Archive
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Blenheim triumphs at business awards
Staff and managers at Blenheim Palace were celebrating last night after the historic site was voted the Oxfordshire Business of the Year. The World Heritage Site scooped the top honour at the Oxfordshire Business Awards in front of an audience
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Palace scoops business of the year award
STAFF and managers at Blenheim Palace were celebrating last night after the venue was voted Oxfordshire Business of the Year. The World Heritage Site scooped the top honour at the Oxfordshire Business Awards in front of an audience of more
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Blenheim triumphs at business awards
Staff and managers at Blenheim Palace were celebrating last night after the historic site was voted the Oxfordshire Business of the Year. The World Heritage Site won the top honour at the Oxfordshire Business Awards in front of an audience
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United face Leicester in friendly
Oxford United are to face Championship side Leicester City in a pre-season friendly at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday, July 24. The clash with the Foxes is their first home friendly and is followed by the visit of a Manchester United XI on Tuesday, July
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Recluse, 24, died on coldest night for decades
A MAN with autism died of hypothermia on one of the coldest days in decades, an inquest heard. Martin Reilly, 24, was suffering from malnutrition which left his body defenceless as outside temperatures plunged to -18C. Oxfordshire Coroner’s Court heard
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1,000 laps of honour in memory of Kye
SCHOOLCHILDREN hit the trail to raise cash in memory of fellow pupil Kye Sammons. Bardwell School’s 64 pupils have so far raised more than £1,000 for Helen and Douglas House, the hospice which helped care for Kye. Kye, who lived with parents John and
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Steventon family raffle banners for aid trip
A STEVENTON family raffled hand-made banners celebrating the World Cup to raise money for an aid trip to Africa. Christine Hudson-Roberts and son Joshua, seven, pictured are off to Kenya next month to help build a school from scratch as part
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Charity unveils plans to make county 'age-friendly'
A FAR-REACHING plan to transform Oxfordshire into “an age-friendly county” is being unveiled today. Oxfordshire Age UK said the county’s growing elderly population should be seen as an opportunity, not a problem. The study, being launched at Oxford’
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Man admits sex attacks from 1982
A MAN has admitted a series of sex offences against young girls near Didcot in 1982. Detectives from Thames Valley Police’s major crime review team arrested Adrian De Havilland, 45, formerly known as Adrian Goodenough, in Wigan earlier this year following
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Are you seeing red yet over interchange lights?
MOTORISTS have been warned to expect delays at the A34 Botley interchange in Oxford after ‘smart’ traffic lights were switched on. The lights are intended to ease traffic flow at the junction, but the Highways Agency, which installed the lights, said
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Thieves steal valuable bikes in city centre
A COUPLE had bikes worth more than £1,000 stolen from under the Bridge of Sighs in the city centre. The theft happened in New College Lane at 6pm on Wednesday last week. The machines taken were a man’s blue Via Nirone 7, worth £600, and a white Dolce
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Feast of fun for families at the Oxford Mail Motor show
HELICOPTER trips, pony rides and cars and bikes from a record number of dealers will be among the attractions at next week’s Oxford Mail Motor Show. Seventeen dealerships are revving up to take part in the family fun day in Cutteslowe Park, North Oxford
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Local shares (PM)
AEA Technology 19 BMW 3395 Electrocomponents 225.9 Nationwide Accident Repair 83.5 Oxford Biomedica 10.1 Oxford Catalysts 81.75 Oxford Instruments 293 Reed Elsevier 503.75 RM 169.25 RPS Group 194.3 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley
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Sex assault on girl in Henley
Police are appealing for witnesses after a teenage girl was sexually assaulted in Henley. A 16-year-old girl was walking down an alleyway on Noble Road when she was approached by a man. A police spokesman said: "The man asked for directions to Gillotts
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The car's the star
The Love Bug – or Herbie as he was more affectionately known – was the first in a series of movies made by Walt Disney Productions that starred a white Volkswagen racing Beetle. It was actually based on a 1961 book entitled Car, Boy, Girl by
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New Citroën is poised for greatness
THE reaction I received to Citroën’s sophisticated new supermini was enough to make any self-respecting automotive engineer weep. After years of research, planning and design, did people want to talk about its stylish new looks – the sweeping
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The Worst Cars Evah! Mercedes A-Class
Luxury, performance, comfort — Mercedes-Benz had built its reputation on these qualities and more over decades. Then it decided to build the A-Class. Apparently design chief Bruno Sacco told his team to tear up the rule book and think small, a word that
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LADY DRIVER: Food fight
GENERALLY speaking, girls like to shop. For many of us the urge to visit retail emporia on a regular basis is hard-wired into our DNA. But while the weekly food shopping venture is technically shopping, it cannot exactly be classed as fun. Quite apart
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My Wheels
What vehicle do you drive? One of my three classic vehicles is a Morris Eight Series Tourer manufactured in 1936. How long have you had it? Around four years. How much did it cost? Several hundred pounds and a lot more to restore it. Why
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Brave new whirrled
Most of us come up with ideas for inventions, or have hobbies we would like to develop into full-time occupations. But Phil Annets is one of the few to actually take the leap and pursue his idea into becoming reality, although he admits the economic downturn
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Publishing recruiters turn over new leaf
After spending six months in Vietnam, Sue Trafford arrived back in Oxford looking for a fresh challenge. She had kept in touch with Claire Law, a former colleague at recruitment agency Inspired Selection. Ms Law was also at a loose end, having resigned
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When will you?
