This is to be regretted, because timber is such a readily available and renewable resource that is widely used in many countries with climates similar to ours.”This project will address these problems by investigating the widespread and satisfactory use of timber cladding in the partner countries of Norway, Iceland and the Faroes. It will promote best practice in design and detailing to safeguard against moisture problems.”Not least of the reasons for the study is to seek a prime new market for the substantial and expanding forestry industry and one of its main trees, Sitka spruce, grown in Scotland for 80 years.Ivor Davies, the project’s technical consultant, said: “There has been a perception that Sitka spruce is not good enough for external cladding and you need other woods – western red cedar, European larch or hardwoods such as oak. But the effectiveness of the cladding’s performance is in the relationship between wetting and drying. We try and design it to dry out quickly.”Mr Davies thinks wood could be a very attractive addition to the buildings of the Caledonian countryside. “The brightly painted cladding you see in Scandinavian countries would work in northern Scotland,” he said “In the middle of winter, you need something bright.”. The main course of the World Indoor Championships is only three weeks away from being served up at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena, and there is a rich appetiser there tonight in the form of a meeting which will see at least two world record attempts from Haile Gebrselassie and Jolanda Ceplak. The 24-year-old European gold medallist has predicted that he will not run any slower than 6.44 seconds, which is faster than either of his domestic rivals have managed this season, and could run faster than the world record of 10.39.

While Lewis-Francis, now recovered from the hamstring injury which saw him fail to finish last year’s Commonwealth Games 100m final, has made a comparatively quiet start to the season, Gardener, twice European 60m champion and European record holder with 6.46sec, will not prove easy opposition.For Hansen, who was declared fit to compete earlier this week after suffering with a bruised heel, the opposition includes the woman who has set the best mark in the triple jump so far this year, Yamile Aldama, and the world outdoor record holder, Inessa Kravets. Also in the field is Fran?se Mbango, the Cameroonian beaten to Commonwealth gold in Manchester by Hansen’s final jump.In the men’s triple jump, Britain’s Olympic and world champion, Jonathan Edwards, will be attempting to halt the triumphal progress of the 23-year-old who beat him in Glasgow this month, Christian Olsson. The Swede underlined his consistency in Stockholm on Tuesday as he bettered 17 metres for the 26th time in succession, beating Edwards’s record. In doing so, he added 16cm to the season’s best with 17.40.Gebrselassie will make an attempt on the world indoor two miles record of 8min 09.66sec set on the same track three years ago by fellow countryman Hailu Mekonnen, who will also be in the race. The double Olympic 10,000m champion, who is 30 in April, will have noisy support from more than 200 expatriate members of his fan club.The other world record attempt will come in the 1,000 metres from Ceplak, who aims to beat the mark of 2:30.94 set by Mozambique’s Maria Mutola. The Slovenian will then have an hour to rest before assisting Britain’s Kelly Holmes in an attempt on the national 1500m record of 4:06.75.Holmes, who broke the national indoor 800m record last Sunday week, infamously inferred Ceplak was a cheat at last summer’s European Championships, but bridges have clearly been mended between the two athletes..

AT PRECISELY 2.32pm yesterday, a thin 53-year-old man, smartly dressed in a red shirt, red bow tie and black waistcoat, stepped out from behind the giant curtain at the Millennium Forum theatre here. He walked slowly across the stage of the modern, spacious 809-seat arena, raised a hand in acknowledgement to the light applause of the 56 people present, and said, very quietly: “We’re here at last, eh?” After five and a half years – and one last-minute hiccup, not of his making – Alex Higgins was about to make his professional snooker comeback. Higgins had been a winner on several occasions in the days when it meant something. This year it was supposed to pit the highest-ranked Irish players against the best amateurs from north and south of the border. The publicity posters feature the world No 5, Ken Doherty, but he decided not to enter after a disagreement with the promoter. That left Joe Swail, the world No 16, as the highest-ranked player. Six other ranked players plus Higgins – appropriately the wild card – thus went into the draw against eight amateur qualifiers.One of the latter was a 16-year-old, Darren Dornan, playing the first major tournament of his life He ended Higgins’s comeback in less than three hours.

The score in the best-of-nine match was 5-1 to the youngster. It was not flattering to either player.The good news, as far as Higgins was concerned, was that he played at all. At various times in his turbulent life, he has been hailed as a hero, a genius and the single most influential figure in the popularisation of his game. On the way to his two world snooker titles, in 1972 and 1982, he battled against the establishment, against his enemies and against most of his friends. Since then his battles have become rather more serious; with alcohol; with cancer of the throat, from which he is in remission; with more personal demons than you could shake a cue at. And with a dubious public perception of him.To say that he has a reputation for being unreliable would be an understatement.