A paranoid and jealous boyfriend carried out a frenzied knife attack on his girlfriend and her mother in their own home after a drink and drug binge.

Leslie Cunningham, 40, was jailed indefinitely yesterday after admitting two offences of attempted murder.

Angela Gardner, 57, has been left wheelchair bound and almost bled to death in the attack at the house on Bar Lane, Garforth.

Daughter Stephanie, 25, survived after pretending to be dead as Cunningham stabbed her repeatedly.

Angela was saved after she dragged herself outside and was spotted by an off-duty doctor and two nurses on their way to work.

Cunningham was “besotted” with Stephanie and carried out the attack when after she ended the relationship after suffering month of violent abuse. He fled after the attack on August 2 last year before giving himself up after a 16-day manhunt.

The Recorder of Leeds, judge Peter Collier QC jailed Cunningham indefinitely, saying he posed a significant future risk to the public . He must serve a minimum of 12-and-a-half years before he can apply for parole.

After the sentencing, Angela and Stephanie said: “Leslie Cunningham has destroyed our family’s lives.

“He has given us a life sentence of psychological trauma as a result of his possessive and violent nature.

“We both have trouble sleeping, we find it difficult to go out and socialise and we had jobs and responsibilities that we can no longer fulfil.

“Our lives will never be the same again. The injuries he inflicted upon us, both physically and mentally, will never fully heal and we will always have a constant reminder of that horrific morning.”

Richard Clews, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court Cunningham met Stephanie in summer 2010 at a event the local cricket club in Garforth.

They started a relationship which soon began to turn sour as Cunningham became jealous and controlling. He objected to her spending time with others, accused her of cheating on him and turned violent after abusing cocaine.

On one occasion he beat up one of her ex-boyfriends and on another, in April last year, he repeatedly punched her and banged her head against her car windscreen before spitting in her face.

The physical and mental abuse resulted in Stephanie taking an overdose of valium. Cunningham also sent threatening text massages to mother on daughter.

He text Angela saying that if he found Stephanie with another man he would slit both their throats,

Stephanie found the courage to end the relationship after Cunningham was arrested for another attack on her. After he was taken into custody she found a message on a mobile phone and discovered he was also in a relationship with another woman.

Cunningham carried out the horrific stabbing three days after sending her text which read: “Can’t believe you have done this. you don’t know what you have caused.”

A MAN was taken to hospital after a car smashed into a shop in Leeds.

The incident happened at the junction of Roundhay Road and Bayswater Terrace, Harehills, shortly before 9.30pm on Wednesday. (February 22)

Emergency services said a 28-year-old man was taken to Leeds General Infirmary with injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening.

The building hit by the car was Saber Barber Shop, near St Aidan’s Parish Church.

An external security shutter is believed to have been the only part of the shop damaged in the incident.

A man named by sources as serving Labour MP Eric Joyce has been arrested on suspicion of assault following a disturbance at the Palace of Westminster.

Scotland Yard confirmed officers detained a man in his 50s after being called to reports of an incident at a bar within the House of Commons at around 10.50pm last night.

He is currently being held in custody at a central London police station, the Met said.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We were called at approximately 10.50pm last night to reports of a disturbance at a bar within the House of Commons.

“A man aged in his 50s was arrested by officers on suspicion of assault. He remains in custody in a central London police station. Inquiries are continuing.”

Mr Joyce, the MP for Falkirk since December 2000, served in the Army Education Corps before pursuing a career in politics.

In 2010 he resigned as shadow Northern Ireland minister after pleading guilty to failing to provide a breath test.

From 2003 Mr Joyce served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to a number of government ministers.

Mr Joyce quit as the PPS to Bob Ainsworth in 2009 due to his concerns over the war in Afghanistan.

Prior to that he had been a parliamentary aide to John Hutton, including the period when he was defence secretary, Mike O’Brien and Margaret Hodge.

According to his constituency webpage, Mr Joyce has a constituency office in Denny and an office in Portcullis House, Westminster.

During his time in Westminster he has held an interest in defence and military issues due to his army background, the website adds.

According to reports Conservative MP Stuart Andrew was head-butted and punched in the incident which happened in the Strangers Bar, a Commons bar reserved for MPs and their guests.

Labour MP Paul Farrelly was involved in a brawl in a different Commons bar in 2010.

The MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme claimed he “wrestled” a man to the floor in “self defence” following the altercation, which took place during a karaoke party at Parliament’s Sports and Social Club.

A NEW initiative from a Leeds-based online professionals’ profiles service allows business contacts to get information on a member quickly.

Profiled.com has been extended into a full portal service that brings together information from across the internet into one place.

The service was founded in 2008 by chief executive Steve Wainwright, pictured.

The portal service offers free tools such as a professional profile, testimonials, media monitoring, business blogging, a personal briefing sheet and a 60 second interview which shows a user’s personality.

Laura Eardley, partner - external relations at Profiled.com, told the YEP: “It helps bring together business contacts into one place.

“There is nothing out there like it at the moment.

“It’s like a huge electronic business card.

“It brings everything people want to know about you into one place.”

Ms Eardley said that users of Profiled.com can choose what people viewing the site can see and does not risk potential employers finding embarrassing information or photographs as can be the case if they check on an individual on social networking sites such as facebook.

She said: “You can portray yourself exactly how you want to be portrayed.”

She said that the Profiled.com website, which is run by a team of five, has built up “thousands” of users across the world and said that there are hopes it will continue to grow and attract more interest.

Ms Eardley said: “We are trying to do a Silicon Valley start-up from Yorkshire.”

Founder and chief executive Steve Wainwright said: “Your online footprint is now key to business success. The first thing people will do before meeting you or after a networking event will be to Google you, so it’s vital that your information can be found easily.

“Profiled mends a business person’s fractured internet presence and is a much better solution than having your contact wading through pages of internet search results trying to find your information, which is frustrating at best.”

Personal branding is becoming more important amongst the UK’s business community.

A LEEDS care home company’s director of nursing has been congratulated by her colleagues at a special event to mark her 20 years of service.

Bronwyn Gregory, who works for Westward Care Ltd, attended the special celebration at Headingley Hall Care Home on Shire Oaks Road in Headingley.

At the event, managing director Peter Hodkinson praised her “pioneering approach and ultimate professionalism.”

She joined Westward Care in 1992 as matron of its first care home in Roundhay.

Our picture shows Bronwyn Gregory, centre, sharing a celebratory glass of champagne with Carol Hill, finance director, and Peter Hodkinson.

quantitaTive easing funding from the Bank of England should be given to medium-level lenders like building societies rather than the big banks, says a Yorkshire finance leader.

Leeds Building Society chief executive Peter Hill said big banks are holding onto the cash whereas mid-level lenders would more easily release the funds through lending.

He told the YEP: “If we had access to that funding we would lend it.”

He said the big banks were “restrained by capital” and so limited their lending.

Mr Hill said medium-level lenders had had “discussions” with the Bank of England on the matter.

High street banks have been criticised for allegedly not lending enough to fund investment, which banks deny.

When two police officers became suspicious about an erratically driven car they carried out a spot check ... and recovered almost £150,000 worth of cannabis resin.

The driver of the Volkswagen Golf, Paul Griffiths, is starting a three year prison sentence after pleading guilty at Leeds Crown Court to possession of illegal drugs with intent to supply.

PCs Paul Ellis and Stuart Bannister, of the road crime team spotted the Golf driven by Griffiths and containing two women on York Road, Seacroft, Leeds, at 10.30pm on October 28.

The car stopped on the forecourt of the BP Petrol Station on York Road and the occupants claimed they were lost and seeking an address in Whinmoor, Leeds.

The court heard that Griffiths, 48, from Aldershot, told the officers he had made arrangements to buy a stock car from the address.

The women claimed they had only known Griffiths for a short period and were planning to meet friends locally.

Their accounts raised suspicions and the officers also smelled cannabis inside the Golf.

Griffiths said that two boxes in the boot contained leaflets left by the car’s previous owner.The officers searched the car and PC Ellis opened the two cardboard boxes, which were taped up. He found 139 bars of cannabis resin with a street value of £148,000.

Griffiths and the two women were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a class B drug.

At that point Griffiths’ phone rang and he said: “That’s where I could have been going to deliver the packages.”

The owner of a chicken takeaway has been ordered to pay £10,000 for not having the correct licence.

Mujeeb Bhutto, 33, of Krispy Funky Chicken in Morley, Leeds, pleaded guilty to five charges. He was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay £4,883 costs and a £15 victims surcharge.

At the same hearing at Leeds magistrates court, his brother Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto, 31, accepted a formal caution for his part in the offences.

Leeds City Council heard the takeaweay on Fountain Street, Morley, was selling hot food past 11pm without a licence. A warning letter said sales must cease until a licence was obtained.

Council enforcement officers conducted undercover test purchases on five occasions after the letter had been sent. On each occasion hot food was purchased.

John Mulcahy, the council’s head of licensing said: “It is not acceptable that any food outlet conducts business without the correct licence.

“Businesses need to take notice of council advice to avoid large fines. By making premises apply for a licence, it gives people the chance to put forward objections or raise concerns.”

The mum of a Leeds soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan aged just 18 has spoken of her pride at her son’s bravery.

Jake Bartlett from Pudsey shrugs off the injury he sustained days before he was due to leave the war zone as “only a scratch”.

A pioneering operation managed to save his other leg, shattered in the blast in Afghanistan – which mum Wendy says was her “best birthday present ever”.

Now Jake has regained his independence while his mum is determined to help the families of other injured soldiers in the city.

She said: “I am so proud of him. He doesn’t complain, he just gets on with it. ‘It’s a scratch’ is his attitude.”

Jake, a Rifleman with 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, was only a few days away from the end of his first six-month tour when he was hurt on October 12, 2009. The team medic was caught in an explosion near Sangin, in Helmand Province.

The blast damaged his left leg so badly that it needed to be amputated above the knee, while the injuries to his right leg included breaks to the tibia and fibula bones.

Back home in Leeds, his mum was being given the news that her son was seriously hurt.

“I thought they had come to tell me he was dead and I was screaming,” Wendy said. “It was his last week and practically the last patrol he was doing. They were only 200 yards from their base.”

He was airlifted to Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham where doctors used a pioneering technique to rebuild his right leg, using muscle and cartilage from his left leg.

“They saved his leg on my birthday and it was the best birthday present I’ve ever had,” Wendy, also mum to elder son Alex and grandma to his two daughters said.

“It was the first time they had done it – they practice different techniques rather than them lose their leg.”

Jake had to stay off his leg for three months but luckily the operation worked and after that he could start learning to walk again using a prosthetic left leg.

After being discharged from hospital, Jake started the long process of rehabilitation at Headley Court in Surrey, the specialist centre for injured service personnel.

Jake, now 21, is just finishing his rehab.

He has already fundraised for the Pilgrim Bandits charity and done two skydives.

His mum is also now hoping her experiences can help support the families of other injured soldiers. While Jake was in hospital, she and other parents turned to each other for support but back in Leeds she found there wasn’t a similar network.

“Nobody understands what you are going through. It affects the whole family and I thought I’d like to start a group,” the 51-year-old said.

She came across Carers Leeds, which provides information and advice for carers across the city, and the idea for starting a group for the families was born.

Carers Leeds has secured funding from Jimbo’s Fund, which was set up by late Leeds philanthropist Jimi Heselden to benefit worthy causes and is administered by Leeds Community Foundation.

Wendy said she knew how valuable it could be from speaking to Pauline Rogers, whose son James was also injured in Afghanistan.

Val Hewison, from Carers Leeds, said: “We wanted to make something positive happen, with the help of the original families we met we plan to set up a group solely for family members of injured service personnel.”

A coffee afternoon for the new group takes place March 23, at 2pm at Carers Leeds on The Headrow in Leeds city centre. Contact Carers Leeds on 0113 246 8338.

