BLACK Friday may have been a bit of a damp squib. I always thought it was damp squid but apparently not. Squids are always damp as someone pointed out in the office so it would be wrong to liken the cephalopods to an event which failed to live up to expectation as they can't help it.

So anyway Black Friday was a damp squib possibly because everyone was saving their pennies and energy to attend the Christmas fair at Sycamore Hall extra care scheme at Bainbridge.

Much to the delight of the elderly residents - for the first 20 minutes at least - the home was packed with many children who had been lured along by parents with the promise of Father Christmas and as many toffees as they could cram into their pockets.

I've not seen so many children in one place since I last drove through Coverdale which until now was generally considered the baby making capital of the Dales. Clearly those up dale have added knocking out kids to the growing list of things they do well, which already includes making cheese and fruitcake, playing darts and selling cut-price electricals.

Don't be surprised if Mamas and Papas open a branch in Countersett sometime soon.

Interestingly, there was once a pub in Countersett called the Boar Inn. According to a book by Dales historian Ella Pontefract, there was a Latin inscription above the door which is presumably still there. It translated as 'Now mine, once thine, but whose afterwards I do not know' which is a strange, whimsical thing to carve out of stone unless it was the 17th century version of the 'Sold' sign.

Finally, a couple of people have mentioned that photographs of the Richmond MP Rishi Sunak were prevalent in last week's edition.

What we forgot inform readers was that the politician's face was actually hidden on every page of the paper, rather than the four or five that you may have spotted, as we were trialling a new Where's Rishi game in a bid to attract younger reader's to one of the country's most established and respected weekly papers.

Anyone who managed to spot all 96 Rishis was in line to receive a free 25kg bag of Mastergrow 512 pig feed pellets. Unfortunately nobody, did meaning it would have been a rollover week had the trial been deemed a success, which it wasn't.