A special buffet was held at the Corn Exchange on Monday evening. The event was organized by Gordon and Margaret Lucas to raise money for the Friends of St. Mary's Church appeal. The church is in need of costly repair work, as well as some updating, so all donations will be gratefully received.

Margaret Lucas is an excellent cook and put on a fantastic spread which everybody thoroughly enjoyed and a free raffle was organized. Thank you for inviting us along for the evening, Gordon and Margaret. We hope that the fund raising goes well. For further information on the project please visit www.friendsofstmarys.btik.com.

Whitchurch School was approached last Autumn to plan the reorganization of the Crown Hotel garden. George and Andrew, from the Crown in Whitchurch, invited the older children to visit the site where the new garden was to be.

To develop their ideas and explain the brief, Andrew spoke to the children about how to encourage wildlife into gardens. He showed them many examples of bird feeders, nesting boxes and hedgehog boxes to stimulate ideas. Finally, the children worked in groups to design a wildlife garden that was child friendly and functional.

George judged the entries, finding the judging avery difficult task. The children's designs were a very high quality, presented in several mediums. After much deliberation the winning entry was decided upon and this design will now be used when work on the garden begins in the spring.

A special meeting was held at the Larruperz Centre on Friday evening, inviting local people to form a sports and leisure council for Ross-on-Wye. The main purpose of Ross Sports and Leisure Council is to work in partnership with the various sports and leisure bodies within the HR9 area, including the Town Council, Ross Area Partnership and Herefordshire Council, to carry out the following tasks:

To be a forum to enable local sports and leisure organizations to meet and to discuss matters of a common interest and where appropriate, co-ordinate specific projects.

To research opportunity for the development and expansion for sporting and leisure activities within the HR9 area and represent the interests of Ross within the county of Herefordshire.

To seek any available sources of grants and funds to finance any future sports and leisure activities.

Membership of Ross Sports and Leisure Council shall be open to all existing sports and leisure clubs as well as individuals and organizations with specific interest in sports and leisure.

Ross travelled to table toppers Bristol Saracens on Saturday looking to continue their unbeaten run in the league which stretched back to the 1st of November last year. However, they came unstuck against a lively Saracens side who after a tight first half ran out the comfortable winners at 36-10.

Ross started confidently against the league leaders. From the kick off they quickly established territory and nearly opened the scoring after 5 minutes. From a scrum 30 yards out, Ross worked a planned blind side move. No. 8, Tim Hanks broke and fed scrum half Simon Gwynne, who drew the Saracens back row before finding fullback Chris Gage. He drew the Winger only for wing Luke Gray to lose control of the ball. However this did not phase Ross and from their next foray into Saracens territory, opened their account.

After securing quality possession from a lineout, the forwards set up a series of mini rucks which splintered the defence. The scrum half,f Simon Gwynne took advantage, holding off two tacklers to score in the corner giving Ross an early 5-0 lead. The home side then began to work themselves into the game, wrestling control from what had been a dominant Ross pack. During the ensuing 20 minutes they converted 2 penalties and scored a try to put them 11-5 ahead with half time looming. However with the half-time whistle due, Tim Hanks crashed over to score bringing them to within 1 point at half time.

At half time it was anyone's game. However, the Saracens upped the tempo of the game early in the second half. Ross leaked two quick tries and the game was over as a contest.

Ross continued to battle hard for the remainder of the game, but the Saracens ran out comfortable winners, cementing their position as league leaders.

The Walford timber man of the match was Tim Hanks. On Saturday, 9th February, Ross are away to Bream. Kick off is at 2.30pm.

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.

DO YOU HAVE A STORY FOR WYENOT NEWS?

If you have a local news item or story you can submit it here
or call Alan or Tina on 01989 763217

There is no charge for publishing either news items or What's On Events
This is a Free Service for the local community!

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

If you would like to order prints from Wyenot News photographs, please click here.

Prints are only available for photographs taken by Wyenot News (Not of those which have been sent in by readers).

Prints of 'people' photographs are only available to those directly involved in the news event covered. i.e. I do not sell prints of people to the general public.