The council intends to spend just over £563m during 2012-13 to provide its services - a 4.4 per cent fall on the current figure.

But faced with grant cuts and falling income in some areas, the Labour-run administration has decided to take £6.9m from the council’s general fund reserves - which currently stand at £24m.

It is a move strongly opposed by Tory councillors who have attacked Labour’s spending proposals as a “live now, pay later” budget. Coun Andrew Carter, Conservative group leader, said: “This figure (£6.9m) is far too high, and coupled with an over-dependence on one-off sources of funding puts the council’s financial security on shaky ground.”

His alternative spending plan - to take only £3m from reserves and make up the difference through efficiency savings and use of a contingency fund - was defeated by Labour at the council’s annual budget meeting. Budget amendments put forward by the Liberal Democrat group - including a cut to the 65p mileage rate paid to some staff to raise money for park and ride schemes - were also defeated.

Coun Keith Wakefield, council leader, pointed out Tory government ministers had said it was wrong to sit on reserves while services were being cut.

During 2012-13 the council is looking to save £55m to help it cope with government grant cuts and other spending pressures, particularly in adult social care and children’s services. This comes on top of £90m in savings the authority is on course to make during the current financial year.

During the next 12 months the council will shed up to 400 more jobs and increase the price of some services, while also spending more on vulnerable adults and children.

Council house rents will rise by 6.8 per cent.

Ken Bates insists his straight-talking relationship with Neil Warnock will prove a successful one for Leeds United – and has given short shrift to talk of it being a clash of egos.

Warnock’s appointment as Whites boss was confirmed on Saturday after meeting Bates in Monaco the previous day and despite the pair’s forthright nature, the Elland Road chief is confident their chemistry will work.

On his relationship with Warnock, who famously turned down Bates’ offer to take over at Chelsea in 1991, Bates said: “We don’t waste time skirting around matters, we tackle problems in an honest and open way. It’s much better than skirting around situations; that takes much longer and sometimes you have misunderstandings.

“We say what we think. That sort of makes you controversial and it’s (considered) a joke. Most people who are asked their opinion don’t give one.

“We say it as it is. I’ve known Neil for many years and I’ve reminded him of the occasion when Sheffield United won promotion under his managership and I took 12 cases of Dom Perignon champagne into their dressing room for them to celebrate and afterwards it finished in the back of his car boot.

“I reminded him of that on Friday and I said: ‘This time when we win promotion and the Dom Perignon’s in the dressing room, it stays there!’ And Neil burst out laughing and that’s the relationship we’re having.”

Warnock reportedly rebuffed rival interest from five clubs to take on the challenge at United, with Bates stating that the 63-year-old’s motivation to gloss his distinguished managerial career by getting Leeds back to their traditional home of the Premiership and clinching a footballing milestone in the process swayed his decision.

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The veteran Sheffield-born boss was afforded a dream start after a thrilling come-from-behind success over Yorkshire neighbours Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, the hosts snatching victory from two goals down.

And Bates believes the result could yet be a turning point in United’s season.

Bates said: “Neil wasn’t particularly motivated by money. He’s got his ambition – he’s one of three managers who has won promotion seven times and wants to make it an eight.

“He wants to take Leeds back into the Premiership and crown his own personal career, which you can’t blame him for.”

On Saturday’s success, he added: “I think it (the Doncaster win) could prove the turning point of the season. To be fair, we have come back from two goals down before, but I think it was in the spirit it was done. A cause of that was the entry of the gladiator, so to speak, which gave us those three points and kept us within touching distance of the play-offs with just 14 games to go.

“It always happens when you bring a new man in, it’s a breath of fresh air sort of thing and there’s different attitudes and I’m glad to see the team’s responded to him.”

* Meanwhile, Bates has wished Simon Grayson well following his appointment as Huddersfield Town boss on Tuesday, just under three weeks after he was axed as United boss.

He said: “We had him for three years and he did a good job and stabilised the club and got us promotion.

“It’s always difficult when you part company with managers, but things had drifted away this season and that was the reason why it was time for a change.

“But I’d like to place on record my thanks to him and his merry men for what they did and I wish them well in their new job. But of course, since it’s Huddersfield, not too well!”

MOTORISTS are facing disruption this morning amid reports an overturned lorry has shed a load of several tonnes of paper on a key commuter route in West Yorkshire.

Long queues have built up on the westbound carriageway of the M62 around junction 29, near Lofthouse in the Wakefield area.

Traffic is said to be stretching back as far as junction 31 of the motorway, at Normanton.

Check out latest football transfer gossip around the leagues. Is your favourite player tipped for a move?

Zenit St Petersburg claim they are in negotiations with Arsenal to bring Andrey Arshavin back to the club on loan. “We had [initial] talks with them. Let’s see how they respond now,” the Russian club’s general director, Maxim Mitrofanov, was quoted as saying.

Full story: Sovetsky Sport [In Russian]

Frank Lampard could be set to join ex-Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti at Paris Saint-Germain.

Full story: Daily Mirror

Meanwhile, Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole, 31, is set to leave the club after clashing with manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Full story: The Sun

Arsenal are planning to spend £55m on German pair Mario Gotze and Lukas Podolski in the summer as manager Arsene Wenger looks to reinvigorate his attack.

Full story: Bild [In German]

Juventus are understood to have outlined a four-year contract for Manchester United’s 18-year-old midfielder Paul Pogba.

Full story: Daily Mail

Sunderland face competition from Sevilla and Saint Etienne in the race to land Atalanta midfielder Moussa Kone. The Ivorian has impressed this season while on loan at Serie B outfit Pescara.

Full story: talkSPORT

Al Ain have urged Sunderland to make striker Asamoah Gyan’s loan move permanent in the summer. The UAE-based team paid £6m to get Gyan on a temporary deal, and are prepared to pay another £6m.

Full story: Daily Mirror

AC Milan are set to rival Manchester United in the race to snap up Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia. The Spaniard is believed to be valued at £17m by the Portuguese giants.

Full story: talkSPORT

Reading striker Mathieu Manset is set to join fellow Frenchman Nicolas Anelka at Shanghai Shenhua after the Chinese side made a loan bid for his services.

Full story: Daily Mail

]]> 1.4275356 Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:48:34 +0000 http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/leeds_rhinos_ben_will_fight_to_keep_place_1_4275347

Shooting Star Ben Jones-Bishop is hoping he has done enough to prove he is worth keeping in Leeds Rhinos’ team.

Jones-Bishop scored the game-breaking try in last weekend’s World Club Challenge win over Manly Sea Eagles, after being called up to replace rib injury victim Lee Smith for his first appearance of the year.

The England squad man played in Rhinos under-20s’ pre-season trials and wasn’t selected for the opening two Stobart Super League games.

He admitted that was a “frustrating” experience after his breakthrough campaign in 2011.

But he said he accepts everyone in the squad has to fight for his place and now intends to “make it hard” for anyone else to step in.

Rhinos’ initial squad for Sunday’s trip to Widnes Vikings will be announced tomorrow and Jones-Bishop said: “It was good to be involved last week.

“I wanted to be involved from the start of the season, but we’ve got a big squad and a lot of good players.

“You’ve just got to work hard and when you get your chance you have to try to take it and remain in the side.

“You want to be playing and after how we finished last year – and playing week in and week out – it was frustrating not to be part of it.

“But you have to keep your head high and keep working hard with the team. It is a squad game these days, so it is going to happen.

“Everyone in the squad is competing for places and you try and make it hard for the coach to not put you in the side.”

Jones-Bishop was thrown in at the deep end against Manly, but predicted that he will be better for the hit-out.

“It was tough, especially the first 20 minutes, getting used to the speed of the game,” he reported.

“But after that I thought I went okay. There’s things to build on and obviously the more you play the more fitness you get and you get used to the speed of things.

“It was a good start, but I am hoping to improve on that and try and keep my spot.”

It was the first time Jones-Bishop had played against NRL opposition and he said: “I’ll definitely be better from that.

“They are the Australian champions and a great side, with a lot of international players.

“Playing in those games – Grand Finals and World Club Challenges – can only benefit your game.”

Jones-Bishop is confident that there won’t be a hangover from last Friday’s famous victory when they return to league action in three days’ time.

“We enjoyed it over the weekend, but we started again on Monday,” he said.

“It’s a long week – Friday to Sunday – and we’ve had a lot of time to prepare for Widnes, so it’s straight back into it.”

● St Helens’ Australian back-row forward Chris Flannery is set to hang up his boots at the end of the season.

The former Queensland Origin player, who turns 32 in June, is out of contract at the end of the year and will not seek an extension.

“I think this will be my last year,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll have a big year this year and finish it off in the right fashion.”

Despite a brave display in testing conditions Leeds Carnegie slipped to their second successive defeat at Nottingham on Wednesday afternoon.

Leeds head coach Diccon Edwards named a much-changed side to the one that lined up against Esher as his team aimed to bounce back from their defeat against bottom-placed Esher, whilst fifth-placed Nottingham were hoping to extend their unbeaten run to four.

Leeds were were boosted by the inclusion of new signing, Ed Williamson, who was handed a place in the starting line up to make his debut for the club.

With the wind at their backs Nottingham made a strong start and took the lead after just three minutes, through their full-back Savage. After a scrum in the Leeds 22, Nottingham played into the visitors’ midfield and Leeds missed a crucial tackle that allowed Savage in for a straightforward try. James Arlidge added the conversion to give his side a 7-0 advantage.

Dominate

Leeds were dealt two early setbacks with Phil Nilsen and Cameron Zeiss both forced to leave the field with injuries.

Nottingham continued to dominate the game for the first 30 minutes and although the Carnegie defence prevented them adding a second try, they did stretch their lead with a successful Arlidge penalty on 25 minutes.

With 10 minutes to go in the first half the visitors found some composure and with increased possession they began to threaten their hosts. Will Cliff made a solid break back towards the ruck but despite this promising period of play they were unable to get the try they deserved and their only score of the first half was a penalty from Jordan Davies in the final minute of the half.

Within three minutes of the restart Leeds narrowed the deficit with a well-worked try. Ollie Richards made the break before finding the supporting Ollie Denton who went over for the try. Davies though was unable to add the conversion but at 10-8 it looked like Leeds were in a strong position to get something from the game.

Minutes later Nottingham extended their lead when Leeds were ruled to have made an infringement at the scrum and the referee awarded the home side a penalty try, which Arlidge converted.

The Carnegie men used the wind to their advantage in the second half but Nottingham regularly won their own line-out ball to prevent Leeds from gaining any momentum.

Davies kept Leeds in the game with another penalty to bring the score to 17-11, but with just over 10 minutes to play Nottingham grabbed a try which ultimately put the game beyond Leeds. Arlidge intercepted a Cliff pass and then ran unopposed to the tryline. He converted his own try to make it 24-11.

Both sides to their credit attempted to play expansive rugby during the course of the second half but neither could break through for a further score and Leeds now head into their final regular league game on the back of two defeats, although they will be more encouraged by their performance in this fixture as they aim to finish in a strong play-off position.

Rumours continue to spread that we’re just months away from getting an Apple store inside Leeds’s Trinity retail and leisure development.

Not quite an event of earth-shattering significance for everyone, but for your average urbanite it represents a place of pilgrimage to worship beneath that glorious icon.

When I made enquiries this week a spokesperson for the city centre development, which opens in about a year’s time, said: “I’m afraid that we can’t confirm whether or not Apple is coming” which, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t a direct denial.

I interpret that in one of two ways: either they are coming, or they’re at least in advanced negotiations. It’s worth noting that just about every other major city in Britain has one of these stores, among them Birmingham and Bristol who, tellingly, both boast Apple outlets inside shopping centres which Trinity’s developers, Land Securities, also built. Of course, Trinity could just be subtly teasing us with the possibility that they’re on their way when, in fact, they’re not at all, but I’m not sure they’d pursue such spin which could backfire spectacularly.

