A fun day for the whole family will be taking place in the Caroline Symonds Gardens, Ross-on-Wye this coming Sunday, 26th July with a whole range of fun activities for all the family to enjoy. The event has been organized to raise funds for Hereford United Junior Bulls and will take place between 12 Noon and 4pm. Some of the Hereford United players will be in attendance, along with the management team and United supporters (and non football fans) of all ages are welcome to go along and join in the fun.

There are lots of competitions to take part in including a penalty shoot out, who has the hardest shot?, limbo and hoopla. The less energetic might like to simply purchase a raffle ticket to try to win some great prizes, including one of the new Hereford United shirts. There will be lots of stalls down on the field, including a cake stall and bottle stall. A bouncy castle will be there for the kids as well as a burger van and ice cream van.

If you are a United fan, players will be more than happy to pose for photographs with you and to sign autographs. There is lots of fun to be had by all, so why not go along on Sunday and join in?

During the last few days of his term as president of the Ross-on-Wye Lions Club, Lion Keith Wilding had the pleasure of hearing his fellow Lions voting to hand donations to several organizations in the Ross area. A little later he was able to present a cheque for £250 to Jack Baldus who is organizing the two day Jamstand event at the Lions Bandstand. On the same day he visited the Ross Community Hospital to hand over a cheque for £150 to Cicely Symonds and Heather Jackson of the League of Friends. Most of this money had been raised at the Hospital Fete.

Meanwhile, Public Relations Officer, Lion Bernard Fowkes visited retired teacher Gareth Hughes, who is greatly involved with the John Kyrle High School project at Kisiki College in Ross's twin town Namutumba, Uganda. He handed over a cheque for £300 which in turn will be handed over to the Chairman of Council in Namutumba. The money will be used to clean the town of accumulated rubbish brought about by rubbish dumps in close proximity of the town.

This is part of a project started by an environmental group from John Kyrle High School and forms part of the living community link between the towns. This group is already in Uganda organizing the work being carried out. At the same time Lion Bernard offered Gareth around 100 Tee Shirts to take to Kisiki College for the young people. These Tee Shirts had been given to the Ross Lions to help raise funds for the club. Gareth was sure the young people out in Uganda would appreciate the gift. All of these gifts were gratefully received and great use will be made of the funds donated.

AI his last role as President, before handing over to Lion Andrew Middlecote, Lion Keith, Lion Bernard and their wives attended the premier of a short film made by a small group of pupils at John Kyrle High School who call themselves Minute by Minute Productions. The film was made with the assistance of Prospero Productions and funded by PGL, Orles Barn Hotel and the Ross Lions Club. The group hold training sessions at the YZone in Hill Street, Ross. For a first attempt at film making it was classed as excellent and the young people were expected to go a long way in the film world. All the people involved were presented with an Oscar.

The beautifully renovated gardens of The Old Court Hotel, Whitchurch will be open to the public this coming Sunday as proprietors Victoria and Jono host their fourth annual Garden Party. Previous events at this lovely hotel have raised hundreds of pounds for local projects and this year local charities are set to benefit from the proceeds.

Entrance is free to the Garden Party which will run from 1pm until 8:30pm and some great live entertainment has been organized for the event, including 'Banshee' the popular Irish Folk band. The great Hickory Stick boys will also be there with their country rock set and some brilliant blues, soul and rock and roll will be performed by CJD. Tap your feet to some Cajun blues by Whiskey River, Indie folk by John McConnachie, then chill out to the Rat Pack style crooning of David Anthony.

Victoria said, 'There is always a brilliant atmosphere at the garden party; a few beers and some great free music, what could be better on a lazy Sunday afternoon? It doesn't matter if it rains we will just hold the event indoors. We love this community and have made our home here. We see investing in the community as investing in our own family's future.'

For further information on the Old Court Garden Party, contact Victoria on 01600 890367 or by email reception@theoldcourthotel.co.uk There is plenty of parking space available, so why not go along and enjoy the show?

South Herefordshire detectives are appealing for witnesses to come forward who may have seen suspicious activity involving the use of a stolen Nissan X-Trail 4x4, which was dumped and burnt out in a remote spot in Welsh Newton.

The silver X-Trail, which was stolen from Cwmbran in Gwent on 9th July, was found burnt out in a field near the village of Welsh Newton on Tuesday, 14th July by the farmer who rents out the land. Police believe that the vehicle had been used in a burglary at the First Motorway Services on the A40 at Whitchurch at around 2am on Monday 13th July.

Officers are keen to speak to anyone who was in a South Herefordshire triangle between Monmouth, Ross and Welsh Newton and who may have seen a silver Nissan X-Trail, possibly containing three men, acting suspiciously or unloading property from one vehicle to another.

Anyone with information should contact DC Darren Ball at Ross CID on 0300 333 3000 or call the free Crimestoppers line anonymously on 0800 555111.

