We look back at what was happening in Norwich this week five, 10, 15 and 20 years ago through the front pages of the Evening News.

20 years ago

• A Norwich policeman was today undergoing surgery after his hand was seriously injured in a city centre fight after England's exit from the Euro 96 soccer tournament.

Sgt Roger Wiltshire and another colleague were assaulted after they moved in to arrest an England fan in Tombland just moments after England lost a nail-biting penalty shoot-out against Germany at Wembley.

And today, he was due to have an operation on his hand at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

• Norwich City Council is refusing to give cash help to the Samaritans while waving through a £38,250 request from a profit-making music venue.

The charity helpline, which handled 26,000 calls last year, asked for a grant to help cope with a rising number of calls.

Volunteers handled 2000 more calls last year, when the council gave them £640, than the previous year.

They were turned down this year at the same meeting as The Waterfront, which hopes to make a profit of £20,000, was given a £38,250 subsidy in a rent-free package for the King Street venue.

• Traffic wardens in Norwich start evening shifts tonight in a new crackdown on illegal parking.

Police say dozens of motorists flout the rules in the evening and on Sundays - especially in the city centre.

And they are expecting the city's 21 wardens to slap hundreds of £20 tickets on windscreens as drivers get to grips with the new regime.

• Norwich City and Ipswich Town football clubs were today locked in a sensational tug-of-war battle - for the services of Ian Crook.

Furious Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks has obtained a court order to restrain the Canaries from trying to lure fans' favourite Crook back to the club where he had played 378 games.

Sheepshanks was angered that City approached the player on holiday last week with an offer to return to Carrow Road - just days after Crook signed for the Portman Road club on a free transfer.

But Norwich City believed they held Crook's player registration until his existing contract expired last Sunday and were entitled to make him an offer.

15 years ago

• A judge today came under fire for refusing to punish a teenage yob terrorising a Norwich community.

Norwich City Council asked district judge Patrick Heley to make an anti-social behaviour order against the 15-year-old.

But the judge refused the request, despite the boy not even bothering to turn up to court.

The court was told the youth - who cannot be named - ran wild on the Bowthorpe estate for nearly four years.

He did not go to school, his parents said they could not control him and he was a ringleader of a gang of abusive youths.

The youngsters played truant, shouted, swore and intimidated people. They also threw stones and eggs at windows.

• The fate of Norwich's condemned conker trees will be decided at a crunch meeting tonight.

After weeks of controversy, Norwich City Council officials are due to face families from Bluebell Road to hear their views. The meeting will be held at City Hall, and pro-tree campaigners have urged supporters from across Norwich to attend.

A letter about the meeting has been sent out by the council, but protestors fear some people in the area were not on the mailing list.

10 years ago

• A Norfolk tennis player's shock victory at Wimbledon has sparked a probe into an alleged betting scam after huge sums of cash were placed on his opponent to lose.

Tournament wildcard Richard Bloomfield, 23, from Alpington, beat higher-ranked Carlos Berlocq in straight sets, even though he was 170 places lower than his Argentinian opponent.

Berlocq is ranked number 89 and Bloomfield is ranked just 259th in the world, but punters staked £340,000 on the Norfolk 23-year-old to win - about 30 times as much as has been placed on comparable games involving British players and unfancied foreign opponents.

• Furious student nurses have been told they could be forced to settle for part-time jobs when they graduate because of the financial crisis gripping the National Health Service.

Health bosses at the N&N said just three weeks ago they were confident the latest wave of nurses produced by the UEA would find jobs in the region's hospitals, and

it was thought about 30 positions were available at the Colney hospital.

However, letters sent on Monday stated there would only be a limited number of full-time posts available and the next generation of nurses were told they might have to settle for part-time posts while they waited for fulltime nursing positions to come up.

• A stupid driver caught flicking V-signs at a mobile camera while breaking the speed limit is just one of the dodgy drivers who have put lives at risk on the county's roads.

The Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership released the startling image today as an example of how idiots on Norfolk roads are endangering other motorists.

The picture of the driver, who has since been prosecuted, on a stretch of the A47, is just one of the troubling images captured by speed cameras around the county.

Five years ago

• A furniture business with more than 100 years of history in Norwich is closing its city store after seeing a massive drop in customers.

Wallace King Interiors is reeling from the effects of a huge roadworks programme which surrounded its Botolph Street store for over a year, dramatically reducing the amount of passing trade.

The company is now being forced to hold a closing down sale at the site to extract as much cash as possible from its £825,000-worth of stock.

• Council bosses have admitted they will have to spend £25,000 to prevent people tripping over in Norwich's memorial gardens, less than four months after they re-opened.

The public were allowed back in to the gardens in March after a £2.6m revamp, but a spate of visitors, many of them older people, have been tripping on the steps, so action needs to be taken to make it safer.

Following the falls, Norwich City Council officers have concluded that the design of the steps do not meet building regulations laid out under the Disability Discrimination Act.