I missed the Saturday music at the Prince of Wales this week as I was at the 'Jamstand' river side event. However, with Tina working at the White Lion, I did manage to get along to the Hope & Anchor for a short time on Friday, where Simon Blight was performing in the garden. Lots of people were there enjoying the evening of entertainment.

This coming Friday, the fantastic Will Killeen will be performing his blues set at the Hope & Anchor and I am really looking forward to that one as Will is both a friend and one of my favourite performers. Unfortunately, Tina is working so she will not be able to attend, and even unfortunatelyer, she may have to meet me after work and walk home because I intend to leave the car at home and enjoy one of my relatively infrequent evenings drinking something other than tea or coffee to relax.

On Saturday, Double barrel are at The Plough and 'Snatch' are playing at the Prince of Wales. I have not seen 'Snatch' before but I expect we will go to both at some stage and one of them will generate next week's 'Tina Dancing' photo.

One of the free events put on by the Lions at this year's Carnival was a Duck Colouring Contest for children aged between two and twelve. Giving the children the outline of a duck they were asked to colour it in and stick feathers on it to make it look as real as possible. The prizes were nominal and consisted of vouchers for Woolworths, a bag of goodies and a certificate.

Around thirty-five youngsters enjoyed the afternoon spending quite a bit of time at the stall colouring to their hearts content. Looked after by members of the Ross Lions and some of their wives, the children were able to relax and enjoy themselves. As entry was free even parents enjoyed it and thought it was a good idea. The entries were split into three age groups, 2 to 5, 6 to 9 and 10 to 12.

The winner of the youngest age group was Sasha Ives of Upton Bishop, winner of the middle age group was Holly Jones of Gloucester, who was visiting her grandparents in Ross, and the upper age group winner was Holly's sister Amy Jones also of Gloucester. The Lions decided that the overall winner of the contest was Holly Jones who was awarded first prize.

The vouchers, goodies and certificates were presented to the children by the Ross Lions president, Lion Keith Wilding, at the Heritage Centre in the presence of parents, Linda Jones, Malcolm and Elaine Ives. Keith said he was glad the children had taken part in the contest and hoped they enjoyed it as much as he had. He told the parents that the Lions planned to continue to provide free entertainment at the Carnival because he knew how expensive it was to keep youngsters occupied. The Lions had done this in the past and were now resurrecting the practice.

Immediate prizes were awarded at other Lions Carnival activities. Free entertainment was also provided in the form of Uncle Jack, who kept a really big crowd on their toes. The Lions look forward to seeing you all at the Ross Carnival next year. However, before then, there will be the Ross Lions Bonfire and Firework Spectacular at the Chase Hotel, where spectators can watch and enjoy Guy Fawkes Night in safety.

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Ross Heritage Centre was a hive of activity on Tuesday, full of children wanting to take part in the kite making session that morning.

The event began at eleven, so we thought we'd wait a while for the children to get started before going along to take some photographs.

Upon our arrival, our friend Sue Parker, who is a Heritage Centre Assistant informed us that we had been missed by our special friend Amy King, who not only arrived at the event 15 minutes early, she also kept looking out for us as she knew that 'Uncle Alan' was going to take a photograph there and was hoping to show off her kite to Wyenot News readers.

Luckily for us Sue happened to have her camera with her and she kindly took a photograph of Amy with her handiwork.

That's a really lovely kite Amy. I'm sorry we were too late to meet you there, but it was lovely to see you later in the day. Hope you enjoyed 'Shrek 3.'

We look forward to seeing you again soon. x x

Having decided to back away from using the 'YouTube' web server to serve 'Wyenot News' video footage, I have redesigned the look of the WNTV Index Page to include clickable thumbnail images which link directly to the video clips. For now, I have made thumbnails for just a few of the more recently uploaded video clips as backtracking to do them all would be far too time consuming at this point.

Over the past year, judging by the amount of times each film is watched, I have learned which video subjects are most popular and which are not. Going on the fact that 'Wyenot News' has many thousands of both local and world wide readers, organizers of events to attract tourists should take note of this . . .

I guess it is human nature but the disaster movies, such as floods and the air ambulance are the most popular. Second most popular were the slide shows of scenic photos - and strangely enough, one I did not expect to be popular - the two part personal film of my stay in Dhahran. I am really quite surprised by this one.

The music videos - well most of these are the third most popular with viewers and this is where organizers of tourism events need to take note.

Ross has a terrific bandstand, which needs to be used far more than it is! However. With the one exception of Ross Town Band - the video of which has had lots of views, the brass band videos in general are the least watched of all. Although audiences at the time seem to enjoy the band concerts, I have given up filming the brass bands because processing the film is very time consuming but very few people watch the end result. There is one brass band video I put on 'Wyenot News' over a month ago which, since that time to the present day, only 9 people have watched.

