Orkney cruised home to a 104-5 win against Panmure in their first National League game of the season on Saturday.

Panmure started the game well, but struggled against the relentless Orkney pressure after one of their players was sent off..

An Orcadian drum-making company was chosen as the only one from Scotland to exhibit at the Scottish Drum Day, held in Glasgow on Sunday.

Eoin and Jane Leonard, of Belgarth Bodhrans were invited to show their products alongside more than 20 other percussion manufacturers and retailers, including international giants such as Premier, Percussion Plus, Zildjian and Yamaha.

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The number of offences committed in Orkney over the past year has risen by six per cent, with the most notable jump relating to “crimes of dishonesty”.

According to the Northern Constabulary’s 2005/06 performance report, 1,470 crimes were committed in 2005/06 compared to 1,383 in 2004/05.

Orkney police will be joining a nation campaign to clamp down on underage drinking – not only targeting the young drinkers, but those who supply them with alcohol.

Using increased patrols and CCTV, police will focus on places where youngsters are known to congregate and at times when drinking is more likely to take place.

After a highly-charged public meeting in Kirkwall on Thursday night, six people have come forward to form a group to put pressure on the OIC to resolve the current care crisis.

The meeting followed the revelation earlier this week that, because there are no facilities left to look after the elderly in Orkney, the first of the county's old folk have been shipped to residential homes on the Scottish mainland.

The lack of social work management and islands councillors was noted by several people at the meeting.

Regional organiser for the TGWU, Tommy Campbell said: "The campaign has been born and we will continue until such time as things are put right."

An urgent report on measures required to alleviate the elderly care crisis in Orkney is to be submitted to the next meeting of the OIC’s policy and resources committee.

Members of the OIC’s social work committee called for full reports to be prepared on the need for building new care homes, the number of bed spaces required, capital and revenue requirements, possible sources of funding and the subsequent effects across the council of such an action.

Councillors further requested that a special meeting of the full council be called to discuss the issue with all the facts available.

Newspaper circulation figures for the first six months of the year show The Orcadian sells 10,377 copies per week . It remains Orkney’s best selling newspaper by several thousand copies each week.

The figure is down by just 2.4 per cent on the last six months of 2005 and reflects the seasonal trend of previous years.

The figures come from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the official body recording and regulating newspaper circulation figures for the benefit of advertisers and other interested parties.

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The OIC are in discussions with NHS Orkney in a bid to alleviate the elderly care crisis in Orkney.

Chairman of the social work committee, Councillor Keith Johnson revealed on Thursday that talks into the possibility of using a health board property to provide up to 18 additional beds were at an early stage.

Social work staff have been praised for slashing a predicted £700,000 budget overspend - but the cost cutting has resulted in an increased number of complaints from service users and their families.

Members of the OIC social work committee heard this morning that staff managed to reduce the overspend to a mere £7,000.

However, social work director Harry Garland said: “This has been intensely distressing for service users and carers, and frustrating and painful for staff in our department.

After an extensive air and sea search around Sanday, two missing youths on a home-made raft were found safe and well on Wednesday afternoon.

A member of the public made a 999 call at 2.30pm after watching the two boys disappear from view after the wind picked up.

The Kirkwall lifeboat and the Coastguard tug Anglian Sovereign, together with the helicopter Oscar Charlie, searched Otterswick Bay while police and the local coastguard rescue team scoured the coastline.

However, the helicopter spotted the raft on a beach just before 5pm and the boys shortly after..

The OIC has agreed to step in and save a charity recycling scheme due to be scrapped because of lack of volunteers and an increasing demand for the service.

The service, Charities Aid Recycling Enterprise, which has been run by Age Concern since 1990, collects up to 200 tonnes of glass, cans and oil from pubs and hotels around the county.

The loss of the service, it was feared, could result in a dramatic dip in Orkney’s recycling figures.

An Orkney man’s memory will live on in his music after he gifted his vast collection of records to the Orkney Library and archive.

Angus Findlater, who died aged 78 at the beginning of August, donated nearly 1,000 cds and records, thanks to the suggestion of his lifelong friend Ken Ross. The collection is estimated to be worth £10,000.

Islands councillors gave the go ahead for plastic windows to be fitted to a ‘C’ listed building in Kirkwall.

Members of the OIC environment, planning and protective services committee meeting on Wednesday considered the application to reroof, install Upvc sash and cases windows, wet harling walls and installation of timber doors in the two-storey end house in Queen Street.

Officials had recommend the application be refused but councillors voted five to four to grant the application.

The latest step in the development of Orkney’s new community plan is complete, and the Orkney Community Planning Partnership (OCPP) now wants to hear from the public.

Voluntary Action Orkney (VAO) asked community groups for their thoughts about the current community plan, ‘Orkney 2020’, and, despite only 50 of the 1500 questionnaires sent out being returned, received some interesting replies.

