After a break of several months due to lack of a drummer, excellent local rock band The Zebras are back and gave a brilliant comeback performance at The Royal Oak, Whitecroft on Saturday evening. It was good to see you playing again and we look forward to many more performances in the near future.

The Festival of rowing on the river bank this Bank Holiday was an unprecedented success in terms of rowing and hosting what is clearly the best club river rowing regatta in the country.

The attendance at the regatta was massive with the crowds building up over the weekend and Bank Holiday Monday spectators massing on the river bank to watch many exciting races.

Ross Rowing Club won an unparalleled 16 events over the weekend, 9 of which came on Saturday at the Gloucester Regatta, which Ross Rowing Club were hosting. These included, The men's Senior 2 Eight, Senior 4 coxed four, Vet Novice Eight, Vet G Double Scull, Ladies Novice four, Junior 12, 13 & 14 Double sculls, J14 Quad. On Sunday Ross at the Junior Veteran regatta they continued their success with another 5 wins; Junior 12 double sculls, Junior 10 quads, Vet Novice Double Sculls, Vet F coxed four, Vet Novice Coxed four and on Monday in the main event, the Ladies Senior 2 Coxed Four and Ladies Senior 4 coxed four.

There are many highlights of this amazing performance, in particular the Ladies who moved through two status levels. The overall best performance was from the Junior squad. Out of 16 Junior squads assembled from all over the country the Ross Juniors tied for second place with Hereford in the Victor Ludorum competition.

This competition was a team effort that pitted our new squad against the very best. This was a fantastic result after only a very short period of time the Club is well on its way to being the best in the west midlands. All the junior oarspeople should be congratulated for an "oarsome" effort.

The highlight however of this momentous rowing effort was the achievement of the 50th win of the rowing season by the Club. The Ladies Senior 2 crew of Cathy Fletcher, Kirsty Gwynne, Pippa Jones, Robin Perkins, and Dan Ruck (Cox) had the honour of passing this incredible mile stone in the Clubs History. Never before has the club been so successful in all categories of rowing whether that is Junior, Ladies, Mens or Veteran sections.

Club Chairman Bryn Hughes said "This was the best run regatta we have ever delivered. What makes it so pleasing is the level of support there is to make it all happen. In particular the Juniors and their parents truly excelled in their work and support of the event."

Club president Clive Snell, wished to thank all the Sponsors and supporters who help to make Ross Regatta the premier river rowing regatta in the country. "I am delighted to see the impact this event has on the town with the thousands of visitors and how it creates such a wonderful impression of our great town"

Club Captain Ian Howell summed it up "We are developing a high performance culture in all the things we do at Ross Rowing Club, this regatta on and off the water was truly 1st class. We will continue to build and develop this culture for the benefit of the whole community"

[Ross Rowing Club Veteran & Junior Regatta - Sunday 27th August 2006 Results Summary] (opens in a separate window)
[Ross Rowing Club Regatta - Monday 28th August 2006 Results Summary] (opens in a separate window)

With the league season less than two weeks away, Ross continued their preparation with a friendly game against Pontrilas on Sunday morning.

After a successful season in 2005/6 Ross have not rested on their laurels, they have invested in a new scrimmage machine and have strengthened their coaching team by welcoming Joe Gittins Jones. Joe has played the majority of his rugby in the national leagues for Cinderford RFC and brings a vast amount of experience and knowledge to which Ross are looking to benefit. Joe has brought an added dimension to the Tuesday and Thursday training sessions. With 20 plus players regularly training, this bodes well for the demanding league campaign that lies ahead.

Pontrilas proved to be dogged opponents, working hard early on, especially in the forward encounters where they were able to deny Ross the quick ball that their back line would undoubtedly exploit. Ross looked rusty as you would expect in August. However they were still able to open the scoring after 10 minutes. After some good work up front by Tim Hanks and Matt Jones, Sam Harness moved the ball wide. After some good interplay between Huw Bellamy and Baz Parker, they put Chris Gage through the Pontrilas defence to open the scoring.

