World Cup fever has left at least one corner of the universe virtually untouched - the village of Thixendale.

Tucked away deep in the Yorkshire Wolds, the tiny village with its 41 houses and 125 parishioners showed little sign of celebrating France '98 "townie" style this week.

Last summer viewer-friendly villagers celebrated excitedly as the valley received its first ever terrestrial television pictures when a mast was installed on a neighbouring hillside.

But one year on neither picture nor pitch invasion seems likely.

"Is it the World Cup? I didn't even know it was on," said resident Carol Ashle

"I certainly won't be watching it and neither will my husband because we don't even have a television. I do have a radio machine though. I listen to that."

"It starts this week, doesn't it?" asked Charles Brader. "That's as much as I know about it.

"I do watch television from time to time, not for the football but for the news. I don't watch soaps either. I have heard they are a bit tying once you get into them."

Village shop owner Lynne Boyes said her husband would probably watch a few of the matches on the box - on his own!

"It doesn't interest me in the slightest," she laughed. "I am sure some of the young ones will be watching though because they like to play football in the street.

"I don't know whether watching television is something that just clicks overnight or whether you are supposed to get used to it with time but it doesn't really seem to have caught on here.

"We have a Bart Simpson bubble bath on sale. But he has been on the shelf since Christmas - nobody wants him."

At the pub there were no plans for switching on a big screen on match nights either.

"I won't have a television in the bar," said The Cross Keys landlord Patrick Clooney. "I do have one but I don't use it very often and I am certainly not watching the World Cup."

"We have come here from Selby to get away from it," added several of his punters.

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