Archive
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Killock return delights Wilder
OXFORD United’s on-loan defender Shane Killock could yet have a say in the club’s bid to reach the Blue Square Premier play-offs after making a successful comeback from injury in Wednesday’s 3-0 win against North Leigh in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup semi-finals
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FOOTBALL: Witney face relegation
WITNEY United face the threat of relegation from the FTL Futbol Hellenic League Premier Division. The high fliers are one of three teams who have failed to inform the league of the status of their outstanding ground work needed to bring it up to the
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Future's bright for Brawn
Ross Brawn can now finally concentrate on Sunday's Australian Grand Prix after emerging unscathed from a rough 24 hours. Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull claimed Brackley-based Brawn GP, along with Williams at Grove and Toyota, had failed to adhere to
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Burglars steal jewellery in home raid
Police are appealing for witnesses after a burglary in Drayton St Leonard. Between 8.30am and 1.30pm on Monday, offenders broke into a house in High Street, and stole items including a laptop, jewellery and an iPod. PC Emma Wright said
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FOOTBALL: Jeffrey upbeat for 'cup final'
It's our cup final – that’s how important Banbury United boss Billy Jeffrey rates Saturday’s crunch Premier Division clash at fellow strugglers Hitchin Town. Banbury dropped into the relegation zone on Tuesday so a win would see them move above Hitchin
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Friends pay tribute to Kidlington athletics coach
TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular athlete, cyclist and coach who died after colliding with a broken down van on the Oxford Bypass. Father-of-two Peter ‘Robbo’ Roberts, 65, of Blenheim Road, Kidlington, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital
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Cancer patients' delight as drug is prescribed at last
TWO out of two kidney cancer patients in Oxfordshire whose GPs recommended them for the treatment have been prescribed the life-extending drug Sunitinib since last month after Nice – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – ruled
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I thought OAP was going to kill me, barman tells jury
A barman accused of breaking into his next-door neighbour’s house with a knife yesterday told a jury he had feared for his life as the elderly householder punched him. Gregory McCalium, of Queen’s Close, Botley, Oxford, told Oxford Crown Court he could
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'Save for Christmas now'
People struggling with household bills are being advised to put aside cash for Christmas now. Oxford Citizens Advice Bureau is running sessions telling people how they can avoid taking out loans or having to use credit cards over the festive
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District drops hedge height case
A woman accused of failing to reduce the height of a hedge has had the case against her dropped. Barbara Wilson, of High Street, Shipton-under-Wychwood, was charged with failing to take action in accordance with a remedial notice issued under the Anti-Social
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Dog mess prosecution abandoned
A 21-year-old man accused of not clearing up mess left by his dog has had the case against him dropped. Christopher Huxham, of Jubilee Court, Banbury, was charged with not clearing up dog faeces left in a flower bed in Bridge Street in November last
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Reward offered after unlawful killing verdict
A £20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the conviction of whoever killed Kevin Lavelle at a Banbury pub in June 2004. Yesterday, Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing following an
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Life on the waterfront
A medieval property in Abingdon with mooring and fishing rights would be a dream home for anyone who wants to live on the waterfront. Number 1 Fellows Close has been the home of Brian and Jan Ulyatt, pictured right, for the last five years. They have
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£40,000 of machinery stolen from Burford Priory
Burglars have stolen grounds maintenance machinery worth more than £40,000 from Burford Priory. They got into the priory through a gate off Sheep Street between 10pm on Tuesday and 8am on Wednesday and took away two ride-on mowers, a chipping machine
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Local share prices (PM)
AEA Technology 13.5 BMW 2082 Electrocomponents 126.75 Nationwide Accident Repair 97.5 Oxford Biomedica 5.8 Oxford Catalysts 55.5 Oxford Instruments 109 Reed Elsevier 501 RM 164 RPS Group 156.5 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
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Will fusion ever produce electricity?