Apple are also notorious for trying to build intrigue in the run up to their openings, preferring to keep the exact look, location and existence of its outlets under wraps until the last minute.

But as gossip grows around the city, I reckon they’ll struggle to keep anything secret for a whole 12 months.

Ten years ago today Leeds Rhinos were reflecting on the previous evening’s 44-4 home win over lower division side Hull KR, which had secured a place in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals.

Aussie Ben Walker – brought in to replace Iestyn Harris following his move to rugby union – had kicked six goals to go with tries by Chev Walker (2), Keith Senior (2), Marcus St Hilaire, Mark Calderwood, Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow.

Next up for Leeds were London Broncos – a game in which Andy Hay touched down four times – in their opening Super League fixture on March 3 (the date of this year’s round four).

They were then crushed 38-6 at Hull in their first away game, before a 46-10 home cup success against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.

After that the season fell into a familiar pattern. Rhinos reached the cup semi-finals, as they usually did and slumped to an humiliating 42-16 defeat to St Helens.

Thrashing

In the league they finished a respectable fourth, behind St Helens, Bradford and Wigan, with a record of 17 wins and 11 defeats.

After beating Hull at home in the opening round of the play-offs, Leeds’ season ended in a 41-18 thrashing at Wigan.

it was a routine season for one of, not just rugby league’s, but British sport’s great under-achievers.

Leeds’ last trophy had been at Wembley three years earlier and it was 30 years since their previous Championship win. Most diehard fans had probably given up hope of seeing Leeds ever crowned champions again.

Anyone a decade ago who had predicted that in 2012 Leeds would be celebrating a record-equalling third World Club Challenge triumph, after five Super League Grand Final wins in the previous eight years would have been whisked away by men in white coats.

The transformation at Headingley Carnegie in the space of 10 years has been truly astonishing, but perhaps, if you look closely enough, there were signs of it back in 2002.

The previous campaign had been an injury-ravaged one, but a number of young players, including Burrow, Danny McGuire, Matt Diskin and Jamie Jones-Buchanan, had begun to emerge as potential first-team stalwarts. They were to become the backbone of the side over the forthcoming successful seasons as Rhinos’ youth policy finally started to pay off.

Burrow, McGuire and Jones-Buchanan – along with Sinfield, another survivor from 2002 – were key men in last Friday’s world title conquering of Manly Sea Eagles.

Ignoring the various Grand Final successes, last weekend was up there with the cup win over Bradford at Valley Parade, the 12-man 1998 cup victory against Wigan and last year’s epic play-off downing of Warrington Wolves as one of Rhinos’ most memorable modern triumphs.

As this column noted last week, there have been more important matches at Headingley over the years, but surely few such passionate and uplifting evenings. It was a vindication of everything Rhinos have done as a club over the past decade.

The decision to stage the tie at Headingley certainly paid off. Judging by the chants of “We hate Rhinos” coming from the South Stand a couple of hours before kick off, not everybody in the 21,000 crowd turned up to support Leeds.

But the atmosphere produced was unique and inspirational and it did visibly lift the players, particularly at times during the second half when they were defending grimly on their own line.

At one stage, when Leeds conceded a series of penalties deep in their territory, the response was not the usual moaning and groaning at the referee, but instead a roar of defiance which did credit to everyone who paid good money to be there.

Rhinos’ win restored credibility to the competition and to Super League and will make an expanded World Club Challenge a real possibility. That would have been a non-starter had Rhinos lost last Friday.

Leeds finished fifth in Super League last year, remember, which suggests England has a number of teams which could compete with the NRL’s best.

Rusty

Leeds played well and – here’s the thing – Manly gave a decent account of themselves, under the circumstances. They were obviously rusty, but there was no question of them not being up for the game.

The visitors gave it their best shot, unlike some Aussie sides in the past and that makes Rhinos’ win all the more creditable.

There have been the usual complaints from Australia: Manly are still in pre-season, they hadn’t played a warm-up match, were on the wrong end of some dubious decisions and had to concede home advantage.

All valid, but Manly had known about the fixture since last October and it was their choice to arrive late and not have a practice game, so that’s no excuse.

Rhinos were perfectly willing – keen even – to play in Australia and as for the referee, Ashley Klein is an Aussie. Warrington Wolves beat South Sydney on the Aussies’ home patch in a pre-season game a few weeks ago, so it can be done.

Rhinos’ third world title win was achieved with a team including only three overseas players. Nine were from Leeds, two from the Wakefield district and one each from Oldham, Manchester and Oxford.

And it is a side with the potential to get better. Thought will soon have to be given to replacing the irreplaceable Jamie Peacock, Kylie Leuluai is in his final season and Brent Webb has also reached the veteran stage.

But there’s a few years left in the likes of Sinfield, Burrow, McGuire and Jones-Buchanan and others – including Carl Ablett and Chris Clarkson – are now vastly experienced, but still improving.

Leeds’ young outside-backs should be the envy of clubs in both hemispheres. It has been obvious for a while that Ryan Hall is a special talent, Ben Jones-Bishop is already an England squad member and Zak Hardaker and Kallum Watkins have the potential to achieve anything they want.

And there’s others coming through. Brad Singleton has made one substitute appearance in Super League, while Stevie Ward and Liam Hood have yet to feature. All three have a very big future.

And watch out for Jordan Baldwinson and Liam Sutcliffe in a few seasons’ time.

In the shorter term, the World Club Challenge victory will stand Rhinos in good stead for the season, though Sunday’s trip to Widnes Vikings will be an interesting test of their professionalism.

Back in 2008, Leeds lost at rock-bottom Castleford Tigers in their first Super League game after the World Club Challenge win over Melbourne Storm.

The difference this time is that Leeds have more than a full week to prepare and are hungry to prove a point after last year’s fifth place league finish.

Now the Manly game is out of the way, the focus is very much on a top-two finish in Super League. The unfortunate thing from the English club’s point of view is that they will face very few matches this year which will equal the intensity of last Friday’s clash, while Manly will have to be at that level most weeks.

Rhinos deserve to bask in the glory, but there is a warning from a decade ago. In 2002 Bradford Bulls beat Newcastle Knights to win their first world title – and look where they are now.

It’s just 19 days to go until day one of the Cheltenham Festival – and I’m guessing my VIP invite is still in the post.

Or not, but on a serious note, the news that Paul Nicholls has horses coughing in his yard must be a concern and here’s hoping the champ has his string back in rude health for Tuesday, March 13.

Nicholls, a regular user of Twitter, admitted that Saturday was one of his worst days ever as a trainer with even the fact that the Ditcheat handler had not had a single winner from 16 runners failing to tell the full tale.

That fact alone is staggering and worrying –- Nicholls usually has around a 23 per cent strike rate and we must also remember that eight of his weekend runners were favourite or second favourite.

But it got worse with one of those – the likeable The Minack – suffering a nasty fall at Ascot with Nicholls revealing afterwards to his near 40,000 followers on Twitter that the eight-year-old had suffered a “serious career- threatening injury”.

“Not a great day,” the champion trainer added, though one of the Channel 4 Racing presenters said that Nicholls had said that it was one of his worst days ever.

Ironic

There can’t be many days where he has drawn a blank from so many runners and while terrible timing, the news emerging on Monday that several horses in his yard were coughing came as no surprise, not when you consider that over the weekend as a whole the Ditcheat handler had just one winner from 31 runners.

How ironic that that particular winner was last week’s big Horses For Courses fancy Zarkandar and how good he must be is another tale altogether.

How much you make of the news that Nicholls admitted that several of his horses are coughing is open to debate but it’s certainly not a positive with the Festival so near.

It is the four days of racing that every trainer gears their big hopes towards and obviously the aim is to approach the Festival on the crest of a wave and not on a downer.

It must be stressed that Nicholls also revealed that only “around a dozen” were coughing but given the desperate results at the weekend it seems that more than that, to a degree, are under the weather.

Nicholls still has a whole host of horses entered over the next few days so is far from shutting up shop temporarily but it will be fascinating to monitor the Nicholls runners over the next week or so because there is no doubting the significance if his yard is out of form at Cheltenham.

Of the ante-post betting races, Nicholls trains eight runners that are either very well fancied favourites or second favourites.

Big Buck’s is clearly the main biggy and the awesome hurdler would probably still win if he had a devastating cold, never mind a cough.

That’s not to say that Big Buck’s is one of the dozen or so that are coughing but, nonetheless, he can now be backed at 8-13 with SportingBet.

Assuming the champion trainer gets his team over this little stumbling block that could look an absolute steal.

the other main Nicholls hope is Kauto Star –- 7-2 second favourite for the Gold Cup behind Long Run–- but other ante-post market leaders are Harry The Viking (8-1 fav for National Hunt Challenge Cup), Prospect Wells (14-1 fav for County Hurdle) and Ted Spread (12-1 for Conditionals Handicap Hurdle).

They might seem juicy prices for favourites but they will be a lot shorter than that on the day.

then there are the likes of Al Ferof (11-2 for the Arkle), Zarkandar (6-1 for the Champion Hurdle) and the fascinating Rocky Creek (10-1 for the Albert Bartlett).

In light of the coughing issue, Nicholls, who has been leading trainer at the Festival six times, was pushed out by every bookmaker to a best-priced 5-2 to scoop that gong behind Willie Mullins (11-8) and Nicky Henderson (9-4), but the cool-as-ice Ditcheat man said on Tuesday that there was “no need to panic”.

My money is on him bouncing back in style and let’s just hope so.

After all, the Festival is hard enough without having that quandary to size up as well.

It’s that time of the year when the very best in the county manage to reach that little bit further than the rest of us as they secure their spot in the English Indoor Bowling Association national finals at Nottingham.

With nine major competitions available to the male bowler, with age limits in play for some of those, February proves to be a busy time that leads into a lull before the season finally explodes into life with the start of the outdoor season in April.

Featherstone, as is their way, have dominated the roll call of national finals qualifiers once again this year. The names might have changed in some cases, yet they have proven once more that there really isn’t the class in the county to match them in the knockout, individual or smaller rink games.

John Webster is the club’s qualifier through the district in the singles event at Nottingham.

Webster, who plays alongside brother Nathan and team-mates John Whiteley and Jeff Normanton for Alverthorpe outdoors, saw off the challenge of county under-25 bowler Adam Liddell (21-19) in the final qualifying round of area four.

He beat fellow nationals qualifier Stan Thompson in the early stages before taking out the old stager, Eddie Howcroft and Whiteley.

Liddell had a storming run to the final round, beating fellow York bowlers Mark Clarke and David Attwood before having the narrowest of wins, 21-20, against Mark Hughes.

The pairs competition was settled with an all-Featherstone regional tie, with Tony Horobin, and Thompson seeing off Whiteley and Normanton 18-15.

Horobin and Thompson had to come from the first round back in October to secure their place in the finals in April and also saw off the pair skipped by Hughes, 21-20.

Whiteley and Normanton beat David Attwood and Paul Humphreys in their semi-final.

The triples competition is still in progress with the final qualifier once again to be decided by two Featherstone rinks.

Whiteley will be keen to secure his place in the nationals once more, this time as he comes up against the rink of Craig Newton.

Both had a single-shot victory en route to the final qualifier. Newton’s team beat Hughes’ trio 19-18 while Whiteley’s team overcame J Moulds’ threesome by the same score.

Newton is also in the running to qualify in the Area Fours, facing York’s David Stroughair’s quartet in the final section.

Newton’s rink has enjoyed fair passage to the final two – winning their games 26-15, 17-8 (against Howcroft) and 19-7 (against John Walker’s York rink).

Stroughair’s quartet survived one close game, a 21-20 win against the quartet of A Cook.

