BURGLARS broke into a Derbyshire pub, smashed the fruit machines and stole cash from inside them.

Raiders targeted the Eaton Farm, in Wilsthorpe Road, Long Eaton, between 12.30am and 8.20am yesterday.

A police spokesman said they got into the building through a window and then made their way into the lounge at the pub.

He said: "They smashed fruit machines to get to the money that was inside them.

"It is not known if anything else has been taken."

Anyone who saw suspicious activity in the area at the time or has information is asked to call 101.

TREES create a shadow in misty sunshine at Great Longstone in this week's weather picture from Derbyshire photographer Villager Jim. He says the picture was taken at 10am on a very cold morning.

To find out more about his photography, go to www.villagerjim.com or buy his stunning shots of the Derbyshire Peak District at www.villagerjimsshop.com.

ALTHOUGH £6,000 for installing three bicycle pumps "Readers left deflated by story about £6,000 cost of bike pumps" (January 1), is not justified, at least the city council tries to help, and encourage, cycling. Repairs to potholes and cycle routes are a priority, however.

The sum is insignificant comparted to the criminal waste of money that HS2 – £50 billion (or more) – and the proposed £24 billion or so for new roads.

New roads only generate more traffic, encourage unnecessary travel, destroy countryside, farmland, villages, dwellings and wildlife and increase air pollution.

They, and HS2 (and 3) benefit mainly the construction industry, the motor and train industries, plus land and property speculators.

Are they intended to, I wonder?

Roger Kirk

Chapel Lane, Wirksworth

A BURGLAR caught red-handed in the home of his girlfriend's dad has been handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for one year.

Gavin Slack, 36, was discovered in the house in Kingsway, Heanor, by his partner's father on October 23 and asked what he was doing.

Slack, who is unemployed, depressed and on benefits, insisted he had done nothing wrong and pleaded with the man not to call police.

He left but returned and revealed to the dad he had stolen a gold sovereign ring. Slack, of Regent Street, Langley Mill, had been in debt at the time.

Police arrested him and charged him with burglary, which he admitted at court at an earlier hearing.

Judge Michael Stokes QC, at Nottingham Crown Court, ordered he must be supervised by the probation service for a year and attend ten hours over five days of an education, training and employment scheme.

A severe weather warning has been put in place for Derbyshire as snow and ice return to the county with blizzard conditions possible.

The Met Office has posted two yellow severe weather warnings for snow and ice today as well as high winds.

Coupled with the winds, experts say the snow fall could lead to "blizzard conditions" on Saturday and Sunday with between two and four centimetres of snow falling over higher ground.

The latest warning on Saturday centres around heavy rain turning to ice, possibly falling as snow on higher ground, and a further possibility of ice on Sunday as temperatures fall.

NEW signing Darren Bent will start on the bench for Derby County against former club Ipswich Town at Portman Road (12.15pm).

Rams boss Steve McClaren has reverted to the side that started the previous league match against Leeds United.
McClaren made nine changes to his team for last weekend's FA Cup third round tie against Southport.
All the players rested for that match return to face promotion rivals Ipswich.
Lee Grant, Cyrus Christie, Craig Forsyth, John Eustace, Jeff Hendrick, Will Hughes, Johnny Russell, Jordon Ibe and Chris Martin are recalled.
Skipper Richard Keogh and Jake Buxton continue their partnership in central defence.

Fit-again winger Jamie Ward is among the substitutes, so Paul Coutts misses out.

Ipswich's side features two changes from their previous league game, with Tyrone Mings replacing Jonathan Parr at left-back and midfielder Luke Hyam coming in for Cole Skuse (ill).
On-loan striker Conor Sammon is not eligible to face his parent club.
IPSWICH TOWN: Bialkowski, Chambers, Smith, Berra, Mings, Anderson, Hyam, Bishop, Tabb, McGoldrick, Murphy. Subs: Gerken (gk), Parr, Ambrose, Bru, Bajner, S Hunt, N Hunt.