Only once in my lifetime has a recession had a serious impact on me. It was in the 1970s, when even a care-free Oxford physics student couldn’t help noticing that the lights had started to go out, and that much of our frantic socialising took place
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Names to disappear
TWO Oxfordshire science companies will see their names disappear under a ‘rebranding’ exercise by their blue-chip owner. Vector Fields and Culham Lightning were both spin-off companies from ‘blue-sky’ research at Government laboratories.
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THE MURDER OF CROWS
THE MURDER OF CROWS Stephen Done (Hastings Press, £8.99) Nostalgia for the railway steam era often induces a warm glow of memories of swathes of smoke and damp, smelly upholstery in the carriages. But there is nothing cosy about Stephen Done’s second
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Kids love Horrid Henry
Horrid Henry is a selfish little monster; hardly the role model one wants for one’s children. Yet kids love his un-PC antics and –— perhaps more importantly from an educational standpoint — boys like to read about him. The skill of author Francesca
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Life among the big beasts
Big beasts will be much in evidence at this year’s Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival: David Starkey, John Humphrys, Kate Adie and Steve Jones make a pretty formidable quartet for starters; but my money for the best show in town would be on
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RUGBY UNION: Baker bolsters Chinnor
Bob Baker returns to bolster Chinnor’s front row as they host Lydney in tomorrow’s crunch National 3 South clash at Kingsey Road (3). The 19-year-old prop, who started for Wasps last Sunday, will look to bring his top-flight experience to bear against
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Darwin's moral quest
This year sees a celebration of all-things Darwin, because he was born 200 years ago and because he published his epoch-making book On the Origin of Species 150 years ago, and then went on to put apes in all of our family trees with his Descent
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BADMINTON: Park cruise to title
Park, from Holton, made certain of the Division 2 title in the Oxon Five Disciplines league by swamping Evenlode B 249-154, just one point short of a maximum. Chris Wong and Amy Gilder opened with two easy mixed games, Kat Smirnova following up with
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U's cap and scarf for a tenner!
Oxford United’s club shop has announced special offer for the match at home to Histon on Saturday April 4, when a large crowd is expected. Fans will be able to buy the U’s baseball cap and a scarf for just £10 – that’s a saving of £5.58 on the normal
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Wilder's men have X-factor!
Oxford United manager Chris Wilder has likened his side’s play-off bid as being like on a reality TV show. And he believes that the U’s have what it takes to see it through. “We're confident, but we know Stevenage is going to be another big ask,” he
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Let's get it sorted!
James Constable gave his strongest hint yet that he would like to sign permanently for Oxford United after his latest two-goal super show lifted the U's to within two points of the play-off places. Ahead of tomorrow’s crunch clash away to fellow play-off
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An Old Favourite Rings True
BRANCA, WALTON STREET, OXFORD 01865 556111. HOW hard is it to stay ahead of the game, once you’ve made it? And why is it that we expect standards to slip? We chose one of Oxford’s landmark independents to prove that longevity needn’t mean complacency
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Seeing Purple
WITH deadlines being what they are, we – your intrepid reporters of-all-things-clubbing – are, I’m afraid, rather late in bringing you coverage of our St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans. There were shenanigans aplenty to be found at the Purple Turtle this
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Big Ambitions
TAKE a good look around you next week as you walk through the streets of Oxford and you are bound to see one or two famous faces. From this Sunday to Sunday, April 5, Christ Church, and other venues are hosting authors in the Oxford Literary Festival
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Oxfordshire's Iron Lady becomes a firefighter
IRON lady Sharon Wilson is blazing a trail for women. The mother-of-three, who set up her own ironing business in September last year after being made redundant from her job at Nationwide, has added another string to her bow by becoming a retained firefighter
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£40,000 raid on Burford Priory
Police are appealing for witnesses after a £40,000 burglary at Burford Priory. Burglars entered the grounds at the rear of the property from the isolated Sheep Street gate between 10pm on Tuesday night and 8am yesterday. They stole various
