The fundraiser will take place at Hollywood Bowl on 19th April 2027, in a collaboration between York Against Cancer and Menfulness.

Twenty-two teams of eight bowlers will play five games each, with the remaining games completed by VIP guests and volunteers to reach the 1,000-game target.

Andy Knowles, CEO of York Against Cancer, said: “1,000 Games bowling is about far more than strikes and spares.

“It’s a fun evening that carries a deeper purpose, raising funds for York Against Cancer’s vital work supporting those affected by cancer, and Menfulness and their support for local men, opening the conversation around men’s mental health.

“We’re especially glad to be teaming up with Menfulness, a fellow York-based charity whose work so closely maps onto our own communities across YO postcodes.

“Together, one frame at a time, I know we can really make a difference.”

The event will bring together businesses, community groups and families for an evening of friendly competition and fundraising.

Prizes will be awarded for the highest team score, the highest individual game score and most funds raised before the event night.

The two charities support people across York and the surrounding area, focusing on both physical and mental wellbeing.

The partnership highlights the importance of community support networks and the connections between physical and emotional health.

Jack Woodhams, CEO of Menfulness, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to be joining forces with York Against Cancer for what promises to be a brilliant evening.

“At Menfulness, we know that good mental wellbeing is about connection, friendship and having people around you who understand.

“Events like the charity bowling night bring people together, raise vital funds and help us continue providing opportunities for men to connect and access support when they need it.

“We’re hugely grateful to everyone taking part, fundraising, volunteering and supporting the event; together, we can make a real difference to people across our communities.”

The event aims to raise funds for essential services and also to increase awareness of the impact both organisations have on the lives of people in the region.

Tyler Heard said he saw the dog dash from the rails and in front of his mount My Spritely in the Glass Times EBF Novice Stakes, won by the William Haggas-trained Quite Cheeky

A jockey has spoken of his relief that a dog escaped unharmed when it dashed under the legs of his horse during a race.

The animal crossed the path of Tyler Heard’s thoroughbred My Spritely, a triple-figure outsider running in the Glass Times EBF Novice Stakes at Epsom on Thursday.

Heard, 24, recalled how he was approaching the two furlong pole on the Jim Boyle-trained filly when the dog “came out of nowhere.”

Somehow it just missed the hooves of the horse, out of contention at the time but on the way to completing the seven furlong contest.

“It happened so fast and I saw the dog about two strides before he crossed in front of us,” said Heard, who competes in around 200 Flat races each year and rides out for John and Thady Gosden’s top stable in Newmarket.

“I was shocked to see it on the course and it felt like he went in a gap between the filly’s legs.

“I was praying he was alright. The dog was so small I don’t think we could have come down, but he was lucky not to have been hurt.”

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper confirmed the dog, which appeared to go back in the same direction it appeared from, was unscathed after the incident.

The stewards’ report read: “An enquiry was held to consider the circumstances surrounding why a dog appeared on the track, approximately two furlongs out.

“The Clerk of the Course was interviewed.

“After hearing his evidence, a report was forwarded to the Head Office of the British Horseracing Authority for further consideration.”

The race was won by the William Haggas-trained debutant Quite Cheeky (7-1), who held he challenge of Astabuen by a neck.

“He’ll stay further and he really enjoyed the cut in the ground,” jockey Cieren Fallon told Racing TV. “He actually surprised me as I wouldn’t have thought he’d travel so well on such an undulating track, it’s just all on raw natural ability.

“He took the preliminaries in pretty nicely and he didn’t really hit his top speed today, because he was having a good look at everything. I couldn’t pull him up he was full of running.”

But the dog remained the post-race talking point for some time, as some people struggled to believe what they had just seen.

“Did anyone just see a dog ALMOST get trampled @EpsomRacecourse? That lil fella was quite lucky!” one racing fan wrote on X.

And another added: “What on earth have I just watched. A dog has run on the track at Epsom. Why is that not on a lead?”

Two people suffered minor injuries in a “dog attack” at Manchester’s Market Street tram stop, where a woman was arrested.

Two people have been left injured after an alleged dog attack by a tram stop in Manchester city centre with a woman arrested.

Police were called to the Market Street Metrolink stop at 2.24pm this afternoon following reports of the attack.

Greater Manchester Police said the dog reportedly bit two people, leaving them with injuries believed to be “minor”.

