Ever keen to extend its appeal beyond the pipe-puffing Fred Dibnahs whose oily hands grasp most tillers, the canal-holiday industry was beside itself when Harrison Ford pitched up at Chirk Marina with Calista Flockhart and the kids.
Before the operation Mr Collins, of Chirk, near Wrexham, had to breathe bottled oxygen and could not walk up stairs unaided.
The A5. Essentials Tim Moore and family travelled with Black Prince Narrowboat Holidays (01527 575115, www.black-prince.com) A three-night short break departing from Chirk on the Llangollen Canal costs from £384.
The Pontfadog Oak has been growing near Chirk since the year 802.
It says facilities will be replaced, but in-patient beds would be transferred to Chirk, near Wrexham.
The tree, which was near Chirk, in Wrexham county, was reputed to be one of the UK's oldest and largest oaks.
She has been restored to her former glory and made her way from Chirk to Llangollen where she will be displayed.
Stations at Machynlleth in Powys, Chirk near Wrexham, Ystrad Mynach in Caerphilly county, and Llandaff and Radyr in Cardiff will all benefit.
Football was a keen pastime for the miners, and the standard of amateur teams from towns and villages in north east Wales was high as a result; Chirk won the Welsh Cup five times between 1887 and 1894, with miners making up a large proportion of the team.
(I myself have waged a losing campaign to popularize "chirk").
Some of my oldest friends in sport, at the Chirk CC side, near Wrexham, will tell you that Pietersen mattered a lot whilst they tried – with increasing difficulty - to persuade 14-year-olds to give up their Saturdays to drive nearly two hours across North Wales for some Saturday league games.