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Cabbages and Kings
SHE was a dead ringer for Queen Victoria, circa 1900, small and stout, dressed in black, her white hair swept back, ballooning jowls and not a smile in sight. But what she lacked in modern dress and a sense of humour, her 14-year-old twin granddaughters
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Cutteslowe community jobs at risk from council cuts
COMMUNITY workers helping children and families on a deprived estate in North Oxford could lose their jobs because of council funding cuts. For the past three years, Oxford City Council has given £10,000 to help pay for two workers at Cutteslowe Community
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Failed policies on teenage pregnancy
YOU state (Oxford Mail opinion, March 24) that “Our aim must be to reverse that trend [of teenage pregnancies]”. I agree, but continuing with a failed policy will do nothing to change the situation. In 2000, the Government launched its Teenage Pregnancy
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Transport conversion better late than never
MANY people understand the frustration of not being able to use a ticket from one bus on another operator’s services. I do understand this, and so I welcome the proposal to introduce joint ticketing in the response by Stagecoach and the Oxford
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Those who care about animals care about humans
RALPH Leavis (Oxford Mail Letters, March 11) asserts that Patricia Treadwell should apologise for her letter expressing the view that “people who care for animals also care for people”. Why on earth should she, for what she wrote is true of
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Report produces poultry puzzle
ARE these chickens wearing knitted jackets and coats (Oxford Mail, March 20) members of the Klick Klucks Klan? DAVID ROBERTSON, Beggars Lodge, Great Tew
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F1 protest rejected
The stewards of the Meeting for the Australian Grand Prix have rejected a protest lodged by Renault, Ferrari and Red Bull against the legality of the cars belonging to Toyota, Williams and Brawn GP. A wheel has yet to turn in anger in the new season
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Abingdon teen entrepreneurs tap into youth market
A GROUP of budding businessmen is offering companies relief from the recession — by tapping into the teenage market. The sixth formers from Abingdon School have formed their own company, Virtuous Media, which boasts a database of 80,000 people aged between
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Walkers step out in Carterton to celebrate Armed Forces
SERVICEMEN and women past and present put on their walking shoes to take part in a special event celebrating the Armed Forces. The group met at Carterton Leisure Centre in Broadshires Way on Wednesday for the one-mile walk, organised as part of Forces
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'Confused' designer creates clear sign for Oxford car park
A DESIGNER has called on Oxford City Council to improve its “aggressive and hectoring” car park signs. Bampton man Mark McArthur-Christie was so confused by a sign about “combination tariffs” at Oxpens car park, he launched the Design for Clarity campaign
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East Oxford man in cycle trip through Zimbabwe . . . dressed as a clown!
A BICYCLING father-of-three has packed his bags and is ready to fly out and meet feared Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe – dressed as a clown. Richard Pantlin, from Hurst Street, East Oxford, has packed his juggling balls, comedy horn and oversized
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The Heat Is On (and that's no joke)
BITE-SIZE: MALMAISON, OXFORD CASTLE 0871 996 6767. ROCKET and balsamic ice cream – was Malmaison trying to ape Heston ‘snail porridge’ Blumenthal? Perhaps mercifully, given the Michelin-starred chef’s ability to make headlines recently
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Headington subway protest hots up
RESIDENTS concerned about plans to fill in a well-used subway are preparing to quiz council officials on Saturday. Plans for Oxfordshire County Council’s next stage of the £3m London Road improvement scheme will be on show at Headington Baptist
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Damned Bootiful
THE DAMNED UNITED (15). Drama/Comedy. Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, Colm Meaney, Stephen Graham, Peter McDonald, Martin Compston, Brian McCardie, Joseph Dempsie, Mark Cameron. Director: Tom Hooper. THE beautiful game is
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Ice Cool
This is LazyTown HQ. A directline to Sportacus’ office, where good counters evil. Or is it where Magnus Scheving plans his global domination of children’s TV? Katherine MacAlister finds out... MENTION ‘Sportacus’ and most mums go all doey-eyed
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Dear John...