DERBY COUNTY: Grant, Christie, Keogh, Buxton, Forsyth, Eustace, Hendrick, Hughes, Russell, Ibe, Martin. Subs: Roos (gk), Shotton, Mascarell, Bryson, Dawkins, Ward, Bent.

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TONIGHT'S National Lottery jackpot stands at an estimated £4.1m - have you bought your ticket yet? 

 There will also be 50 lucky winners of £20,000 through the Lotto raffle.

So could tonight be the night you win the Lotto and have the perfect start to the New Year?

Ticket sales for the draw close at 7.30pm. 

The draw itself will take place tonight at about 8.30pm - so best of luck!

The Lotto made 297,150 winners in Wednesday's draw. 

I GOT my timing wrong this week. I'd been told that the Roebuck Inn, in Burton, was selling the near-legendary Draught Burton Ale, so off I went hoping for a nostalgic pint of a beer that was an important part of my early drinking education when it was launched in the Seventies.

I was a day late. DBA has just been discontinued by Carlsberg, who own the brand but aren't interested in it.

The barmaid in the Roebuck was most apologetic, telling me that the beer had been brewed under contract by JW Lees, the Manchester family brewery, but that the contract had now been terminated.

Carlsberg bosses sit in Denmark still thinking that world domination for lager is the way forward when – plainly – it isn't, as the public continues to demand variety and quality.

There was plenty of significance in the fact that the Roebuck, a smashing little locals' pub near the railway station, had been selling the revived DBA.

The pub used to be the Ind Coope brewery tap, packed with brewery workers, and it was where Ind Coope launched DBA in 1976.

It was a landmark moment for the fledgling real ale movement, recognition by what was then one of the biggest brewers in the country that there was a future for cask ale.

They had been churning out vast quantities of pasteurised stuff like Double Diamond and Skol but now they sought to prove a point: that they still had brewers with the skill and desire to produce superb cask beer.

They also showed they had the will to market it. Many of their pubs did not have handpumps to serve it and, so the story goes, handpump manufacturers Gaskell & Chambers, in Birmingham, were put on permanent overtime for a while to make enough to go round.

DBA was a huge hit and the main reason for that was that it was excellent. Malty, hoppy, fruity. It had a massive taste and was a very satisfying drink. If I was in my local, the Old Spa in Abbey Street, at the time, for a session, I still drank the weaker Ind Coope Bitter and finished off with a DBA – at 4.8% it was a bit strong for a whole evening's drinking. But if I was only having a couple, it was DBA every time.

In 1990, DBA won CAMRA's champion beer of Britain award. It remains the only beer from a national brewer to do so.

But then it all went wrong. Ind Coope was part of Allied Breweries, which became Allied Lyons in a merger with the confectionary company. The next step, in a ridiculously convoluted tale of corporate nonsense, was Carlsberg-Tetley; then Allied Domecq, who sold parts of their business to Bass.

DBA production ended up at Tetley, in Leeds, shattering its credibility as a Burton ale. Arguably, there was little more credibility in Lees brewing it latterly and I'm afraid I didn't taste it while they did, but at least they will have cared about it.

What next then? Well, I'm hearing whispers that this may not necessarily be the end of the line for the beer. It may all come down to Carlsberg releasing the rights to the recipe but, if they're not interested in it, why wouldn't they?

I would bet there's a market for DBA as a niche product, brewed with care, hopefully locally.

If it should re-emerge, I am quite sure they will want it on again at the Roebuck.

I may have missed out on the beer I wanted to drink there but the pub itself is a gem.

After the demise of the Ind Coope brewery, the pub struggled for trade and was open and closed several times but, for the last eight years, Martin Stokes and Julie Latham have nurtured it back to former glories, with a marvellous interior and a wide range of beers.

The one I had on my visit was Heart, a cracking premium bitter at 4.6% from King's Bromley-based Quartz Brewery.

It's a small corner pub but it does have three storeys and also does accommodation.

It's currently Burton CAMRA's pub of the year and I'm not surprised. I'll be going back.

