: 5th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Speedy Delivery

‘WHEN a Romanian boy called Speedy Gonzales is asked how he came to have such an unusual name, this is what he will have to say.

That he was born in the back of a car, which was heading to hospital at Suceava when it broke down.

That his mother went into labour on the back seat of a car stuck on a crowded motorway with vehicles speeding past.

That the car was then fixed and he emerged into this world as the car was racing along to the hospital at 60mph.

And that his parents have got a strange sense of humour…’

Posted: 4th, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Mistaken Identity

‘MEN have long complained that their wife is no longer the woman they fell in love with – but, in the case of one Romanian man, it was very true.

Vladut R was married for three years before finding out that his wife was not the woman of his dreams, but her twin sister – and now he wants a divorce.

The dentist from Constanta, Romania, met the ”love of his life” – Elena – on a trip to France a few years ago and they agreed to meet up when they returned to Romania.

But in the meantime, the girl suffered an accident and decided not to pursue the relationship.

However, by coincidence Vladut met his lover’s twin sister, Monica, at the seaside and thought it was his one true love.

She accepted his marriage proposal, omitting to tell him her real identity.

Now the couple have agreed about to divorce so the man can be back together with the right sister.’

Posted: 3rd, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Doing Bird

‘THREE thieves have been arrested after returning to the scene of their crime – to silence a parrot who they believed could identify them.

The trio had made off with DVD players, computers, radios, televisions and other electronic items from a house in Memphis, Tennessee when one of the three said he had heard a parrot in the house using the nickname ”JJ” of one of his accomplices.

They went back for it and were loading it into their car when police arrived.

The men were arrested after a short car chase and have been charged with aggravated burglary and evading arrest.

”They were afraid the bird would stool on them,” said police Major Billy Garrett said. ”They actually believed he could identify them.”’

Posted: 2nd, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Wooden Top

‘WHEN Gajendra Kharatmal was rejected by the police force in Mumbai for not meeting the minimum height requirement, he didn’t give up.

Instead, the next year and had another go. But officials of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission were suspicious when he reached the 5ft 3ins mark exactly when he first stood at the scale.

An examiner said: ”So we asked him to stand there once again. The second time, we felt something hard hidden in his hair and discovered a piece of wood.”

The 5ft 1in would-be cop has been arrested on charges of cheating and is currently out on bail.

Police spokesman A K A Kaiser said: ”On his second attempt Kharatmal was aware he would be rejected for the same reason. To get selected, he adopted this approach.”’

Posted: 1st, November 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Husband No. 1

‘FORGET dial-a-bride and now consider ad-a-man.

Helen Zhou, a Chinese woman living in Sydney, has spent A$5,000 (about £2,000) advertising for a husband on a billboard outside a cinema in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

”People are happy to date but they don’t want any commitment, only temporary relationships,” says Zhou.

The ad – ”HUSBAND WANTED” – lists Zhou’s preferences. He should be no older than 45, healthy, a non-smoker and drinker, Caucasian, comfortably well-off and blessed with a good sense of humor.

”I’m not fussy,” said Zhou. “I guess I want a traditional sort of person, not really flash – an old fashioned kind of guy, not one who spends every cent and doesn’t worry about tomorrow.”’

Posted: 29th, October 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Wedding Sirens

‘WEATHERFIELD hosted its first Hindu marriage this week, although there’s much debate about if a marriage actually happened at all.

”Dear Deirdre…”

Just as the happy couple were about to be united, about twenty extras from The Bill burst in and carted Sunita off, claiming that she was already married to seven other men.

“I don’t seem to recall reading about this in my Hindu ceremonies book,” said a flustered Roy.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold and it seems that Mad Maya’s scheme to humiliate and punish Sunita and Dev has finally come off.

Dev was also taken to the police station but he was able to prove he wasn’t an illegal immigrant, marrying Sunita for a British passport – although given his garbled use of the English language, it’s not surprising the police were doubtful at first.

Sunita however was promptly locked up without any hope of bail – Maya had ensured that the case against her was watertight. Not only had she stolen Sunita’s birth certificate, she also set up a bank account in her name and transferred several thousand pounds into it, as ‘payment’ for her illegal marriages.

Dev went to see Maya. “You evil bitch,” he hissed, throwing Maya up against her garage wall. “Your lovely bride is going to rot away in jail,” gloated Maya, “Why should she be happy when I’m not?” she screamed.

So poor Sunita is left to rot in jail until her court case in March of next year, unless Dev can prove her innocence. But with one shop assistant in prison and the other run off to London, he’s not going to have an awful lot of spare time.

Another foolish woman in love is Shelly. This week she’d got it into her thick head that Charlie was having an affair with Gail. Ironically, the crimes Charlie has committed – sleeping with her mother and trying it on with Liz – are those Shelly refuses to believe that he’s capable of.

Instead, she accuses him of the one thing he hasn’t done – which means that she’s now got a whole mountain of humble pie to get through. But with Shelly’s appetite, that’s unlikely to be a problem.’

Posted: 29th, October 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Pony & Trap

‘HOW many people can you fit inside a Volkswagen Polo? Now imagine they’re German. Same answer?

What about if you throw in a Shetland pony?

Dutch police have fined a German driver after spotting a Shetland pony crammed in the back of his Polo hatchback.

”The small Shetland pony had no room to move and his head was pressed against the window,” police said on Thursday. A woman on the back seat held the animal by a rope.

Police fined the 42-year-old driver 220 euros for improper transport of the animal, just bought on a local Dutch market.’

Posted: 28th, October 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Midfield Terrier

‘WHEN Pickles the dog discovered the Jules Rimet trophy after it had been stolen in 1966, dogs rose to a special place in the hearts and minds of football fans.

Nowadays, the sprit of Pickles lives on in Jake the terrier, whom fans of Plymouth Argyle had hoped would be entertaining them at half-time. This is the dog, after all, that can do 20 headers in a row.

But Jake been prevented from performing so by health and safety officials.

Argyle spokesman Rick Cowdery said: ”We thought Jake would be great entertainment. But there were concerns he might do what all dogs do on grass and pose a risk to players.”

The club’s owner Tony Slark complains: ”He’s so regular there’s as much chance of him messing the pitch as of Plymouth winning the European Cup.”’

Posted: 27th, October 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment