PHIL Smith is hanging up his bike clips for 40 days and nights from next Wednesday. He won't need 'em, he will be biking all over York in summer shorts for Lent in aid of Oxfam.

The 18-year-old sixth-form student, of Rosedale Avenue, Acomb, York, is studying A-level history, religious and media studies at the Tadcaster Road college and aims to raise more than £300 in sponsorship for the international charity with just his bare legs.

The former Oxfam volunteer, who worked with refugees in Croatia, pulled the same stunt last Lent and raised £300. This time he intends to put on more pounds while pounding the pedals around the city.

His Legs For Lent project is "harder than it sounds because each day I cycle at least six miles to and from college. I usually cover about 50 to 60 miles a week - let's hope it doesn't snow!"

Hear, hear Phil... more power to your pedals.

<bullet/> THE long-running case of Peter Bleach, ex-St Peter's schoolboy, who is appealing against a life sentence in India for his part in an illegal arms-drop, went before a packed court in Calcutta again this week.

But guess who got the story first? Whitehall?

No, the Evening Press!

Photographer Richard Stansfield has long been campaigning for the release of his old school friend.

On Monday an early morning call from our ace reporter Adam Nichols caught him by surprise. Adam said that a photograph had just arrived 'over the wire' showing Bleach entering a Calcutta Court and asked if Richard knew about it.

Richard was surprised and said that although he had heard nothing, he would phone the department at the Foreign Office looking after Peter's case because they would know.

"Oh, no", said a calm voice at the FO. "We've no knowledge of this and we were only speaking to our Calcutta office about half an hour ago. If anything as important as this had occurred they would have told us. We think it must just be an old photo relating to a previous hearing."

Within minutes of Richard putting the phone down he received a fax from Adam giving full details of a surprise appearance by Bleach at packed courthouse where he had won the right to take his appeal to India's highest court.

Thinking it only fair to keep them up to date, Richard forwarded Adam's information to the FO.

"I received a very polite thank you from them," Richard told me. "Over the years the Foreign Office have always been exceptionally kind and helpful with this matter. Their Calcutta office just forgot to tell them about it!"

Next week we will exclusively reveal that Osama bin Laden is holed up in a B&B just off the Fulford Road.

<bullet/> Betty Barker of St Stephen's Road, Acomb, was tickled McPink by the graffiti "McSh**e" on a once-famous York pub.

She wrote: "While passing the Frog Hall in Layerthorpe, I could not resist a little smirk at the writing on the wall. It did seem very appropriate to the situation in hand. I bet the ex-landlord of the Frog Hall has more than a smirk when he sees it. My daughter and I went back to look because she did not really believe me... but we ended up in hysterics, it really did make our day."

The pub is to become a McDonald's drive-through burger joint.

<bullet/> SPEAKING of which, Alan Roden, a former Evening Press community correspondent, is a lucky burger. He has been chosen to dish out Big Macs to hungry fans at the Winter Olympics in the United States.

Alan, who reported news from the Appleton Roebuck area and wrote a column for teenagers, originally joined McDonald's to help pay off his university fees.

He won a place on the burger giant's team to travel to the Olympics in Salt Lake City after being named Front Counter Manager Of The Year.

He is in his final year at Edinburgh University, where he is taking a Master's degree in politics.

Alan, a former York College student, says: "The trip to the Olympics should be brilliant. It will be interesting to see how different life and work is there. I've never been to America before so I'm really excited.

"Being able to soak in the Olympic atmosphere is something you can't get from the TV."

<bullet/> STOP monkeying about. Off-the-wall Nev Lacy, 20, of Seventh Avenue, York, subscribed to the new ITV Digital magazine to get a free monkey - made famous by the adverts starring comedian Johnny Vegas.

But after sending his £30 fee in December, Nev is still waiting for it despite repeated calls.

"It's driving him nuts," says Nev's mother, Sue.

"He loves that monkey."

Updated: 12:38 Saturday, February 09, 2002