Considering that the 'Dark Side of the Moon' event on Saturday last had only been advertised here for two weeks, the show had quite an audience throughout the day, with both local people and tourists stopping by to watch and listen. I realize that there are a couple of 'important people' in Ross who object to amplified music at the bandstand because they live nearby. However, it would seem that the majority of people, both living in and visiting Ross do want it. Ross survives on tourism and it needs to provide the attractions which bring the tourists in - as other local towns do. I am quite looking forward to seeing how many views the video from this event has

Ross Town Carnival videos have also proved to be extremely popular both locally and with distant viewers alike. This and the Christmas Carnival are always popular events.

Other videos which have been watched a lot are the helicopter flight from Staverton to Ross, Tina interviewing Chris Tarrant, the nature videos - particularly the otters and, rather oddly - the ones of Tina and I playing music. The nature stuff is popular in both video viewers and viewers of the photo pages, 'Nature Watch'.

I shall have to make a 'Tina Dancing' video and see how that performs. Judging by feedback received, 'Tina Dancing' photos have become cult material amongst 'Wyenot News' readers world wide, so 'Tina Dancing - The Motion Picture' might do quite well in the ratings - may even lead to 'Tina Dancing - The Sequel'.

Charmaine Danter and her team at Jacqueline's Night Club have been busy improving the overall look of the place, giving it a 'breath of fresh air.' The night club is nicely decorated and all of the seats have been reupholstered making it an even more enjoyable, comfortable place to spend a Friday or Saturday evening.

There is now an extra available for visitors to Jacqueline's. You may now reserve a table for the exclusive use of yourself and your guests when celebrating a hen night or other party. Your private table can be decked out with party balloons and champagne is available by request. This is a great way to keep your party together and not lose your seat whilst taking part in the fun in this well established venue.

For further details contact Charmaine by clicking here.

Police are appealing for witnesses to an accident on the A49 Ross Road in Hereford in which a pedestrian died. The male pedestrian was in collision with a blue Volkswagen Golf car at around 3.20 PM on Saturday, August 11, close to the junctions with Webb Tree Avenue and Pencroft Road. The car had been headed north towards Hereford City Centre at the time of the accident.

The pedestrian suffered serious chest and ankle injuries in the collision and was taken to Hereford County Hospital but died a short time later. He was subsequently identified as Stephen John Harrison, age 56, of Freda Pearce Close in Hereford. A post mortem is due to take place on Wednesday and an inquest is likely to be opened and adjourned by the Herefordshire Coroner the same day. The driver of the Volkswagen car was not injured in the collision.

Police closed one lane of the city-bound side of the A49 while an examination was begun by collision investigators and the car was removed. Officers are keen to speak to anyone who witnessed the accident, or saw the car or pedestrian in the minutes beforehand. They are asked to contact PC Bob Conway at the Hereford Roads Policing Unit on 08457 444888.

Sir,

On Friday 3 August my partner and I took my son to town to do some shopping and to see if we could spot the odd objects in the shop windows. We had a great time. However, on the way out of one of the shops my partner accidentally bumped into a lady. She immediately apologized for this and we carried on our way, looking in the windows of the shops with she and my son becoming quite bemused at my (temporary) ability to spot the odd objects almost immediately!

As we walked down Broad Street my partner suddenly lurched into me, crying in pain. My first thought was that she had twisted her ankle - she was gasping for breath and looked quite shocked. We got into the Maltings where she sat down and after catching her breath told me that the woman she had bumped into earlier had been sat in her car outside Cornwall's Butcher and as we passed gave her a menacing stare and then opened her door forcibly onto her leg.

I later asked why she hadn't said anything at the time it happened, only to be met with a look of derision and a quick explanation that the pain she felt was so great she wasn't able to speak. (This is the edited version of what she said to me!)

I am still shocked that anyone could do something like that out of pure spite - if my partner had rammed into her forcibly and not bothered to apologize I can imagine she would be aggrieved, but as it was a complete accident and she had apologized immediately, with sincerity. I can only think this person has some kind of problem. Not only was what she did completely wrong, but if she so wished (and had we had the opportunity to take details of the car she was sat in) this person could probably be arrested for assault. The bruise which has been left on my partner's leg is the biggest I have ever seen, it looks really painful - the woman who did it must have opened her car door with some force to inflict such an injury - see photo.

Perhaps if the photo was printed and seen by the woman who inflicted it, she may hopefully suffer remorse for her actions and more importantly not take her anger out on people in such a way again, though we would be grateful if our details could be omitted.

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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