FIRST they were highlighted by a BBC journalist - now the fame of Craven's very own Ferret Racing Championships has spread across the Atlantic.

The annual event, staged in the Cruck Barn at the Craven Arms in Appletreewick, was given star billing last week in the American heavyweight

newspaper the Wall Street Journal.

The championships had already received some unexpected publicity when BBC journalist Chris Mason, an old boy of Skipton's Ermysted's Grammar School, used Twitter to spread news of an advert he had seen in the Craven Herald for this sporting evening with a difference.

But organisers were taken aback when a reporter and photographer from the Wall Street Journal turned up on the night - indeed, Craven Arms landlord David Aynesworth said he thought he'd misheard the phone message and someone was coming from a Whalley newspaper.

The visitors witnessed more than 80 ferrets compete in the only overhead ferret racing courses in the world specially erected in the Cruck Barn. There was also a time trial course, a challenge to see if your ferret can loop the loop, and also ferret roulette, where people had to guess which pipe of five the ferret would appear from.

Paul, the ferret owned by the Craven Arms, won the main racing final in great style. Paul was adopted by the pub when he was found in their hen hut, having eaten two hens. In view of his racing success Paul is being awarded a new and much more luxurious hutch befitting his new found international status.

Mr Aynesworth said he and the late Michael Holden invented ferret racing for the Broughton Hall Game Show in 1979, and this was the third championships to be held at the Craven Arms. "The experience at the game show made me think that it would be a fun thing to it here, and it's certainly proved to be so," he said.

He thought the Wall Street Journal had probably got to know of the event through it being highlighted on Twitter, adding though it was a serious newspaper it usually included a quirky article.

"I think the Americans like eccentricity and Olde England; also the name Appletreewick for a village, they must think that's absolutely amazing," he said.

On the night £250 was raised for the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, and over 45 gallons of beer were drunk.