Archive
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Joy as soldiers return home
THERE were plenty of emotional moments today as the latest group of soldiers returned home but it was extra special for two little babies. Five-week-old Cade Mason saw his father, Private Pete Mason, for only the second time, while four-month-old
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Bicester dad tells of son's horror accident
A FATHER has told of his horror at seeing his son thrown more than 10ft after being hit by a car – two months after he called for a 20mph speed limit in the road. Barry Tutt said he thought his son Leon had been killed in the accident in the street where
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Talks held on probation centre site ideas
Thames Valley Probation service managers have met Oxford City Council and Ministry of Justice officials to discuss possible locations for a new probation centre after a plan to site it at Mill Street, in West Oxford, was dropped. Five alternative locations
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'Why was killer driver freed from jail?'
THE mother of a woman killed in a car crash is questioning why the driver convicted of her death was allowed out of jail after two years. Nolan Haworth, 21, was jailed for four years at Oxford Crown Court in September 2006 for causing Dr Margaret
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RUGBY UNION: Blues beaten by Gael Force
Oxford University director of rugby Steve Hill hailed his players’ encouraging display despite losing their opening tour match 27-20 to Gael Force at Murrayfield today. Hill said their opponents, who are a combined Edinburgh and Glasgow A team, were
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RUGBY UNION: Internationals mark centenary dinner
Oxford RFC’s centenary celebrations gather pace on Friday with a celebration dinner at St Edmund Hall. Former internationals Ollie Waldron (Ireland) and Geoff Windsor-Lewis (Wales) are the main speakers at what the club hope will be a memorable
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ROWING: Houghton's now aiming at Lodon 2012
Oxfordshire's Frances Houghton has decided to return to the rigours of international rowing. After competing at three Olympic Games, in which she won silver medals in Athens and Beijing, plus landing three world championship golds and a world under 23
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The Pope set to visit Oxford
THE Pope is set to visit Oxford as part of the first Papal visit to Britain in 30 years, it was reported tonight. Pope Benedict XVI will become only the second Pontiff to visit Britain since the reign of Henry VIII, say Government sources.
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Driver killed in smash
A 30-year-old man died after a car crash in Banbury today. Police are appealing for witnesses after a silver Ford Focus travelling along Horton View, towards Oxford Road, collided with a burgundy Nissan Almera before ending up on a grass verge
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RUGBY UNION: Boar oust Littlemore
Last season’s runners-up, Blue Boar, defeated Littlemore 32-7 in the preliminary round of the Oxfordshire Shield. Boar will now face Oxford in round one, while holders Abingdon face a tricky preliminary round trip to Alchester. Oxfordshire Cup holders
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RUGBY UNION: Baker shining at Wasps
Bob Baker has started this season where he left off the last campaign – in the Wasps’ matchday squad. The 20-year-old prop, who came through the ranks at Chinnor and featured for them last season, has been on the bench in each of Wasps’ three Guinness
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Hundreds queue up for a bargain as 99p Store opens
MORE than 300 people queued outside a new discount store in Cowley to pick up the best 99p bargains – including a 17-piece tea set. The recession-busting 99p Stores chain opened a new branch today at Templars Square shopping centre in the former Woolworths
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Donald Hamilton Fraser
The artist Donald Hamilton Fraser, who died aged 80 on September 2, had more than 70 one-man exhibitions in his lifetime. The exhibition at Inspires Art Gallery, in Little Clarendon Street, was planned several months before his death, which makes for
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Oxford Coffee Concert: Holywell Music Room
included in the Oxford Coffee Concert last Sunday, superbly performed by Gemma Rosefield and Ashley Wass, were intensely moving. The Cello Sonata and the Sonatina for solo piano both date from 1949. They are sombre, melancholy pieces containing dark,
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Rigoletto: ENO, the London Coliseum
As with WNO’s 31-year-old production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, which is heading for Oxford again later in the year, Jonathan Miller’s celebrated 1950s New York mafia ‘take’ on Verdi’s Rigoletto, first seen in 1982, remains in the repertoire of English
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Le Grand Macabre: London Coliseum
There is nothing remotely English about Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre as staged at English National Opera by Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus, and I mean that in the best way possible. Despite the laidback flirtation with obscenity undertaken by
