HOMES across the county were left without power after 70mph winds caused disruption to electricity supplies over the weekend.

A 54-year-old man was taken to Hereford County Hospital after being 'flipped' into the road while trying to remove stray debris.

The gusts brought down trees and caused structural damage to fences and hedges, while high winds forced the postponement of Pegasus' football match against visiting Pewsey Vale in the Cherry Red Records Hellenic League Premier Division.

About 20,000 homes across the Midlands were cut off from around 2pm last Saturday, with 2,000 still without power on Monday.

Spokesperson for electrical suppliers Aquila, Beverley Harrington said: "Airborne debris damaged power lines but we had engineers out overnight to resolve the issue. It was an exceptional situation but there is no lasting damage."

The winds which whistled through the building and damaged light fittings forced early closure at Leominster Library at The Buttercross, Leominster.

A county council spokeswoman said checks had been carried out on lighting equipment and there was no major damage.

Hailstones - the size of marbles - also struck the county last Sunday afternoon.

The sight and sound of the 'missiles' had people rushing to their windows and forced those people out and about to scurry for cover away from the skin-stinging spheres.

For a while, parts of the county was covered with a crunchy, white coating several centimetres deep.

Simon Saunders, of Bulmer Avenue in Hereford, managed to photograph a handful of the giant hailstones that struck the county last Sunday afternoon.

A spokesman for the Met Office in Birmingham said it had been a month of all four seasons with showers, sunny spells, thunder, hail and even snow.

The spokesman said the unsettled weather is expected to continue.