The Big Dipper Race at Upton Bishop took place on Sunday, 1st October. The day started with two Children's Fun Runs which were held around the playing field before the main event. Aged from 5 to 15, the front runners were at an impressive standard.

The main event started promptly at 11am and the thunder and lightning rolling around in the distance did not dampen the spirit of the fifty eight runners who entered the first Upton Bishop Big Dipper.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge of the circular 5.6 mile road based course, incorporating some testing hills and torrential rain showers, following the country lanes from Upton Bishop to Kempley and back. Ranging in age from 21 to 63, and broken into four classes, there was a good mixture of both keen club runners and fun runners travelling from as far as Halesowen, Bristol and Cardiff to compete. They were rewarded with a unique T-shirt plus tea and cakes at the Millennium Hall.

Many thanks to the marshals who helped keep the event safe and successful and, hopefully, it may become an annual fixture.

Avonvale 3 Ross on Wye 113!

After a successful two weeks in the league, Ross took a break on Saturday to take on Avonvale from Bath in the National Junior Cup. The great thing about the cup is it throws you against sides you have never previously played. Avonvale had not played Ross before so Ross travelled to Bath, quietly confident but unsure of their opposition.

Any trepidation was quickly dispelled as Ross took an early 7-0 lead with a Huw Bellamy try converted by Chris Gage and although Avonvale pegged Ross back to 7-3 with a penalty after 8 minutes, this was the first and last time they were to trouble the scorers.

The Ross tries came thick and fast as they were too quick and clinical for the Avonvale defence and with both the lineout and scrum working well, Avonvale hardly got their hands on the ball. When they did, an aggressive Ross defence invariably knocked them back and forced the turnover.

With first half tries from Adam Clements (2) Chris Gage, Chay Brine, Simon Gwynne, Dan Weston, Gavin Oates and a further three from Huw Bellamy, Ross went in at half time 73-3 ahead.

The second half proved no different from the first,and with Avonvale now tiring, Ross added further tries by Dan Weston, Huw Bellamy (2), Wayne Bishop (2) and Dave Mince, all of which were converted by Alistair Rees.

With the contest one way traffic and the score reading Ross 113 Avonvale 3, the referee decided to blow for full-time after 60 minutes. The victory now puts Ross into round 2 and they await their next opponents.

Ross 2nds also travelled down to Bath to take on Coombe Hill and after conceding an early lead fought back well too push them hard but the final whistle came too soon, with Ross just falling short by 22-19.

Both Ross sides have games next Saturday with the 2nds away to Hereford 3rds and the 1st playing Kingswood at home in the league. Both games kick off at 3:00pm.

Whilst looking through some of the photographs I took during the very early days of Wyenot.com, I came across the three previously unpublished pictures below. It seemed a shame to let them just 'gather dust' on an old hard drive under my desk . . .

George Nicholls was a shopkeeper in Ross for many years and below his is pictured in July 2000, outside his Brookend Street hardware shop.

'Tony' Gerhard Ernest Feedon was a well known character about town and was often seen out walking with his dog, Rex around the Brampton Street area of town. He is pictured below in his Nursery Road flat a few months before he died, in 2001.

The Ross & District U3A

I wonder whether you could publicize a meeting that is due to take place on Monday, 16 October? The Ross & District U3A hold a meeting at the Larruperz Community Centre at 2.30 on the 3rd Monday of each month.

At the October meeting, Mr Keith Harman will be giving us a talk about 'Dowsing'. The organization is run by older people for older people but there is no lower age limit - the only stipulation is that the person is no longer in full-time gainful employment.

Prospective members are welcome to attend.

Many thanks, Rosemary Oddy (Mrs) Chairman

The Hamsters at the Savoy

They were dancing in the aisles......well, Theresa and I were anyway. The Hamsters played a ZZ Top and Jimi Hendrix set, excellently executed. BUT, how do people manage to sit still whilst listening to such music? We couldn't!

