A very proud Ben and Ros Davies from Ross-on-Wye watched as the Red Arrows made a special detour to overfly their house, 'Dupont' in Camp Road on Wednesday, 20th July. Their son, Squadron Leader Simon Davies was in 'Red 1', the front aircraft as the team overflew the house twice at 300 miles per hour and an altitude of 500 feet.

The Red Arrows were actually heading for a training exercise in Wales but detoured to overfly Ross both on the way there and on the way home. The first flypast of nine aircraft took place precisely on time, at 11:37 am and the second, which included ten aircraft took place at around 5:30 pm. The Red Arrows team had intended to perform a split manoeuvre during the first flypast but unfortunately, low cloud cover prevented this and they performed a straight flypast, with white smoke on approach to the town.

Squadron Leader Simon (37) is in his first year as Senior Engineering Officer with the Red Arrows and has responsibility for all engineering and logistics matters. Born in Leicester, Simon was educated at Newent School. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1990, after completing Electrician Apprentice training with Severn Trent.

Pictured below, The Davies family chose to watch from the grounds of the Chase Hotel, where the field of view is greater than that from Camp Road itself. Left to right: Cicely Hall and Alice (Tiny) Davies - Simon's Aunties and Mum and Dad, Ben and Ros Davies. The aircraft shots are from both the morning and evening flypast.

More photos of the Red Arrows Camp Road Flypasts can be seen in this week's photo gallery.

With the Unintentional Festival unable to go ahead this year, Councillors Jay Hill, John Davies and Paul Truman are organizing a musical event, in conjunction with local artists and businesses.

They have been given the task by Ross Town Council and will be using Ross Bandstand and the Carolyn Symonds Gardens.

The event will take place from Saturday, 20 August running through to Monday 28 August and there will be a wide range of entertainment on offer, including brass band, jazz, folk and contemporary rock music.

Stalls will be encouraged onto the site to create an all round party atmosphere. Anybody who is interested in volunteering their services or is willing to donate to this much needed event should contact Councillor John Davies on 01989 567207 or the Town Clerk on 01989 562373. All offers of help will be gratefully accepted.