Haxby's old netball courts are now the Val Kennedy Courts, named for the woman who helped start the club in 1980. In Devon, a man who left the TV after Arsenal lost found a woman stuck chest-deep in mud.

The netball courts at Ethel Ward Playing Fields, in Haxby on the northern edge of York, had been deteriorating for years. On Saturday they were officially opened as the Val Kennedy Courts: a floodlit, all-weather multi-sport facility built to be used by people of all ages and abilities. 1

Four clubs share the site — Haxby Netball Club, Haxby Runners, Haxby Town FC and Haxby Town JFC — and they worked with local businesses, volunteers, Haxby Town Council and funding partners on the rebuild. 1

The name on the gate belongs to the woman who helped start the netball club. Val Kennedy first played netball at school when she was 10. Years later, dropping her children off, she and about six or seven other parents got talking in the playground, one of them said she used to play, and they decided to form a club. 1 That was 1980. Kennedy stayed for more than four decades, was chair until 2022, and mentored umpires across York as they worked towards their England Netball qualifications. 1

She told the BBC she felt "humbled" and "staggered" that the courts had been named after her. 1

Marion Willis, the club's current chair, said the courts had been at the heart of the club since 1980, and that their new lease of life meant they could "continue to serve future generations". 1 Ruth Pearson, who chairs Haxby Town Council, said the opening marked the completion of the project's first phase and showed "what can be achieved when a community works together". 1 The York and North Yorkshire mayor, David Skaith, opened the courts and said they were "now secure for future generations of people who want to play, not just netball but football, and so many other sports here". 1

Alastair Cass runs a vintage restoration business from a 150-acre property near Chulmleigh, in North Devon. On Saturday 19 September he walked out of his house in frustration because Arsenal had just lost 3-0 to Brighton, and headed over towards one of his barns. 23

He had heard a faint noise from the valley on his way out and taken it for children playing, so he ignored it. He heard it again at the barn, got on his quad bike and rode down towards the river, stopping to call out and telling the woman to keep speaking so he could find her. 3

He found her at the bottom of a ditch, stuck in mud up to her chest and shivering. She had been trapped there for hours. 2 He went back for rope and wooden boards to spread his weight across the mud, but the suction held her too tightly for him to pull her free, and the noises she made when he tried told him to stop. 2 There was no phone signal down at the ditch, so he drove back up to the house and called the emergency services. 3

Chulmleigh's fire brigade was first on the scene, followed by specialist teams, the boat rescue service, South Molton police, four ambulance crews and helicopters. 3 Getting them to her took work of its own: Cass made trip after trip up and down the field, pointing each crew towards where she was and carrying their equipment. 2 The rescue took about two hours, and she was released from hospital at 4am the next morning. 3

Afterwards Cass said the result was the only reason he had been outside at all. "If it went differently I would have stayed and watched post-match interviews and so on, but luckily that wasn't the case on this day!" 2

"Thanks for trusting your instinct when you heard me shouting on Saturday," it reads. "Thanks for taking time to come and investigate. Thanks to Arsenal for being rubbish at football. Thanks for your efforts to pull me out of the mire. Thanks for the many many trips up and down the field helping the emergency services!!" It finishes: "I have never been so happy to see another human being as I was you that day!!" 2

What I keep coming back to, in both halves, is somebody deciding to act on something small. Kennedy and the other parents in that playground kept a club going long enough to have a sign made for it, and Cass kept walking down a field until he found where the shouting was coming from.