IN 1994, there was a major international football tournament which England failed to qualify for. Sound familiar?

So people had to fill their time with other activities, such as following boy bands such as Take That with religious passion.

Some in the News Shopper patch actually started their own boy bands.

My father tells me he and his workmates down at the building site - average age 44 - formed a group named Cementimental Love.

Sadly they never reached the charts or the newspapers, but one man who did get his hobby splashed across News Shopper's front page was Walter Edwards.

On January 5, 1994 the 58-year-old proudly smiled out from the front of the Bromley and Hayes edition, his arms lovingly wrapped around his tiny soldiers.

News Shopper reported the model maker spent countless hours "painstakingly creating scenes from the history books, particularly from his favourite era of the Napoleonic wars".

With England not involved in this summer's Euro 2008, I decided to take-up modelling myself.

As you can see from my photo, I'm rather good at it.

One woman given more spare time than she wanted in 1994 was Greenhithe resident Carol Willis.

Her bosses at a soft drinks factory in Foots Cray sacked her because she was awaiting a kidney transplant, and as a temporary employee she could not appeal.

News Shopper carried the headline Kidney Costs Carol Her Job and allowed Carol to speak out.

A talent transplant was needed for many people who entered a short-story competition for residents across News Shopper's patch in 1994.

The winning tale was titled My Aunt's Pen, which says a lot about the standard of the competition.

News Shopper exclusively printed the start of this short story on April 20. Here it is: "When Aunt Mo told me she had mislaid her solid gold fountain pen I was astonished."

I'm desperate to read the rest of the 1,500 word story, so if its writer is reading this, get in touch.