Performance poet John Hegley tells Katherine MacAlister he aims for ‘fluidity, vulnerability and acceptability’ – as well as taking off his ‘upper attire’. JOHN Hegley is as impossible to pigeon-hole in life as on stage. Slippery as an eel
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Sail's Pitch
HARD rock lovers, look away now! If you thought bands like Coldplay and Keane were sensitive, get a load of Starsailor. The Wigan four-piece take introspective soul-searching to a whole new level. But this bunch of softly-spoken, oh-so-emotional Northern
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Man In Black
IF HE’D stuck to his guns, Lemar Obika might have been a respected pharmacist. Perhaps even running his own high street chemist. But he just wouldn’t let his first love lie. Instead he set out to make it as a singer. Now known to millions as
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Oxford Down's charity boosted by footballing families
FRIENDS and family of children with Down’s syndrome gathered to play football and raise money for charity. On Sunday, 34 men, women and children played charity matches at Oxford City FC’s ground, in Marsh Lane, Oxford. They raised £515
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Olympiad triumph for Oxford biology students
SCIENTISTS of the future have been pitting their wits against each other in the 2009 British Biology Olympiad. Seven sixth form girls from Oxford High School in Belbroughton Road, Oxford, competed in the national competition, taking home four of the
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Robbers attack householders
Police are searching for three men after robbers slashed a woman across the face with a knife and battered a man over the head with a gun during a household raid. Shortly before 11pm last night, the men, two carrying knives and the other a
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F1 teams lodge protest
Formula One faced an early storm on Thursday after an official protest was lodged against the legality of the cars belonging to Toyota, Williams and Brawn GP. A wheel has yet to turn in anger in the new season, yet Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull all
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Local share prices (AM)
AEA Technology 13.5 BMW 2129 Electrocomponents 127.75 Nationwide Accident Repair 98.5 Oxford Biomedica 5.75 Oxford Catalyst 55.5 Oxford Instruments 109 Reed Elsevier 502.25 RM 164 RPS Group 158.75 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
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Masked raiders attack couple
Police are searching for three men following an aggravated burglary on a house in Botley. Shortly before 11pm last night three masked raiders, one carrying a gun and two brandishing knives, forced their way into a home in Crabtree Road, off
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Cyclist killed in Burcot crash
A cyclist was killed in an accident on the A415 in Abingdon Road, Burcot, last night. The 39-year-old man died after colliding with a blue Audi A3 outside the Chequers pub. He died at the scene of the accident at about 9pm. PC
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It's been a long time...
Most people said I would lose interest within six months... the digging, the withered crops, all the result of hours of back-breaking work. But quite the opposite. I return fresh with ideas, envigorated with lessons learned from last year and
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RSPB Birdwatch finds long-tailed tit resurgent in Oxfordshire
One of the prettiest and daintiest birds, the long-tailed tit, is storming Oxfordshire gardens according to this year’s record-breaking RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Numbers of this highly sociable bird almost doubled compared to last year. The increase
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A haven in urban Oxford
A woodland, hay meadow, small cornfield and a large pond teeming with aquatic life are not the first thing you expect to find deep in urban Oxford. That is, however, what Oxford Urban Wildlife Group has created at its Boundary Brook Nature Park. The
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Watch out for the bold fox
A scream in the night Foxes spend December through to February all loved-up, looking for mates. But males need to be on their toes as the vixen is only in season for a few days. When she does come into season, and she is close to a male, she will belt
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Whiter than Snow: North Wall
The storyline is an unusual one. The Frantz family consist of three short actors, and one who is normal size. They are on tour with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, trying to play all the parts between them. And if that isn’t difficult enough,
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FIXTURES March 27
SATURDAY. FOOTBALL. BLUE SQUARE PREMIER. Stevenage Borough v Oxford Utd. PUMA YOUTH ALLIANCE. Under 18 South West Conference: Oxford Utd Youth v Yeovil Tn. BRITISH GAS BUSINESS SOUTHERN LEAGUE. Premier Div: Bashley v Oxford City, Hitchin v Ban-bury
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Trouble with box balls
It’s not easy gardening ‘a deux’. You either ruthlessly get your way and feel horribly guilty, or you give way gracefully and constantly cringe at the result. Or worse still you compromise. Then no one’s happy. Margery Fish, who died in 1968, was a trendsetting
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Brawn signs clothing deal
Brackley-based Brawn GP has signed its first new commercial partnership of the 2009 Formula One season with the announcement of an agreement with British clothing manufacturer Henri Lloyd as official supplier of clothing and footwear.
