We are all between 24 and 37 years older than we were at the time we used to frequent the Potters Bar at the Hope & Anchor. Most of us have kids - some even conceived after a 'night at the Potters'. It was just the place in Ross to go at the time - great music and a great atmosphere.

Members of both 'The Pretenders' and 'Mott the Hoople' were Potters Bar regulars - their music also being on the juke box. (By pure coincidence, I have been asked to run a short film which has recently been made about the formation of The Pretenders but have not had time to prepare the article to go with it, so will run it next week.)

We held a Reunion Party on Saturday night and the best part of a good few turned up to the event. Unlike the previous two events, at which I played the music, renowned local DJ, Nigel Gaudion did a brilliant job of keeping us entertained with a mixture of original Potters music and some other '70s tracks.

Andy Ward, manager of the Hope at the time, came along and reminded us on camera of the three 'AWs'. Myself, Alan Weston and himself. We all at some stage borrowed the odd 'Green Drinking Voucher' or two from the till (in the days of pound notes) with an IOU signed 'AW'. Andy, being manager often found himself subsidizing us, with the money being deducted from his wages.

Thank you to all who came along, many from far away, making Saturday a great night! You can watch the girls on the stairs' performance on this week's WNTV programme.

A special thank you to Rick and Debs, current landlords of the Hope & Anchor for allowing us to use the original venue - and for specially purchasing a football table for the use of the keen Potters Bar football table crowd on the night. Visitors to the party signed the table and at the end of the evening, it was raffled, raising £56 for the Macmillan Cancer Support. Tina handed the money to Pauline McRae of Macmillan on Monday. Chris Young was happy (to say the least) at winning the table. We are both very pleased for you Chris. (Sorry Nick.)

Thank you to Dave Swinnerton for taking most of the photos. This allowed the odd bevy or six to pass my own lips so that I could relax and enjoy the evening. Believe it or believe it not - we obviously could not drive home afterwards and Tina was struggling. Somehow, I don't know how, I managed to piggy back her the length of Trenchard Street and up Cawdor after the event - and still walk the dog when we got home! Maybe I am not as unfit as I have recently thought.

Congratulations to The Bridge at Wilton and to Wilton Court Hotel, both of Ross-on-Wye for their success in the Heart of England Excellence in Tourism awards. The Bridge were highly commended in the Restaurant of the Year category and Wilton Court were highly commended in the small hotel category.

Herefordshire shone through in the 'Oscars' of the tourism world, with the county's businesses achieving four Gold awards. These went to Goodrich Castle for Best Small Visitor Attraction, Woodhouse Farm Cottages for Best Self Catering Holiday and Poston Mill who received two gold awards in the Best Holiday Caravan Park and Sustainable Tourism categories.

Four Silver awards were also presented to Herefordshire businesses which are; Visit Herefordshire in the Tourism Website of the Year, Destination category, Townsend Touring and Camping Park in the Taste of the Heart Outlet / Attraction award, The Colloquy for Self Catering Holidays and Lowe Farm for best B & B / Guest Accommodation.

Highly commended in the Best Tourism Experience category was the University of the Great Outdoors and the award for for the most Outstanding Contribution to Tourism, Individual category went to Bobbie Heavens.

The Regional Excellence in Tourism Awards 2008 was a glittering Hollywood-style event, which took place in Birmingham ICC on Tuesday, 11th November, celebrating the cream of West Midlands' £5 billion tourist industry.

Jane Lewis, Herefordshire Council's Cultural Services Manager said, 'These awards reflect the importance that tourism plays to the county's economy. They also demonstrate the commitment and effort put in by the council and local businesses to promote Herefordshire as a superb tourist destination.'

The Awards are organized by Tourism West Midlands (TWM), the strategic tourism board of Advantage West Midlands (AWM), in association with the national, Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2008.

Herefordshire Primary Care Trust's school nurses have immunized more than 700 twelve and thirteen year old girls across the county this term as part of a huge nation-wide HPV immunization campaign to protect girls against the future risk of cervical cancer. School nurses have been working with schools to obtain parental consents and provide facilities for the vaccine to be administered on school sites.

The Cervarix is the vaccine being used in the HPV vaccination programme as directed by the Department of Health. Three doses of the vaccine are needed over a six month period and to date up to 80 percent of 12 and 13 year olds involved in the programme have received their first injection with the second and third planned between now and Easter. The next phase is to offer the vaccine to 17 and 18 year old girls via sixth forms in schools, Herefordshire College of Technology and Hereford Sixth Form College.

In order to inoculate 17 and 18 year olds girls who are not in education or for 12 and 13 year olds who may have missed the programme at their school, the school nursing service is holding a number of clinics around the county.* Girls with birthdays between September 1st 1995 and 31st August 1996 or September 1st 1990 and 31st August 1991 are eligible for the vaccination which is free of charge. No booking is required; they simply turn up at one of the venues although 12 and 13 year olds will need to have a parent or guardian with them who is prepared to consent to them receiving the vaccination.

Jane Terry, professional head of school nursing, said, 'To ensure that all eligible girls are offered the vaccine, the Primary Care Trust has decided to take the programme out into the wider community offering a range of alternative dates and venues. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women world-wide and the HPV vaccine can reduce the risk of young women developing this in later life by as much as 70 percent. We want to make sure that all eligible girls are offered this vaccine.

At the moment we are just targeting the two age groups mentioned, but a two year catch up campaign to offer vaccine to girls aged 12 to 18 will be launched in September 2009.'

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 NEWS items - a small discretionary charge may be made to cover travel expenses for photographic coverage of events

What's On Events - see page for details

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.