Flush

A win for Newton will make for the full flush for Featherstone in the top four national competitions this winter.

Hughes will undoubtedly be disappointed with the way his national campaign has gone this season.

Having moved from Leeds to Featherstone, he will have been looking to build on his under-25 performances at national and area level to get to Nottingham in the senior events.

His record in the big four ended up as a 21-20 loss in the singles, 21-20 in the pairs, 19-18 in the triples and 18-15 in the fours.

However, it is only a matter of time before Hughes shows he can dominate the national qualifiers in the way that Whiteley – the only Yorkshire bowler in the top 100 ranked national final qualifiers – has.

All it will take is that one game, one reversal of a one-shot loss and he’ll be booking a fair amount of accommodation in Nottingham in the years to come.

There have already been three national competitions played out to this stage.

Hughes lost both sets in the under-25 finals at the end of last month. He went down in the first round in a competition that also saw England Commonwealth Games bowler Sam Tolchard miss out after losing in the semi-final.

In the over 50/60 age groups, both the over-60 fours and over-50 triples reached a conclusion last week.

The Featherstone four of Ken Griffiths, Andy Lockwood, David Colbourne and Horobin bowed out 18-17 in the first round.

At the same time the over-50 triples of Graham Brooke, Paul Mooring and Stroughair had a great run in their competition before losing in the final to a triple from Beccles, Suffolk.

The main action gets under way in Nottingham from Thursday March 29. By that time we will be reporting on the first action in the West Riding cup, but we’ll still find time to tie up all the loose ends – to hopefully celebrate our winners as they return from Nottingham, just in time for the start of the new crown season.

* The picture is still no clearer in terms of the Yorkshire County league, with a couple of results still outstanding from the last round of action.

The league still has Leeds at the foot of the table without registering their recent 12-6 win over Doncaster.

The victory would only be enough to edge the side above Ryedale, who would themselves only need no worse than a 12-6 defeat to keep Leeds below them.

Leeds play North Cave this weekend.

The side from the eastern half of the county need to beat Leeds 14-4 to go above Harrogate as the league moves towards its final weekend of action.

English clubs are facing up to their worst season in the Champions League since 1996.

Not since that year, when Blackburn was the Premier League’s sole representative in Europe’s top club competition, has an English club failed to make the quarter-finals.

The disastrous first legs suffered by Arsenal and Chelsea in Italy, combined with the Manchester clubs’ failure to make the knock-out stages, means that there is now every likelihood of a last-eight made up purely of continental sides.

It is in stark contrast to the years from 2007 to 2009, when in each of the three seasons, three of the four semi-finalists were English: either Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

For David O’Leary, who managed Leeds to the Champions League semi-final in 2001, the change is down to a simple reason: the quality of the top Premier League sides has slumped.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson disagrees, insisting the English clubs will be dominant again, but O’Leary is concerned that the need to keep the Premier League established as the most exciting brand of football in the world has made the values of simple defending expendable.

O’Leary told Press Association Sport: “The quality of the Premier League has not improved - if anything it has gone backwards.

“Chelsea have gone backwards, Arsenal have gone backwards, Liverpool are not a challenge any more.

“I think even Sir Alex would not view his current United side as his best crop so it was a fantastic achievement to get to the Champions League final and win the league last year.

“Manchester City have had an unbelievable amount of money to spend but they are still emerging.

“We have got carried away with it - I’ve just come back from Dubai and the only football they really get excited about is the Premier League. Defending-wise the top teams are conceding too many goals and that really hurts them in Europe.

“Think of the Chelsea side under Jose Mourinho with a young John Terry and Frank Lampard - a really strong team; think of the Arsenal side of a few years ago or Manchester United when Cristiano Ronaldo was there. Are they as good [now]? No way.”

Raymond Verheijen, the experienced Dutch coach who worked under Guus Hiddink for many years before becoming assistant to the late Wales manager Gary Speed, was blunt in his assessment after Arsenal’s 4-0 humbling by AC Milan last week, saying: “Milan just needed 45 minutes to once again prove the point that the quality of football in the Premier League is getting lower and lower.”

Ferguson, however, disagrees and believes that English sides are merely at the bottom of a cycle that sees particular countries dominate in Europe at different times and that the Premier League clubs are not “on the slide”.

The United manager said: “First of all, success in Europe can sometimes go in cycles. Spain had a great cycle about 10 years ago when Valencia, Deportivo, Villarreal, Real Madrid and Barcelona were all dominant. There were three of them in the semi-final one year.

“We have had a great cycle in the Premier League for the last eight years with teams getting to the semi-finals and finals. I don’t see that subsiding. I think the English teams will still be dominant.

“We have had a bad year this year. We have in particular - I can only judge myself. We are disappointed with how we have done. Arsenal and Chelsea have had disappointing results but both clubs have had injury problems and you can’t expect them to get the best results without their best teams.

“It is maybe a little bit disappointing season but to my mind, it is not definite that we are on the slide.”

The longer-term issue for English clubs is the UEFA co-efficient which governs the number of clubs they have in the Champions League group stage.

If Premier League clubs repeat the failure next year and Italian Serie A sides continue to improve then England could face a real threat of their allocation being cut from four places to three.

One off-season is manageable, but the warning signs are there.

Leeds Rhinos star Jamie Peacock has told of his pride after receiving the MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace today.

The 34-year-old headed to London to pick up the award, given in recognition of his services to rugby league.

Leeds-born Peacock’s visit to the capital came just five days after he helped Rhinos to their World Club Challenge victory over Australian side Manly Sea Eagles.

The veteran front-rower and England captain said: “Coming down here is the greatest honour so far in my career.

“This is great exposure for myself but it’s humbling to realise there are people from outside the sport looking in and thinking I’m doing good things within the sport.

“I’m also pleased for the sport itself, it gets some recognition through the fact I’ve received the MBE.”

SIX people have been injured, one seriously, in an explosion at a West Yorkshire factory today.

Contractors were decommissioning a fuel tank at Fox’s biscuit factory in Batley when the blast happened at around 10.45am.

One man had to be brought out by firefighters.

He was taken to Pinderfield Hospital in Wakefield suffering burns.

Five other contractors were described by West Yorkshire Fire Service as “walking wounded.” They were treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to Dewsbury District Hospital.

Officials from the Government’s Health and Safety Executive are investigating, as are fire service officials.

The factory faced closure last year but instead parent company Northern Foods invested £27m at the site to retain the factory.

Yorkshire have posted a loss of £460,000 for 2011 - their second consecutive deficit.

The figures are more encouraging than in 2010, when the county’s costly experiment with hosting the neutral Test between Australia and Pakistan contributed to a loss of £1.8million.

Yorkshire said the figures were in line with expectations due to there being no Test at Headingley last year and predicted an improvement in the 2012 accounts due two England matches at the ground this summer - a Test against South Africa and a one-day international versus the West Indies.

A club statement read: “Yorkshire County Cricket Club will inform its members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday 24 March 2012 that it has generated turnover of £5.4m and a post-tax deficit of £460,000.

“These results are in line with expectation and are significantly improved over 2010, where a £1.8m deficit was reported. Although the club is disappointed to be reporting a second consecutive loss, the results are consistent with forecast and reflect the club not staging a Test match in 2011.

“2011 attendances were hugely encouraging, with over 12,000 people attending the Friends Life T20 match against Lancashire, and a sell-out for the one-day international against Sri Lanka.

“2012 will be a much better year for the club financially with the return of a full international match schedule. Advance ticket sales for both the England v South Africa Test match and the England v West Indies ODI are higher than hoped for at this stage and, with international cricket guaranteed at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground until 2019, the club is now far more confident about its financial future.”

Replay this week’s live Leeds United webchat.

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FIRE broke out in a flat on the eighth floor of a Leeds tower block early today.

The alarm was raised at 3.56am when fire crews from Gipton and Leeds central fire station in Kirkstall Road were called at Shakespeare Towers, a high rise block opposite St James’s Hospital at Burmantofts.

Leeds central station’s aerial appliance was turned out.

Six fire-fighters wearing breathing apparatus went into the block and dealt with the blaze. Fire crews were at the scene until about 8 am.

It is not known if the flat was occupied, but there were no reports of any injuries.

A number of flats suffered a power cut when Yorkshire Electricity cut off supplies.

Check out a special edition of The Boot Room which discusses the appointment of Neil Warnock as Leeds United’s new manager.

The show is presented by Andrew Hutchinson with YEP chief football writer Phil Hay.

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Leeds City Council is going into the mortgage business to help first-time buyers on to the property ladder.

In the ground-breaking plan £2m is being set aside – which should help around 100 families.

Under the scheme, money will be deposited with a lender to be announced and used to underwrite up to 20 per cent of a deposit to help buyers secure their first homes.

The bank or building society chosen will pay interest on the amount deposited by the council.

The scheme is for an initial five years and is for first-time buyers

It would be open to anyone from Leeds looking to buy their first property in the city valued at a maximum of £160,000. The cash is aimed at those able to afford mortgage repayments, but unable to put down a full initial deposit – around 25 per cent by most lenders.

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The council would underwrite with the buyer supplying the other five per cent and then being able to benefit from similar repayment terms to a 75 per cent mortgage.

The idea behind the scheme, which was piloted by 11 other local authorities last year, is to provide a boost to the housing market.

It is estimated that each purchase in the existing property market unlocks up to five more transactions in housing chains, providing extra work for associated businesses such as estate agents, removals firms and in construction or refurbishment. The Leeds scheme could help trigger an estimated 365 house purchases in the upward chain.

Coun Keith Wakefield, council leader, who was unveiling the scheme at today’s annual budget meeting of the authority, said: “One of the major obstacles for first-time buyers is the need to find a deposit of up to 25 per cent which is proving increasingly prohibitive, so this is where we can help by offering them the chance to reduce the lump-sum they need put down to a much more manageable level which will make the whole process more attractive.”

People wanting to use the scheme must meet strict criteria set by the lender and Coun Wakefield said: “In no way should this be seen as the council gambling money away like in the sub-prime culture lending to people who were unsuitable in terms of the mortgage repayments they could realistically afford to make.”

The scheme is to be discussed at the council’s executive board March 7 with the first deals expected to be offered to potential buyers later this year.

Leeds United’s chance of promotion this season is alive and well with Neil Warnock as manager, according to former vice-captain Shaun Derry.

In an interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Derry described Warnock’s appointment as “the best possible decision” and warned Championship clubs against writing Leeds out of the fight for a play-off position.

Derry, 34, was a central figure in the Queens Park Rangers squad who won the Championship title during Warnock’s one full season as manager at Loftus Road, and he said the 63-year-old’s track record in England’s second tier made him an obvious target for Leeds chairman Ken Bates in the aftermath of Simon Grayson’s sacking.

“It’s the best possible decision Ken Bates could have made,” Derry told the YEP. “Not just in the long-term but for this season as well.

“He’ll do big things over time but don’t underestimate the difference he’ll make here and now. His ability to lift a flat dressing room and do it overnight is amazing. Sometimes that’s all you need.”

Derry worked under Warnock at Sheffield United and Crystal Palace, and he followed him to Loftus Road after Warnock left Palace to become QPR boss in 2010.

The midfielder was ever-present in Championship fixtures last season as QPR won the division by four points and he claimed Warnock would be “tailor-made” for the job at Elland Road, where Derry played between 2005 and 2008.

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“Leeds are more than just a football club,” Derry said. “There’s the history and the expectation of the supporters, which is more than just a cliche.

“How well you do at Leeds depends on how well you deal with the pressure of wearing the white shirt.

“I’ve gone on record as saying that many players have played exceptional football before and after going to Leeds but struggled for as long as they’ve been there. It’s not the right club for everybody and it’s easy to underestimate the pressure involved.

