The Grey Heron Ardea cinerea is a reasonably frequent visitor to the River Wye and I took these photographs of the bird on Thursday, 2nd February 2006. They are a little distant as the bird was fishing on the opposite bank of the river to where I stood at the time.

Howle Hill followed up the previous weeks win with a very good performance away to Ellwood reserves, coming away with a 2 - 0 victory.

Howle Hill were missing several key players due to various reasons but you would not have noticed this in the performance they put in. The home side's pitch is one of the biggest in the division and Ellwood made the most of it in the first couple of minutes. They managed to put Howle Hill under some intense pressure, the Hill men being at sixes and sevens for 20 minutes. Dave Jewel had to clear from the goal line and Tony Stevens was kept busy as the home side dominated early proceedings. The fact that Howle Hill managed to weather the storm without conceding seemed to invigorate the away side. Wesley Downing almost scored during his first game for the Hill and was key to the opening goal. Andy Francis crossed from the right, Downing collected and laid the ball off to Aiden Cook, whose left foot chip nestled past the home keeper. Buoyed by a surprise lead, it was soon doubled. Downing was fouled on the edge of the box and up stepped Paul Element to dispatch a beautiful free kick into the bottom corner. This completely deflated the home side, who started arguing amongst themselves and with the referee.

Ellwood made three changes at half time, such was their desire to get back into the game. But try as they might, they could not pass a very mean Howle Hill defence, with two banks of four posing a stern test to the home attack. Howle Hill had several chances in the second half to kill the game off but will be more than happy with the win and a clean sheet.

The Phil Cutter Electrical Men of the Match were Dave Jewel and Stephen French. The team were: T Stevens, B Williams, D Jewel, A French, P Element, A Francis, S French, L Barrington (P Martin), A Cook, B Hatch, W Downing. Sub A McCulloch.

This weekend Howle Hill will be looking to make it three out of three, when they play at Aylburton.