THERE'S A saying that when you have an itch, you should scratch it. But it all ended badly for Ron, a Limousin bull in Lanarkshire, who caused a power cut in the villages of Chapelton, Strathaven and Glassford, last week.

That desire to quench an itchy bot against a pole carrying power to the village, led to 800 homes become detached from the leccie for some hours. Such was his vigorous efforts, Ron managed to knock a transformer off the pole, luckily escaping the 11,000 volts raining down on him.

Ron belongs to Greg and Hazel Laughton of East Shawtonhill, Chapelton, has since been re-named 'Sparky' and even has his own facebook page – 'Ron AKA Sparky'.