The hope was this early score would settle Ross down, however Pontrilas continued to work hard especially around the ruck area. This forced Ross into too many unforced errors and Ross were not able to inject any momentum. At the end of the first 20 minute half the score remained 5-0 to Ross.

The break seemed to have benefited Ross. Their forward play improved with Richard Russell and Gavin Oates working well to secure quality ball. With front foot ball the Ross backline were now looking threatening every time they got the ball. With Adam Clements and Chay Brine beginning to dominate proceedings, after some strong driving play from Joe Gittins and Matt Redman, Chay Brine released Adam Clements wide out to score in the corner, giving Ross a 10-0 cushion. Ross continued to dominate and with the second quarter coming to a close Nick Rawlings delivered a perfect inside pass to Tara Barnett, who galloped in from 30 yards. Chris Gage converted giving Ross a 17-0 lead.

Ross rang the changes for the 3rd quarter bringing on Tom Walton, Dan Weston, Andy Hunt, Dave Mince and Gareth Holdsworth. With Pontrilas now tiring these fresh legs only added to their woes. Tom Walton was straight into the action making good ground from a ruck. The ball was quickly transferred through a number of hands to Alistair Rees who outpaced the defence to score. Ali converted his own try giving Ross a 24-0 lead. Leon Meek and Keith Scrivens replaced Sam Harness and Alistair Rees for the last 10 minutes of the third and final quarter and Ross continued to look dangerous. As the Pontrilas defence continued to tire, Chay Brine collected the ball deep in Ross territory, his quick feet beat the first line of defence then his pace was too much for Pontrilas as he ran in the final try from 60 yards, giving a final score of Ross 31 Pontrilas 0.

Next Saturdays match is against Ledbury at Ledbury 3pm kick off. Ross RFC would like to thank Charlie's Bar for their continued sponsorship and support.

The Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival is a well established annual event each January, attracting many of the UK's finest young chamber artists. It has become an important part of the cultural calendar of the area and each year is enthusiastically supported and eagerly awaited.

Between 1st - 3rd September, Wye Valley Chamber Music will be presenting an inaugural series of three concerts, aimed at bridging the gap between each annual January Festival and bringing music to the area during the longer summer evenings. The three programmes each feature the London Bridge Ensemble and festival director Daniel Tong. The first presents music from England and France written in the first part of the last century, the second highlights Mozart in his birthday year alongside the music of Leos Janacek and the third pairs Schumann and Brahms (mentor, disciple and close friends). Almost every possible combination from within the four instruments - violin, viola, cello and piano - will be explored.

The concerts will take place in St Briavels, the home of the Festival, Hereford in the intimate atmosphere of the Bishop's Palace and the wonderful surroundings of Hellens Manor. People are urged to book tickets early as concerts frequently sell out.

Details of all three concerts can be found on the 'What's On?' page of Wyenot News.

The London Bridge Ensemble Daniel Tong, piano, Benjamin Nabarro, violin, Kate Gould, cello, Tom Dunn, viola The London Bridge Ensemble is one of Britain's most exciting and innovative chamber groups. In 2005 they made their debut at the Wigmore Hall in London and they are resident at the Ponte de Lima Festival in Portugal. They have performed at St George's Bristol and St John's, Smith Square in London and future plans include concerts at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Kammermusiksaal, Berlin, Casa da Musica, Porto, in Sofia, Bulgaria and Kerry, Ireland as well as their first CD of music by Frank Bridge.

Ross-on-Wye Weather Station is located by the tennis courts and bowling green at 'Crossfields' and is one of the important stations around the country which regularly sends data to the Meteorological Office. This is why Ross-on-Wye is sometimes mentioned on the BBC weather reports. It is currently still a manually monitored station and readings are taken twice per day by husband and wife team, June and Rex Swallow.

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