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Giant culverts go in to stop city floods
THE widening of a drain to ease a flooding bottleneck in Oxford has been hailed by campaigners as “like making a hole in a dam”. Three giant culverts were yesterday lowered into place at the Hinksey Drain in Redbridge to ease a long-standing
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Residents want action to curb 'student ghettos'
STUDENTS are being blamed for bringing about “the disintegration” of communities by Oxford residents’ groups. Campaigners meeting at All Saints Church, Headington, tonight are to propose a plan to stop the spread of student “ghettos” which
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Restaurant expands
AN OXFORD restaurateur is expanding as he looks to bounce back after losing everything in a failed venture. Max Mason this week opened a second floor to his Big Bang sausage restaurant in Walton Street, after borrowing £40,000 from his parents, Robert
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Donations date back 63 years
A LOT has changed since the first drops of blood were taken from donors more than 60 years ago. The National Blood Service has been running longer than the NHS and it celebrates its 63rd birthday this year. Started in 1946, the Blood Transfusion Service
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Formula one relief
THE Renault F1 team has confirmed it will remain in the sport, allaying fears of more than 500 workers at its Enstone headquarters who feared for their jobs in the wake of the Singapore race-fix scandal. The commitment came in documents submitted by
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City councillor bids for Parliamentary nomination
A CITY councillor is in the running to be a Labour candidate in next year’s General Election — in a constituency 250 miles away in Cumbria. Cowley Marsh ward councillor and executive member for safer communities Saj Malik, who defected from
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BOWLS: Lambourne lifts champions' title
Shiplake star Barry Lambourne captured Oxfordshire’s Champion of Champions title with a 21-17 win over holder Mark Sykes in the final at Oxford City & County. With the pair locked together at 11-11 after 15 ends of the 24-end decider, Lambourne
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BOWLS: County duo in pairs triumph
Oxfordshire's Nick Rae-Welsh and Howard Watts captured the Home Counties Champion of Champions pairs title at Croydon. The Headington duo had a frustrating wait after their semi-final opponents failed to turn up before beating Bucks pair Ray Gaskins
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Adrian moves up the ladder
Adrian Wraight has been promoted to the position of associate director at Headington estate agents Scottfraser. Mr Wraight, who has more than 15 years agency experience in Oxford, has been with the company since it started trading in 2005.
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GOLF: Bolton faces operation
Promising junior Sandy Bolton will have an operation tomorrow on the injured hand that forced him to pull out of the English County Champions Tournament. The 17-year-old from Abingdon suffered a freak injury at home when a patio door slammed into his
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GOLF: Tadmarton march on
Tadmarton Heath marched on at the top of Section 1 in the Shaw Gibbs Oxfordshire Foursomes League after beating Frilford Heath 2-1. Owen King and Mark Hughes, playing his last match before emigrating to New Zealand, bagged a 4&3 victory over John Summers
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Power station upgrade cuts carbon emissions
A £60m project at Didcot power station to boost capacity enough to power an extra 160,000 homes has been completed. The year-long project at the gas-fired Didcot B plant will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The major upgrade to the station, which
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Oxford swine flu trial will use babies
PAEDIATRICIANS at Oxford Children’s Hospital are looking for 250 children, including babies, to take part in a swine flu vaccine trial. They are planning to enrol children aged six months to 12 years for trials of two different vaccines due
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Bicester barman gets blue and yellow birthday treat
A PUB turned into a sea of yellow and blue for a fundraising Oxford United day featuring members of the league-topping squad. The White Hart, in Sheep Street, Bicester, put on the event to mark barman Jamie Parker’s 33rd birthday and help raise cash
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Gripping account of Jim's gay old times
With the possible exception of those of novelist Evelyn Waugh, the diaries of James Lees-Milne, published in 12 volumes between 1975 and 2005, have afforded me greater pleasure than any other exercise in the literary genre. (I still await, though, the
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Loans to improve over-60s’ property go on offer
OLDER homeowners can now apply for loans to make their property warmer and safer. New front doors, bathroom improvements and boilers are among the improvements that can be paid for with cash from Oxford City Council. It has joined the Government’s
