Year of Food and Drink launched: Local companies join showcase event Legal challenge to school merger begins: The legal challenge to the Education Minister, John O’Dowd’s decision to amalgamate the Collegiate Grammar School and Portora Royal School, got underway at the High Court in Belfast this week.

Western Trust to ‘breakeven’ in 2016: Health Minister, Simon Hamilton, has told Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA, Neil Somerville, that he expects the Western Health Trust to achieve final breakeven by March 2016, despite facing a range of pressures from the budget settlement set for 2015/16.

Bag levy makes us resist them at tills: By now, we’ve pretty much bought all the ‘bags for life’ that we’re ever going to need and the supermarkets replace those for free if they’ve become too ripped. If I can make it out of a shop without having to buy a bag then I see it as a personal victory and I don’t think the novelty of that is ever going to wear off.

Autumn, close-bosom friend of celeb dancers: October. No longer just the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, but also now close bosom-friend of the maturing celebrity dancer. Strictly Come Dancing(BBC1, Saturday and Sunday, 6pm ish) is back, clad in sparkles and lycra. Strictly is not the place for withering sarcasm.

Cairns wins popular Trevor Scott Memorial singles: Wellington Bowling Club recently held their Trevor Scott Memorial tournament with Michael Cairns winning the coveted title after some excellent bowling. As always, the competition was very well supported with 139 entries over three nights.

Marty McGrath on plight of club player: ‘Now you know what it is like to be a club player’ is a comment that has been thrown at me a number of times this year. The lack of club matches in June and July has left many club players in this county frustrated and disinterested.