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Picasso: Challenging the Past: National Gallery
Full marks to the National Gallery. In their first exhibition dedicated to Pablo Picasso they have given us something rather different. In Picasso: Challenging the Past they draw on their own and Parisian collections to pitch the greatest artist of the
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Preview: Oxford Jazz Festival
In the summer, festivals pop up all over the country like bright-faced daises. So it’s a cunning move on the part of festival organiser, Paul Jefferies, to programme Oxford’s first jazz festival well ahead of all the opposition when there’s no temptation
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Premises sell alcohol to youngsters in sting
Two out of four licensed premises in the Abingdon area failed an under-age alcohol test purchasing operation, police revealed today. In the operation on Friday, underage teenage volunteers, accompanied by undercover licensing officers, went
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Fire crews tackle blazes
Fire crews tackled a series of small blazes during the early hours of this morning, including an incident at an Oxford college. Firefighters were called to the St John’s College building in St Giles shortly before 2am after an accidental fire in a coffee
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Banbury firm wins Iraq contract
A hi-tech security firm has won a £1m contract for equipment to be used at airports in Iraq. Westminster Group based in Banbury will supply its ThruPORT scanning system within the next few months. The system is built within a specialised shipping container
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Firefighters have busy night
Fire crews tackled a series of small blazes during the early hours of this morning, including an incident at an Oxford University college. Firefighters were called to the St John’s College building in St Giles shortly before 2am after an accidental fire
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Two shops fail drink test
Two shops failed an underage alcohol test purchasing operation in the Abingdon area. The operation saw under-age teenage volunteers, accompanied by undercover licensing officers, entering licensed premises and off licences and attempt to buy alcohol
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The Plough, High Street, Witney
I wrote at the end of January about The Lamb at Satwell, and within days it had closed, along with three other eating establishments owned by Antony Worrall Thompson, whose business had been placed in administration. A week later, I visited The Plough
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The Greatest Manager England Never Had
Cracking documentary on Brian Clough on ITV last night, and at the end of it I couldn't resist the temptation to try out my best Cloughie impression. It wasn't very good, and She Who Must Be Obeyed begged me to shut up in a scenario presumably played
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The Times strips Sir Antony of his title
The Times’s report this week on the Thanksgiving Service for the life and work of Paul Scofield surprised me greatly with the inclusion among its list of attendees (sorry!) of someone called ‘Mr Antony Sher’. Don’t these Social Page wallahs realise he
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Sorry Sir Toby, the good days are over
‘Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” It is quite easy to hear an echo of Sir Toby Belch’s memorable question from Twelfth Night in the reaction of some of us liberal-minded folk to recent attempts to clamp
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Mushroom potatoes recipe (serves four)
This recipe is a great way of adding flavour to a mashed potato mix. It can work as a main vegetarian course, or as a side dish to go with main course. You will notice I have created a mashed potato shell filled with chopped mushrooms, as well as a large
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Unlikely culprit's highway robbery
Funny old business is butling. You never know what you might be called upon to do, and you may also have a yearning to live the life of whoever employs you. Take, for instance, a certain nameless butler of the early 19th century who plied his trade at
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The Damned United and Traitor
The beautiful game is full of larger than life characters – men of boundless desire, on and off the pitch, who inspire lifelong devotion from the fans. Key to any team’s success is the manager: the architect of every hard fought battle between the goal
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The many joys of the humble spud