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Local shares (PM)
AEA Technology 30.75 BMW 3064 Electrocomponents 155.75 Gladstone 24.75 Nationwide Accident Repair 85.5 Oxford Biomedica 10.75 Oxford Catalysts 63 Oxford Instruments 197.5 Reed Elsevier 481.5 RM 153 RPS Group 232.1 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley
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Succulent chickens roam free on farm
I expected to find poultry farmer Paul Sykes working among his chickens when I arrived at Westmill Farm. Instead, he was waiting patiently with Molly his dog who stays at her master’s side throughout the working day, living a life most dogs can only dream
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ICE HOCKEY: Duo bag trebles as Stars bag double
Shannon Taylor and Darren Elliott both hit hat-tricks as Oxford City Stars achieved an impressive double, thumping Peterborough 14-2 and edged out Bracknell Hornets 4-3 over the weekend. Stars travelled to Peterborough on Saturday without Dean Francis
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The Fleece, Witney
Though my birthdays seem these days rather more a cause for commiseration than celebration, the excuse for a good dinner, which this increasingly dismal anniversary supplies, is not one that should be shunned. Of course, when one writes a column
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ATHLETICS: Ace Fernandez warms to the task
Abingdon Amblers’ Paul Fernandez led home the Oxfordshire contingent as he finished second in Sunday’s Woodstock 12 at Blenheim Park. In extremely warm conditions, the race was won by Serpentine RC’s Darren McNeeley, who clocked an impressive 1hr 9mins
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BAR BILLIARDS: Oliver is knocked out at first hurdle
Holder Alan Oliver was sent crashing out of the Oxford & District League’s men’s individual competition at the first hurdle as he was beaten 2-0 by Mark Trafford at the Gladiators Club, writes PETE EWINS. Trafford scored 11,210 (break 8,300) in the first
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Roast guinea fowl recipe, serves four
Guinea fowl tastes great when cooked with mushrooms, chestnuts, bacon, apple and herbs, and makes for a perfect casserole as slow cooking in liquid ensures sweet tender meat. Its slight gamey flavour is far less assertive than pheasant or grouse and its
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Witney teen appeals for help to achieve modelling dream
A TEENAGER who dreams of becoming a top model has appealed for help to reach her goal. Sophie Wiesztort, 16, has got through to the heats of beauty pageant Miss Teen Queen UK and she now needs to secure enough votes to get her through to the
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The Soloist
right place at the right time. The Soloist is an inspirational true story about a musical prodigy crippled by schizophrenia, who unexpectedly gets a second chance at his dreams thanks to an influential journalist. The fractious relationship between the
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The Green Man: Stone Gallery, Burford
No doubt artist Brien O’Rourke’s love of T. S. Eliot’s poetry inspired the titles for some of his latest oil paintings, while his fascination with ancient Green Men and women’s faces and figures influenced its subject matter. Brien is showing a dozen
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The Creation: Dorchester Abbey
Cricket whites on Dorchester village recreation ground, with long shadows and autumn tints in the background. The scene would have particularly suited Haydn’s Seasons, but it also seemed an ideal prelude to a performance of The Creation in Dorchester
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High School Musical 2: New Theatre, Oxford
There are many reasons for adults to hate the High School Musical franchise (most of these reasons flower like a particularly spiky cactus in the first five minutes of this stage version of the second film). However, if your stomach is strong then
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The Stripper: Milton Keynes Theatre
It’s an impressive record: Richard O’Brien created The Rocky Horror Show in 1973, and it’s since become a money-spinning phenomenon like no other, even acquiring a dress code for audience members. Among forbidden items of clothing are “sandals, anoraks
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The Gruffalo: Oxford Playhouse
With The Gruffalo described in the publicity material to be “scary fun for children aged three to 300”, I considered myself to be — for once! — among the younger element in the stalls of the Playhouse on Tuesday. Mind you, many of those around me were
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Daniel Kitson: Oxford Playhouse
Next week, stand-up Daniel Kitson takes his show We Are Gathered Here (a meaningless title — why do they bother?) to Australia. On his website, he writes, pleadingly: “I’ve never ever been to Perth, so have sold something like three tickets in a 12,000
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Louis Gunter: mastermind of Morrells' ales
THE man whose brewing skills guided former Oxford brewery Morrells for years has died at the age of 93. Head brewer Louis Gunter was taken on at the now defunct Lion Brewery in St Thomas Street in 1937, after an introduction by an old school friend.
