Orkney Rugby Club lost to visiting club Selkirk 33-5 at Pickaquoy on Saturday.

In what was described as their biggest game of the season, Orkney put in a spirited performance in the BT Cup third round clash.

Dr Stanley Cursiter

Two early works by Orcadian artist, Dr Stanley Cursiter, sold for £4,650 at auction in Edinburgh on Friday.

Comprising of an oil and a watercolour, the pictures were rediscovered among a collection belonging to someone who knew the artist.

Dated 1910, they are of unknown Orkney coastal views. The oil painting, which has a label fragment inscribed "Spa- Rock, Orkney.", sold for £3,300, the watercolour selling for £1,350.

Tom Christer-Nilsen, vice convener of Norway's Hordaland Council, turned on the Christmas tree lights at St Magnus Cathedral on Saturday night, after the annual St Lucy concert.

The Hordaland Youth Chamber Orchestra has also travelled across from Norway to take part in the ceremony. Once again, the tree for Kirkwall's Broad Street was donated by Hordaland Council.

Also turning on the Christmas lights on Saturday night were Flotta, Burray and Pierowall, Westray.

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A new exhibition of work by local artist Marion Yorston opened in the Orkney Museum on Saturday.

Entitled The Snow Queen, the exhibition features a wide range of work - from finely detailed paintings of buildings and landscapes to 3D installations using real dresses.

Traditional folktales form a part of the exhibition, with two pieces based on the story of the Snow Queen, while The Princess and the Pea and mermaids also feature.

Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael has called on the 3,595 people in Orkney and Shetland who look after a sick, frail or disabled person to check whether they are receiving the support they are entitled to.

Mr Carmichael's comments were made on Carers' Rights Day, Friday, a national awareness day organised by Carers Scotland

Mr Carmichael said: ";It is a real concern that carers in Orkney and Shetland may not be getting all the help they are entitled to. Carers save the country a fortune, and without them the NHS and social care would struggle."

He added that anyone needing more information can write him, contact the Carers Scotland hotline  0909 808 7777  - or contact the Crossroads offices in Kirkwall.

Activity on The Orcadian website has reached an all time high last month with 40,833 unique visitors and 205,439 page views.

This is an increase of 49 per cent since November 2004 and 14 per cent over October 2005.

The original Phoenix Cinema

The New Phoenix Cinema hosted a night of old Orkney films on Friday, to celebrate the life of projectionist Billy Scollie.

Among the films was a selection from the vaults of the National Film Archive in London. ";The Orkney Newsreel" including a fundraising sports event from 1918, scenes of Kirkwall in deep snow, tennis at Costies from the 1920s, inter-county sports, the great gale of 1953 and Kirkwall Golf Club's jubilee.  

All proceeds went to the cardiac unit at the Balfour Hospital.

The Scottish Executive has confirmed that two companies have submitted bids to run the Northern Isles ferry services.

A spokeswoman said: "We can confirm tenders have been received from V.Ships and Caledonian MacBrayne. They will now be evaluated along the criteria set out."

She added that, although they could not put an exact date on the awarding of the contract, it would be in the first half of 2006.

The Norwegian sail training ship Statsraad Lemkuhl arrived in Kirkwall on Friday morning, with its crew singing sea shanties from the deck.

Heading back home to Bergen after a trans-Atlantic crossing, the three-masted barque is being crewed by 60 cadets from the Royal Norwegian Navy.

The cadets will participate in a number of events over the weekend, including the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Saturday and a parade from Kirkwall Pier to St Magnus Cathedral on Sunday morning at 11am.

A planned meeting between Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, and the chief executive of the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has been postponed until December 13.

The meeting was to discuss the future of local air and sea rescue services.

It emerged last month that the MCA had chosen Canadian company CHC as preferred bidder for the new five-year contract. Bristow Helicopters has provided the service for the past 22 years.

Commenting ahead of the meeting, Mr Carmichael said: "I shall be seeking assurances that whoever gets the contract, the same terms and conditions will be available to local staff in the Northern Isles."

The second Orkney Scout Group's festive Scout Post Christmas delivery service resumed in Kirkwall on Thursday.

The service, which has been running for over 20 years, sees Scout Post boxes set up in a number of Kirkwall shops. The delivery of any card within Kirkwall costs 15p, the money going to the upkeep of the Scout Hall.

The boxes will be out until December 20, with deliveries beginning on December 11.

A locum doctor who was referred to the General Medical Council by NHS Orkney officials, was subsequently appointed by the health board to work full-time in the county.

Officials said this week that the appointment of Dr John Milligan to Kirkwall's Scapa Practice was "entirely appropriate" and he continued to have the full confidence of NHS Orkney.