VAO produced a report summarising the results and OCPP would like to find out from the Orkney public if they agree with the points made.

The full report is available here and comments can be left on the Community Planning.

Plans to progress the proposed Scapa Flow container hub have taken a step forward, with a Baltic company interested in constructing and operating a terminal in Orkney.

However, the location for the proposed hub is Lyness on Hoy and not Flotta.

OIC officials met with Mr Marin Hili of the Baltic Container Terminal and the Hili Group this week to develop the plans.

The Hili Company expressed an interest in the project after receiving two business plans from Orkney Harbours, which centred on the development of Lyness quay and adjoining land in Hoy.

Until the OIC’s recreation and cultural services committee resolve an overspend of more than £200,000 to date this year, they have no more cash in the pot, councillors were told this week.

Officials had recommended that, in order to support the development of cultural activities with the Pier Arts Centre, a bid for additional revenue support for the centre should be submitted as part of the corporate resource plan.

However, Councillor Keith Johnson, said: “No such bid should go forward until the overspend of this committee is resolved.”

Councillor Johnson’s amendment defeated the motion by five votes to four.

Orkney will not be bidding to host the 2013 International Island Games, but councillors have not ruled out the possibility in the future.

The matter has been put on hold until a decision has been made by Orkney Islands Council over swimming, squash and indoor bowls facilities, and for the overspending department to put its finances in order.

Councillors at Tuesday's recreation and cultural services committee meeting further agreed to recommend up to £150 funding per competitor from Orkney attending the games in Rhodes next year.

Orkney is planning on sending a 106-strong team, with 11 sports represented, at a cost of £80,000.

Police are warning Orkney businesses to be aware of a suspected scam currently targeting local companies.

Businesses are being contacted by telephone, the caller claiming to be a member at “the local police station”. The recipient is invited to submit details of their business – for a fee – in order that it may be advertised in a crime prevention publication.

Northern Constabulary stress that the calls do not originate from any of the departments within the force.

Despite recent warnings by both police and OIC Trading Standards staff, it would seem that there are still a number of local individuals falling prey to these unscrupulous fraudsters.

With no facilities left to look after the elderly in Orkney, the first of the county’s old folk have been shipped to residential homes on the Scottish mainland.

The linked South Isles have been fighting for a care home for years and South Ronaldsay’s doctor, Dr Simon Kemp, made the revelation as he rallied community support at a meeting in St Margaret’s Hope on Monday night.

He has called on the rest of Orkney to come together and voice their opinions at a public meeting on the subject in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, at 8.15pm on Thursday night.

.A 37-year-old man was arrested on Monday afternoon following an incident outside the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall’s Broad Street.

Police detained the man in the car park to the rear of Bruce’s Stores, Victoria Street, shortly after the incident.

Police are appealing for information following an “unusual” theft in Tankerness, sometime over the past week.

A blacksmith’s anvil was taken from the Hall of Tankerness sometime over the past week.

A man was arrested in relation to a breach of the peace outside the Torvhaug in Kirkwall’s Bridge Street on Friday night.

He has subsequently been charged with vandalism and a breach of the peace and a report is to be submitted to the procurator fiscal.

MSP Jim Wallace is stepping up his campaign for NHS Orkney to receive a larger share of the health funding cake.

He is responding to an opportunity provided by the NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee’s consultation into improvements to the Arbuthnott Formula – which is used to calculate funding for every health board area in Scotland.

Under the current formula NHS Orkney receives “significantly less” per head of population than Shetland and the Western Isles.

It was a busy spell for Orkney’s lifeboats at the end of last week, with four call-outs.

Aside from the three reported online last week, also in the Hoy area, the most recent saw the Stromness lifeboat launched at 8.50pm on Friday to go to the assistance of the yacht Favour, with three people on board. The vessel had requested an escort through Hoy Sound to Stromness due to engine problems and insufficient wind.

The number of requests made to Northern Constabulary under the Freedom of Information Act has increased by 65 per cent and is likely to cost about £135,000 in 2006.

Of the 672 requests made between January and July, this year, 446 were made by the media, 148 were questions from private individuals and the rest was made up of requests from MP’s and MSP’s, solicitors and the business sector.

Some of the requests included where psychics had been used by the police, causes of fatal road crashes, and as specific as the number of meals served to prisoners at Dornoch Police Station.

Orkney Rugby Club’s First XV defeated Shetland 79-0 at Pickaquoy on Saturday afternoon.

In what was definitely a one-sided game, Orkney started scoring in the first two minutes, and the tries kept coming.

Next weekend, Orkney starts their league season with a home match against Panmore.

The visiting Shetland women's football team beat Orkney 10-0 in Kirkwall on Saturday.

Assembled earlier this year, the Orkney women were down 5-0 at half time, with Shetland slotting home another five goals in the second half.