Lorraine Yates of 'Lorraine's Hairdressers and Beauty Care won the Wyenot.com Raffle in aid of helping our National Champions, Ross Phoenix Majorettes on their way to Italy to take part in the European contest. The winning ticket was drawn by Mayor, Gordon Lucas, on Carnival Day. Lorraine's prize, a free advertising page on Wyenot.com for a year, went live on Monday, 22nd August and can be viewed here. The Whitehouse Guest House also won a page but they already had an advertisement with us, so are going to use the prize to advertise a new B & B, which is due to open mid September. The raffle raised £149 towards the Majorettes' fund.

Wyenot.com currently averages around 2,000 page views per day and advertising pages have worked very well for those who have taken advantage of this service so far. When the advertisement for 'No. 11 Wye Street' went live two weeks ago, Chris Constable, the proprietor took a confirmed booking for his brand new B & B business from the page within five minutes of my uploading the advertisement to the Wyenot server. A similar thing happened last week for 'The Rock' at Symond's Yat East. Proprietor, Dinah Barrand received an enquiry via Wyenot.com before I had even had the time to notify her that her new page had gone live. Of course, I cannot guarantee an immediate response like this for every business but most businesses have informed me that response to their advertisement has happened very quickly.

From experience, I can advise that it is worth getting your advertisement up and running well before the next tourist season begins. Most people looking for information on this area visit Wyenot.com first, and they start looking during those dark evenings of the winter. The pages cost just £45 per annum, including photography with no hidden extras. The best and most cost effective advertising around!

Congratulations to

to

Christo Kotze

and

Ave Pennonen

Who became engaged at

4:00 am

on

14th August 2005

The town of Newent is hotting up for its famous Onion Fayre on 10th September. The Fayre is celebrating its 10th Anniversary and to mark this, there is going to be an incredible evening finale with a Party by the Lake.

The party commences at 7 pm with live music from bands Clearwood and Fulk La, a traditional Irish band, food and a bar. The event will conclude with a firework finale at 10 pm. This is a 'not to be missed' family evening event.

The Fayre is to be opened at 10 am by Hannah Stewart- Jones, from ITV's Central News and, as in previous year's, the streets of the main town centre will be closed to traffic. There will be stalls, street entertainers and fairground entertainment for you to enjoy.

The Onion Show itself is the only one of its kind in the country. This show is affiliated to the National Vegetable Society and is made up of twelve classes. We will find out whether the current record weight of an onion of 10lb 6oz can be beaten this year. The judging takes place at Newent Memorial Hall on the morning of the Fayre (doors closed during the judging) and is then open to the public at a cost of 25p, payable on the door.

The Wedding Dress Exhibition is to be held at St Mary's Church and is definitely worth a viewing. Information on the dress owners will be laid out alongside the garments themselves and there are some truly spectacular exhibits to be viewed.

Other events include: Birds of Prey, Arts & Crafts Exhibitions, an Onion Eating Competition, a Beer & Wine Festival, Model Boat Display, Fishing Display, Animal Corner and many more.

Parking for the daytime event will be available at Newent Recreation Ground, off Watery Lane & Cleeve Mill. The Scouts have kindly agreed to help again this year, having parked 1,300 cars at last year's event. Parking for the evening event will be available at Newent Recreation Ground, off Watery Lane.

The theme for this year's Children's Fancy Dress Competition will be Nursery Rhymes. The theme for Window Displays will be the 400th Anniversary of Dick Whittington and judging of these will take place on 6th September.

The entertainment line-up will include: Arabesque - Egyptian Dancers, That Shallot - Folk Ensemble, Clive John, Electric Fred - Traditional Jazz, "Fancy That" - Popular songs of yesterday, "Fulk La" - Traditional Irish Band, Brass Bands, Children's Entertainment, Dance Displays, Wandering Street Musicians and African Drums.

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Kevin Nottingham and Allan Dawson are each proud owners of a Nissan 300 ZX and members of the Owner's Club. There are two hundred of these cars in the country and Kevin and Allan came up with the idea of holding monthly meetings, which take place in different areas of the South West and Wales. On Sunday 21st August eighteen of these cars arrived at the Hope & Anchor in Ross-on-Wye, and the club members all enjoyed their meeting in brilliant sunshine in a perfect setting.

Pictured below are Allan and Kevin with Allan's 300 ZX at the Hope & Anchor.