Death is not a subject that many people like to discuss and consequently planning for their demise is not high on the priority list. But the fact remains that death and taxes are not only inevitable, they come hand-in-hand and that can cause a lot of
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Staying well connected
When people think of great British manufacturing, they will consider bridges, trains and cars as being among our finest examples of engineering. Sadly, thanks in part to cut-price competition from abroad, the heyday of manufacturing is long
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Walking pole to pole
Not long ago, if you had asked Jane Starling if she ever saw herself leading a team of people through the countryside equipped with special poles, then she would have thought you were mad. But when the recesssion started to bite into her business of
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Bespoke cycle hirers
Looking for a wacky idea for a hen party? How about a bike ride? It’s the latest craze for brides-to-be and their guests, according to a new Oxford bicycle business which has experienced a boom in orders, using new technology. The power of the Internet
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Race for Life sponsorship money rallying call
WOMEN from Oxford’s Race for Life events are being urged to sprint to get their money in. Three Race for Life events took place at University Parks on June 5 and 6, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for cancer research carried out in
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Plans for woodland upset residents
A ROW has broken out over a parish council’s plans to make improvements to a wood on the edge of Oxford. North Hinksey Parish Council’s has been given £19,350 to make a fen and copse near Matthew Arnold School more accessible to visitors. The council
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Lots of smiles for Doris at 100
A GREAT-great grandmother has celebrated her 100th birthday in Abingdon – and a century of living in the town. Doris Hyde, who was born in Thames Street in 1910, celebrated reaching the milestone alongside 70 friends and family at the Old Station
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Plasma Surgical
Recent innovations in surgery have centred on minimally-invasive or ‘keyhole’ approaches, or the use of robotics to aid the specialist. But the core technologies employed for managing tissue — basic operations such as cutting and coagulation — have
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History of Chiltern Railways
He played with toy trains when he was aged six and knew then that he wanted to run real trains when he grew up. That about sums up the career of Adrian Shooter, chief executive of Chiltern Railways, a company which, according to former managing director
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Phosphonics goes for gold
The ancient practice of alchemy sought to turn base metals into gold, but it also laid the foundations of modern inorganic chemistry. So the work of PhosphonicS, using inorganic substances to recover gold and other precious metals such as rhodium and
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Look for dividends
While the General Election’s historic implications continue to unfold, investors are quietly taking stock and, in what’s turning into a collective act of shrewd judgement, buying equity income stocks with increasing enthusiasm. Large-cap, ‘defensive shares
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New venture on the high seas
Why would a ship-owning company running cruises in the Mediterranean set up shop in Oxford, an English city just about as far from the sea as it is possible to get? The answer, according to David Yellow, managing director of Voyages to Antiquity, who
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Cockadoo, Nuneham Courtenay
Opening a new restaurant takes bravery these days and Allan Yeung has to be applauded for his belief that he could make a run-down pub into a successful business. Mr Yeung happened to be passing through Nuneham Courtenay one day when he saw a sign for
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Market research expansion
Chris Sinclair was watching TV adverts during peak viewing time when he realised his company, The Oxford Research Agency (Tora), had made the bigtime. “Out of the six adverts, four were for food and drink products that had come through us. It was really
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Getting on the web
Since the official start of the recession in January 2009, it has been near impossible to avoid the doom and gloom caused by its fallout. Every aspect of our lives has, in one way or another, been affected by the downturn; with mass redundancies and business
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Mini adventure
How many journalists can you get in a Mini? At a recent press day at the Cowley car factory, the answer was three. Six of the Mini ‘family’ (see below) were on show to motoring writers. It was a sunny day and my colleagues — Chris Walker of the Oxford
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Ponds and gardens services
Turning a hobby into a business sounds like an ideal way to make a living but making the dream become a reality is a different matter. There is always the problem of transforming what had been an ideal way to relax from the stresses and strains of working
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Believe in what you do
Name: Paul Scott Age: 39 Job: Managing director, Seeneys Stores, Oxfordshire Time in job: Nine years Contact: 01869 350816 Web: www.seeneyspetsupplies.co.uk What was your first job and what did your responsibilities include? My first job was
