A West Kilbride resident was having to eat humble pie - with ice cream - after a tirade against ice cream shops proliferating the town.

In an edition of May 25 1907, a correspondent bemoaned the move by the local school board to ban children playing football - and suggested it kept them out of the ice cream parlours!

The iced off correspondent said: “Some West Kilbride youths feel rather indignant at our local School Board for the steps they have taken in prohibiting them from playing at football in the field next to the school during the evenings.

“For some time back, these youths have enjoyed the pleasures of an innocent game, but now some person appears on the scene complaining about the din caused by these lads’ vocal organs and other such like paltry excuses, the result of which has already been mentioned. Now these lads have nowhere to spend their evenings except by wandering about the streets or frequenting the Italian ice cream shops - which one may venture to say is the curse and ruin of our village.” Suffice to say, a week later, Mr W Drummond was backtracking profusely: “Last week’s issue contained a paragraph in which I made a statement to the effect that our local ice cream shops were the curse and ruin of our village. Since then, I find this statement is entirely wrong, and I regret its insertion very much. I now take the opportunity of tendering my sincere apologies to all concerned.”