IT must be the bravest, most imaginative bid in years to bring calmness and peace to the troubled streets on Saturday nights.

“Angels on the streets of Penrith after 11pm,” says a striking headline in the parish church magazine, in announcing a “Street Angels” project which is being drawn up by members of churches in town.

This is a praiseworthy initiative, based on a scheme which has already made Halifax a safer, more pleasant place at night.

In an article in the magazine, the team rector, the Rev. David Sargent, says the aim is to build “a quiet but positive community presence on our streets”. From a base in St. Andrew’s Parish Rooms, volunteers will set out in groups of three to walk the streets and, in Mr. Sargent’s words, “chat with any gatherings of young people and just be around”.

At a time when many people avoid the town centre at night, this is a commendable move which has never been attempted before locally.

It is stressed that Penrith’s “Street Angels” will not report on people or intervene in disturbances in pubs.

But they will keep an eye out for girls or young people who may be in difficulty or appear vulnerable. Some may be taken to the parish rooms for coffee.

People who watch Sky Television programs such as Cops on Camera, highlighting the anti-social mayhem on streets of towns and cities in late-evening, will hope and pray this peace initiative is a big success.

NEW THREAT TO PRESS?

It was a headline to amaze and horrify any died in the wool weekly newspaperman, one-time reporter of councils, courts and annual meetings, scribe on local football and cricket in days gone by.

“The sad decline of the local newspaper,” pronounced the bold type above a story of how many people are satisfied with a skimming of the news from radio, teletext and the internet, rather than peruse a local paper, which gives in-depth coverage.

The story appeared in The Times, so it could not be ignored.

The thought of life without a weekly newspaper would be heartrending to diehard readers of the Herald. Now nearing the 150th anniversary of its launch, the paper has long been essential reading — a mirror of local life, a source of smiles, surprises and shock, a sounding board of local opinion, a record of achievement in the spheres of schools and sport.

Papers like the Herald are indispensable to local democracy, as well as battling against disagreeable proposals, such as the closure of hospitals, post offices, schools and bus services.

And don’t forget the newspaper’s value as an advertising medium!

So why the “sad decline”, referred to in The Times by Richard Morrison?

He attributes the threat to local papers to the decline of the spirit of community in many towns and areas.

Once-flourishing clubs now struggle for members, some to the point of extinction. Church attendances fall and pubs, formerly so popular, are no longer the meeting-places they used to be. Many in Penrith have closed.

Even shopping has lost its socialising side, with friendly shops of old forced to give way to supermarkets.

So the sense of community has faltered and local papers are among victims, or potential victims, of this decline.

The Times view is that, as with shops, cinemas and bus services, we must use weekly newspapers — or lose them.

RARE FEAT RECALLED

It is difficult to believe that 30 years have sped away since a teenage Eden cricketer made big headlines in national papers by performing a remarkable “double”.

Tim McVey, then a Penrith CC player, but later a stalwart of the Edenhall club, joined the very select band of batsmen to have made two centuries in one day.

The son of Brian McVey, who was Penrith Queen Elizabeth Grammar School’s sports master, 17-year-old Tim was playing for the school on the morning of 18th June, 1977, and scored 101 against Workington Grammar School.

A few hours later the teenager was celebrating again, this time for making 108 — including eleven 6s — for Penrith’s third team in an Eden Valley League match at Gamblesby!

After Tim’s feat was reported in the Daily Telegraph and other papers, cricket statistician Ernest Gross checked records and found only 14 previous instances of such a “double” in cricket-playing countries around the world, the earliest in 1888.

Three star cricketers were among previous scorers of two 100s in a day — K. S. Ranjitsinhji, the Indian ace, in 1896, England’s Jack Hobbs in 1906 and Ray Lindwall, of Australia, in 1936.

UPLIFT FOR CHARITY

Can you imagine 90,000 women’s bras dangling from a line over a busy road?

Yes, it happened recently in Cyprus, according to the summer magazine of the Inner Wheel movement, recording the ingenuity of women in that country to raise thousands for breast cancer awareness, by collecting £1 per bra.

The line of underwear stretched over 12 miles and gained the Cypriot women a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

Inner Wheel ladies in this country have been less saucy, but have still raised a lot of money by means of a limerick competition, selling snowdrops, racing in Santa Claus suits and a sponsored climb of Snowdon!