* If you want to read more detail than I have room for here on the history of Draught Burton Ale, look no further than this fine article by Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz, which I have shamelessly borrowed from: www.protzonbeer.co.uk/com ments/2015/01/06/dba-gone-for-a-burton

WHILST not being a church-going Christian, a walk through Littleover on Boxing Day and New Year's Day when all the shops were closed reminded me of Sundays over 50 years ago and had me thinking about the benefits of The Lord's Day Observance custom.

One just had to adjust shopping around working hours back then.

Predictably there will be those who would moan about choice, both parents working and inconvenient working hours, won't you, along with those whose cultures are not governed by historic C of E influences? Pity.

David Culm

Littleover

PARAMEDICS with the region's air ambulance were called out to emergencies about three times a day on average last year.

The Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance helicopter was sent on 1,032 missions in total in 2014 – an increase of more than 100 call-outs compared to 2013.

Medics said the three most common types of emergencies they attended were traffic accidents, at 43%, medical emergencies, at 15%, and sports injuries at 13%.

To donate to the service, call 08454 130999 or visit www.theairambulanceservice.org.uk.

RUNNING 94 marathons in a lifetime would be a great achievement. But Emma Timmis completed this arduous feat in just three months – and beneath the scorching heat of the African sun.

The 30-year-old, who grew up in Derby, set herself the challenge of running across Africa, a distance of 4,000km, to raise money for charity.

She ran from the Namibian coast through Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi – making her way through desert, scrub land and tropical forest, finishing in Pemba on the Mozambique coast after 89 days. In that period, she had only 13 days off.

Emma, who ran for Derby Ladies as a teenager, said: "The highlight for me was just being in Africa. It's a really heart-touching place – seeing the animals and the environment and all the people with their smiley faces. It's an incredible country and really inspiring to be there. And being on foot, you see things more closely than you would from a car or a bus."

However, her closeness to the environment was not always a good thing. One night, she awoke to hear an elephant crashing around outside her tent.

Emma, who attended Landau Forte College, said: "It was quite a worry – I could hear it was snapping down trees in its path, and I just prayed it would stick to the trees."

Fortunately it did and after a while the huge creature passed by. Another heart-stopping moment was one night when she stepped out of her tent to go to the toilet.

"There was a deadly scorpion running around," said Emma, "I think I disturbed it from catching its prey."

Her daily routine, after setting out on the challenge on August 31, was to get up before sunrise and run for two to three hours before stopping for breakfast. She would then be back on her feet to complete another two-to-three-hour run before 11am when she would stop for lunch. Her final stint of the day would be completed by sunset.

Each day she ran more than a marathon, and towards the end almost two marathons, and completed the challenge on November 27. Emma has vowed that she will never do something like that again – however, she made the same promise after running across South Africa in 2011.

It was that challenge that inspired Emma's friend, Aysha Madha, a charity worker, to set her up to this latest feat.

One drunken night she made a pact with Aysha that she would run if her friend did all the fund-raising, made all the travel arrangements and planned the route. Between them they decided on three charities. The amount raised so far is just short of £6,000 and will be divided between the Seed Project, a Zimbabwean community development fund; the Tusk trust, a charity working to conserve African wildlife; and Think Plan Do – an organisation providing support for young people at risk of crime, mental illness and homelessness set up by Aysha in Manchester.

Emma, now of Manchester, left her job of four years as an RSPCA inspector to take up the challenge.

She and Aysha were joined in by a small team – Robert Kazunga, from the Seed Project, to give advice on cultural and language differences, mechanic Woocash Uzar and Michael Whitehurst, who rode alongside Emma on a bike providing her with refreshments and emergency medical support.

Aysha drove a car along the route, transporting the camping equipment.

Emma said her training plan for the challenge was fairly unsophisticated. She said: "I started training at the start of last year – so I did seven months of training. I didn't follow any training plan but basically just gradually increased my mileage. Before that I would normally just run about 10 miles a week."

She said she had regular massages and Mike was trained by her physiotherapist so that he could do the same when they were out in the field. Emma said: "Mike is my rock-climbing partner, so we know each other quite well and trust each other."

She said that in the first month of the challenge she went from "injury to injury".

