... their only alternative would have been to take the long road and walk it.

I was a little bit surprised to hear that The Music were still a going concern.

A MAN who fell asleep while cooking dinner was lucky not have been suffocated by the smoke from his burning scampi, firefighters told today.

Fire crews had to bash down the door to the man's flat in Duke Street in order to save him and it is believed he had been drinking alcohol at the time.

The incident has led fire chiefs to warn of the hazards of cooking while drinking alcohol.

Andy Nunn, assistant divisional officer for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, said: “It is not uncommon for people to have a few drinks and then fall asleep.

An Alfreton butcher is in the running for a top sausage award.

Owen Taylor & Sons has secured a place in the final of the Foodservice Sausage Of The Year Competition 2008.

The competition sees 15 sausages, picked from over 250 entries, put to a taste test in a national final at Butchers' Hall in London later this month.

Richard Taylor, of Owen Taylor, qualified with two sausages after taking second place in the Volume Produced Sausage category with his "Best Pork Sausage", and third place in the Speciality Pork Sausage category with "Taylor's Country Sausage".

Richard achieved a "gold" award for both sausages, with scores of 96 and 99 out of 100, and is now in with a real chance of taking the Sausage Of The Year title.