On learning that I have pledged to eat only British food during 2009, with emphasis on local produce when possible, Richard Stanley, of Rectory Farm, Stanton St John, reminded me that I need never go hungry while farmers like him were producing
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Harmony Together: An Anglo-Japanese Orchestral Concert: The Sheldonian Theatre
An exciting event took place on Monday evening – the collaboration of two school orchestras normally separated by 6,000 miles. As part of Japan-UK 150, which marks 150 years of friendship between the two countries, students from the Tokai Gakuen High
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Firefighters use buckets of water to put out blaze
Firefighters used buckets of water to put out a fire in a tumble dryer in Greater Leys. A fire crew was called to Plover Drive at 5.02pm last night after the appliance caught alight in a ground floor kitchen. The tumble dryer was taken outside before
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Popular Oxford athletics coach dies
Athletics coach Peter Roberts has died. Mr Roberts, 65, of Blenheim Road, Kidlington, was critically injured in an accident on the Oxford ring road involving a broken down van on March 14 and never regained consciousness. Yesterday, his family agreed
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ROWING: Heavyweight Dark Blues can carry the day
Oxford are older, heavier and taller than Cambridge, but their coach Sean Bowden, involved in his 12th University Boat Race, is taking nothing for granted on Sunday (3.40pm). The Dark Blues are the heaviest crew ever at 15st 9lb per man, while Cambridge
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RACING: King in fairy-tale triumph
A family friendship led to amateur rider Rachel King posting her first winner under National Hunt Rules with a thrilling last-gasp success aboard Brer Bear at Newbury, writes Russell Smith. The 18-year-old, from Waterperry, near Thame, had known Emma
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ROWING: Oxford women lead all the way for glory
Oxford were one stone a woman lighter than Cambridge in their Boat Race at Henley but they led from the start, maintained a higher stroke rate, and won by just over a length. The Dark Blues’ new coach, Andy Green, was ecstatic. “They did me proud,”
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BADMINTON: Park secure Division 2 title
Park, from Holton, made certain of the Division 2 title in the county Five Disciplines League by swamping Evenlode B 249-154, just one point short of a maximum. Chris Wong and Amy Gilder opened with two easy mixed games, Kat Smirnova followed with a
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Academy plans unveiled
A £33M SCHEME to construct new buildings for Oxford Academy on the old Peers School site has been given the go-ahead, in the same week that it emerged that Oxford School could become the city’s second academy. Work on new buildings at the Oxford Academy
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Voting under way in Headington Hill and Northway
Voting is under way today in a city council by-election following the death of former Oxford Lord Mayor Maureen Christian. The Labour city councillor represented the Headington Hill and Northway ward. Liberal Democrat candidate Ruth
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MOTOR CYCLING: Bradley Smith is raring to go
Oxfordshire’s Bradley Smith is fully refreshed after a summer break, and has been in fine form for his new Bancaja Aspar Aprilia team in testing as the countdown to the Moto GP season continues. With just two weeks until the first race,
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CRICKET: Oxfordshire sign up ex Leicestershire seamer
Oxfordshire have snapped up former Leicestershire seamer Daniel Rowe as they prepare for a new Minor Counties Championship season. The 25-year-old was released by the Grace Road club at the end of the 2008 campaign. His capture is a timely tonic for
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Play-off odds cut - and U's announce deals on tickets
Oxford United’s odds to reach the Blue Square Premier play-offs continue to tumble. And with a grandstand finish to the season on the cards, the club have moved quickly to offer special deals on ticket prices for their remaining home games. The U’s
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Eynsham girl wins West End role
CARLY Beaver’s heart is set on becoming a star after winning a part in a West End smash hit. The 11-year-old battled through eight rounds of auditions to win a speaking part for six months in the musical Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre.