"But nothing actually got so bad that I had to stop. I just had to be sensible and not do such crazy mileage on the days I felt bad," she said, "On my days off I just lay around and went to the supermarket, if we were in a town, to buy chocolate and crisps."

At the end of the challenge the team celebrated, while paddling in the Indian Ocean, with a bottle of champagne.

She then remained in Pembra for two weeks, making friends with locals and also running another marathon with a friend who had flown out from the UK to meet her.

"That was probably the most painfully run that I did out there, as my legs had seized up by then," said Emma.

Emma then returned home to Derby to spend Christmas with her family.

She said: "It was nice to be back in Derby and to have the snow. It was so pretty and a complete and utter contrast to being in Africa."

YOUR spy last visited this Derbyshire pub more than three years ago, so decided it was time to venture into the Derbyshire countryside again to check if it was still an impressive eaterie.

The Tiger, at Turnditch, got off to a good start with a welcoming reception to the booking phone call and fitting us in at exactly the time we wanted, despite it being a Saturday night.

On arrival, we were offered a drink at the bar before immediately being taken into the restaurant and offered a choice of tables. It was busy enough to have a good atmosphere, but your spy was pleased to be offered a choice – all too often tables for two can be stuck in walkways or too close to other diners so it's good to be able to select a window seat.

The menu was plentiful but encompassed in one A4 sheet, with a large specials board on the wall. Unfortunately, to go and read it, we had to take turns to go and look but that was more our fault for choosing a table tucked away in a corner!

Your spy just couldn't resist the breaded brie, served with toasted walnuts and winter fruit chutney while my companion was very enthused at the idea of a mini chicken and ham pie as a starter, despite being tempted by scallops with chorizo and warm apple compote.

It took a little longer than we would have hoped for our starters to arrive, and their arrival was preceded with a waiter asking if pine nuts would be an acceptable alternative to the walnuts. When he was given a positive answer, he was back from the kitchen within minutes.

The breaded brie was delicious, the pine nuts gave a lovely crunch and the winter fruit chutney cut through the richness of the cheese beautifully. Portion size couldn't be faulted – your spy can be a tad on the greedy side when it comes to cheese, but it satisfied even this appetite.

The pie was a good size for a starter – in fact, for some it might have been adequate as a main course – but my companion rose to the challenge and punctuated each mouthful with praise for its flavour and meatiness.

For main course, we both chose traditional pub grub. Your spy was tempted by the beer battered fish and chips with a choice of either garden or mushy peas while my companion asked for a medium rare steak.

Other options included chicken with wild mushrooms and pancetta crisps, a lamb shank with parsnip crisps, cannelloni, gammon, scampi and cottage pie with a twist. Making a decision was not easy!

The chips were served in a little metal bucket on the side, which gave a lovely novelty value and were the highlight of the whole meal. Big, chunky chips, crisp on the outside, melting in the middle – your spy's mouth is watering just at the thought of them!

The batter on the fish was crisp and golden and my companion's steak was cooked to a turn, and although your spy was offered the onion rings that went with the steak (my companion isn't a fan), I just couldn't manage them.

We were both too full for pudding, even though there were some tempting options on offer including sticky toffee pudding and warm chocolate and orange brownies, but we did look longingly at the plates of other diners, who had perhaps not gorged on cheese and pie as a starter!

It took more than 20 minutes for our order to be taken and 40 minutes from arrival to our starters being served , and the restaurant didn't seem to be overly busy, but this was the only blip in an otherwise very pleasant evening.

If you're in no hurry and want to sit and enjoy an excellent value meal and a chat in cosy and friendly surroundings, pay The Tiger a visit.

NOT unexpectedly, a response – "Bumping up insurance payments to pay for emergency services is flawed idea" (Malcolm Haines, December 6) – came to my proposal of a 2% general insurance premium loading to help our police and fire and rescue services.

He cites those who don't bother with such things as motor insurance and others for whom property insurance would be irrelevant. So the option then is to increase council tax and income tax or VAT.

But there are also many cash-earning businesses and people for whom the word "tax" is a stranger.

David Culm

Littleover.