BEST and fairest 3 points:  John Walker who left his work vehicle double parked outside Fitzderby Chambers and then walked back to the Elders building situated across the road from Watts Butchery. ‘Goodooga’ then sent John Graham down to recover it 45 minutes later.

BEST and fairest 2 points- Allan Flanagan who not only left his car running around the fruit shop corner while he visited the TAB (now the Barbers shop) he locked the keys in it as well. Nothing that no quick stroll up to his Fitzroy Street residence across the road from the doctors surgery to collect the spare keys.

BEST and fairest points 1 point: Gary Joseph Kelleher who broke all records for being the most mentioned person in the column during 1989. At one stage he was running around the tennis courts in circles until he worked out he had two right footed Reeboks on at the time.

SPECIAL Mention- Max Goodridge who thrilled the Yarrowitch play group when he took the kids for a ride in his amphibious machine. All the parents thought Max was fooling the kids when he called for help as his vessel started to sink but was fair dinkum after he realised he forgot to put the plugs back in.

THEY breed ‘em tough around Niangala but not quite as tough as the Shire Councillor who was spotted tailing lambs in the rain wearing a plastic pink apron while doing so. May or may not have been Greg Upton.

LOCAL Electrician Ian Cameron and his assistant Bradden Jackson must have thought they were in the horrors when they strolled into a certain Nowendoc residence and there perched up on the lounge was a big bright yellow chicken impersonator. The truth was Paul Hicks was dressed up for a Bush Fire Brigade demonstration and there was no real need for Jacko and Camo to be too concerned.

1990: L.P.CROSS truck driver Max Amidy arrived back at the depot after transporting a load of sheep from Trefusis to Woodburn and after he pulled up work mate Kevin ‘Porky’ Levingston asked why there was still 10 head of sheep still left in the float. Quick as a flash Max grabbed the company ute, put on a small crate, loaded his cargo before delivering them to their destination.

His longish day became a whole lot longer when he got a flat tyre on the way back home.

COUNCIL Flag Flyer Gary Joseph Kelleher must have thought Walcha was in a distressful state when he not only flew the flag upside down he then put it up the same way after he was tipped off about his earlier indiscretion.

G.J pulled it down again and this time up she went the right way much to the delight of N.E.C.C. desk jockey Philip Hoy who was viewing all the action from across the road in his office.

WALCHA butcher Max Williams an his son Johnno became grand champions in the Royal Easter show dripping section for the fifth time in seven years. 

NOT being able to visit the TAB Gary Natty sent his mate Gregory Partridge around to take out a footy TAB ticket. Low and behold ‘Doey’ goes and puts on twice as much money as what he should have and then up she goes and bucks the rider. Instead of collecting around $70 the dividend was closer to a ton and a half. No doubt G.J would have shouted Doey a schooner or three.

SLIM Dusty had a song ‘Lights on the Hill’ a few years ago but now Philip Chandler had challenged him with his own version of ‘Lights on the Lagoon’.

Driving home from Uralla Paddles hit a bump in his LP Cross truck and out went the lights.

Good samaritan Kevin Ferrier came along driving the Bowling Club ute and it was decided the truck would follow the ute back to Walcha using the lights of the ute as a guide. No need to really when ‘Paddles’ slammed the bonnet of the truck, on came the lights and luckily lasted all the way home.

CROUDACE Street resident Wayne Hoy was giving his wife Tracey a hand with vacuuming duties around the house when Tracey suggested that he give the canary cage the once over after he finished the rest.

You guessed it Wayne did vacuum the cage and yes sucked up the canary. Fortunately the story has a happy ending because ‘Horse’ spotted his feathered friend disappearing and managed to shut down the cleaner before any real damage was done.

TYRE Service boss John Watts was attempting to explain to his daughter Caroline what a lorry was while viewing ‘A Country Practice’. ‘It’s a truck’ said John to which Caroline replied ‘Not like that old fella playing rugby league’ referring to none other than Robert ‘Truck’ Laurie.

BOWLING Club green keeper Reggie Handsaker attempted to mow the bowling rinks without power but couldn’t sort out why his mower wouldn’t work but his radio would.

Simple really the radio was battery operated  and after electrician Ian ‘Snow’ Bird flicked the ON switch and both the boys had a bit of a laugh.

APSLEY Publican Jim Moffitt was surprised when a bucketful of worms went floating by during the opening weekend of the fishing season but he soon worked out why when he had a bit of a look about. A peak upstream revealed local judge Bob Potter had fallen into the drink. Shortly after Jim made his best catch of the day using one of Bob’s worms.

COOG is on holidays hence this flashback column. Normal transmission will resume next week.