The Royle dad paid a special visit to Tockwith at the weekend to help boost fundraising efforts for the village church.

Star of the day was Jim Royle look-alike Don Leith, who stopped people in their tracks with his amazing looks matching those of the television character played by Ricky Tomlinson in the hit series The Royle Family.

Scores of people joined "the nation's biggest slob" in a range of activities, including horse riding, bike skills, tombola, raffles, stalls and traditional table games to raise money for the church.

Shoppers in York's Parliament Street were entertained with a chess marathon, as the city's best young chess players tested their wits against each other in a giant outdoor competition.

The children qualified for the event through their performances at local chess events over the past few months and the Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Irene Waudby, was on hand on Saturday and yesterday to present the awards to winners.

Flowers adorned All Hallows' Church at Sutton-on-the-Forest for the village's summer festival weekend. The festivities included a cheese and wine party and organ music played by local organists before the event concluded with Evensong last night.

Meanwhile, at Knaresborough, a bed race took over the streets of the town with entries from 42 teams, including four from Knaresborough's twin towns of Bebra and Friedrichroda, in Germany, organised jointly by the Round Table and the Lions' Club in aid of charity.

At Church Fenton the Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron open day included a fly-past by an RAF Nimrod MR2 flown by Group Captain Steve Skinner, of RAF Kinloss.

At Helmsley, enthusiasts from the Fairfax Battalion of the English Civil War Society pitched camp at the castle for the weekend to depict military and domestic life as it was in 1655.

Visitors were treated to weapons displays, living history encampments and authentic period food.

At Malton and Norton, Roman centurions were joined on a march through the streets by the 1st Bn The Green Howards, the Swintonian Band, and Scouts.

The Roman Pageant, organised by Malton and Norton Town Centre Initiative, commemorated the raising of the Emperor Vespasian's flag over the Malton Museum and St Peter's Church, Norton.

At Brawby, near Malton, the foot and mouth crisis put paid to the normal running of the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race, which was scaled down and moved from Bob's Pond to organiser Simon Thackray's front garden. Instead of having people paddling round a pond in giant Yorkies, remote controlled miniature puddings were raced around bathtubs as part of a weekend of events in the village.

At the Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington, the tenth annual Military Vehicle Show took centre stage. It was one of the largest rallies ever staged at the museum, and the largest of its kind in the North of England.

A mock battle was staged yesterday by members of the Victory in Europe Re-enactment Society, four days after the 57th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings.

Malton County Primary School staged its annual fete at the weekend. The event is one of the school's major fundraising events during the year.

Updated: 11:26 Monday, June 11, 2001