Orkney Rugby Club's scheduled league game against RAF Lossiemouth in Kirkwall on Saturday was cancelled after the Lossiemouth side were unable to field a team.

Meanwhile, in the seconds fixture in Shetland on Friday night Orkney's team was beaten 27-12 by the home side.

An Orkney Health Board worker died last year after falling from a ladder and fracturing his leg, a fatal accident inquiry heard on Friday.

The court was told that 51-year-old John Spooner, from Toab, was taken to Balfour Hospital before being flown to Aberdeen, where a few days later he died after a blood clot spread from his leg to his chest.

Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie said that although the true cause of the accident would never be known, it was in no way due to negligence on behalf of the health board.

Local contractors Andrew Tait and Son are back on track to complete the £1.4 million scheme by summer of next year.

The former Orkney Islands Shipping Company site is being redeveloped into nine ground floor offices and 22 one and two-bedroomed residential flats.

The deadline of December 31 was set for projects which have failed secure provisional awards. Projects awarded provisional grants by December 31 will have until March 31 to ensure that all partnership funding is in place.

18 projects are still awaiting provisional funding for a variety of reasons.

Fears that the number of GPs in Orkney will reduce because of a Government funding cut have been quashed.

With a general election possibly due within months, Dr Garry Mearns, chairman of the area medical committee, said he felt the sharing out of the money had become a political issue.

However, Dr Malcolm Alexander, clinical director of primary and community care, replied: "We have no intention of reducing the number of GPs in Orkney. Dr John Curnow is at the moment building a case for keeping the number of GPs we have. We have the number of GPs in Orkney that we need."

Concerns were expressed this week that the deadly virus that killed 18,000 common seals in 1988 may return to Orkney waters.

Reports of more than a dozen dead seals washed ashore around Orkney are troubling Orkney Seal Rescue owner Ross Flett, who hopes the deaths do not herald the return of the Phocine Distemper Virus.

With the latest corpses reported at the No 4 barrier, Birsay and Holm, reports of dead seals are spreading.

Initial thoughts were that the seals had died in the strong winds but Ross Flett says the animals should have been able to cope with the weather.

Salmon found at Bay of Isbister on Wednesday

In a week where dead farmed salmon continue to wash up on shores in Evie and Firth, local salmon farmers have been told to stop trying to “pull the wool” over the public’s eyes.

The Orcadian has obtained pictures of fish washed ashore at the Bay of Isbister in Rendall on Wednesday which were spotted by a local angler.

Full story

A rare bird of prey was released back into the wild in Orkney on Thursday, after being blown off its normal migration route to Africa.

The immature female honey buzzard was found exhausted on the Holm Road last Thursday, and has been nursed back to health by Dennis Paice from Dounby, Orkney’s only licensed raptor keeper.

The buzzard was released from the top of Binscarth Hill by local SSPCA Inspector Mike Lynch.

The Royal Navy will shortly announce their new plan to keep the oil leaking from the HMS Royal Oak at bay until they remove all the remaining oil from the sunken battleship next year.

A team of Navy divers visited the wreck last week to carry out an up-to-date study on the wreck. They are now looking at the results of that study to try and find the best possible way to plug the leak.

Full story

A jury trial was brought to a halt at Kirkwall Sheriff Court yesterday after the tape recorder broke down.

The trial involved Greig Crawford who denied intending to supply the controlled drug cannabis in Stromness on March 22 last year. However, just over a minute into the trial the tape recorder broke down.

Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie said: “Our rules require that everything said in a solemn indictment is recorded. As there’s no back-up machine and we no longer have a resident shorthand writer, we simply can’t proceed.”

A temporary extension of six months was granted by the sheriff.

A fish farm in South Walls has been described as an “appalling rape of picturesque bay” by a local councillor during a meeting this week to consider an expansion application.

Operators Aquascot want to enlarge their development at Kirkhope Bay, Longhope from the present total of eight cages to twelve.

