The Mid-Northumberland Chorus, a community choir based in Morpeth, will be holding their annual Christmas concert for the town on Saturday the 3rd December, 2011. This year's programme, which is scheduled to start at 7:30pm, will be held at the St. George's United Reformed Church on Bridge Street. Conducting the 70-strong ensemble on the night will be newly appointed Conductor of the Chorus, Paul Toward, accompanied by the organist, Peter Waugh. An additional concert will be held at Seaham Hall Hotel, County Durham onThursday the 15th December, starting at 12 noon.

The Morpeth performance will include extracts from and J. S. Bach's cantata 'Sleepers Wake,' along with a miscellany of Christmas carols. Fresh mince pies and a glass of wine will be available for all those in attendance and tickets are priced at £6 for adults, with a concession of £3 for those aged eighteen years and under. To book, or for further information, contact Chris on 01670 790268, or Gillian on 01670 515870.

The Mid-Northumberland Chorus, originally established in 1981, perform frequently in many of the region's churches and cathedrals. They aim to present a choral version of the 'Pirates of Penzance' in the spring of 2012, along with concerts towards the end of April in Ashington, Morpeth and Norham-on-Tweed.

The recent progress of Ashington & District Male Voice Choir has been recognised with the award of a £900 grant from The 43 Fund of the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to buy a new piano/keyboard.

The choir performs in many venues and has to have a reliable instrument which is easily transported. The new one replaces one which was difficult to carry but gave almost 25 years of service.

The Stakeford and Choppington Parish Council will be hosting the drop-in sessions and are backing the WDF on the Disability Hate Crime project.

Bad Apples North East are a community interest company based in Ashington offering music projects. On Sunday 31st of July we are having an "It's a Knockout" competition and family fun day at the Hirst Welfare Centre from 11am-3pm.

The teams competing are all raising sponsor money to enable Bad Apples North East to work with more young people in the area and offer more workshops.

Staff from Barclays Ashington, Revolution Bar Sunderland and a team of dancers are all competing against other local companies and our three Bad Apples teams made up of supporters and young people stepping up to the challenge.

Ashington bodybuilder, Michael Liddle, fulfilled a long term ambition when judges at the recent IBFA championships - held this year in Bedlington, Northumberland - awarded him the title of IBFA Medium Height British Champion 2011: he also took second place (Short Class) in the first annual Mr. Northumberland Competition, which was launched on the same day. And, if that wasn't enough, Michael, 42, was soon to discover that he'd been invited to compete in the forthcoming IBFA World Championships in Rome later in the year, on the back of his IBFA success in Bedlington.

The scheme, branded as 'Try a Tri' has been established by England Triathlon for men and women of all ages and backgrounds. In Northumberland, the programme has been organised by Blyth Valley Arts & Leisure in partnership with Tri Northumberland and England Triathlon.

The 'Friends' Launch Event went really well. Mayor John McCormack opened the event with a wonderful speech about how far we have come in 6 months after we officially began the group and how he, as a child, used to play in the park.

We had nearly 200 children participate in the Easter Egg Hunt. The children enjoyed games with Northumberland Play Team and 'tea cup' rides along with other activities. With the tuck shop we made enough money to have the park benches painted and to re-stock our coffee mornings. The 'friends' will participate in the painting of the benches during the next few weeks.

We are looking forward to providing more activities in the summer and hope people will join us in the up oming events.

We would like to thank all those who took part and the Mayor for opening the Launch.

Originally the club was open to anyone and there were a couple of men, but they soon dropped by the wayside and the membership has remained 100% female ever since. This group was never part of any official body, it was just friends getting together to encourage each other to stay healthy and active.

There was never a leader either, just cassette tapes of music, sometimes with a voice giving instructions as to how to move and stretch, a bit like the sound track of a fitness video. In the early days, the ladies really dressed the part, in black leotards and tights, but these days it's more likely to be comfortable stretch trousers and top.

Transport manager Lynn McIntosh said: ''This is a fantastic start to March. We have been fundraising since November and this grant increases our new bus fund to £14,000.

"Everyone is working hard to raise funds so this is a great boost to all our volunteers. A big thank you to all our fundraisers, as every penny counts.''

Photo: Lynn Mcintosh with the good news letter

Ashington Lions and Lioness Clubs recently hosted a Zone Meeting where representatives of the the nine Northumberland Clubs get together to bring each other up to date with recent activities. It also acts as a great forum for exchanging ideas.

Ashington Lioness President Pam Barr; District Governor Larry Collins and Ashington Lion Hugh Barr exchange banners

This meeting in Ashington's 'Lions Den' was a little different in that the Region Chairman Peter Fielding also attended bringing with him District Governor Larry Collins. Larry's District covers the North East of England and all of Scotland and therefore he has a busy time trying to get around the forty plus Clubs during his year of office.

Jubilee People's Millions projects will inspire, involve or improve their local communities. If you've got an idea that could breathe life into your local area and improve the lives of the people who live there, why not apply for a grant of up to £60 000!

Having narrowly beaten the Lancashire champions 17-16 in their semi final, the Hirst Park bowlers managed a convincing 20-8 win against the champions from Yorkshire to lift the trophy.

There were also other notable successes for Hirst Park bowlers as the club lifted their Clegg league division trophy, having remained undefeated throughout the year with Newbiggin 70 points behind in 2nd place.

Wanting to build on their success by enhancing the membership of the club, Hirst Park will welcome applications for membership next year. Anyone interested in finding out more information about the club can find further details at the Hirst Park website.