The team of British soldiers will be the first all-women group to walk across Antarctica.

A James Short hat-trick for Exeter against Worcester sees the Chiefs move level on points with Saracens in second.

Pamela Cookey, the former England netball captain, is director of netball at Severn Stars - a new club formed as a collaboration between the University of Gloucestershire and the University of Worcester.

"It's exciting and I do love a challenge," she told BBC Sport.

The new Netball Superleague season begins this evening, with the Severn Stars first fixture on Saturday. 

Click here to read more about the club..

We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 on Monday, but keep an eye out here for more updates this evening.  

The Severn Area Rescue Association will be getting support from the Coventry Building Society throughout 2017, it's revealed.

The group, a rescue service on land and water in and around the Severn Estuary, announced on social media that the building society's Chepstow branch has set up a fundraising display., external

Image source, Severn Area Rescue Association

BBC Sport

Former England captain Pamela Cookey has been talking to BBC Sport about combining her business career with netball at expansion Superleague club Severn Stars, a joint franchise between the University of Worcester and the University of Gloucestershire.

Health bosses in Herefordshire have been given permission to run local GP services.

From April, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the county will have "delegated responsibility" from NHS England to help give patients, communities and clinicians "more scope in deciding how their health services locally are developed".

The groups have always worked with the NHS to co-commission, or jointly buy, GP services in Herefordshire.  

In 2014 NHS England announced plans to hand this responsibility solely to CCGs to "support the development of integrated out-of-hospital services".  

Rebecca Wood
BBC Midlands Today

A mild evening and weekend ahead, with the chance of some rain but the chance of some brighter spells too.

You can find the weekend weather forecast for your area here.

Andy Giddings
BBC Shropshire

The Severn Valley Railway saw a small rise in passenger numbers last year, thanks partly to the visit of the Flying Scotsman.

The number of paying passengers rose from 204,889 to 208,479, but that's still some way behind it's best ever year.

In 2011 the historic railway carried more than 215,000 passengers.

Work to restore open habits on part of the Malvern Hills means the track heading south from Westminster Bank will close for a week next week. 

The Malvern Hills Conservators, who look after the attraction, say it is for safety reasons whilst contractors work adjacent to the track.  

The route will shut between 08:30 and 17:30 from 20 to 25 February. 

It’s not too late to enter this year’s FA People’s Cup – the deadline to sign up is midnight on Sunday. 

Entry is completely free, there are categories for everyone and you can enter either as a team or an individual player. 

Find out all the details here.

Former England captain Pamela Cookey talks to BBC Sport about combining her business career with netball at new Superleague club Severn Stars, a joint venture between the universities of Gloucestershire and Worcester.  

She's now a senior lecturer and director or netball at the University of Gloucestershire where she's bring together her experience in sport and business.

As the National Sheep Association warns that the Schmallenberg virus, which is fatal to newborn lambs, has returned to the UK, here are some facts about the midge-borne infection.

The Malvern-based organisation is urging farmers to submit evidence for analysis to get vaccine production up and running again.

When pregnant females are infected, the virus can damage the foetus, leading to a range of deformities at birth.

The virus causes fever, diarrhoea and loss of milk production in adult cattle, though the animals recover after a few days.

Hereford Times

Concerns over a steep rise in sheep worrying by dogs are forcing one Herefordshire farmer to get tough., external

Six months ago, many of these mums were just watching their kids play.

Now they're getting ready to play in the FA People's Cup....

It’s not too late to enter this year’s FA People’s Cup – the deadline to sign up is midnight on Sunday. 

Entry is completely FREE, there are categories for everyone AND you can enter either as a team or an individual player. 

Find out all the details here.

You have been using Your Questions to ask about the West Midlands. Here are some of our answers.

One of the contenders to lead Britain's biggest trade union is in Birmingham today.

Len McCluskey, the current leader of Unite, is being challenged by the union's West Midlands representative, Gerard Coyne., external

On his visit Mr McCluskey is due to visit Cadburys to meet with union members and shop stewards.

Nominations close today for the post of the union's general secretary.  

Here's lovely photo of snowdrops by a river bank in Redditch taken by one of our regular contributors Paul Wilde.

If you would like to send images of where you are, you can email, tweet us on @bbchw, external or message via Facebook, external.

Image source, Paul Wilde

Worcestershire and England batsman Peter Richardson has died aged 85, the county side has announced.

Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1957, Richardson played 34 tests for England, scoring more than 2,000 runs.

Image source, Getty Images

The chief executive of the Malvern-based National Sheep Association is warning that a deadly virus which affects newborn lambs has returned to the UK. 

No cases of the midge-borne Schmallenberg virus have been recorded here for the past three years, but figures from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), which is monitoring the situation, show there were 46 confirmed cases England and Wales in January.

Image source, Other

Phil Stocker says farmers need to submit evidence so vaccine production can begin again.

"What we would encourage farmers to do is, if they see anything that they think is Schmallenberg is to encourage the vet to submit it to the veterinary investigation centre for analysis because without the evidence, it will be difficult to persuade the vaccine manufacturers to go back to production again."