BROMSGROVE Rover's first friendly game against Southern league outfit Bath City, under the Victoria Ground's new floodlights in front of a crowd of 1,400, was marred by rain and a heavy snowstorm.

The Greens were sporting their new fluorescent strip designed to make them conspicuous under artificial lights.

Bath's manager ex-England and Arsenal manger Eddie Hapgood fielded most of his first team squad.

A CAMPAIGN to recruit more men to join the Home Guard was launched in Bromsgrove and Droitwich.

It had been formed after Dunkirk in World War II when Britain was on the verge of being invaded by Germany.

Today, if war should again break out, the movement would be the only disciplined body of men capable of defending these islands if the main army was sent abroad.

However, it was seen more as an anti-panic force.

DROITWICH town councillors had elected councillor James Hatchet, from Lyttleton Avenue, as the Spa's next mayor. A retired bank manager with Lloyds for whom he had worked for 40 years he had been a councillor since 1949.

THE lone and crippled swan which was a common sight on the Lint Mill pool at Charford had been found dead.

The bird's mate with which it had shared the pool since 1938 had drowned when caught under the ice during a recent winter.

Other swans had come and gone, but recently a family of three moved in and chased the original bird further along the brook.