During the meeting of the council’s transportation committee Councillor Roderick McLeod explained that he had visited the site over the summer and had seen a once-attractive sandy beach severely affected by what he called “a terrible mess” in the area.

“It is an appalling rape of a very narrow and picturesque bay,” he said. “And it is a very bad example of this committee making a wrong decision.”

Councillors heard that a substantial number of objections had been received and called for further environmental information before progressing the application.

In the six months between March 1 and August 31 this year, 232 aircraft movements at Kirkwall Airport were cancelled due to weather.

According to figures from Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, out of the 232 lost flights, 108 were cancelled by fog, four by snow and ice, 24 by gales or cross winds and 96 by low cloud.

Miss Angela Donaldson of HIAL commented that although her statistics were not perfect, they reflected a pattern of weather-related disruption at Kirkwall, which would be greatly reduced by the installation of an instrument landing system at the airport.

Two visiting tourists fell victim to a thief this week after money was stolen from their rucksacks.

The Japanese man and an Irish woman lost a quantity of yen and Irish punts after leaving their bags unattended at the bus depot on Great Western Road.

After liaising with local banks Kirkwall police were able to identify the thief and a quantity of the money was recovered.

A boat at Pierowall in Westray has been broken into this week and a quantity of cash stolen.

A police spokesman confirmed that Kirkwall officers were on their way to the island to investigate the incident.

A number of pregnant grey seals are believed to have died in the strong winds that have been battering Orkney over the last week.

Ross Flett, from Orkney Seal Rescue, in St Margaret's Hope said he had received several reports of dead seals at Dingieshowe and Cornquoy in the East Mainland since last Thursday.

"They all seem to be pregnant female grey seals that would be preparing to come ashore to have their pups on Copinsay at this time of the year," he said. "I have a feeling that they have been caught up in the strong south easterlies over the past few days."

Work on the new terminal building at Kirkwall Airport should begin in the spring and be complete by the end of the year.

That was the timescale outlined on Tuesday by the regional manager for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited, Miss Angela Donaldson, at the quarterly meeting of the airport's consultative committee.

Miss Donaldson said that tenders will be invited in mid-October with the contract awarded next February and the project completed by the end of 2001.

Four local community groups have received over £15,500 worth of grants from the National Lottery Awards for All scheme.

Home-Start Orkney, a new group offering support to families with young children secured a grant of £4,940 to refurbish their new premises. A grant of £4,446 goes to the Orkney Amateur Football Association to allow them to buy new equipment.

Wyre Community Association received £3,608 for equipment to improve the island’s social and recreation facilities and the MS Society Orkney Branch has received £2,567 to fund a respite holiday.

Government funding to help farmers in South Walls protect their land from damage caused by wintering barnacle geese has been welcomed by members of the South Walls Goose Management Group.

The Scottish Executive announced last week that South Walls would receive £18,600 towards the cost of running the scheme.

The new scheme builds on the successful five year pilot programme which provided a seasonal goose scarer to chase geese from protected land on to refuge areas.

The Northern Lighthouse Board’s new navigation tender MV Pole Star paid her first visit to Orkney this week, arriving in Stromness around 1.00pm on Tuesday.

The £7 million vessel is the fourth to bear the name Pole Star and will work alongside the MV Pharos.

The Pole Star replaces the lighthouse tender MV Fingal which made her last tour of duty to Orkney in August.

The new director of British Telecom Scotland will be in Orkney tomorrow to hold a public meeting.

Graham Moore will be attending an open meeting at the Albert Hotel from 7-8pm, answering questions and discussing the ways in which BT should develop to suit Orkney businesses and private customers.

Orkney's second food "Oscars" awards took place on Saturday evening with Grimbister Farm Cheese scooping the award for Best Supplier for the second year running.

Best Hotel/Restaurant went to the Royal Hotel, Kirkwall with best B&B going to Laverockha' in Kirkwall. The Best Retailer award was presented to Dounby Stores.

Kirkwall was plagued by vandals over the weekend with a number of parked cars targeted. In addition to the windows smashed overnight on Friday, the window of a third property was discovered broken earlier this morning.