“The same is probably true of managers. A lot of guys who succeed elsewhere would struggle at Elland Road and that’s the way it’ll always be.

“You need the right man for the situation as it stands and right now Leeds need someone with Neil’s experience and authority. Whenever I see a manager going into Leeds, I’d always ask ‘is the job too big for him?’ With Neil, that thought doesn’t even cross my mind.”

QPR’s run to the Championship title was dominant and comprehensive but not without its complications. Unbeaten until December and permanently clear of the rest of the field, their season was threatened in the closing stages by allegations that the signing of Argentine midfielder Alejandro Faurlin had breached rules on third-party ownership.

The club were threatened with a points deduction and their fate remained in doubt until the morning of their last league game at home to Leeds when the Football Association limited their punishment to a fine. After weeks of rumour and speculation, Warnock said: “When I looked at the coverage, it destroyed us. The place was like a morgue.”

“It was a strange time,” Derry said. “On paper you thought the title was in the bag but we were all waiting to see what the FA would do.

“You need good management at times like that and Neil was brilliant. He basically said it was someone else’s responsibility, not ours. Don’t worry about it and don’t think about it. That wasn’t easy but he shielded us from the attention. He was the one answering the questions and defending the club. It’s one of the reasons we were able to hold it together.

“Obviously there are problems that need sorting at Leeds. If there weren’t problems then they wouldn’t have gone looking for a new manager.

“But the last thing they needed was an average joe. Neil’s track record in the Championship speaks for himself and, to be honest, I’d have been amazed if they hadn’t gone for him. He was the obvious choice.”

Warnock watched Leeds beat Doncaster Rovers at Elland Road on Saturday afternoon and, with that performance to ponder, admitted that there were “areas (of the squad) we have to improve if we’re not to write this season off.”

He is looking to make one emergency loan signing before Saturday’s game against Portsmouth and claimed more were required to give Leeds a realistic chance of raising themselves up from 10th and into the play-offs.

As a player who Warnock has relied on many times in the past, and someone whose pride in representing Leeds has never been a secret, Derry was bound to be viewed as a possible target. But he has played 21 times for QPR this season and does not appear to be peripheral in the plans of current Rangers manager Mark Hughes.

“My full attention is on QPR,” said Derry, who along with Rangers’ squad spent last week training in Portugal. “We’re in a dog fight and we’re all determined to get out of it.

“But Neil will do big things at Leeds. I’m certain of that. I was really pleased to hear he’d got the job because I’ve always said that pulling on the Leeds United shirt was one of the proudest moments of my career. I want them to have bigger and better days ahead and I’d fancy him to give them that.

“Neil’s a Marmite character, the old love-him or hate-him routine, but I think that’s only because you don’t really get to know his true character until he’s at your club. He’s insightful and very open.

“The fans will get a good understanding of what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. They’ll see loads of passion in him too. As for the players, they’ll get structure and discipline.

“If there are divisions up there then you’ll find that they become a strong unit in no time.

“You need unity at Leeds because people are always looking to get at you and beat you. They look for problems and weaknesses. But Neil’s record in the Championship shows that his squads don’t have many. You’d be crazy to write Leeds off now.”

Five men including a serving soldier and seven juveniles will appear in court tomorrow charged in connection with a disturbance at an anti-racism concert.

The 12 will appear at Leeds Magistrates Court charged with affray in relation to fighting which interrupted the “Rage Against Racism” event at The Well bar in Chorley Lane, Leeds, on June 18.

During the concert attended by around 150, a group of people allegedly chanting support for the English Defence League attempted to enter.

It was reported rocks and bottles were thrown and one person suffered a serious facial injury and others minor injuries. Damage included broken windows.

The event, staged to raise funds for the Unite Against Fascism group and local projects, was able to continue.

Police launched a major investigation – Operation Damask – to identify those involved. Appeals involving the release of CCTV images were made through the media.

It was discovered plans to disturb the concert had been posted on line.

Those at court are an 18-year-old soldier from Huddersfield, a 19-year-old, 18-year-old and 17-year-old from Leeds, a 30-year-old man and 20-year-old man from Huddersfield, two 17-year-olds and three 16-year-olds Huddersfield.

A violent teenager laughed as he to strangle his ex-girlfriend and repeatedly stabbed her with a pizza knife in a cornfield.

Nathan Holding, 18, was jailed for seven-and- a-half years yesterday over the frenzied attack which left his 16 year-old victim needing emergency surgery after she suffered a punctured lung.

Leeds Crown Court heard Holding has a “worrying history of violence” including a knife attack on his father.

Tony Kelbrick, prosecuting, said Holding and the victim were living together at the time of the incident on July 12 last year. They had been in a troubled relationship which had ended four days previously. On the day of the offence the pair had argued and Holding took the battery from her mobile phone and refused to return it.

They argued before the girl left the house but Holding armed himself with a knife and followed her.

He grabbed her and threw her to the ground in the field in Altofts, near Wakefield, Mr Kelbrick said: “He put his hands around her neck and strangled her so hard she could only make gurgling noises.”

Holding made threats to kill the girl before producing the knife and stabbing her several times. The knife handle broke during the attack but Holding continued to use the blade to inflict further injuries.

Mr Kelbrick said Holding laughed as he tried to stab her in the head and neck before stabbing her in the back. He added: “he was telling her he was going to kill her and she believed he would have had it not been for a couple who disturbed him.”

Holding then fled and the air ambulance was called to take the girl to hospital. She suffered wounds to her throat and 17cm gash running from her collar bone across her breasts. Holding pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

Tim Stead, prosecuting, handed the court 14 letters of reference on Holding’s behalf in which people had described him as “caring” and “considerate.” He urged The Recorder of Leeds, judge Peter collier, not to impose an indeterminate sentence.

He said Holding suffered from a personality disorder but added that a psychiatrist’s report stated that it could be controlled in the future.

The judge ordered Holding to be placed on an extended licence period of four-and-a-half years upon his release from prison.

A woman on trial for murder told a jury she fatally stabbed her friend’s boyfriend after he attacked her with a hockey stick.

Janine Birch, 43, demonstrated to a court the moment she reached for a knife after she claims Martin Wheelhouse pinned her up against a cooker in the kitchen of his girlfriend’s home and struck her on the shoulder with a stick.

Giving evidence, Birch described reaching behind her to grab the knife before swinging at Mr Wheelhouse. Her barrister Alistair McDonald asked: “Why were you swinging at him?”

She replied: “Because he had just hit me with the bat. If he had not started and just left it wouldn’t have happened.” Mr McDonald asked: “When you took the knife in your hand and did what you showed us, why did you do that?” Birch answered: “Because I just wanted Martin to get away from me and leave me alone. I just remember feeling that I couldn’t get away, that he was just there in front of me.”

She added: “My heart was pumping really, really fast. I was like panicking. I just thought that he was going to really, really hurt me.”

Birch also told the jury Mr Wheelhouse had burst into the bedroom in an earlier confrontation and hit her across the knee with the hockey stick. She denies murdering Mr Wheelhouse on August 16 last year at the house on Portland Road, Wortley, Leeds. She claims she acted in self defence.

The prosecution claims Birch inflicted the knife wound and kicked and stamped on Mr Wheelhouse as he lay wounded on the kitchen floor as partner, Alexine Cowell, tried to give him first aid. The court has been played a recording of a 999 call in which Birch appears to be shouting abuse at Mr Wheelhouse. Mr McDonald said: “Do you accept you stood on him?” Birch replied: “Yes, that’s true.” She added: “I was trying to get over him and I stood on him.” The barrister asked Birch why she was shouting abuse at Mr Wheelhouse as he lay injured. She said: “I think when I stabbed Martin I just lost it. I was angry with him.” She added: “They are terrible things what I said.”

When asked by Me McDonald how she know felt about what she had said, Birch replied: I was horrified.”

PROCEEDING

Fabian Delph’s time at Leeds United appears to be over, with an ankle injury threatening to end the midfielder’s season.

Delph is facing a minimum recovery period of six to eight weeks after straining ligaments in Leeds’ recent defeat to Coventry City, and the injury has cut short his month-long loan from Aston Villa.

The 22-year-old was scheduled to make the final appearance of his initial deal against Portsmouth this weekend, but Villa expect him to miss the remainder of the term and have not ruled out the possibility of Delph undergoing surgery.

Leeds sent him back to Villa for treatment last week, and he is understood to have visited a specialist in London yesterday for further assessments of the damage.

Villa manager Alex McLeish said: “He’s not fit and I don’t know if he’ll play again this season.

“I think he’s rolled his ankle enough to rule him out. It’s a shame.”

Delph is fighting to avoid an operation having seen his career at Villa Park hindered by fitness problems, but his latest injury has effectively ended the option of United extending his loan through the closing stages of their Championship term.

Former manager Simon Grayson signed Delph on an emergency basis midway through January, and Neil Redfearn – United’s caretaker in the wake of Grayson’s sacking – admitted last week that the Elland Road club would be keen to retain him.

It is not clear whether new Leeds boss Neil Warnock intended to pursue an extension but the loss of Delph, above, has weakened United’s resources in the centre of midfield.

The England Under-21 international was hurt during the second half of Leeds’ 2-1 defeat to Coventry on February 14, the last five Championship appearances made by Delph.

He left the Ricoh Arena on crutches and was immediately sent back to his parent club for assessment by Villa’s medical staff.

The Premier League were already questioning whether to extend Delph’s loan after rejecting an original attempt by Leeds to sign him until the end of the season.

McLeish recently indicated that Delph would be recalled following the conclusion of his initial deal, saying: “If he’s playing well then he might see there’s an opportunity for him here.”

* Warnock, meanwhile, took the chance to assess the wider reaches of United’s squad during a behind-closed-doors friendly against Hull City at Thorp Arch yesterday afternoon.

Nathan Turner, Lloyd Sam and Billy Paynter all found the net but Hull struck four times in return to claim a 4-3 win.

United: M Taylor, Smith, Connolly, Bromby, C Taylor, N Turner, Thompson, Nunez, Sam, Paynter, Forssell.

New Notts County manager Keith Curle has revealed that he turned down the chance to join Neil Warnock’s backroom team at Leeds United.

Curle rejected an offer to be part of United’s coaching staff in order to make a return to frontline management at Meadow Lane.

The former Mansfield Town, Chester City and Torquay United boss coached under Warnock at Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers but he took charge of Notts County on Monday after the League One club sacked Martin Allen.

Curle said: “Neil wanted me with him but I told him there was a possibility of me going for the job (at Notts County).

“I’ve been successful with Neil but I’ve always had the desire to be a number one again.

“In my first two jobs I made mistakes and I knew that I needed to learn the finer points of management again.

“I assisted Neil, used every day as a learning day from his day-to-day involvement in and around the football club. This ranged from how he deals with the press, his media image, but ultimately winning football matches.”

Former Notts County defender Mick Jones has been named as Warnock’s assistant at Leeds having occupied the same position at QPR.

Jones and Curle both left Loftus Road after Warnock was sacked by Rangers midway through the January transfer window.

United’s new boss plans to make further additions to his backroom team in preparation for the rest of the season.

Warnock said: “Mick will be with me as assistant and I’ll be making a couple of appointments.”

Leeds Rhinos have got back down to business as they bid to avoid becoming world club chumps.

Rhinos were thrashed 38-20 at newly-promoted Castleford Tigers a week after their previous world title win – against Melbourne Storm four years ago – and back-rower Carl Ablett insisted they were desperate to prevent a repeat under similar circumstances this weekend.

Ablett said the players have returned to training fully focused on Sunday’s trip to another newly-promoted team Widnes Vikings.

And he believes the nine-day turnaround from last Friday’s Heinz Big Soup World Club Challenge win over Manly Sea Eagles could prove crucial.

Leeds – with a game in hand – are already three points adrift of leaders Warrington Wolves and St Helens in the Stobart Super League table and Ablett stressed they can’t afford to go into Sunday’s game at anything less than full pace.

