England women's rugby union star Katy Storie visited Coquet High School in Northumberland as part of her involvement in the SkySports Living for Sport programme.

Living for Sport is an initiative delivered in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust which uses the power of sport to motivate and inspire young people.

Pupils from Coquet spent the day with Storie as she mentored and led the activities.

Living for Sport has been designed for young people aged 11 to 16, encouraging them to take on different activities and learn new sports to help them reach their potential.

Years of painstaking research by wildlife volunteers has been lost in a suspected arson blaze.

The fire early yesterday destroyed the visitor centre and bird hide at Northumberland Wildlife Trust's 70-acre Hauxley nature reserve on Druridge Bay. The building's turf roof was also home to a number of nesting birds and their chicks.

The reserve, near Amble, is a prime bird-watching spot and attracts between 10,000 and 15,000 visitors a year. The £120,000 centre was built in 2001.

A Northumberland lifeboat crew was sent to the rescue after a small vessel suffered mechanical failure and began drifting out to sea at the weekend.

Amble's inshore lifeboat, Rosemary Palmer, was alerted by the coastguard on Saturday afternoon after the stricken 5.5 metre-long Sweet Pea called for assistance near the Bondicar Rocks just south of the town.

The vessel, which had two people on board, was safely towed back to Amble Marina.

Schoolchildren turned city traders for a class about cash.

Money management was the message of the day at the Stockbroker Challenge in Northumberland yesterday.

Kyle Walker and Carl Charlton of Bedlington High School

Pupils from five of the county's schools got together to learn about finance through a day of mock share trading. Divided into teams, the pupils were given an imaginary £15,000 to spend on shares of their choice.

Warkworth power on at the top of the Northumberland Premier League, their latest win coming against Corbridge. Martin Clark's five wickets pinned Corbridge down to 153, and then Chris Younger hit 46 as the leaders eased to a four-wicket win in the 42nd over.

Alnmouth stayed second, but they received a pasting from bottom club Blagdon Park and they are now 51 points adrift of the table toppers.

Mark Foster's 65-ball half-century set up Park's score of 216-9 and then Pirasannan Inpathurai (3-27) struck early blows from which Alnmouth could not recover.

A Northumberland fisherman who saved the life of a drowning youth is to receive a prestigious honour.

Iean Clow, of Amble, saw the boy in the water at the town's harbour, went in after him and saved him from drowning.

Now, he is to be awarded a Testimonial on Parchment by the Royal Humane Society, one of the country's top life-saving honours.

North East Livestock Sales sold 112 cattle including 21 cows, 2002 sheep comprising 1141 lambs, 243 hoggs and 618 cast ewes.

This shot was shared by Phil of Morpeth, who added it to our Northumberland group on the Flickr photo-sharing website.

Join the Flickr group or send your photos to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk to see them on this site.

Thousands of people across Northumberland are about to be asked for their views on whether the county's controversial two-tier system of car parking charges should be abolished.

A major public consultation will be launched soon as part of a wide-ranging review which will help unitary council chiefs decide whether or not to scrap the tradition of free parking in the south east of the county.

Shopkeepers and businesses in rural communities such as Berwick, Seahouses, Alnwick, Morpeth and Hexham say it is unfair that motorists have to pay up to £1.10 an hour - while they can park free in towns such as Blyth, Cramlington, Ashington and Bedlington.

Community Wildlife is for projects that help people discover, enjoy and protect wildlife in their local area.

Now open to organisations including voluntary and community organisations, schools, town and parish councils, and statutory health authorities. Grants of between £300 and £10,000 are available.

There is up to £2 million available across the UK and organisations can submit applications before the three deadlines of 21July, 22 September and the 24 November 2010.

For further details and to get an application form visit our website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/communitywildlife, or call our helpline on:
0845 367 0610.

For more ideas for projects visit www.bbc.co.uk/wild