Thanks for your company this week.

We're signing off now with our regular updates until 08:00 on Monday morning, but we'll leave you with a somewhat unusual story.

A man known as the Plastic Soup Surfer has been kite surfing from Scheveningen in Holland to Lowestoft on a surfboard made from recycled single-use plastic bottles. He's made the trip to highlight the issue of plastic, external in the ocean.

We hope he's had a successful crossing. Have a good weekend.

Image source, Plastic Soup Surfer

Alex Dolan
BBC Look East weather

This evening and overnight it'll be rather cloudy, but mainly dry, although there's a chance of occasional showers.

Lows of 12C (54F).

Saturday will start bright and dry, but it'll turn cloudy later, with heavier rain in the evening and overnight. Top temperature: 20C (68F).

BBC Weather has the full forecast where you live.

Four girls in their mid-teens said they hadn't realised how far out to sea they were when a PCSO swam out and pulled their raft back to the beach.

Image source, Google

John Hood said when he got to the raft off the coast at Felixstowe the girls said "we're ok" and he replied "no you're not".

He added: "I laid on my back, kicked and pulled, and got the raft in."

When they got to the shore the girls asked where their clothes were and Mr Hood said "about 250m (270 yds) up the shore".

They girls admitted "they didn't realise they were out so far I had to tell them 'stop saying thank you, it's done, it's just part of the job.'"

A police support officer has been describing how he carried out a rescue from the beach at Felixstowe on Wednesday, after spotting a raft with four teenage girls on drifting out to sea.

Image source, Tim Marchant/Geograph

PCSO John Hood says he was on patrol on his bicycle at the time: "I saw a little rubber raft with four girls on it just sort of sitting out on the water, but it seemed to be drifting. 

"I watched it for two or three minutes and I realised the vessel was going out to sea and the girls had one paddle among the four of them."

As he watched, one of the girls went into the sea and he thought "right, this is time to go in". 

He added: "I know the area, I used to do triathlons and I'm a reasonably strong swimmer. They were about 150m (160 yds) out."

Diss Express

An Eye woman has told of her "utter devastation" after a personalised bench in memory of her late partner was stolen from the town’s cemetery, external.

Eight men deny violent disorder in relation to an attack that left a football fan with brain damage.

Bomb disposal officers were called out this morning to deal with what was at first thought to be an unexploded bomb in a field in west Suffolk.

Image source, Google

The bomb disposal squad, who arrived from Colchester, identified the foot-long, cone-shaped item on land near Wetherden Road, Elmswell, as an artillery shell.

They were unable to deal with it at the scene and removed it to safety.

We told you earlier that part of the wolf statue on the Southgate Roundabout in Bury St Edmunds has been damaged by vandals.

Bury Rugby Club, external, whose ground is nearby, always hang a club scarf around the wolf's neck when they're playing at home to alert their supporters to the fact that a game is on.

The chairman of the club, whose nickname is the "Wolfpack", says they don't see it as a bad omen for tomorrow's opening fixture of the new National League Two season.

Mike Robinson said: "The team will be out there looking to restore the pride of the wolf... and give a top performance worthy of the wolf in his full splendour."

Team Ipswich swimmer Ryan Crouch, 22, is "superchaged" for the Paralympic Games in Rio - he won double gold at last year's Cerebral Palsy Games and is a four-time British record holder. 

Suffolk's other paralympian, powerlifter Zoe Newson, 24, arrived a little earlier.

Earlier today 12 men appeared at Southend Magistrates' Court charged with violent disorder after an attack on Cambridge United supporter Simon Dobbin last year. 

Those who pleaded not guilty to the charge were: 

• Ryan Carter, 22, from Southend
• Jamie Chambers, 23, from Southend 
• Lewis Courtnell, 33, from Southend 
• Philip McGill, 31, of Westcliff 

• Michael Shawyer, 31, of Belgrave Road, Leigh-on-Sea
• Greg Allen, 28, of Artillery Avenue, Shoeburyness
• Matthew Petchey, 25, from Rochford    

•   Scott Nicholls, 40, from Langdon Hill, (pictured below), also denied the charge. 

Four others did not enter a plea. They were:

• Thomas Randall, 21, from Southend 
• Alexander Woods, 20, of Westcliff 
• James Woods, 20, of Westcliff 
• Rhys Pullen, 20, of Wickford

A well-known St Edmund wolf sculpture in Bury St Edmunds has been vandalised.

The crown, which sits on the pillar in front of the wolf on the Southgate Roundabout, has been wrenched off.

We've got calls in to try to find out more about this rescue:

Alex Dunlop
BBC Look East

Twelve men have appeared in court charged in connection with an attack that left a football fan with brain damage. 

Cambridge United supporter Simon Dobbin from Mildenhall in Suffolk, suffered life-changing injuries in an attack in Southend on 21 March last year. 

The twelve, all from from south Essex are aged between 20 and 40. All have been charged in connection with the attack - eight pleaded not guilty and four entered no plea. 

All but one were given unconditional bail. 

The case of a 13th man, who's charged with assisting an offender and possession of a weapon has been adjourned. 

The men will next appear at Basildon Crown Court at the end of the month.

Luke Deal
BBC Radio Suffolk

A sheepdog which contracted a serious canine illness less than a year ago, is preparing to compete in international sheepdog trials, external in a week's time.

Troy, who works at the Nedging Hall Estate, near Lavenham, qualified in August among the top 150 dogs in the country.

Shepherd Ed Hawkins says: "From that 150 they take the top 15 and we scraped in - in 15th place - which means on the 9 September we'll be off to Wales to run in the international.

"We'll compete in a similar style trial which will hopefully get us into the final layer of the supreme championship."

Luke Deal
BBC Radio Suffolk

A shepherd whose "best" sheepdog nearly died last December from leptospirosis, external, a type of bacterial infection, is urging dog owners to make sure their pets are vaccinated against the disease.

Ed Hawkins says it's particularly important "if they're in the countryside, around water courses and things".

Mr Hawkins says Troy the border collie spent 10 days in veterinary hospital: "I was trying to be optimistic about the whole thing, he's my best dog, out of eight dogs I've got.

"I was going down every day trying to tempt him with food... I was rather concerned that we may lose the dog... [but] luck was on our side, we managed to save him."

TWTD.co.uk

Town keeper Michael Crowe could win his first Wales U21s cap, external this evening when the side coached by ex-Blue Geraint Williams takes on Denmark in a Euro 2017 qualifier at Wrexham.

Sir Bobby Robson's wife, Lady Robson, says she is delighted his charity, which was founded eight years ago, has raised £10m.

The Ipswich Town legend had a well-documented battle with cancer before his death in 2009.

Image source, Getty Images

The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, external works with hospitals on Tyneside to develop new cancer treatments and has spent millions of pounds on equipment.

Lady Robson said: "Starting the charity was literally something we talked about over the kitchen table. We'd been asked for help and this was Bob's way of giving it.

"I'm extremely proud of the work we fund and it meant the world to Bob. Every time we are able to fund something which will help make a difference to cancer patients, I think of him."

The cancer research charity set up by Sir Bobby Robson has raised £10m, organisers have revealed.

Image source, PA

The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, external was established in 2008 while the former Ipswich Town and England manager was receiving treatment for the disease. He died the following year.

The charity initially had a £500,000 fundraising target.

His wife, Lady Robson, said she was "very grateful", labelling the milestone "absolutely unbelievable".