A 39-year-old woman has been arrested and taken into custody, while the breed of dog involved has not yet been revealed.

A spokeswoman for the force told the Mirror: “We were called at 2:24pm to Market Street, two people reportedly bitten by a dog.

“One woman aged 39 arrested on suspicion of being in control of a dog dangerously out of control.”

An eyewitness said he saw around seven police officers stood on the Metrolink stop and a ‘big dog’ having been ‘tied to the railings’ at the stop, reported the Manchester Evening News.

A spokesperson Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) confirmed Metrolink services were not affected by the incident.

A number of police vehicles remain at the scene this evening following the incident.

The WRU faces a tough battle for young Welsh-qualified talent

Two Welsh-qualified players have been included in England U20s’ elite player squad.

Swansea-born centre Will Moore and Bath scrum-half Isaac Mears are both eligible to represent Wales, with Moore having already met senior Wales head coach Steve Tandy.

Moore is a rising star with Bristol Bears and the son of former Wales lock Andy Moore, while Mears’ father is former Bath, England and British & Irish Lions hooker Lee Mears.

The Welsh Rugby Union has made retaining Welsh-qualified talent a priority but have much work to do.

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But representing England at U20s level does not tie either player to the Red Rose at senior level, with Ross Moriarty and Kane James among those to have previously switched allegiance back to Wales.

Bristol centre Moore is regarded as a top prospect and told WalesOnline in a previous interview that he remained open-minded about where his international future would lie.

“I saw it as an ideal opportunity with it only being an hour and a half from home,” he told WalesOnline back in April.

“You hear about how good English schoolboy rugby is and I would agree it does live up to that. I’m studying maths, chemistry and PE for my A levels at Clifton and I’m also part of the senior Bristol Bears academy.

“I had a few Wales U18s non capped appearances but I missed out on the Six Nations period last year with my shoulder. But now is probably the perfect time to try it out.

Joshua Cammidge, who previously lived in Acomb in York, allegedly researched four drone manufacturing sites in Swindon as well as a Wi-Fi-jamming device and is also said to have carried out reconnaissance.

It is alleged he communicated with and received instructions from an individual believed to be linked to the GRU Volunteer Corps, a group controlled by Russia’s intelligence services.

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The charges state that between March 27 and September 5 this year, Cammidge provided the individual with Google Maps screenshots showing the addresses of four drone manufacturing sites in Swindon and gave details on the activity at one particular factory.

Prosecutor Warren Stanier told Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday that Cammidge had been in contact with the individual on Facebook before agreeing to move to Telegram.

He said there were 58 communications between Cammidge and the individual from August 28 to September 3.

Mr Stanier said: “The prosecution say the essence of communications was locations within the UK of factories that manufactured drones and the sabotage of those factories.”

The 31-year-old appeared at the central London court wearing a prison-issue tracksuit.

Two security officers were present in the dock with the defendant, who spoke only to confirm his personal details.

Cammidge faces two counts, one of assisting a foreign intelligence service and another of intending to commit or engage in conduct to prepare an act of sabotage.

Mr Stanier told the court: “The prosecution case is he knew exactly who he was communicating with and the implications of what he was offering to do.”

The defendant did not enter a plea during the hearing and District Judge Daniel Sternberg remanded him into custody to appear at the Old Bailey on September 25.

Cammidge, of Galsworthy Close, Swindon, was arrested by Counter Terrorism Policing London officers, supported by officers from Wiltshire Police, at an address in Swindon on Friday, the Metropolitan Police said.

He was taken to a London police station and searches were carried out at a different address in Swindon.

The next day, Cammidge was further arrested and detained under the National Security Act 2023, on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service.

In July, the Government formally designated the GRU Volunteer Corps under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026, making it a criminal offence to express support for the group.

The GRU is sanctioned in its entirety by the UK, and hackers linked to the agency have been blamed for cyber attacks in Britain.

A GRU squad is believed to be behind the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

He said: “I’ll show you what rude is” before pressing down on her neck.

An ex-Scottish Laird has been jailed for strangling a woman because she was singing along to a performance of We Will Rock You. Malcolm Potier – who once hired a hitman to kill his ex-partner – grabbed Kirsty O’Donnell by the neck when an argument erupted in the audience of a 2023 performance of the hit Queen show at the London Coliseum.

Potier’s partner, Lizzie Loveridge, had asked Ms O’Donnell to be quiet as she sang along during the show, to which she replied: “That’s a bit rude”.

