A WOULD-be raider who tried to intimidate newsagent Narendra Patel at his Sherborne Place shop got more than he bargained for. 
Thug Damien Bendall, who was armed with a seven-inch blade, probably thought the 61-year-old would offer no resistance, but Mr Patel defended himself with a golf club he had lying about. Bendall was later jailed for three years.     

  • DORCAN Academy pupils launched a balloon to an altitude so great that its camera was able to capture the curvature of the planet.

    The young people had won the £15,000 balloon, complete with its camera and tracking device, in a competition.

    They launched it at 9.40am one morning and watched it soar rapidly out of sight.

    The tracker told them it was heading north-east, and more than two hours after being launched it came down safely in a field near the Warwickshire village of Wellesbourne. By 4.30 that afternoon it was back at the school, where the images it had captured were retrieved.