Ross Rowing Club's Junior Academy were inspired by a direct invitation from Beijing Olympic gold medallist Andy Triggs Hodge to visit the his Club' Mosley Junior regatta and achieved incredible levels of performance to notch up 9 wins and were crowned Victor Ludorum for the most successful club at the event.

Andy had previously been comparing notes on developing juniors with Ross Club Captain Ian Howell during the winter and it was during this conversation the Olympic star offered the invitation to attend Mosely's annual Junior Regatta, which was held on the Thames just down from Hampton Court Palace. The events that unfolded as a result of this chance discussion are of truly fantastic proportions and really would be more suited to a work of sports fiction rather than fact.

The winning performances started with the Wj15 single, Ellie Blackwood, who worked through 2 rounds and won her final in convincing fashion. Other victories in singles included, Nick Burden in j11 singles, Alice Reynolds in Wj11 singles, Johan Lai in J12 singles and Joel Bullock, who after capsizing, went out and won his J13 singles.

In the doubles events, George Probert and Sam Taylor won in J12. In wj11, Alice Reynolds and Christina Stephenson were capsized by a passing pleasure boat but returned to the water to win their semi final and then the final. In the Quads racing, Olivia Baynham Williams, Charlotte Westley, Megan Jephcote, Jess Crossman, with George Probert coxing won convincingly in the Wj12. Quads, Johan Lai, Scot Morris, Sam Taylor and George Probert with Rhodri Morris still won their heat even though Sam had snapped his blade in half, then went on to win their final in the boys j12 event.

This was the first time the Squad had attended in any great numbers and the quality of performances by the Ross Academy scullers was the talk of the river bank. John Lewis, junior captain commented, 'This was a day when everyone delivered wonderful performances. Despite kit failures and capsizes the squad rose to the occasion, inspired by the quality of competition to deliver the best team performance of the season.' The icing on the cake was the surprise announcement that the Ross squad was the most successful competing club who even out pointed the hosts who had over 43 entries.

Club Captain Ian Howell added, 'It was a sublime day. Even those who might not have won an event contributed to the success of the day with their wonderful team spirit. It was indeed a very proud day for our Club competing in such illustrious surroundings.

Junior Academy at National Championships Amy Surman and Ellie Grindle, rowing a year above their age group in Wj14 double sculls did very well to win through to the semi final, during which they were beaten into third place and did not proceed to the final. They rowed very well, gaining valuable experience over the 2000-metre national championship course. This performance ranked them 7th overall in the UK in J14 double sculls.

Ross Coache wins Gold at National Championships Ross coach Robin Fletcher who is currently head of the Welsh Junior squad was also making waves at the National championships. His welsh junior coxed four, which included Junior Academy support coach Gareth Morgan won a gold. This is a tremendous result for Robin and his crew and bodes well for the Home International event which happens this weekend.

Police in Ross-on-Wye are appealing for witnesses to an incident of disorder in which a young man was pushed through a shop window in the town to come forward.

The incident happened at 2.25am on Saturday, 18th July 2009 outside The County Collection in the Market Place, Ross-on-Wye. A group of men and another 28 year old man, all of whom were heavily under the influence of alcohol, became involved in a physical altercation, which led to the sole male being pushed through the window of County Collections. As a result of this, the victim received superficial cuts to his face and body and a lump on the forehead and was treated at Hereford County Hospital.

One man has been arrested in connection with the incident and is currently on police bail whilst further enquiries are carried out. Police are anxious to speak to anyone who may have been in the area at the time and witnessed the altercation. Anybody with any information should contact PC Adam Hollings at Ross Police Station on 0300 333 3000 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Mrs Sheila Blagg from Worcestershire has been unanimously elected as the new Chair of the West Mercia Police Authority. Sheila Blagg, a Police Authority member since 2005, has been Vice Chair since 2008 and prior to this was Chair of the Audit Committee. Sheila is a member of the national Police Negotiating Board and serves on the Council of the Association of Police Authorities.

In taking on the role of Chair of the Authority, Sheila thanked members and officers for their unanimous support and looked forward to working with the Chief Constable Paul West, his team and local communities in order to continue to make West Mercia a safe place to live, work and visit. After paying a warm tribute to the outgoing Chair, Mr Paul Deneen JP DL, and thanking him for his leadership, drive and passion, Sheila said, 'Paul has made an outstanding contribution to the work of the Authority. I am delighted that he will be continuing to serve on the Authority and that he will also be undertaking work at national level for the Association of Police Authorities as Co-Leader of the Independent Group and as a member of the Board of Governors of the National College of Police Leadership at Bramshill.'

West Mercia Police Authority is an independent body of 17 local people (9 Councillors from Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Worcestershire, and 8 independent people).

The Authority is responsible for ensuring that West Mercia Police provide an efficient and effective police service for the people of the region.