Potier, 75, who was previously jailed in Australia after ordering the murder of his ex-partner, told Ms O’Donnell: “I’ll show you what rude is” before pressing down on her neck.

Ms O’Donnell later learned about Potier’s criminal background, and is now terrified she he will come after her in the future, she told Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.

Judge Dafna Spiro sentenced Potier to two years in prison over the West End theatre attack. The judge said: “It was a wholly disproportionate response to a trivial disagreement and took place in a crowded public theatre during a live performance”.

She praised Ms O’Donnell for giving evidence at trial and during the sentencing hearing, saying she “has done so primarily to send a clear message that violence against women and girls is something that affects too many people”.

The judge determined that Potier’s past convictions, along with the attack on Ms O’Donnell, have a “common thread of dominance, control, and lack of accountability”.

Prosecutor Sam Lubner said Ms O’Donnell and a friend went to watch We Will Rock You, starring Lee Mead and Ben Elton, on June 7 2023, and they were moved to seats next to Potier and Ms Loveridge halfway through the show.

They “noticed Ms Loveridge was hushing people, demanding for them to be quiet”, the prosecutor said, and she then objected as they sang along to one of the songs, saying: ‘Will you two shut the f*** up?’

“Ms O’Donnell replied with words to the effect of ‘that’s a bit rude’.

“Mr Potier said ‘I will show you what rude is’, he leaned over and placed two hands over Ms O’Donnell’s neck, applying pressure, strangling her.

“She estimated this lasted for three to five seconds, with more intense pressure for the first one or two seconds.

“She was able to say ‘can you please let go’, and shortly afterwards he did let go.

“She was in a state of shock and fear, tearful and felt unable to report him.”

Ms O’Donnell was later able to identify Ms Loveridge through Facebook, leading police to arrest Potier in November 2023.

The court heard about Potier’s past convictions in Australia for plotting murder, after a falling out with his former partner over custody of their daughter.

Potier, a former property tycoon who once owned a Hebridean island and held the title Laird of Gigha, was detained in Australia in 2000 after fleeing the UK with their daughter during family court proceedings.

While in Long Bay prison in New South Wales, Potier revealed he had hatched a plan for a hitman to murder his ex-partner’s new boyfriend.

He initially said he did not want his former partner killed as she “served a purpose”, but summarising the crimes, Mr Lubner said he went on to take actions to try to have her murdered as well.

The court heard he asked a friend to make a call to order the hit, asked her to find a second hitman when his original plot faltered, and he offered to pay for a fellow inmate’s £4,500 bond so that he could carry out the acts.

However, when the fellow prisoner was released, he returned to Italy without following through with the promise.

UK gardens took a battering this summer as a heat dome settled over western Europe, and much of the green and pleasant land turned a dusty beige.

Some areas went without rain for almost two months. The “joy of gardening” turned into waiting until the cooler evening period, then laboriously trailing out from the kitchen with buckets of water to keep the patio plants alive.

But as the rains begin to return, what can gardeners do to restore their garden’s lustre? And what have we learned as we look around our parched borders and fractured lawns?

Let’s start with the good news. Nature is resilient and many plants may still be alive despite appearing bedraggled, wilted or defoliated. They just implemented strategies that help them survive a drought.

Leaf wilting and abscission is the plant’s natural response to conserving water and protecting its vital phloem (which transports sugars from the leaves to the rest of the plant) and root tissues from desiccation.

So, gardeners don’t need to take the hacksaw to the shrub border yet with the notion of making a fresh start. They can check if individual woody plants are still alive by scraping off the epidermal cells (young bark) of the shoots with a thumbnail. If the phloem tissues below are green, life prevails.

Some of the garden’s woody plants may re-leaf again this autumn – or if they are herbaceous, throw up new shoots from the soil. But many will wait until next spring before investing in a new set of leaves or stems.

Gardeners should avoid the temptation to feed plants up (add fertiliser) now, as such chemicals placed on hard soils will simply wash away with the first rains, rather than be incorporated effectively into the soil. More than anything else, gardeners need patience at this time.

Some plants will have dead stems; these can be pruned out immediately. With perennial plants, though, it is worth hesitating before removing the whole specimen, as shoots can regenerate from the stem base or remaining root system.

