1. MIDDLESBROUGH Football Club aims for the stars tonight with a crunch encounter against automatic promotion rivals Norwich. Come on Boro.

2. STILL looking skywards, a fireball seen blazing over the North-East is thought to be an early arrival of the Lyrid meteor shower expected to begin tonight. The shower is caused when the earth passes through the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher. 

3. AND how spooky that Comet Thatcher should be making its presence felt on the second anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral in 2003.

4. ONE for boxing fans – the first world title fight took place on this day in 1860 at Farnborough.  Tom Sayers took on American John Heenan and after 37 rounds, lasting two hours and 27 minutes, it was declared a draw.

5. SIXTY is the new middle age, according to a new study carried out at the International Institute For Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.

6. TODAY is National Day of Silence but Middlesbrough fans are excused if their team beat Norwich tonight.