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Affordable financial control
It is widely accepted that for businesses to survive and grow there is a need for easily understood financial analysis, enabling business management to identify the best direction for the firm in terms of products and markets. With growth, of course,
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Council office sell-off
Oxford City Council is to sell office buildings in Blue Boar Street and Ramsey House in St Ebbes for an estimated £5m. The authority hopes home working and hot-desking will allow it to move staff to refurbished accommodation at Oxford Town Hall and St
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Disaster revival
The media would have us all believe that everyone is, or can be, an entrepreneur. But having a great business idea is only half the battle. Turning that idea into a sustainable business model — and one that achieves, on average, an impressive 20
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Chipping Norton Builders
It is often said that if you can get a business going when times are hard, then you will be well very placed for when times get better. Despite that, surely anyone who gets into the building game when the property market is in the doldrums
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Nuts and bolts of the festival
There can be no finer setting for a festival than Henley with its idyllic position on the riverside and the quintessentially English image of beautiful buildings and summer sunshine. But, of course, actually preparing it and making sure it runs smoothly
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Pre-nuptial agreements
Pre-nuptial agreements are not currently legally binding In England and Wales and this sets the law apart significantly from the USA and most European countries. Historically, pre-nuptial agreements have had little weight in dividing up matrimonial assets
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MEPC's silver day
Business park operator MEPC has celebrated 25 years at Milton Park by hosting a party for occupiers. Eighty senior executives from the estate attended a canapé and Champagne lunch at the Innovation Centre, home to the new offices of the MEPC onsite
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Old Swan changes hands
One of the county’s oldest coaching inns has been bought by Lana de Savary, wife of international property developer and former owner of Land’s End, in Cornwall, Peter de Savary. The de Savary family bought the 16-bedroom Old Swan, at Minster Lovell,
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Albion Land plans Network M40
Up to 450 jobs could be created near Banbury following a major land deal. Kennet Properties has sold 13 acres of its 50-acre Origin site, near Junction 11 of the M40, to developer Albion Land for £3m, in one of the first speculative land purchases since
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Farm tenancies
Two sets of farm tenancies on the market with Carter Jonas represent rare rural business opportunities. Both are sizeable plots with a combined total of almost 800 acres of mostly arable land. Chasewood Farm, Crawley, near Witney (above) is 281.85 acres
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Office moves
Theatre design house and printer John Good, which works for West End and regional theatres, arts organisations and national ballet and opera companies, has moved its head office from Witney to new offices at Court Farm Barns in Tackley, taking 3,026
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CRICKET: All set for final
npower Village Cup It promises to be a tight affair when Shipton-under-Wychwood host Cumnor in Sunday’s Oxfordshire final (1). The pair are separated by just five points in Division 1 of the MP Sports Cherwell League and dominated their semi-finals
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Didcot quartet have their sights on fame
A BOY band of 11-year-olds has swept to victory in a children’s talent contest – and now has its sights on Britain’s Got Talent. Gravity, made up of four Year Six pupils at Didcot’s Stephen Freeman School, got together for the first time to appear in
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Investors back pioneering firms
Two pioneering Oxfordshire high-tech companies have raised more than £10m to commercialise their technology. Green Biologics, of Milton Park, raised £4.9m to perfect its method of using heat-loving microbes to make biochemicals that bring down the cost
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Wantage 'ticks boxes'
The Fuelcard People, which supplies discount cards for company car users with brands such as BP, Esso and Shell, has re-located its headquarters to Wantage. General manager Steve Clarke said: “Having enjoyed success and growth ever since the company
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Woman attacked in Cowley graveyard
A robber grabbed a woman’s handbag as she walked through a graveyard in Cowley. A 26-year-old woman was walking through St James’s graveyard in Churchill Road on Tuesday when a man came up behind her and grabbed her handbag. The force
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Woman attacked in Oxford cemetery
A 26-year-old woman was knocked to the ground and her bag snatched as she walked through an Oxford cemetery. She was walking through St James’s graveyard, off Church Hill Road, Cowley, when a man came up behind her and grabbed her handbag,
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Man accused of attempted break-in
Peter Gaughan, 25, of Herschel Crescent, Littlemore, was due to appear at Oxford Magistrates' Court this morning accused of an attempted burglary in Medhurst Way on Tuesday afternoon.