“We’ve got nine days, so we could enjoy the win over the weekend, but then come Monday morning everybody was back into work,” said the loose-forward, who scored Rhinos’ final try against Manly.

“We are all professional enough to know that we’ve got to continue to build and hopefully stay in touch with the top teams.

“We were up and down last year, but we’ve got to be consistent and try and finish in the top-two.”

Widnes have lost their three Super League games so far, but Ablett is aware they will fancy their chances of causing an upset this weekend.

“Whoever we play, we never seem to get an easy game,” he said. “Widnes might be expecting us to be a little bit down, but the long turnaround helps us.

“We will be ready to go come Sunday and we’ll be looking to put in a performance. We’ve got the World Club out of the way, we have been crowned world champions and that’s great.

“We can look forward to Super League now and concentrate on that.”

The victory last week will give Rhinos’ league campaign a major boost, according to Ablett, pictured below.

Rhinos struggled after losing to Manly in 2009 and Melbourne the following year and the back-rower said: “It’s tough when they come over here and give you a bit of a hiding.

“It is hard to take, but it’s a totally different feeling when you win. We can be happy with our performance last week and I think we did ourselves justice.

“Thinking back to the Challenge Cup final against Warrington a couple of years ago, if you don’t do yourself justice in a big game you end up kicking yourselves.

“That’s tough, but it was good to come out of the game and think ‘we did all right there’. We performed, we weren’t perfect by any means, but it was a decent performance.

“We won by 14 points and that is a pretty good effort.”

Last week’s victory completed a remarkable treble for Ablett, who was a scorer in the Challenge Cup final, Grand Final and World Club Challenge, within the space of six months.

Ablett’s Old Trafford try came from a few metres out and he admitted he had even less running to do for his score against Manly, touching down after the defence had failed to deal with Kevin Sinfield’s kick.

“It’s a good job,” he said. “I wouldn’t have got over otherwise. With Bails (Ryan Bailey) and Jonesy (Jamie Jones-Buchanan) going down, we were running out of players.

“I had to do 80 minutes and it felt like we were defending for the whole game, so to sneak a try at the end was very pleasing.”

Check out latest football transfer gossip around the leagues. Is your favourite player tipped for a move?

Chelsea are targeting Arsenal and England winger Theo Walcott and could be willing to swap him for Stamford Bridge striker Daniel Sturridge.

Full story: the Sun

Manchester City may make a summer move for 24-year-old Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain, who is also a target for Chelsea.

Full story: Daily Mail

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is in the hunt for 21-year-old Ghana international defender Daniel Opare, who has impressed for Standard Liege this season.

Full story: the Sun

Liverpool are one of three clubs believed to be monitoring the form of 26-year-old Hertha Berlin midfielder Raffael.

Full story: talkSPORT

Arsenal and Liverpool are believed to have reignited their interest in Werder Bremen attacking midfielder Marko Marin, 22, who has been dubbed the German Lionel Messi.

Full story: Footylatest

Heavy snowfall in the Alps has brought dedicated skiers flooding back to the mountains but novice skier Jennifer Cockerell remembers the week she became a devotee.

Snow has finally turned 2012’s mediocre ski season into a winter wonderland – and for the first time in my life, I could well imagine how exciting it must have been for passionate skiers to hear the news.

Last year, I travelled to Rauris in Austria to find out whether I could become the kind of dedicated skier for whom mountain weather conditions are a matter of grave importance.

Although I’d been skiing once, I still couldn’t confess to being a bona fide addict, and so had decided to give it another try.

With its laid-back atmosphere, wide variety of blue runs and reasonably-priced instructors, on paper Rauris seemed like the ideal place for me to brush up on my skills.

Just an hour’s drive from Salzburg airport, the town is situated in a valley in the heart of the beautiful Hohe Tauern National Park, which boasts the highest range of mountains in the Austrian Alps. But even the highest peak (Mount Schwarzwand, 2193m) is suitable for beginners, as blue runs come down from its summit.

Camaraderie

On the first day, after leaving my friends to ski off in another direction, I booked lessons with the Karl Maier ski school, and was soon kitted out in all my gear (including the all-important helmet).

Although I was slightly concerned that 11 people in a class would be too many, my fears were quickly dispelled.

As we tried with varying success to copy our instructor Sebastian’s techniques, the sense of camaraderie was fantastic and I was glad of the many helping hands that were offered any time I needed help getting up after falling down.

With the basic techniques mastered, we graduated from the nursery slopes to the proper pistes further up in the mountains. And once higher up, I had to keep reminding myself not to look down at my skis all the time, but to enjoy the outstanding views of my surroundings.

Luckily, Rauris is a nice, quiet resort, popular with families and older skiers, so hopping on and off the lifts (always a bit nerve-wracking for beginners) was a piece of cake. Plus the slopes were dominated by groups of learners, so I never felt intimidated by other skiers.

Each day, once my lessons were over, I’d meet up with friends and give my legs a rest in one of the mountain’s restaurants.

Die Heimalm, which is 1,480m up, has a bar where I quickly became a regular – pulling off my tight ski boots became much more appealing with the prospect of a hot mug of gluhwein on the horizon.

In the evening after dinner at the four-star Rauriserhof hotel, where we were staying, we’d often enjoy a wander around Rauris, a pretty Alpine town littered with charming wooden chalets, Medieval stone buildings and a beautiful church.

If you’re looking for cool apres-ski, this resort town is not really the place to go, with only a few small bars to choose from – although Shake’s Beer attracts a younger crowd and has pool tables and quiz nights.

But to be honest, most of the time we found that skiing had made us so exhausted, we were quite happy to relax in our hotel’s cosy bar after dinner, swapping embarrassing tales of falling over with our fellow guests, many of whom were using the same ski school. One group called themselves the Rauris gang, having been returning to the resort for the past 11 years!

On our final day, having conquered the slopes, we decided to give our ski legs a rest and try something different.

Sophisticated

Away from the piste, the area has a range of other activities on offer, such as sleigh rides, tobogganing and snow-shoe walking. I was keen to try the latter, and pleased to discover the footwear proved to be a fair bit more sophisticated than the tennis racquet image I had imagined.

The howling wind that blew wet snow onto our faces combined with the sub-zero temperature did not get our trek off to the most enjoyable start, but our expert guide swiftly directed us to a more sheltered valley where we marvelled at the contrasting peace and stillness.

Our walk into the wilderness took us into a protected area of forest that seemed untouched by humans, and as I gazed around at the idyllic winter landscape, I half expected to see a character from Narnia appear from behind a tree.

Instead, as I squinted through my binoculars, I was lucky enough to see a herd of red deer feeding on a far-off hillside. It was the perfect end to a week of delights.

Check out a picture slideshow of match action from Colton v Wykebeck in the Leeds and District Cup

PICTURES: Steve Riding

Leeds Rhinos star Danny McGuire provides his view from the pitch.

It is great feeling being on top of the world, but we have got to get our feet back on the ground this week.

We enjoyed the weekend and we celebrated what was a really good performance against Manly in the World Club Challenge.

It’s not often you get an opportunity to play in a massive game like that and call yourselves world champions, so you have to make the most of it, but that was then.

We all came in on Monday and started focusing on the week and the season ahead, beginning with Sunday’s game at Widnes.

Super League’s our bread and butter and we’ve got 25 rounds, plus the Challenge Cup, to come. Our aim is to find some form and play consistently well for the rest of the year. It’s no good being world champions if you play poorly in your own competition.

When we beat Melbourne in 2008 we lost at Castleford in our next game. It is always difficult to back up after such a big effort, but we’ve got a longer week this time with us not playing until Sunday and I think that’ll benefit us.

It will give us a couple of extra days for our bodies to rest up and there’ll be no excuses. We are all focused on Widnes now, which we need to be because they have got some good players.

Judgement

Their 4g pitch has been a big talking point this season, but I will reserve judgement until I’ve played on it.

We have a 3g surface at Kirkstall, which we train on, so it’s nothing new, though we haven’t played a match on one before. The field at Kirkstall has been really good for us and it’s allowed us to get some quality sessions in, despite the bad weather.

There’s been a few injuries at Widnes this year and Richie Mathers’ elbows and knees were in a pretty bad state after Wakefield played there, but every time you play there’s a chance you could get hurt, so it’s not something we are going to worry about.

If you think about it you’ll take your eye off the ball and not do what you need to do, which is go there and play well and get the win. We’ll see how it goes at the weekend and decide what we think about it after that.

Today’s a big day for Jamie Peacock, who’s off to the Palace to visit the Queen. Believe it or not, the boys haven’t been giving him much stick since his MBE was announced, though we’ve come up with a few ideas of what the initials might stand for.

We’re all pleased for him and he really deserves his award. It’ll be a great day for JP and his family and something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.Congratulations also to my old amateur club, East Leeds, for getting through to the first round of the Challenge Cup. They had a good win at Warrington Wizards last weekend in the preliminary round and good luck to them for the game against Blackbrook on Saturday.

As a Leeds United fan I was pretty pleased to see Neil Warnock unveiled as the new manager. I think he is probably the right man for the job. All his career he has had the knack of getting teams promoted; he did a really good job at Sheffield United and QPR and this is a big opportunity to take one of the biggest clubs in the country back where they belong.

I think he’ll do a good job. They’ve got some decent players there, enough to maybe sneak into the play-offs this year.

Finally, on behalf of all the players at Leeds, I’d like to send sympathies to Ian Millward and his family following the death of his son Robbie last weekend.

Rugby league is a tight-knit game and I think everybody was deeply shocked when they heard the news. I didn’t know Robbie, but he was only 19 and it’s difficult to imagine what his friends and family are going through. I am sure the whole sport will rally round them at this difficult time.

She was enjoying her first taste of independence when she was struck down by an illness which almost killed her. Katie Baldwin met determined meningitis survivor Kathleen Hawkins.

HER consultant likened it to being hit by a double-decker bus.

That was the kind of harm that meningitis and septicaemia had caused to Kathleen Hawkins’ body.

From feeling a little under the weather one evening, by the next morning she was desperately ill and within hours was fighting for her life.

By then blood poisoning had already caused irreparable damage to her legs and eventually they had to be amputated - a loss made all the more difficult as Kathleen had trained as a dancer.

Now, sitting in her shared house in Leeds, the 23-year-old looks like any of the thousands of other young people studying in the city - it’s only a closer look that reveals the prosthetic legs on show beneath her stylish dress.

“It doesn’t get me down,” she said. It did for the first couple of years but I am okay about it now and often I don’t think about it.”

Kathleen was in her first semester at Leeds University studying English and theology when she became ill in December 2007.

After returning from an evening dance rehearsal, she felt unwell but wasn’t too worried.

“In the night I was sick and I felt really ill but I still didn’t think anything about it,” she said.

“In the morning I managed to get up and luckily I unlocked my door, because that could’ve been critical if I had stayed in bed.

“I managed to get into the corridor and the lights were blinding. I made it into the kitchen and I was passing in and out of consciousness.”

Her flatmates rang an ambulance and Kathleen was taken to accident and emergency at Leeds General Infirmary, where an eagle-eyed junior doctor spotted a telltale rash on her arm.

“They pumped me full of antibiotics and rushed me to intensive care,” she said.

Events after that are a blur, but her parents were contacted and told to come immediately from their home in Retford, Nottinghamshire.

“On the way up they got a phone call from the hospital saying ‘drive carefully but get here as soon as you can’, and they knew it was very serious,” Kathleen said.

“When they arrived they were told ‘she is critically ill, she has got meningitis’.”

Kathleen was by then on a life-support machine with her organs failing.

“My parents were told that first night that the doctors had done all they could and to get any family around that they wanted.

“It was a case of I was going to die.

