PRINCESS Anne is coming to Bury thanks to the Olympian efforts of a former borough sportsman.

Handball supremo Jeff Rowland now sits on the National Olympic Committee and suggested that members come to Bury for their September meeting.

And the Princess Royal, who is president of the British Olympic Association, has confirmed she will be here too on Wednesday September 15.

Mr Rowland, who is chairman of the British Handball Association and president of the Commonwealth association, explained how he pulled off the coup.

"The NOC holds four meetings a year and, by tradition, one of them is outside London," he said.

"I rang up the chief executive of Bury Council and asked would he be interested in the meeting coming here?"

He added: "They don't like going out of London!" he said. "It's quite a coup to get them up here. Normally they only think of going to big cities, but Bury's a nice town.

"It's also handy for travel. The office is close to the railway station in London and they can get on the Metrolink after coming into Piccadilly in Manchester."

Mr Rowland, a retired local government officer, used to live in Eight Acre, Whitefield but moved five years ago to Rawtenstall.

Ironically, after all his work Mr Rowland will miss the royal visit! As a European handball association delegate, he will be in Cyprus to watch the national side compete.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.