Similarly, brown lawns will turn green again. However, if there are residual bare patches, new growth can be encouraged by sowing grass seed mixed in with sand in mid-to-late September.

Plants employ different strategies for survival based on the climate they evolved in, and we see a legacy of this in the cultivated species we use in the garden.

Those from high rainfall areas – such as certain rhododendron, pieris, hydrangea, magnolia and sorbus – struggled this summer. Hydrangea has limited capacity to control moisture loss, whereas more drought-adapted species such as cotinus can precisely regulate their stomatal pores (where CO₂ is absorbed and moisture vapour lost).

Other plants such as forsythia and fuchsia are chance takers, still trying to grow throughout a dry period by keeping their stomata open and just running the risk of water shortage. But these types of plants can come a cropper as water columns within their xylem vessels (which transport water and minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant) snap, causing the whole stem to fail.

Anecdotally, despite the harsh dry, hot conditions, some garden plants performed well this year. Salvia, verbena, lavander and, in my garden’s clay-based soils, roses flowered prolifically, even if their shoot growth was curtailed.

Rejuvenating your garden

For those gardeners keen to rejuvenate their dreary, desolate brown patches quickly, autumn bedding plants can help provide some late season cheer. Plants such as cyclamen, chrysanthemum, aster and winter pansies can be planted now as soil moisture is restored.

After a summer like this, some precious plant specimens will be lost, but many gardens should return to their former glories – if the UK experiences a cooler summer next year.

Over the longer term, as climate change moves the UK’s southern regions to something akin to a Mediterranean climate, some gardeners will need to adapt. Mainly, this will mean planting more Mediterranean flora.

Much more challenging, however, is the climate turbulence that accrues from climate change. This compounding of stresses – such as flooding in early summer followed by drought a few weeks later, not to mention more extreme events such as fire and high wind speed – is a much more difficult phenomenon for plants.

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A rollercoaster of weather extremes: drought and heatwaves are creating UK’s climate whiplash

While research on this problem is still in its infancy, early results suggest that gardeners may need to look to plant species with multiple stress tolerances. Some garden plants that are popular in Britain, like buddleia, already have good resilience.

We can also look to new genotypes from the natural world. Plants from dry river beds, for example, cope well with both drought and flooding.

Plantlife with wide natural geographical distributions and weed-like strategies (where they grow and reproduce quickly) should also be brought into breeding programmes now, to help improve climate resilience in the garden plant palette.

The Conservatives’ former director of campaigning and his wife have pleaded guilty to cheating at gambling by placing bets on the date of the 2024 general election.

Anthony Lee stood to win approximately £15,000 after placing more than 60 successful bets totalling £1,549, the Gambling Commission said.

He passed confidential information to his wife about when former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was planning to call the general election.

Laura Lee, who was a parliamentary candidate at the time, placed eight successful bets on the election date totalling £535 and would have profited by around £5,000.

On Thursday at Southwark Crown Court, Anthony Lee pleaded guilty to two offences and Laura Lee pleaded guilty to one offence.

They will be sentenced in October.

The trials of 10 other defendants will take place in September 2027 and January 2028.

Former MP Craig Williams, who was Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide at the time, pleaded guilty in June and will be sentenced at a later date.

In Williams’ case, the prosecution said he bet £250, £100, and £22.50 on the date of the 2024 election, telling the court he “used highly sensitive and confidential information”.

When details of the scandal first emerged in June 2024, Williams admitted making a “huge error of judgment”.

Sunak’s decision to call the poll was a surprise to many, including many Conservative MPs, who were expecting an autumn date.

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.

The man, who was wearing dark clothing and a beanie hat, fled the scene after carrying out the sick attack.

A woman was raped while walking her dog in a playpark, with a police investigation now underway. The horror incident happened around 10pm on an open grassy area of ground off Westerpark Avenue in Blantyre on Tuesday.

The woman was walking her dog at the spot, near to Abernethy Avenue, when she was approached by a man who she didn’t know. She was then subjected to a serious sexual assault before the man fled the scene.

The suspect is described as a white male, 5ft 9 in tall and was wearing dark clothing and a black beanie hat. A manhunt is now underway and police are appealing to the public for their help in finding the sick attacker.

The assault took place close to a residential area so locals are urged to come forward if they saw or anything toward, or noticed a man matching the description above.

In the meantime, extra police patrols are happening in the South Lanarkshire town to assure locals who may be left worried by Tuesday’s events.