Residents of Croft Bank were alarmed this week when a highways notice went up announcing the road would be closed for six weeks from Monday. Cheer up, it seems it won't be quite that bad! The notice was placed by Herefordshire Council and relates to roadside drainage work at the bottom of the hill, near Mathon Court.

Access to properties within West Malvern will be unaffected and the work is expected to be complete in about two weeks, as long as it is not disrupted by bad weather. However, the road will be closed completely while work is in progress and access to Mathon from West Malvern will have to be via Harcourt Road

Spines were chilled and ribs were tickled in equal measure by West Malvern Players' production of Web of Murder last week. It attracted good audiences to the village hall on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. While rightly billed as a comedy - and a fairly improbable one at that - there were real moments of tension as stranglings and spiders steadily reduced the number of surviving cast members.

All performed excellently, but perhaps deserving of special mention were Liz Greatwich, as the forbidding, wheelchair-bound Aunt Minerva, Johnny Birks, hilarious as the gum-chewing small-time American crook Pete Martinelli, Ian Macmillan, as the sinister (but innocent) hypnotist Dr Adler, and Helen Barker, as the faithful (but ultimately wicked!) family maid.

The production, by Kate Wheaton, seldom flagged, while her husband Anthony had worked wonders to create a complicated set, complete with secret panels and hidden wall-safes, within the small space available on the stage. Once again, a big success for the recently reformed group. The next show is The Wyrd Sisters early next year.

There was a moment of real-life drama during the Friday evening production, when local vet Pete Creber (whose wife Sarah was a member of the cast) was called on, in the absence of a doctor in the audience, to check on Oliver Wheaton, who received a nasty knock to a recently broken arm! Fortunately the damage was not serious.

There will be a new twist at the first of this winter's cricket club quizzes at the village hall, dates for which have been announced. The event, on Saturday, November 26, will feature a fish and chip supper. There will be two further quizzes (presumably without fish and chips) on Saturdays, January 14 and February 25. All at 7.30 pm in the village kall, for teams of four. For further details and table bookings, ring Bob or Val Blackbourn on 01684 564893.