The Hendrix numbers took me back to the last time that I was at The Savoy, in Monmouth. It was to watch the film WOODSTOCK. Must have been very early '70's.

A very enjoyable evening. Thank you very much for the tickets, Alan.

Love, Ali

No problem - glad you enjoyed it! I would have come along myself but I was photographing elsewhere on Saturday evening and had to be away early the following day. I watched Woodstock in East Ham - 1970/1. Remember it well. I went with a girl called Frances Groves and I've still got the original vinyl albums, in good nick.
See you this coming Saturday evening at Paul's gig! Prince of Wales.

Wednesday lunchtime dance class at Bishopswood

Dear Dancer,

I sent an email a couple of weeks ago to let people know that the Wednesday lunchtime class at Bishopswood did not take off and to ask what would be the best day/s of the week for you and also am or pm. Thursday is out completely and I could only do a class on Monday much later in the afternoon. I think some of the emails may have gone astray in the ether as I have only had one reply so far. (Snail mail hasn't produced any responses, either!) Do let me know so that I can see whether your availability coincided with a space in the hall timetable.

Best wishes, Helen. Goddess Message Cards - mini-sized FFI visit www.goddessdance.co.uk

For reasons I shall not go into, on a personal level this past week has been one of the worst weeks I can remember. I have found myself despairing at the human race and wondering if it is all worth while. However one really nice thing also happened this week . . .

Through Wyenot News I was recently contacted by an old friend of mine, Harold Curren, better known as 'H', from the Dagenham Roundhouse days of the early 1970s.

The Roundhouse was a regular live rock music venue, in which I virtually lived during that period of my life, as I have mentioned several times in the past. Funding permitting, a film is currently being made about 'The Village' and within the next few weeks the producers will be visiting Ross-on-Wye to film an interview, for which I am currently trying to retrieve dim and distant memories from deep within the grey matter. It all happened around 35 years ago, plus or minus a few.

On Monday of this week I had to be in London to collect some friends from the airport but I went a day early, with Matt, who is a clone of my former self both in thought and physical appearance. We stayed in Essex on Sunday, taking the opportunity to visit my Mum's grave and stay with my Dad. Whilst there we went to visit H, at his home in Dagenham and we had such a fantastic time. H and I had not seen one another since 1975 but looking at old photos, the memories came flooding back.

H, alias Johnny Angelo, alias Robert Louis, alias . . . has been a reader of Wyenot News, since he found it a month or so ago. H, my old friend - It was just so great to see you again! I have thought about you often over the years, Bernice remembers you, sends her regards and Tina had heard a lot about you before you contacted me. Having lost touch so long ago, I never imagined that we would meet again - the world wide web is such a fantastic place. Your sense of humour remains a legend. How somebody could get away with having their photo in the newspaper virtually every week under a different alias, with such fantastic stories (Ancient Spanish coin found in Dagenham garden while planting cabbages) is just amazing! You would never get away with that here because everybody knows everybody. I am really looking forward to our next meeting.

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.

If you have a local news item or story of local interest which you would like to appear on Wyenot News you are very welcome to submit it by email, telephone or by post.

Please advise as early as possible if you would like me to photograph your local event so that I can put it in my diary. This service is offered strictly on a first come, first served basis.

Many Wyenot News photographs appear in various local newspapers and magazines. This does not imply that Wyenot News or any other part of this web site belongs to those publications. Wyenot News is a totally independent news magazine.

Contacting Wyenot News:

Email: please click here.

Telephone: 01989 763217 - Mobile: 0779 683 4077

Postal address: Wyenot News, 1, Hillview Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. HR9 7EY

Although it is fine to submit if you are submitting an event taking place in a pub / shop / restaurant etc., please make sure that your story does have real news value and is not simply an advertisement for your business. It would be unfair to those who support Wyenot.com and Wyenot News by advertising to publish blatant advertisements disguised as editorial material.