It was a case of celebrating an 'absent friend' at the cricket club's well-attended quiz last Saturday. The winning team (by a country mile) was the well-established (and many times successful) grouping of Brian and Diana O'Connell and Ted Ekins. However the usual fourth member, question master Andy Dakin's wife Sue, could not be there and her place was taken - obviously to good effect - by Ted's son Richard. The team name? "Missing Sue!" The next quiz will be on December 13, when rumour has it that Father Christmas will be in attendance.

The smooth rounded down-like top of Table Hill is once again emerging after years of gorse encroachment. Following a month's grazing by the herd of Galloway bullocks, Conservators' staff cleared a lot of the remaining gorse and scrub so that virtually the entire summit is now worthy of the name of Malvern, or 'bare hill'. The plan is to bring the herd of Galloway bullocks back next spring to help suppress any gorse re-growth. The cattle, meanwhile, have left West Malvern for the time being and are now munching their way across the north and west sides of North Hill.

The chain-link fence enclosing the allotments at the top of the outdoor centre track, which was damaged by coaches turning after bringing school parties to the centre, has finally been renewed by the parish council. The cost was met by an insurance claim.