Bryan Taylor is presented with his trophy by OIC convener, Councillor Stephen Hagan.

The Scottish Open Draughts Championships, held this year in Kirkwall, ended on Friday evening with Tom Watson, Glasgow, winning for the title for the sixth time.

Twenty-four players from all over Scotland took part in the competition.

Orkney's Bryan Taylor came third in the intermediate section.

The regular Sanday Sunday event saw the first appearance of the Hrossey Felag, a newly-established group of Orkney-based Viking re-enactment enthusiasts.

Current members hail from Hoy and Sanday itself, and the group is looking for like-minded people to swell its numbers.

Hrolf Douglasson and Elvara Hrolfswiffe, who now live on Hoy, leading the project, are keen enthusiasts and have taken part in hundreds of demonstrations throughout the country, even providing their battle re-enactment expertise for TV programmes.

Big Rory and Gorgeous Morag are pictured leading the Grand March at their reception in Stromness Academy on Saturday following their Shopping Week "marriage” in Stromness.

The new addition to the family, a Japanese baby called Yoshi-no, who was safely delivered by local vet Andy Cant immediately after the ceremony, missed all the traditional wedding fun by being safely back at the hotel sleeping.

Mrs Isabel Wishart, chairman of the Shopping Week Committee confirmed that the newly-weds and family would be invited back next year.

The group visited some of the county's best known landmarks, including Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar and the Italian Chapel.

A group were also expected to view the controversial Kirkwall Scroll in the Masonic Lodge in Kirkwall - a scroll that some believe proves that the secrets of the Knights Templar were incorporated into Freemasonry and that this esoteric legacy was kept within Rosslyn Chapel, the Sinclairs' stronghold in Midlothian.

The visitors also attended a Sunday service in St Magnus Cathedral., returning to the Scottish mainland on Monday.

"Rev" Garson officiates at the wedding

It had been billed as the wedding of the year, but on Friday, in Stromness, Big Rory made an honest woman of Gorgeous Morag.

The wedding, performed by the "Rev" Graham Garson, featured a bride nine months pregnant, and it was clear throughout the ceremony that the birth was imminent.

The wedding, a highlight of this year's Stromness Shopping Week was followed tonight by a traditional Orkney reception.

More than £20,000 has been awarded for new play park equipment in Longhope, Hoy

The latest round of grants from the community environmental renewal scheme includes £20,400 for the Longhope community play area to upgrade the equipment in the play park.

The grant scheme, administered by Forward Scotland, was set up to help offset the effects of quarrying on communities throughout Scotland.

A consultation last year included Orkney as part of a Highlands and Islands transport partnership, but the new proposals could see Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles form their own partnership instead.

The OIC will host a meeting of representatives from all three Scottish islands councils next week to discuss the new proposals.

Orkney's MSP, Jim Wallace, has given a cautious welcome to the proposal to create an islands Regional Transport Partnership (RTP).

Mr Wallace said: "This is a very interesting proposal which certainly merits further and more detailed consideration. There was always the possibility that a Highlands & Islands RTP could become too much focused on Inverness and its immediate needs. At least the three islands areas will be able to determine priorities suited to islands' needs."

But Mr Wallace stressed the need to maintain links with the Highland's transport infrastructure, which also affects Orkney.

The brief set out the layout and design of the scheme, made up of affordable housing and self-build plots at the Meadows, situated between Bignold Park Road and Papdale East.

The developer Lynnburn Construction Ltd, was set up by roads and building contracting firm, Andrew Sinclair.

Islands councillors have gone against official recommendations to implement a policy in which listed buildings in conservation areas be fitted only with timber sash and case windows.

Officials wanted to see plastic windows and doors banned on listed buildings in conservation areas. But members of the OIC planning committee instead felt that each application should be handled individually.

Meanwhile, an application to fit uPVC windows to the Stromness Church of Scotland manse, which is in a 'C' listed building conservation area, was granted today, subject to conditions.

Mr Wallace said: "I know just how much effort has gone into the preparation of this tender specification, as efforts have been made to take account of issues raised in the consultation.

"Obviously, people will want a chance to study the Invitation to Tender document, and I will welcome any comments from local interests, which I can feed in to the Minister before the final contract negotiations."

A series of trenches were dug into the top of Maeshowe in Stenness on Wednesday.

The work on the 5,000-year-old cairn, was sanctioned by Historic Scotland, who are trying to discover whether moisture is leaking in where a Victorian roof and early 20th century concrete cap cover a hole left by Viking treasure hunters.

The excavation work was completed in a few hours.

An order to confiscate the property of a South Ronaldsay man jailed for growing and dealing drugs last year has been granted by Kirkwall Sheriff Court.

The asset confiscation, the first in Orkney, was made against George Fraser, Hallbreck, Widewall and was for £17,483.78. It was granted last Wednesday, July 13.

