Damaged ball rounded up

THE mystery of the missing granite ball which disappeared from High Wycombe town centre last week has been solved.

Shopkeepers and market traders were puzzled to find one of the £620 stone spheres missing from outside the Cornmarket on Thursday morning.

There was speculation that the ball, part of Wycombe's controversial town centre enhancement scheme, had been rolled away by students as a prank.

But it turns out council contractors had removed the giant marble after the base of it became damaged.

Don Woodhead, project manager for Jarvis Construction, said that the ball had been removed for safety reasons.

He explained: "Some people seemed to think it was mysteriously spirited away.

"Actually it had been removed and taken to the works yard as the dowel it stands on had become damaged.

"We are not sure how this happened but maybe a truck had reversed onto it.

"If it had been left there all sorts of things could have happened when the pubs shut - someone might have decided to use it a a bowling ball."

Don said the ball would be back in time for the completion of the works on June 1.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.