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Tuberculosis could cause a catastrophe
In the week of World TB Day, it is a crucial time for us in Oxfordshire to be thinking about this devastating disease. Figures provided to me by the Health Protection Agency (who provide statistics for the NHS) show that cases of TB in Oxfordshire
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Fast action needed to help stroke victims
A stroke can change your life in an instant. It can happen suddenly and without warning. Stroke does not discriminate, and can happen to anyone at any time. Each year, an estimated 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke, and a quarter of all strokes
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Fresh air
Efforts to clean up the environment in Oxford city centre continue apace with the news this week that the city and county councils are to declare a low emission zone (LEZ). The move has been long-awaited but there will be many disappointed that it will
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Funding skills
We are mystified by the goings-on between the Learning and Skills Council and Abingdon and Witney College over its Witney campus. In common with many of its peers, the college was progressing its £30m redevelopment under the impression that the money
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New Mazda3 arrives in May
The all-new Mazda3 range for 2009, with a 15-strong model line-up will go on sale in the UK during May. Both the hatchback and saloon bodystyles portray a more powerful and emotional design, with a richer expression and a more dynamic stance.
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Short trip, but massive journey
The first patients were already on their way. It was to be only a brief journey for them of some 200 yards, but the distance in clinical terms between the Frank Ellis Unit and Oxford’s newly-opened cancer hospital is immense. They were leaving
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Protest delayed work
Sir – Cripley Island is a small island that for many years has been unknown in the locality. It is adjacent to, and only accessible through, Cripley Meadow Allotments. It is now part of our allotment lease, and we have just secured Lottery
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Attractive investment
Sir – You might expect that the rulers of Oxford city would be proud to have in Oxford the most famous university library in the world, and would give it the support it so richly deserves. But this is Oxford where its rulers pursue their own somewhat
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Time to move on
Sir – I too, would like to thank the Summertown traffic warden who issued one of last week’s readers a parking ticket for overstaying the time limit by seven minutes — what I assume to be almost 25 per cent of their allotted time. I used to live in
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Glimpse at what academy at Peers School will look like
A £33M scheme to build the Oxford Academy on the old Peers School site has been approved by Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet and building work will begin next month. And the Oxford Mail can today offer an early glimpse of what the academy
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Chief executive of Age Concern Oxfordshire retires after 12 years
MARY Daniel may have seen Age Concern Oxfordshire expand to a £2m organisation in her time, but it is the little things that she looks back on with most satisfaction. Mrs Daniel, 63, retired yesterday as chief executive of the charity after
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Thanks Mary!
WE salute the sterling work that Mary Daniel has done to raise the profile of Age Concern Oxfordshire over the past 12 years. She has been a tireless campaigner and, as chief executive of the charity, has banged the drum for the county’s elderly, infirm
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What a lot of hot air
TODAY, we bring news of another Town Hall wheeze to make the streets of Oxford less polluted. For years, the city and county councils have argued about how best to reduce growing levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air we all breathe. And on Wednesday
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Pioneering photographer
Sir – I read with great interest your article on the Quaker photographer Francis Frith and his relevant work in the recent Oxfordshire Limited Edition. Frith was not only a traveller in the UK, but during the late 1850s went to photograph the Nile
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Far-reaching issues
Sir – Over the years I have read many reviews of concerts, theatre, films and literature with which I have disagreed. I have no problem with that. I do object however to sloppy and inaccurate reviews such as Maggie Hartford’s of Donna Dickenson’s book
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Sizeable own goal
Sir – The Bodleian Library’s authorities are said to have snubbed Oxford by choosing to build its much-needed storage centre in Swindon (Report, March 19), but who can blame them? Repeated attempts to find a site within the city or in the county as
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Centre of excellence
