A row has broken out over the treatment of a badgers sett in the line of a major housing development. The animals' underground home is on land between Pleasley and Mansfield in Nottinghamshire ...

It takes nerve to challenge badger baiters. They are brutal men. Some are serious criminals. Darren Russell is matter-of-fact about it: “Someone has to stand up for badgers,” he says.

Exploding for six goals in the first period, the Lakeshore Badgers co-op ice hockey team sent an emphatic message that they were out to defend their house.