PUB goers and football fans had their spirits dampened when a power cut left town centre properties without electricity for an evening.

Sunday's (May 26) blackout hit 144 properties in Bolton Street, Irwell Street and Bank Street, with power only restored after midnight by means of an emergency generator.

At Castle Leisure Centre, nearly 200 Shakers fans attending the launch of Bury FC's Forever Bury Trust were asked to clear the building when the lights went out at 6.15pm.

A two-hour wait for the event to resume was in vain, with engineers unable to fix a faulty transformer at the Bank Street electricity sub-station.

Trust secretary Gordon Sorfleet said: "Everybody was kicked out and it was very frustrating.

"We had been slogging our guts out for two weeks to arrange this, so to have it stopped dead at the last minute was terrible."

At the Old White Lion pub in Bolton Street, regulars waited in the street before normal service could be resumed by candlelight.

The loss of electric pumps meant that pint drinkers swapped their usual tipple for bottled beers.

Landlady Joan Farrand said: "The customers thought it was all right and it was quite romantic really.

"It was very inconvenient and I was tempted to close, but they persuaded me not to.

"Of course, we had a few of the usual wisecracks about not having paid our electricity bill!"

The fault affected Bury police's Irwell Street headquarters, but caused no major problems. A number of homes were also hit.

A spokesman for United Utilities said: "Our engineers got out to repair the fault but found that they would need to bring in a new piece of equipment to replace the transformer.

"We are sorry that our customers had power difficulties, but our engineers did their best. The generator will be kept in place until the work is finished."