Lancashire nostalgia in 1975: Booze bonanza, ladies darts disaster, and gold in them sandhills

The big booze bonanza hits Preston

The big booze bonanza hit Preston as spirit drinkers dived into town centre off-licences to make the most of old-price stocks.

Many stores could hardly keep up with the demand as customers queued at the doors and telephone order flooded in .

One wine store company director said: “At the moment we are rushed off our feet.”

Determined to beat the Chancellor as far as possible, the consumers proved that for booze and “baccie”, at least, there was no cash flow crisis.

“They’ve gone mad,” said a harassed manager at Addisons wine store in Church Street. “People are coming in and buying six or seven cases of whisky at a time. Everyone is stockpiling.

“We would normally have sufficient stocks to last a few weeks, but the grabbers are spoiling it for the rest.”

At Peter Dominic town centre store, manager Mr Walter Thornton said: “They were waiting for us to open this morning.”

Smokers were also rushing to stock up on cigarettes before 7p is added to the cost of an average packet of 20.

A spokesman for House of Bewley in Fishergate said the firm had been busy.

Darts ruling leaves Galgate ladies searching for bullseye

Harsh words, as well as darts, have been winging through the air in the smokey games room of a Lancashire pub. For the committee of the Ladies Darts and Dominoes League at Garstang has accused the female team at a Galgate pub of making one foul throw too many.

The unladylike row blew up when the ten members of the New Inn darts team at Galgate thought they had done the gentlemanly thing by conceding the game when they couldn’t raise a full team for a match.

Foul throw, ruled the ladies committee. and what’s more, not for the first time. The New Inn team had also been known to throw rice at opponent players during a previous match.

“This was the last straw,” said league secretary Mrs Pam Nield. “They gave away two points without consulting the league. We had postponed the game once when some of them were involved in a car crash, but they had no excuse this time.”

But New Inn captain, landlady Mrs Brenda Townley, 40, who is protesting to the brewery, said: “This was our first season in the league and we didn’t know the rule.”

She added: “We admit we did throw rice during a game, but it was at a couple who were in the pub celebrating a wedding anniversary.”

Council gold in them sandhills

The scheme to sell sand from St Annes golden beaches has been taken a stop further.

Fylde Council, which will sell the sand, has appointed a negotiating team to meet firms interested in taking up the offer.

The sand to be sold will come from the areas between the high and low water marks where it has been deposited up to ten feet deep over the last few hundred years.

“We could start by taking off about three feet of this”, said chief technical officer Mr Derek Hisley.