A confiscation order is an order made against a convicted defendant ordering him to pay the amount of his benefit from crime. Fraser was jailed for 12 months cannabis with an esitmated street value of £29,000 was recovered from his house.

Chief inspector Mike Cowdry stressed that drug dealers in Orkney could expect to be dealt hte full force of the law.

"NorthLink will continue to operate the lifeline services while the tender process unfolds," he said.

The company confirmed on Tuesday that, after the Royal Bank of Scotland pulled out, its involvement in the tendering would be as a company wholly owned by Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac).

A spokesman said that, if successful, CalMac would proceed as the sole shareholder of the new operating company, which would continue under its own management and infrastructure.

He added that it is also likely that the NorthLink name will continue as before.

NorthLink's ferry, Hamnavoe, in Hoy Sound

The existing NorthLink Ferries is not one of the three companies have been invited to tender for contract to operation the ferry services to Orkney in Shetland.

The three companies are V Ships UK Ltd, Irish Continental Ferries plc and Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd.

Hamnavoe, Hjaltland and Hrossey, the ferries currently serving the route will transfer to the new operator when the new contract begins in April 2006.

The preferred bidder is hoped to be announced early in 2006.

This will include reduced freight tariffs on Aberdeen routes, timetable improvements and the inclusion of livestock and freight in the contract.

A separate new competitive tender was also announced to offer support for a load-on load-off freight service to secure the existing level of freight services to the islands.

The contract went out to tender in April 2004 because of financial difficulties faced by operators NorthLink. Over £63m of public money has went on maintaining the service since NorthLink took over in 2002.

The Scottish Executive is to consider giving the OIC a one-off financial grant to help get the new women's refuge in Kirkwall up and running.

In a letter to Orkney MSP, Jim Wallace, the Minister for Communities, Malcolm Chisholm MSP, has expressed a willingness to try and help find a way forward to allow the refuge to open its doors.

Earlier in the month, islands councillors refused a £47,000 revenue application because a cash sum originally anticipated from the Executive had not materialised.

Councillors said that they could not allocate the money as it would have a negative effect on other local services that rely on funding.

Full details in this week's The Orcadian

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Sanday-based composer, and current Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, was presented with an honorary degree by Napier University at a ceremony in Edinburgh on Monday.

Sir Peter was made Honorary Doctor of Music, alongside author Alexander McCall Smith and businessman Bill Gammell, who were made Honorary Doctors of Letters and Business Administration respectively.

Professor Joan Stringer, Napier University principal, said: "All of the honorary graduates here today have reached the top of their chosen professions and by honouring these distinguished and respected figures we are able to highlight their successes to our graduates and provide them with excellent role models whom they can strive to emulate."

Last year's Shopping Week Queen Laura Wilson crowns the new queen , Erika Norquoy, at Monday's opening of Shopping Week.

Stromness man Archie Bevan officially opened the 57th Stromness Shopping Week on Monday morning.

Shopping Week Queen Erika Norquoy and her attendants Kelly Nicholson and Lauren Stanger, flower girl Savannah Taylor and page boys Dean Croy and Rohan Crichton arrived in the harbour aboard the Stromness Lifeboat and led by Pipe Major David Fraser of Deeside Caledonia Pipe Band, and escorted by Police Sergeant Niall MacLean, the queen processed through a record crowd at the Pierhead.

She was crowned by last year's queen, Laura Wilson, and later released a basket of pigeons provided by Raymie Manson. The queen with her entourage then left for a tour of Stromness, before returning to the Pierhead for a walkabout.

Three drunk drivers were caught over the limit at the weekend in separate incidents.

A male was charged on Friday afternoon in South Ronaldsay, another man in Lyness on Saturday night and a third man in the early hours of Sunday morning in Kirkwall.

A police spokesman said: "We would urge people not to drink and drive. Patrols are always on the look out for this type of behaviour."

Police are looking for information about a b break-in which happened at premises in Mounthoolie Place between 11.30pm on Saturday, July 16 and 4.30pm on Sunday, July 17 when a quantity of alcohol was stolen.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious or has any information is asked to contact the Kirkwall Police on 01856 872241.

Stromness lifeboat was called out in the early hours of Monday morning to a small speedboat taking on water in Hoy Sound.

The lifeboat was launched at 12.30am after the coastguard received a call from someone who had seen a red flare.

However, the three people on board the speedboat had managed to fix the engine, which lost power after hitting a creel buoy, and made it back into Stromness under their own steam.

One of the circus performers practising in Stromness on Monday morning

The circus has come to Stromness . . . but that's not all.

The 57th Stromness Shopping Week got under way today, Monday, and according to the committee of organisers could be the best ever.

Among the highlights will be the Cottle and Austen Circus, which it is hoped will bring even more people to the town.

The circus is in town from Monday until Saturday, July 23, with two performances planned each day.

The event runs until Saturday.

Click here for more on the 2005 Stromness Shopping Week