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Witney's shopping expansion is on
TRADERS have been assured that a mult-million-pound expansion project in Witney will go ahead, despite no date being set for work starting. Developers behind Witney’s Woolgate Centre said in March that the scheme would start this September.
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French connection is back on track
WALLINGFORD is “back in bed” with its French twin town and ready to renew the relationship. Former mayor Alex Hayton, who earlier this year approached the Brussels-based Council for European Municipalities and Regions to end the French connection
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Pub scoops garden award
WINDOW boxes and hanging baskets full of colourful flowers are one of the biggest assets of a popular riverside pub in Oxford. That’s the view of Martin Gormley, the assistant manager of the Head of the River in St Aldate’s. Last week
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TEST
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Grieving couple raise money for memorial
A COUPLE who started a £10,000 appeal to build a children’s memorial in a cemetery have unveiled a statue in memory of their daughter. Karen and Neil Hancox were left devastated after their baby Kayleigh was stillborn in November 2007. Last summer,
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Bikers flock to Berinsfield road safety event
HUNDREDS of bikers rode out in the late-summer sunshine to a road-safety day in south Oxfordshire. Experienced motorcyclists joined forces with representatives of the county council, the fire service and Thames Valley Police for the event at
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Chilton primary judged outstanding
OFSTED inspectors have rated Chilton County Primary School ‘outstanding’ for the first time. Two inspectors visited the 220-pupil school in July, and described standards and teaching as ‘consistently high’. One pupil was quoted as telling inspectors
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42 things about Chris Wilder...
Oxford United’s manager today celebrates his 42nd birthday, so we put that number of questions to the man masterminding the U’s super season . . . 42 things that you never knew about Chris Wilder AS A PLAYER 1 What do you think you would be doing
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Girls' school head vows to improve discipline and Ofsted rating
THE new headteacher of a girls’ school has vowed to improve discipline and boost its Ofsted rating. Didcot Girls School governors have appointed Belgian national and former deputy headteacher Fernand Dierckens, 44, to take the reins at Oxfordshire
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Kidlington and Littlemore end all Square (Under 10 Blue League )
In a very entertaining game Kidlington took the lead after two minutes when Ciaran Murphy scored from just inside the penalty area. Ryan Hughes added a second when he scored from close range. Littlemore took control of the game and pulled a goal
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Power station upgrade finished
A multi-million pound plan for Didcot Power Station will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced at the plant. Work on the £60 million year-long project at the Didcot B site has been completed and will boost the station’s capacity to power an extra
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Power cut closes school
A power cut has closed a comprehensive school in Didcot this morning and has affected a small number of homes in the area. St Birinus School, in Mereland Road, has been forced to close for the day as Southern Electric staff try to reconnect customers
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Oxford United boss so proud despite defeat
Chris Wilder said he was proud of his players as they showed what they are really made of – despite going down to their first defeat of the season. The U's were beaten 2-1 at Mansfield, to lose for the first time away in the calendar year, and for the
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Friends are in mourning for Aaron
FRIENDS of a teenage Oxford United fan killed in a motorway crash last night paid tribute to “an amazing person”. Aaron Waller, of Thorney Leys, Witney, was driving a blue Renault Clio back from Southend-on-Sea, in Essex, at 7am on Saturday
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Tributes left to biker Ian
A SINGLE red rose fixed to a wooden cross, above, has marked the spot where Bicester motorcyclist Ian Blake, below, was killed in a crash. The 47-year-old died riding a blue Suzuki in Wretchwick Way at the junction with Peregrine Way, on Saturday afternoon