Sir – It’s ironic, isn’t it? Most of what we hear about Oxford University is that it is an elitist institution. Now it has initiated the distinctly anti-elitist move of establishing the Swindon Bodleian — in a town which, as far as I know, has no university
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Statue in a spin
Sir – Although I feel sure Bill Heine would give serious consideration to becoming Oxford’s first Monument Czar, it seems no invitation is forthcoming from the Oxford City Council. The photo you published to accompany Chris Walker’s article on the
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Democracy in action
Sir – The Home Bursar at Exeter College is misleading when he imputes petty time-wasting as a motive for my having ‘called in’ the siting of the Gormley statue on the Blackwell’s building on Broad Street (Letters, March 19). I am sorry the college
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Widespread denial
Sir – Paul Godwin suggests that a 50mph limit could be applied to all roads apart from motorways to save both money and fuel (Letters, March 19). A reduction of the national speed limit to 50-60mph ,including motorways (except for public service vehicles
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Meadow mess ‘appalling’
Sir – We have just been celebrating another successful OxClean weekend but, if my experience on Saturday morning is anything to go by, we might as well not have bothered. Walking past Oxpens Meadow I was appalled by the amount of litter scattered all
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Ring road litter concern
Sir – I’d like to thank all those volunteers and organisations who like me and my office staff, helped with this month’s Spring Clean of Oxford. In particular, the OxClean organisers and Oxford Civic Society deserve congratulations for organising a
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Gripping features
Sir – Once again we find the latest edition of Oxon News on our doormats. I wonder how many people in Oxford immediately consign it to the waste bin. If they do open it they will find 28 pages of the most irrelevant rubbish ever to escape from a printer
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Electric power is answer
Sir – Although I share Dr Ian East’s enthusiasm for trams (Letters, March 19), I fear that Oxford is not large enough to provide sufficient traffic to justify a viable tramway system. In theory, a city needs a population of over a quarter of a million
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Ticketing frustration
Sir – Many people understand the frustration of not being able to use a ticket from one bus on another operator’s services. I do understand this, and so I welcome the proposal to introduce joint ticketing in the response by Stagecoach and the Oxford
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Pedestrianisation must go ahead
Sir – Oxford’s main bus operators claim that the County Council’s proposals to transfer the Queen Street bus-stops to Castle Street and St Aldates are unworkable. They say instead that Queen Street could be fully pedestrianised by the end of 2010 and
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More spaces needed
Sir – I too have fallen victim to the popularity of Thornhill park-and-ride while trying to catch the Oxford Tube to London. I have given up trying to find a parking place at Thornhill and now park at Redbridge, get the park-and-ride bus in to Gloucester
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Ill-considered scheme
Sir – It seems incredible how today’s slow and expensive road works are strangling Oxford. But Tory county leader Keith Mitchell and transport supremo Ian Hudspeth still have the effrontery to claim that the bus companies proposal to introduce joint
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School choice more real for other counties
Sir – Much as it is difficult to know how to judge schools on the basis of their performance in ‘league-table’ lists, it is also difficult to know how much weight to give to the claims of success in this year’s allocation of school places (Report, March
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The best of Rioja mixed case, £113
Rioja is perfect for this time of the year. The smokiness of the wine perfectly matches dishes seasoned with herbs and the medium-bodied fruit style is perfectly suited to lamb and well-seasoned poultry. The region’s regulations demand that the
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Oxford School in secret talks over becoming an Academy - like Peers
OXFORD School is in secret talks about closing down and re-opening as the city’s second academy, the Oxford Mail can reveal. Anti-academy campaigners and unions last night said they would fight moves to change the 1,110-pupil school in Glanville
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Dirty buses face city centre ban
OXFORD city centre will be declared a ‘Low Emission Zone’ on Wednesday in a radical plan to combat worsening pollution problems across the city. It will mean only buses meeting strict European standards will be able to operate in central Oxford, in a
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The Guide gets dedicated page on Mail website
Can’t wait to get that Friday feeling? All geared up to get suited, booted and lip-glossed? Then all that’s missing is the latest inside info on where to eat, drink, laugh and be merry. And if that’s not enough – and it shouldn’t be