“That happened twice – that night and again the next day.”

But Kathleen defied the medics and came through the worst, although she spent over three weeks in intensive care, much of it in a coma. When she came out of that critical stage, her kidneys started failing and she had to go onto dialysis before luckily they started working again.

It was much later that she was told of the terrible damage to her legs.

“Septicaemia just ravages your body,” she said.

“The damage was done pretty much straight away. When my parents first came to see me, I was covered in a rash.

“Originally they told me I would lose my toes and my heels. It wasn’t until I’d been in hospital for about two months that they knew the extent of the damage.”

Initially doctors thought she would only lose one leg – which prompted her to scream ‘please no’ at the doctors.

“I did not know anything about prosthetic legs, I didn’t know I’d be able to walk again or the life I would be able to live,” she said.

Devastated

“I was absolutely devastated.”

She underwent surgery to remove one leg but doctors then realised how bad her other leg was, and she was given a choice about that – but warned of the potential issues and so agreed to have that amputated too.

After leaving hospital, Kathleen returned home to her family to recover though came back to Leeds regularly for physiotherapy at Seacroft Hospital, where the city’s prosthetics department is based.

Recovering physically and mentally was a challenge.

“It’s not just the physical effects but your body has been completely shaken by a life-threatening illness,” she explained.

“One of the consultants said it was like being hit by a double-decker bus.”

The fact she was physically fit from dancing helped her body to recover – though it was a mental struggle to accept she could never dance again.

“I’d been a dancer since I was a really small girl. It was a real passion of mine. That was one of the hardest things.”

Within two months she was walking again on her first pair of prosthetics and in September the same year she returned to Leeds to start her degree course again. She said it was difficult being in the same places as a year earlier, but now in a completely different situation.

“Getting around and keeping up with my friends was hard at times.

“I also had an issue about telling people which I hadn’t had before, but people responded really well.”

Kathleen completed her undergraduate course and is now studying for a masters degree in religion and public life, with ambitions to become a journalist.

She can do most activities and even has waterproof legs for swimming.

“I’ve tried to do as much as possible,” she said.

“I just give everything a go, it’s a confidence thing as much as anything. It’s just trying to go for that hurdle and blow what everybody else thinks.”

She is also determined to use her experience to raise awareness of the symptoms of meningitis – which she didn’t think for a minute she could become a victim of.

The Meningitis Research Foundation has named her their ambassador in Leeds, representing the charity locally and regionally.

Previously Kathleen was a befriender, supporting other people affected.

She said: “I was honoured to be asked to represent them as an Ambassador as they do an amazing job funding research into meningitis and septicaemia and supporting people affected by the diseases. I look forward to meeting as many people as I can in my home town to spread the word about the great work we do.”

Chris Head, chief executive of the charity, said: “We are so grateful to Kathleen for agreeing to represent the work we do in Leeds.

“Our ambassadors have been set up to meet the specific needs of their local communities - either speaking to the local media about our latest campaigns or providing talks in nurseries and schools across the region. “In addition, the ambassadors aim to become an accessible and reliable source of information, tips and resources for local people who want to get involved in charity fundraising as well as organising, participating in and assisting with events themselves. We have a huge network of members around the UK who help raise awareness and vital funds and the work they do on our behalf makes a huge difference.”

It started out as a bit of Sunday night nostalgia and ended up as a phenomenon.

The final episode of the series Call The Midwife had an audience of almost 10 million, making it the most watched drama BBC in the last decade.

Who knew contractions were this compulsive, apart from women in labour, obviously?

On this subject, as with so many things, I am with my friend Linda, who says she loved the series so much it left her practically speechless.

She did, though, manage to say that it was a testament to the founding of the NHS, a fascinating social history, a celebration of the strength of women and, best of all, it had Miranda Hart in it, so not too speechless. You wouldn’t want to get into a debate with her.

Especially since, on this topic, I consider my friend Linda a proper expert. This is not only because she has given birth to three children but because, during the contraction stage with one of them and before further help arrived, she managed to hold a conversation with her farmer father about tractors while simultaneously crawling round the living room carpet, to ease both her pain and his embarrassment. I call that stylish.

Call the Midwife, adapted from the memoirs of a real-life midwife, has been a Thoroughly Good Thing for everyone – viewers, actors, BBC – really, just everyone.

I imagine colleges of midwifery are feeling the impact massively and are dealing with a huge increase in applications, since a drama that makes a profession look as warm and cosy as tea and toast, as well as life-enhancing and life-saving, is going to have that effect.

Many new mothers, in a moment of hormonal upheaval and gratefulness to be alive and delivered of a healthy child, will toy with the idea of retraining as a midwife, even if just for a moment. Usually the urge passes as the world and their internal organs settle back into a more normal pattern – but this time I think training colleges will need security guards to hold back the women trying to fight their way in to find a real-life Chummy.

Because Chummy was the star of the show, wasn’t she? Every moment Miranda Hart wasn’t on screen was a moment when we wanted her to be there. Her warm, goofy, brave character was so fabulous to watch I’m betting there were millions of people on Sunday night all wishing the show would never end.

But it was a drama that was good for other actresses too. Jenny Agutter proved herself a surprisingly convincing nun for someone we all remember often gloriously naked as the day is long in her earlier films – no, of course I don’t mean The Railway Children...

As for the rest of the cast, there was good work for anyone who could convincingly, push, strain and scream and, since the ability to fake labour must be part of the basic kitbag of an actress, along with the ability to fake tears, I imagine a good time was had by all.

Except maybe the men watching – I imagine most of them were there because a determined woman was controlling the remote watching, and that they spent a lot of time declaring themselves to be put off their tea by what was happening on screen.

But best of all this was a prime time drama that gave women a voice – even if it was a bit screechy at times – and showed us why we love our health service.

A cast of fine women, Miranda Hart and the NHS – you can’t get more British and you can’t get better.

Diccon Edwards has thrown down the gauntlet to his Leeds Carnegie squad players – and has urged them to nail down a play-off starting spot with some sterling performances this week.

Carnegie, seeking to get back in Edwards’ good books in today’s rearranged clash at Nottingham, have a busy week which culminates in Saturday’s final regular Championship game of the season at play-off rivals London Welsh.

With an arduous schedule of three games in six days, it’s not rocket science to deduce that the Carnegie head coach has taken the opportunity to rotate his side with fringe players given the opportunity to impress ahead of the business end of the season.

Critical

A stony-faced Edwards was critical of his players’ discipline and decision-making following Sunday’s desperately disappointing home loss to Esher on Sunday and insists that places are still up for grabs for those wishing to firmly gatecrash their way into his starting plans.

To that effect, the games against Nottingham and Welsh will represent unofficial ‘trial’ runs for some with Edwards seeking some recompense and a strong reaction from his troops after last weekend’s poor showing.

Edwards said: “Some players have an opportunity to step up and show they want to be in the starting team for the play-offs.

“It’s a great chance to show they deserve their spot in the team for the play-offs and I am sure we will see a strong performance from them. We have a squad and we need to manage our players carefully.

“What we need and endeavour to create is an environment where we are pushing each other to get the best out of each other.

”I was bitterly disappointed (on Sunday). We lost because of our discipline and didn’t pay much attention to detail.

“At times, it was almost too easy (for Esher), which sounds condescending, but it isn’t meant to be.

“If we play like we train, we look a decent side. But it was a lack of personal discipline which killed us.

“I said it would be our most difficult home game because all the expectation would be on us and it proved to be the case.

“The key now is that we don’t lose confidence. There’s opportunities to get things right and areas we obviously have to improve on. We haven’t become a Championship winning team or a poor team overnight.

“We will take our medicine after Esher and move forward. We know where we need to be; we aren’t there yet, but not many teams are.”

Carnegie are without the services of Sean Hohneck this week, with the Kiwi lock having picked up a knee injury, while hooker Scott Freer is also in the treatment room after having a minor clear-up knee operation which will keep him out of action for three weeks.

The talented trio of Dominic Barrow, Chris Walker and Tommy Bell are on England Under-20s duty this week, with Mike MacDonald, Lachlan Mackay, Danny Paul and Stevie McColl also still missing.

While Edwards was largely non-plussed with the loss to rock-bottom Esher last time out, he did single out some praise in the direction of newcomer Halani Aulika, with the powerhouse Tongan international prop making an encouraging debut against the men from Surrey.

And Edwards feels there is more to come from the South Sea Islander, once his match sharpness improves.

He added: “Halani was better for the game, although he was blowing a bit.

“You can have as much training as you can, but it doesn’t quite prepare you for a match. But he will have benefited (from Sunday).

“As a tighthead (prop), he gave us a more solid look and as he gets more games and gets up to speed, he’ll only get better.

“I was pleased with his input.”

Carnegie’s weekend opponents Welsh were also in action today against Doncaster Knights at Old Deer Park.

Campaigners are hoping to turn over a new page to secure the future of a Leeds library.

The Friends of Rawdon Library led a determined campaign to stop Leeds City Council from closing the venue and replacing it with a mobile service last year.

Now the team of volunteers have to demonstrate to the authority that the community hub is worth saving for future generations.

The Friends are giving the local community the opportunity to shape the services and activities on offer at Rawdon Library to show it is sustainable.

June Longley from the Friends of Rawdon Library said: “Libraries are changing and we believe Rawdon Library can flourish if it reflects these changes.

“We also see a future for the building as a lively community centre for learning, arts and social activities.”

Dozens of volunteers have already come forward to help run the facility and at least 24 of those have been trained to use the counter.

They have been working alongside local councillors to come up with a range of activities the facility could offer.

They include starting a film club, art classes, a local history group and developing a children’s literature festival.

Clive Woods from the Friends added: “It is a one-off opportunity because if people don’t get behind this now then it will be too late.

“There are a lot of people that live nearby and without community activities and services then everyone will have to travel more to other places. It just makes sense.”

Rawdon Library was on a list of 15 libraries which Leeds City Council was proposing to close and replace with mobile services under a plan expected to save £625,000 a year.

But council bosses have agreed to look at the possibility of Rawdon staying open and being put in the hands of the community under a system known as Community Asset Transfer.

A meeting will be held on Saturday (February 25) to discuss the future of the library and fill in surveys about the proposed activities.

The amount Leeds City Council pays to independent fostering agencies to look after children for which it is responsible is expected to more than double to £12.4m over the next 12 months.

Now the council is facing calls to increase the sums it gives to in-house foster carers in a bid to boost recruitment and retention and cut the soaring bills for external placements.

Liberal Democrat councillors argue the flow of carers away from the council and into private fostering agencies is increasing and want action to stem the tide.

They say it costs the council £300 more per week to use an agency rather than an in-house carer. The number of Leeds children fostered privately now stands at 281 – up from 143 in March 2010. About 700 youngsters are fostered by the in-house service.

Foster carers in Leeds are currently paid weekly allowances of between £111 and £195, depending on the age of the child, with no rises proposed for 2012-13.

Liberal Democrats are proposing the council spends an extra £1.1m to increase the amounts to between £134 and £232, the rates recommended by the Fostering Network.

Coun Stewart Golton, Liberal Democrat group leader who will raise the issue at tomorrow’s council budget meeting, said: “The council’s approach to foster caring is bonkers.

“It’s proposing to pay private fostering agencies an additional £7 million next year while doing nothing to encourage foster carers to register with the council. This is madness when profit-making private agencies cost the taxpayer £300 a week more than our own foster carers.

“At the moment the council is not coming close to covering the actual cost of looking after a child. It’s not even proposing to raise the rates by inflation, which is shameful and wrong at a time when household costs are rising so rapidly.

“It’s a false economy as placing a child in a private agency costs council tax payers massively more. If we’re able to get even a quarter of the children currently fostered in the private sector back into council fostering, it’ll save the council £1m per year.”

A dad has criticised the 15-month wait he has faced for a knee operation.