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Gaughan to face burglary charge
A 25-year-old man is due to appear at Oxford Magistrates' Court this morning on a burglary rap. Police were called to a suspected burglary in Medhurst Way on Tuesday at 4.40pm. Peter Gaughan, of Herschel Crescent, Littlemore, was subsequently
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Legion marks second anniversary of repatriation ceremonies
FOR the past two years they have turned out every time a fallen hero has been brought home from the war in Afghanistan, come rain or shine. Veteran servicemen from the Royal British Legion were out in force again in Oxford last night as the
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CRICKET: Tew stars for over 50s
ECB 50+ County Championship Paul Tew played the crucial innings as Oxfordshire made it four wins from four with a five-wicket success against Shropshire at Shrewsbury. Opener Tew hit 68 to help Oxon to victory with eight overs to spare in their Group
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CRICKET: Porter to the four
ECB Women’s County Championship Oxfordshire leg-spinner Ellie Porter returned astonishing figures of 4-3 in ten overs to crush Suffolk by 74 runs at Warborough. Porter turned the Division 5 East match on its head after Oxfordshire had battled to 135
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Local share prices (AM)
AEA Technology 19 BMW 3376 Electrocomponents 219.9 Nationwide Accident Repair 83.5 Oxford Biomedica 10 Oxford Catalyst 81.75 Oxford Instruments 289 Reed Elsevier 499.1 RM 173.5 RPS Group 192.8 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley
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CRICKET: Oxford target a double
Serious Cricket Home Counties Premier League Oxford will look to record their second win at Butts Way in five days when they visit Aston Rowant in Division 1 on Saturday. Having defeated Rowant by 48 runs in Tuesday’s Bernard Tollett Oxfordshire Cup
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Science Breakfast Club
The fourth Science Breakfast Club organised by the Oxfordshire Bioscience Network (OBN) takes place on June 25. Kris Gellynck, senior scientist at Orthox will be presenting on Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering - Cells and Materials. The event takes
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Cabbages and Kings: Satisfied gran proved right
THERE he stood, 36 inches of indignation, brow furrowed, eyes fixed on the woman sitting opposite in a small Gloucester Green cafe. “I am six, Nana,” he stated. “I can go to the loo by myself!” With that he headed for the door marked
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WORLD CUP: Dad decks out home as a shrine to England
ONE football fan has turned his entire Bicester home into a giant shrine to an England World Cup victory. Father-of-two Gordon Clare, 50, started off with just two St George’s flags in the window, but his patriotic decorations have spiralled. Now his
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WORLD CUP: Ambulances called to more incidents after USA game
AMBULANCE chiefs saw a surge in call-outs after last week’s England game against the USA. The South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) Emergency Operations Centre in Bicester took 118 emergency calls between 10pm on Saturday, June 12, and 2am on Sunday
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WORLD CUP: Capello must beef up attack says butcher
BUTCHER Ian Pavier is hoping Wayne Rooney will make mincemeat of the Algerian defence in tonight’s big game. England’s top striker played so deep against the USA on Saturday that he rarely troubled their goalkeeper. But Mr Pavier, of Hedges butchers
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WORLD CUP: Algeria 'has got nothing to lose'
STAFF at a café in East Oxford are hoping for a World Cup upset tonight. Algerian-born Laid Zerouali, 48, and fellow workers at the Shisha House, in Cowley Road, are looking forward to this evening’s Group C game against England in Cape Town
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Campaigners fight second incinerator
CAMPAIGNERS against a Incinerator in Ardley have once again raised fears they could be sandwiched between two waste burners. Waste Recycling Group will submit a planning application next month to build a 300,000 tonne Incinerator at Lower Greatmoor
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Risks of imposing minimum price for alcohol
I HAVE listened to various debates regarding the proposal that to stem the most visible type of alcoholism there should be a minimum rate per unit for such beverages, thus rendering it more expensive to purchase cheap cider, lager and vodka. The objection
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Lethal oversight ended in Cumbria shootings
THE underlying psychopathic tendencies of those who hunt and shoot have been all-too-evident in the recent news of the killings in Cumbria, and over the past 30 years or more. Instead of ‘shutting the stable door’ by funding a police investigation after
