Orkney's First XV rugby team beat Banff 31-12 at home on Saturday in their latest Division Five North fixture.

Orkney's tries came from Rodney Spence, Bob Gilmour and Glen Thomson in what was described as a hard game, battled out up front in the first half with Orkney becoming more comfortable in the second.

Channel Four's Minehowe special broadcast at Christmas was watched by a national audience of three million people.

The hour-long Time Team programme - The Mystery of Minehowe - featured the excavation at the Iron Age underground chamber as well as shots of Orkney’s other archaeological treasures.

Julie Gibson of Orkney Archaeological Trust was thrilled by the programme and its reception.

"The film contained beautiful shots of many of Orkney’s very special archaeological sites and scenery. " she said.

"There is no doubt that Orkney is Britain’s best destination for visitors interested in archaeology and Orkney Archaeological Trust has once again been successful in raising the profile of Orkney nationwide."

An Orkney publican’s suitability as licence holder of the Kirkwall Hotel did not come under further scrutiny at a licensing hearing on Friday, following the earlier decision to grant the temporary transfer of the hotel’s licence.

Two complaints had been raised with the board alleging Mrs Debra Low, originally sole licensee of the Kirkwall Hotel, was not a fit and proper person to hold the licence.

However, the board’s decision on Wednesday to grant a temporary licence transfer from Mrs Low to the Firm of the Kirkwall Hotel meant that the hearing was cut short.

The two objections were made by the Northern Constabulary and the owners of the neighbouring Torvhaug Inn. The police dropped their objections following the granting of the temporary transfer and the Torvhaug's owners accepted their objection would fall as a result of Wednesday’s meeting.

Sanday headteacher Jackie Story has won a national award for her use of technology and video-conferencing at the isles school.

Jackie won the first ever Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Practice award, organised by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta).

The awards aim to recognise good use of information technology in the classroom and were open to all teachers, lecturers, advisers and trainers in the UK.

A report has been sent to the Procurator Fiscal after one of the much sought after next-generation video gaming consoles, Playstation 2, was stolen from a Kirkwall shop this week.

Police say that the Playstation 2, shoplifted from Grooves in Albert Street, was later recovered.

A man who has lived rough in Stromness for over a year appeared in Wick Sheriff Court this week in connection with an alleged assault on a 12-year-old boy in Thurso.

Eric Williams (46), of no fixed abode, was arrested in Caithness on January 2 after attempting to stow away on a fishing boat at Scrabster.

Williams, who was also charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by giving police a false name, served a seven-day custodial sentence before allegedly assaulting the youth on Sunday.

He appeared in Wick Sheriff Court again on Monday where he plead not guilty to the assault. He was remanded in custody with a trial date was set for February 1.

Plans for a new restaurant in Kirkwall took a step forward last Thursday with the granting of a public house licence by the Orkney Licensing Board.

After much debate, members unanimously granted the application from Mrs Avril Bain and Mr Evan Monkman who are developing the former Orkney Motormart permises on Junction Road into a restaurant, cafe and takeaway business.

An Orkney cancer sufferer has died in Mexico after allegedly jumping from a second-floor window of a clinic in an incident which the local authorities are treating as suicide.

Duncan Heddle (37), of Hamnavoe, Stromness, and his wife Moira had been in Tijuana in Mexico for a couple of weeks before the weekend incident.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the Mexican authorities were due to hold a press conference on Wednesday at the clinic where Mr Heddle had been staying.

“We understand they will say that they are satisfied that his death was suicide,” she said. “He allegedly jumped out of a second-floor window from his room.”

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Royal Navy officials are back in the county next week to discuss their plans to remove the leaking oil from HMS Royal Oak.

Accompanying the Navy will be representatives from Briggs Marine, the company contracted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to carry out the operation.

But although the pre-start meeting will be held with OIC harbours department staff on Monday, the physical work on the hull of the sunken warship is now likely to begin early next month.

A legal wrangle over the future of the Kirkwall Hotel licence was finally resolved late on Wednesday afternoon when Orkney’s Licensing Board agreed to grant a temporary transfer of the licence.

In what was described as a knife-edge decision, the members of the board voted by four votes to two in favour of the transfer.

Lawyers for the Northern Constabulary and the Kirkwall Hotel had been involved in day-long legal arguments over whether or not to transfer the licence.

Members heard that the application was being made by Mrs Low in light of, as her solicitor Mr Bob Shaw put it, a “public outcry” in Orkney regarding allegations made against her husband and the subsequent impact on their business.

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Police investigations have concluded that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of 18-year-old James Hugh Munro, Elvingston, Holm Road, Kirkwall, who was found dead in his bed on New Yearıs Day.

Mr Munro’s funeral was held at a well-attended service in Kirkwall’s St Magnus Cathedral on Monday afternoon.