Last week, The Orcadian revealed that Dr Milligan was working subject to a number of restrictions imposed by the GMC interim orders panel.

The smoking ban on Orkney Ferries cames into effect on Thursday.

The company decided on a complete ban on all of its ferries, properties and vehicles, earlier this year and it will now be put into force.

The ban includes passengers and all staff, including ferry crew members.

Mr John Aberdein

An Orkney writer has won a prestigious literary award for his first novel.

John Aberdein was named the winner of the Saltire Society/Royal Mail Group First Book of the Year Award for Amande's Bed on Wednesday afternoon.

A former Stromness Academy teacher, Mr Aberdein now lives in Hoy.

Kirstin Fairnie

A 12-year-old Kirkwall girl is one of 17 amateur songwriters who had their music performed for the first time on Wednesday night.

Kirstin Fairnie's song Drifting Isle was chosen from 800 entries to the Burnsong competition.

The annual Internet broadcasts from Maeshowe have begun again, allowing web surfers across the planet to view the winter solstice sunset from inside the cairn.

As the light from the setting sun strikes the back wall of the 5,000-year-old cairn's main chamber, three cameras will be capturing the images and broadcasting them live over the World Wide Web.

The broadcasts, at www.maeshowe.co.uk, are scheduled to run until February 5, 2006.

Bus services in Orkney are to benefit as part of a national £3.7 million funding package from the Scottish Executive.

In Orkney the cash will go towards enhancing the services between Kirkwall and Stromness and provide a new service to enable those with mobility difficulties to access the mainstream transport modes in, and to and from, the county.

Royal Mail's First Class mail service in Scotland has reached record levels according to independently audited figures, released on Wednesday.

Quality of service results show that across the UK an average of 94.2 per cent of First Class letters arrived the day after posting, during July to September this year.

In Orkney, the 2005/06 figure rose to 92.7 per cent, from 85.6 per cent in 2004/05.

One of the directors of Kirkwall architects and surveyors, Pentarq, has left to establish his own practice.

Leslie Burgher, who returned home to Orkney in 1997 after studying in Edinburgh, was architect for various local projects such as the dismantling and relocation of the Groattie Hoose, the renovation of St. Peter’s Kirk in Sandwick and the recently completed Kalisgarth Care Centre in Westray.

The Torvhaug Inn, one of Kirkwall's best-known pubs, looks set to change hands.

A partnership involving Tony and Graham Scott, former proprietors of the Queen's Hoteland current partners in the Auld Motor Hoose, and Fusion founder and owner of Grooves, Neil Stevenson, are in the process of buying the Bridge Street pub.

Negotiations with present owners, Christine and Albert Reid, are currently under way, with the purchase hoped to be completed by December 15.

Richard Robert McColl Bevan, of Papdale Drive, pleaded guilty to four separate charges and was released on bail after spending almost 36-hours in custody.

Sheriff Graeme Napier warned Bevan: "If you do anything and appear before me between now and the deferred sentenced date you will probably be spending Christmas in custody."

Sentence was deferred until December.

Another four exchanges in Orkney have been enabled for broadband Internet access.

Deerness, North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray and Tankerness have been upgraded for the high-speed technology with the completion of Phase Three of the Scottish Executive's Broadband for Scotland's Rural and Remote Areas initiative.

A BT spokesman said that 50 rural exchanges across Scotland remain to be activated, which, it is hoped, will be done by the end of the year.

NorthLink ferries is under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The OFT visited NorthLink's offices in Orkney, Shetland and Aberdeen last week.

An OFT spokesman said: "This is part of the OFT competition act. There have been allegations that a cartel has been operating with regard to ferry freight services.

"However, no assumptions should be made that there has been an infringement of competition law. We are in no position to decide that until we have all the details and facts."

A man ended up in hospital on Saturday evening following a disturbance in a house in Stromness.

Kirkwall police are appealing for witnesses after they were called to the house in Hamnavoe about 6pm on Saturday. The man received an injury to his arm.

Police inquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call 872241.

Orkney Housing Association has awarded the design and build contract for 15 new homes in Stromness to A. H. Wilson Ltd.

The houses, which will be a mix of rented and shared ownership, are to be constructed using Structural Insulated panels (SIPs); a system which provides enhanced energy efficiency and can be constructed almost entirely off-site, thereby speeding up the construction process.

Orkney put almost 5,000 tonnes of waste which is not environmentally friendly into landfills over the space of a year. But the county also recycled 20 per cent of its waste over the same period, which is slightly slightly higher than the national average of 19.2 per cent.

New figures from SEPA revealed that in Orkney 4,448 tonnes were landfilled from July 2004 to June 2005.