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How it ended so badly for Joey
THE end, when it came, was not how anyone could have imagined it. And it was to be a sorry way for one of Oxford United’s most-loved to bow out in 2002. Joey Beauchamp had been struggling with a toe injury for months, but was forced
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CRICKET: Arnold recalled by Oxon
Minor Counties Championship Oxfordshire's leading wicket-taker, Keith Arnold, has been recalled to the side at the age of 50. The Banbury Twenty seamer, who passed the record of 670 wickets last season, comes in for Oxon’s Western Division
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Fixtures June 18
SATURDAY CRICKET SERIOUS CRICKET HOME COUNTIES PREMIER LEAGUE Div 1: Aston Rowant v Oxford, Banbury v Welwyn Garden City, Potters Bar v Henley. Div 2 West: Thame Tn v Farnham Royal. MP SPORTS CHERWELL LEAGUE Div 1: Cumnor v Horspath, Great &
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Ofsted needs some common sense
When is this country going to come to its senses and realise that you will never run a successful community on academic qualifications? I read in last Friday’s Oxford Mail that an after-school club had been warned by Ofsted that its staff did not hold
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Top-down housing demands were off target
Welcome to the coalition Government’s proposed return of planning to local planning authorities, recently confirmed in a letter to councils from Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The efforts of many local campaigners
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End the waste on transport schemes
I HAVE often felt that the highways department has wasted huge amounts of money on gratuitous transport schemes. Indeed, I have written quite a few letters to this paper on the subject. Therefore, I was relieved to read that the new coalition
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Welfare state is to blame
I REFER TO Susan Smith’s letter (Oxford Mail, June 14), about large families and benefits. I totally agree with her but don’t blame the families. It’s all the fault of our stupid welfare state. Why work when the system pays you more to sit at home
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Hopes over pioneering autism test
IF OXFORD scientists really are on the brink of developing a blood test to help diagnose autism as the Oxford Mail suggests, then I think this will prove an important breakthrough. But I hope the findings are reported sensibly and factually. We have
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Sweet-toothed thieves target service station
MOST thieves who go to the trouble of breaking into a service station tend to make a beeline for the till... but not this sweet-toothed lot. They went straight to the sweet aisle pocketing doughnuts, Jelly Tots, Kinder eggs and 80 bars of Lindt
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Riders criticise road chippings
A driving expert said resurfacing roads with chippings was the “most cost-effective” way of improving surfaces, despite criticism from motorists. The county council has applied loose chippings to nine roads in the city in the past week and
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'Chaos' as chippings put down to improve roads
A DRIVING expert last night said resurfacing roads with chippings was the “most cost-effective” way of improving surfaces, despite criticism from motorists. The county council has applied loose chippings to nine roads in the city in the past
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Tycoon donates £75m to Oxford University
A new school of government is set to be built at Oxford University thanks to a £75m donation from a Soviet Union-born philanthropist. Leonard Blavatnik has handed over the money for the new school, which would be based in the university’s new Radcliffe
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Chris Wilder: We have respect, but not any fear
OXFORD United will start the new season not scared of any opposition, but prepared to give respect. That was the message from manager Chris Wilder yesterday following the release of the fixtures for the 2010-2011 season, United’s first in the Football
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Boys hike for Bampton mum
AS PAULA Augar struggled to refill the oxygen tank she now relies on for 15 hours a day, her 14-year-old son George wanted to do something to help. So, with best friend Oscar Poole, 14, the teenagers came up with a way to raise cash for a piece
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Has anyone seen our missing owl?
THE owner of a rare owl has issued an appeal for help after the bird went missing. Gizmo, a Peruvian striped owl, escaped from his aviary between 9pm on Tuesday and 9am on Wednesday. This weekend, a female was due to join the six-month-old owl so owner