Paul Simpson is still waiting for knee reconstruction surgery after badly hurting his knee in November 2010.

Patients should wait no more than 18 weeks for treatment to start after being referred to hospital by their GP, according to Government targets.

Hospital bosses in Leeds have now apologised and blamed an “administrative error”.

Mr Simpson, who could no longer work following his injury, said: “I’m very annoyed. It has had a big impact.”

The 30-year-old from Halton Moor, Leeds, hurt his knee playing football and the following morning was in so much pain, he could not put his foot on the floor.

He went to the St George’s Centre in Middleton, Leeds, where he was given crutches and referred to a knee specialist.

Following an appointment at Leeds General Infirmary, he was sent for an MRI scan before Christmas 2010 which showed he had snapped two ligaments, ruptured his kneecap and torn cartilage.

“After the scan, the specialist said I definitely needed reconstructive surgery and it would be two to three months,” said Mr Simpson, dad to two-year-old Layton Simpson.However he has not heard anything since then.

Mr Simpson, who lives with his girlfriend Julie Crossley and her two-year-old daughter Macey Spurr, has rung his consultant’s office regularly as well as chasing it up through his own GP.

He has finally been given an outpatient appointment for next month, but still has no idea when his surgery will take place.

In the meantime he was unable to carry on his job as a door-to-door salesman and after seven months on disability benefits, was told he should find a job.

So far he has only been able to find odd days of work.

“I’ve had no explanation whatsoever for the delay. I have got a girlfriend and two kids to look after,” he said.

A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals said: “A member of staff has now spoken to Mr Simpson and sincerely apologised that we did not follow up his outpatient appointment in February last year.

“Initial investigations suggest this was due to a regrettable administrative error. We are still looking in detail at this to be clear we fully understand.

“Since some time has now elapsed we need to see Mr Simpson again to reassess his condition and will then do everything possible to progress the necessary treatment as soon as possible.”

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New boss Barry Eaton has hailed his Hunslet Hawks players’ fitness and strength of character.

Hawks are top of Northern Rail Cup Group B after winning their opening two matches in the space of five days.

They followed the midweek 34-18 victory over Whitehaven by winning 24-18 at Swinton Lions two days ago and Eaton said: “We dug in there.

“We got a win on Wednesday and then to go away four days later against a Swinton side who’d had a full week to prepare and who were fresh, hungry and determined and win left me really pleased overall.

“The scoreline was close all the way, but the fitness and determination they showed towards the back end of the game was very encouraging.”

Forward Ryan Benjafield suffered a whiplash injury and is a doubt for Sunday’s tough trip to Leigh Centurions.

Versatile Rob Spicer suffered a rib injury in Dewsbury Rams’ 38-6 Northern Rail Cup defeat at Featherstone Rovers on Sunday which could keep him out for up to six weeks.

Spicer was switched into the centres from his usual back-row role due to other injuries in the Rams camp.

Coach Warren Jowitt said: “We don’t know if it’s broken ribs or a rib cartilage.

“He went to hospital after the game, but they didn’t x-ray him so we are none the wiser.

“We’re hoping the injury is just rib cartilage. If it’s broken it could be four to six weeks, but it’s only two to three if it’s cartilage, depending on the player.

“Rob Spicer being Rob Spicer, he will be ready for the start of the league season.”

Rams’ defeat at Featherstone followed a 36-6 home loss to Halifax, but Jowitt felt the score on Sunday flattered the hosts.

“We have things to work on, but I was really pleased,” he said.

“Defensively, for the majority of the game against Featherstone, we were very good.”

Batley Bulldogs have fended off moves by the taxman at London’s High Court to wind the club up.

Mr Registrar Nicholls formally dismissed a winding-up petition brought by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs against the club’s parent company, Batley Football Club Ltd, on request by HMRC’s lawyers.

The move almost certainly means the club has paid its undisclosed tax debt in full.

Had the company been compulsorily wound up, this would have effectively handed over the club’s affairs to an Official Receiver.

His job would then have been to do his best to ensure that debts were paid off by selling any assets available and then bringing business to a close.

Meanwhile, Batley Bulldogs coach John Kear was far from satisfied with his side’s latest Northern Rail Cup win.

Batley made it two wins from two with a 50-16 home drubbing of London Skolars two days ago.

Kear said: “The first half against Skolars was excellent, but I was disappointed with the second half – we let our standards slip and our intensity dropped.”

Featherstone Rovers came through their second game in five days with no major injury concerns.

Boss Daryl Powell was happy with the level of fitness Rovers showed in the 38-6 victory over Dewsbury Rams two days ago, backing up Wednesday’s 68-0 romp at Oldham.

“It was a bit scratchy in the first half,” Powell said of his team’s latest Northern Rail Cup victory.

“It was always going to be tough, but we finished pretty strongly.

“We finished on top and scored a lot of our points in the last 20 to 25 minutes which shows how fit we are.

“We worked hard defensively, but made too many errors.”

We are at a christening, where I am making the most of a rare opportunity to chat with the other dads from our NCT group.

A couple of months before the twins were born the Missus insisted we sign up for parenting sessions run by the National Childbirth Trust, telling me it was a good way to meet people in the same boat.

At that stage of what I have come to describe as her ‘emotional journey’ through pregnancy, I decided it was best to just nod and agree.

And for once it was money well-spent because everyone we met through it has turned out to be thoroughly delightful.

But although the Missus and the rest of the mums meet up most weeks for tea and cakes, us blokes haven’t all been in the same room together since last August.

On this score I’m ever so slightly jealous of a mate of mine who followed every one of his childbirth classes with a group trip to the pub and still regularly goes drinking with his NCT buddies. They’re even talking about going on a skiing trip together.

But because our sessions were squeezed into one weekend rather than spread out across a couple of months our lot hasn’t had the chance to do much in the way of male bonding.

This saddens me, so I decide to float the idea of getting together for drinks.

The idea goes down well. Particularly with the guy who says he hasn’t been on a night out since November. And yes, that was me again.

I can gauge from the murmurs of agreement that we all recognise how important it is for us to get together and let off some steam.

There’s just one problem.

“How do we broach this with them?” asks one of the lads, furtively nodding his head in the direction of our other halves who we have made sure are safely out of earshot.

“What we have to do is stick together,” I suggest. “Solidarity is the key. If we put on a united front then they have to let us out of the house. Even if it’s just for a couple of hours.”

“I know,” pipes up another of the NCT boys, “we get them to organise it for us. That way, they’ll feel involved.”

We all grunt our agreement. We’ve heard a lot about the need to be ‘involved’. This sounds like the magic word that might just unlock the door to our night out.

Eventually we pluck up the courage to go over and mention it to the wives, just to see how the idea goes down.

“So let me get this straight,” says one, balancing a baby in her arm. “You want us to be your social secretaries now as well as looking after your children?”

“It was his idea,” says her panicking husband, pointing a finger at me as the Missus shoots me a look of disappointment.

Our dream of a lads’ night out isn’t over just yet, but I think we may have some work to do on the solidarity front.

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A metal worker who is believed to have been killed after being impaled by railings at a Leeds firm was found injured by a customer, a Leeds inquest heard.

Hiyat Khan Akahil, 39, was found with a metal rod through his head at Ashton Metal Fabrications.

Mr Akahil, of Bayswater Crescent, Harehills, had been a casual worker at the firm for eight months, the inquest opening heard.

On February 11, Mr Akahil – a married man from Afghanistan – reported to work and was left alone by his employer at around 12 noon.

At the time, he was joining two pieces of metal fencing together and there was nobody else on the premises, the court heard.

A customer entered the firm on Ashton Road, Harehills, and found Mr Akahil lying injured. He was pronounced dead at Leeds General Infirmary.

Coroner David Hinchliff adjourned the inquest.

Stuart McCall has identified Neil Warnock’s man-management skills as his greatest strength in his quest to bring back the good times to Elland Road.

Leeds-born McCall, currently managing Scottish Premier League side Motherwell, was handed his first start in coaching under Warnock at Sheffield United in 2002, with the pair helping to mastermind the Blades’ promotion to the Premier League in 2005-06.

And the former Bradford City boss insists Warnock’s motivational skills in inspiring the best out of his charges when it matters – on a match-day – is second to none.

The 63-year-old’s ability to create a vibrant atmosphere among the playing staff at any club he manages is another of his assets.

McCall, initially signed as a player, at the age of 38, by Warnock in 2002, said: “Speaking to people prior to me coming across Neil, it seems he’s mellowed to what he was as a young manager. But for me his man-management, and getting the best out of his players, is his real strength.

“Neil always said his most important part (of being a manager) is the 10 minutes before a game and at half-time. For him, it’s about getting the best out of what he’s got to work with.

“He’s done that wherever he’s been, doing it his way really. That’s what has brought him his success. He never over-complicates things.

“He’s passionate about the game and wants to succeed, like we all do. His experience and knowledge of getting promotion is second to none.”

McCall feels the lure of taking over at a genuine footballing giant in Leeds would have been impossible to turn down for Warnock.

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And with his former gaffer’s big personality and background in orchestrating successful promotion campaigns, he feels United and Warnock are a perfect fit.

Warnock is something of a promotion king with seven currently under his belt – the same number as Graham Taylor and Dave Bassett – and if he helps Leeds reach the Premiership Promised Land again, he will earn a place in the record books.

McCall said: “It’s a good appointment, definitely.

“With all respect to Sheffield United, QPR and Crystal Palace, where he’s been previously, Leeds is the biggest club he’s managed in terms of the size and history of the club and crowds it can attract. And the expectations as well, really.

“I’m sure it’s a challenge Neil will be looking to get his teeth into.

“I texted him after his sacking at QPR and I didn’t think it would be long before he would be back in the game.

“You only have to look at his record of promotions to see the success at the clubs he’s been at.

“Earlier on in his career, it was at a lower level, though he had great success in bringing Notts County up to Division One.

“He’s also obviously taken Sheffield United and QPR up to the Premiership, and he’s got such a wealth of experience at doing what Leeds need him to do, which is get them up a league.

“If you look at the Leeds side there are certainly goals in there and I think it will be at the other end of the park that he will be looking to go in and sort out because Leeds defitnitely have firepower up front.

“Defensively, he’ll have to go in there and maybe wheel and deal and make a mark and get players he wants in.

“He obviously got a good boost on Saturday and was in the dressing room at half-time and got a response.

“When you go into a club you want to hit the ground running and that result will fire everybody up, including the fans as well.

“Obviously when it comes down to a Saturday it’s a serious business, but during the week, though he’ll get the players to work hard, all their work will be done with a smile on their face and a bit of enjoyment and the atmosphere will be good.

“The players will be able to go out there and relax and show the ability they have got.”

Leeds United striker Ross McCormack has questioned Craig Levein’s selection policy after being left of the Scotland squad for next week’s friendly in Slovenia.

McCormack, 25, last turned out for his country in the Carling Nations Cup last May.

The former Rangers player has scored 16 times in 35 games for his club this season but has again been left frustrated.

“I don’t feel as if I will be in a squad no matter if I score goals or not,” he told the Scottish Sun.

“It is hard to take as people keep telling me I am going to be in the next squad or should be in it.

“Meanwhile, you have Craig Mackail-Smith who is not playing for his club, Jamie Mackie is not playing for his club and David Goodwillie is not playing for his club.

“The only striker in the squad who is playing for his club is Kenny Miller.

“I’d understand if they’d scored a lot more goals than me, but they haven’t. I have no idea why I am not in the squad.”

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McCormack claims he has tried unsuccessfully to contact national team scout Michael Oliver.

“I don’t have a problem with Craig, I am just gutted I am not in his squad,” said the Elland Road player.

“I have been trying to phone Mick Oliver but he hasn’t answered the phone to me.

“No-one will tell me why I haven’t been in the last few squads.”