The heavy steer which was judged to be the Supreme Champion at Friday's Christmas Prime Stock Show.

Supreme champion at the Kirkwall Christmas Prime Stock Show on Friday was a heavy steer from Garson Farm, Sandwick. 'Junkie Monkey' was born on January last year and was a Belgian Blue.

The reserve was a heavy steer owned by J. & J. Leslie, Quoymorhouse, Shapinsay,.

In the following sale, the supreme champion sold for £1,800 to Edgar Balfour, one of the judges, and the reserve champion sold to Eric Flett, Butcher, Stromness, for £1,150. The top price of £2,500, was paid by Liam Muir for a customer, for the champion heifer shown by B. Baillie, Sebay Cottage, Tankerness.

On Thursday night, at about 5.15pm, a pedestrian was struck by a bus in Stenness, while walking along the Kirkwall/Stromness road.

He was taken to Balfour Hospital, where he received treatment for his injuries.

The police would like to remind pedestrians walking on the road to wear light coloured clothing and to walk facing oncoming traffic. If walking in the dark, pedestrians should put on reflective clothing and carry a torch.

The Orkney Wine Company has been granted a licence to sell alcohol at their new premises in Lambholm.

The new shop, situated in front of the Italian Chapel, is permitted to sell alcohol between 8am and 10pm, Monday to Saturday, and between 12.30pm and 10pm on Sundays.

The shop will open to the public on December 6.

In St Margaret's Hope, in the early hours of Tuesday, a static orange light was removed and broken from scaffolding in the Back Road.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Kirkwall police on 872241.

A 48-year-old man has been found guilty of assaulting a young woman following a trial at Kirkwall Sheriff Court this week.

Ian George Arthur Flaws, of Inner Oran, Eastquoy Road, Kirkwall, had denied placing his hands under the 17-year-old's clothing and touching her buttocks on October 18.

He had further denied assaulting the same female by touching her bottom at a restaurant in Kirkwall, on various occasions between December 1, 2007, and June 1, 2008.

Sentence was deferred on Flaws until January 7 for social inquiry and community service reports. He was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register.

The Woolworths store in Albert Street, Kirkwall.

The future of Kirkwall's largest town centre store is in doubt after the announcement that national company Woolworths is going into administration.

The store in Albert Street, has just recently celebrated 50 years of trading in Kirkwall.

It is planned that all of the company's 815 stores will stay open for now, but 30,000 jobs are at risk, after the chain found itself unable to cope with its £385m debt.

Transportation projects in both the South Isles and North Isles got the go-ahead from councillors this week.

Members of the OIC policy and resources committee recommended granting up to 60 per cent project costs for air service enhancements to North Ronaldsay and additional summer sailings to Hoy and Flotta, complete with a connecting Kirkwall bus service.

The North Ronaldsay project is to span three years and seeks to introduce a longer flying day in the summer months, allowing an earlier flight in the morning and a later flight in the evening to the island.

The three-year project in the South Isles builds on the success of the additional summer 2008 sailings to the South Isles, with the inclusion of a round-trip bus service from Kirkwall to Hoy.

Orkney Ferries, in consultation with Orkney Islands Council, is proposing to remove the fuel surcharge on ferry fares from December 1.

Orkney Islands Council is also proposing to remove fuel surcharges from the charge for pilotage services.

This follows the recent drop in oil prices.

In June, Orkney Ferries applied a fuel surcharge of 25p per journey on the South and Inner Isles ferries and 45p per journey on the Outer Isles ferries, in order to meet the soaring cost of fuel. The surcharges met 25 per cent of the fuel overspend, with the remaining 75 per cent met by Orkney Islands Council.

The decision on the lease of Kirkwall’s former Tourist Office building was made final this week, as the Wrigley Sisters were named the preferred applicant.

At a meeting of Orkney Islands Council’s policy and resources committee on Tuesday, discussions over the future of the building were held in private.

A statement issued later read: “Councillors decided at today’s policy and resources committee meeting that the Wrigley Sisters should be named as the preferred applicants for the lease of 6 Broad Street.

“This is on the basis that the Wrigley Sisters provide full financial information and a business plan for meeting the requirements of the lease to the council’s full satisfaction.”

Orkney's Marinas Ltd is predicting a good year ahead for the county's marinas.

The marinas at Kirkwall, Stromness and Westray hosted 549 visiting yachts during 2008, an increase of nearly ten per cent on 2007.

UK-based yachts accounted for more than half (55 per cent) with others from Norway, Germany, Holland, Sweden and Denmark, and as far afield as the USA, New Zealand, Australia,

Czech Republic and Poland also visited during the season, confirming Orkney has a world-wide appeal to yachtsmen.

Orkney Marinas record numbers of crew on board visiting yachts and converting these numbers into bed-night equivalents generated a staggering 7,878 nights' stay.

Police are appealing for witnesses to an incident which occurred in the doorway of the Scottish Hydro Electric shop in Albert Street, Kirkwall around 3.20pm on Thursday, November 20.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Kirkwall Police Station, on 872241.

A major search operation on Monday for a fisherman who was reported overboard off Shetland has been called off.

The British vessel, Cantara, was positioned 60 miles west of Eshaness.

Shetland Coastguard received a call from the vessel at around 5am this morning, informing them that a man had fallen overboard. The coastguard helicopter, which is based at Sumburgh, along with 12 vessels in the area, took part in the search for the man.

The Cantara is believed to have an all-Spanish crew.

Alcohol has been stolen from a premises on Junction Road, Kirkwall, sometime between 5pm and 10.30pm on Saturday, November 22.

Witnesses are being sought regarding an incident where a person entered a vehicle and reversed it onto the roadway without the owner’s permission, outside the Kirkwall Hotel, at 11.40pm on Saturday, November 22.

Several windows at a property in Helliar, Papdale, Kirkwall, were damaged over the weekend, one being smashed, sometime between 3pm on November 20, and 9am on November 23.

Also, a window to a property with a communal hallway at Glaitness Park, Kirkwall, was damaged between 2am and 2.30am on Sunday, November 23.

Anyone with any information regarding the above incidents should contact Kirkwall Police Station on 872241.

A car, which was parked on Papdale Crescent, Kirkwall, was struck by another vehicle, between 8pm and 8.15pm last Friday night.

Sometime between 2am and 9am on Friday morning, a door to a property in Junction Road, Kirkwall, was damaged.

Anyone with information about either of these incidents is asked to contact Kirkwall Police Station, on 872241.

Sanday-based master of the Queen’s music, Peter Maxwell Davies, has dedicated his latest piece of music to former Beatles’ songwriter, Sir Paul McCartney.

The new work, Liber Pulsatoris will be performed at Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral next month.

The work, which is a setting of 12th century German poet, Hildegard of Bingen, has been commissioned as part of the celebrations for Liverpool 2008 European Capital of Culture. In an article in The Times Online this week, the composer is reported to have described Paul McCartney as “one of the greatest talents this country has produced.”