We recently interviewed Rob Collard, a UK demolition contractor who regularly replaces one hazardous business with another by racing in the British Touring Car Championships. Now finding someone with a passion for both demolition equipment and fast cars is hardly unusual; but it set us thinking: what do other demolition professionals do with their spare time?

Are there any out there that hang up their hard hat at the end of each working day and put on a chef’s toque to cook up some cordon bleu cuisine? Are there any that swap safety boots for soccer boots? Does anyone balance their ability to destroy buildings with a love for architecture?

We’d love to hear from you with your surprising hobbies and away-from-work activities. Please use the comments tab below.

UK demolition contractor Syd Bishop & Sons, famous for its “watch it come down” tagline, recently celebrated its 80th anniversary. As part of the celebrations, this vehicle (which had lain unused in the company’s yard for some 15 years) was restored.

Trawling through the vast, unmapped hinterlands of the Internet, we recently came across a New Orleans-based demolition company that goes by the marvelous name of Nutter Buster Demolition (apparently, the company is family-owned and the founder’s surname is Nutter).

We doubt that this can be beaten but we’d love to hear if you think you know, have heard of (or have just created) a better name for a demolition company.

Rarely a week goes by when we don’t receive a phone call from a TV researcher or two, each looking to show demolition “in a new light”. In recent weeks, we have also had a tea producer and an online game organiser, each looking to “butch up” their product by a link with the rough, tough world of demolition.

However, on the basis that most of these enquiries ask exactly the same set of questions, we thought we would offer the following guide to demolition for TV types:

• No, there isn’t an implosion scheduled for tomorrow afternoon between 2.00 and 2.15 in the Leeds area.

• No, we don’t blow things up; we blow them down (occasionally); and that big yellow thing you keep referring to as a “bulldozers” aren’t (and it’s probably not a JCB either).

• No, implosions cannot be arranged to suit your recording schedule.

• No, you can’t have an actor pressing the button, driving a car through the falling debris, or leaping from the top of the building with a Union Jack parachute.

• No, Gucci loafers are NOT considered safety wear.

• No, you can’t put your camera there – It’s called an exclusion zone for one very obvious reason.

• No, it doesn’t matter how purple your director’s face goes, we can’t just do a second take.

If any readers have any further advice, please use the comments area (in blue) below.

In less than 24 hours, the start of the English Premiership season gets underway. So this is just a quick reminder that Demolition News has created a fantasy football league specifically for demolition professionals.

Competitors are given an imaginary £100 million to spend on Premiership players (and believe me, it doesn’t go far when you’ve spent £20+ million on Rooney and Gerrard) and can then pit their team against those of other demolition professionals in the newly-created Demolition League. You can then spend the next eight months pretending to be Sir Alex Ferguson, buying and selling players and changing systems.

The league will run for the entire season but we will be producing regular updates here at Demolition News and over on Twitter on www.twitter.com/demolitionnews. And although we haven’t yet agreed what the prize will be, there will be a prize for the winning team at the end of the 2009/2010 season.

To take part, all you have to do is register at http://fantasy.premierleague.com

Once you have logged in and entered your team, click on the ‘Leagues’ link you can find on the right of the page. Now enter the code 585464-136648 to join the private league.

Just one final note – When you do join, you will see that Demolition News has already registered a team (the appropriately named Mighty ‘ammers).

Good luck and enjoy the game.