Orkney youngsters are being invited to join a sail training boat on a leg in the world-famous Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race.

There are still places left in the youth category 16-25, on board the Shetland boat The Swan, according to skipper Andrew Halcrow, who says he would like to take an Orkney youngster along.

Interested parties can familiarise themselves with the ship when she visits Orkney on May 5 to take part in school trips during the day and evening trips for adults.

For more information you can contact Andrew Halcrow by calling 01595 697406 or e-mail him at andrew@theswan.shetland.co.uk.

Petrol prices in Orkney have dropped by as much as six pence per litre this week following cuts in the rest of the country.

The reductions saw unleaded petrol drop by three pence per litre with one or two pence per litre also being taken off the price of diesel and lead replacement petrol.

But at Dounby Stores and Palace Stores, a further cut by owner David Harrold brought prices down by another three pence - matching prices on the Scottish mainland.

Mr Harrold said he had cut the prices himself to match those at the Esso garage in Thurso.

"You should not have to pay extra in the islands," he said. "Hopefully we can sustain it. If we can stick with this it will attract more business to the pumps and hopefully create more business for the shop sales as well."

A new permanent exhibition of Orkney photographs depicting life over the past two hundred years opened at the Orkney Museum on Tuesday.

Among the thousands of photographs representing Orkney life and people, visitors will be able to view a number of previously unseen pictures, the majority of which were donated by Kirkwall man Mr Roddie Hibbert.

Also on display are three volumes of Spike cartoons from The Orkney Herald of the 1950s and a large collection of back-issues of The Orcadian.

Lunar Eclipse

Despite the cloud covering some of Tuesday's lunar eclipse, many areas of the county still received a first class view of the spectacle.

The eclipse began at 5.43pm when the full moon was just over the eastern horizon. The mid-point of the eclipse was at 8.20pm by which time the moon had turned a brick-red colour.

For more details of the eclipse, click here.

Drivers are being urged to take heed of the winter weather after a spate of road accidents in the West Mainland on Tuesday morning.

According to police, just before 7am a vehicle left the road at the Germiston Road end in Stenness followed shortly after by another incident at Pow in Sandwick. Later, a van collided with an empty bus at the Harray Road end while another two vehicle accident ocurred just outside Stenness Village.

Inspector Paul Eddington said: "Folk were not driving to the road conditions, but it's very difficult because it was ice rather than frost so there were no visible signs on the road."

"Drivers should remember that at this time of the year the roads might be icy. The roads are being gritted but the grit and the salt needs a certain volume of traffic to break up this ice."

A 16-year-old boy was remanded in custody at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Monday while police investigations continue into an alleged “serious incident” while he was staying with a foster care family.

Carl James Howley (16), of no fixed address, was denied bail by honorary sheriff Bill Wright after he heard, among other factors, there was no longer any suitable accommodation for Howley in Orkney.

He will remain in custody until he reappears in court on January 17. Howley had been released on bail from Kirkwall Sheriff Court at the end of December after appearing from custody to answer a number of housebreaking charges from commercial premises in Kirkwall.

The manager of Kirkwall's Royal Hotel Mr Craig Spence has denied that they are in the process of buying the Kirkwall Hotel.

Despite Orkney's rumour mill working overtime over the past few days, Mr Spence denied the claims on Monday, saying the he too had heard the rumours.

"We are working hard at the moment to improve and upgrade the Royal Hotel," he added.

Work on the new Deerness community hall started on Monday with the new building expected to be completed by August this year.

The project is the culmination of a massive fundraising exercise that saw the local community raise over £36,000 of the total £361,722 cash themselves.

The existing hall, which opened in September 1923, will be demolished once the new hall is complete.

Three children from Flotta are recovering after a road accident on Saturday that saw the Orphir road closed for six hours.

Sarah, Mary and Thomas Renshaw were travelling to catch the Saturday afternoon Houton ferry to Flotta when the car, driven by their grandfather Mr Brian Sheen (64), from Coventry, left the road around 4pm at Hobbister in Orphir.

The passengers were taken to Balfour Hospital with Mrs Edith Sheen (68), later flown to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where her condition was described as being “stable”.

Mr Sheen and Thomas Renshaw escaped serious injury and the two sisters were due to be discharged from Balfour Hospital on Monday.

A 66-year-old Kirkwall man was taken to Balfour Hospital last Wednesday Wednesday after being injured in a hit and run incident.

Ashley Nicholson, 23 Clay Loan, Kirkwall, was knocked down by a car at North Eastern Farmers on Pickaquoy Road in Kirkwall around 5pm on Wednesday afternoon.

Police Inspector Paul Eddington said the driver of the car had failed to stop. However, an off duty policeman, who witnessed the incident, was able to give details of the vehicle and the driver was later traced.