Archive
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Heavy snow sparks further chaos
Britain is enduring more snow and sub-zero temperatures at the start of another week of bitterly cold weather. Snow swept across southern Scotland during the day on Monday, disrupting air, rail and road travel, and is forecast to move into northern
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Four taken to hospital after Abingdon brawl
Police are appealing for witnesses after four men needed hospital treatment following disorder outside a pub in Abingdon. The incident happened at about midnight on Friday following a drum and bass night at the Ox pub in Oxford Road. There were
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Witney FC loses drinks licence
Witney United Football Club has been stripped of its right to sell alcohol after police took action over alleged violence, drugs and underage drinking. West Oxfordshire District Council revoked its premises licence today after Thames Valley
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Play centre marks year with 100 cakes
YOUNGSTERS and parents polished off more than 100 cup cakes to celebrate the first anniversary of a Bicester play centre. Amanda Frolich took over the former Mad Hatters/Zoom property in Murdock Road last year and spent £15,000 turning it into Amanda
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Fire at Banbury food firm
Coffee residue ignited and started a fire at Kraft Foods in Ruscote Avenue today. Firefighters were called to a silo on the fourth floor of a utilities building that processes coffee at about 8.20am. An investigation is underway. No-one was hurt.
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Witney FC loses booze license
WITNEY United Football Club has been stripped of its right to sell alcohol after police took action over alleged violence, drugs and underage drinking. West Oxfordshire District Council revoked its premises license today after Thames Valley Police sought
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Bob's our Face in the Crowd winner
THIS week’s Oxford Mail Face in the Crowd winner scooped the jackpot on a trip to Oxford United’s match with the family at the weekend. Bob Perry, 63, from Begbroke, was at Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Barnet with nine other members of his family. Our
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Trafficking put under spotlight
HUMAN trafficking has come under the spotlight in Oxford after the county’s first conviction for the crime was secured against two pimps. Campaigners from Oxford Community Against Trafficking (OXCAT) now believe there is a wider trafficking
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Game's on at last for Helen
A SPECIAL games suite inspired by a teenager who is unable to control her limbs, has been launched at an Oxford hospice. Helen Oakley has been a visitor to Helen House, in Magdalen Road, East Oxford, since she was a toddler. The 14-year-old suffers
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Lottery winner's festive boost for children's hospital
A LOTTERY winner has brought the gift of Christmas cheer to sick children at the Oxford hospital where she and her three children were born. Charmaine Watson, from Eynsham, was a single mother living on benefits when she scooped £2.3m on the National
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Staff foil knife raid on Banbury shop
Police are appealing for information after an attempted robbery at a shop in Banbury on Friday evening. At about 5.45pm on friday, a man entered the A&Y Grocers in Broad Street carrying a knife and demanded the member of staff opened the till.
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The Shape of Things: Burton Taylor Studio
The Shape of Things is an entertaining and intriguing 90-minute play, first seen in 2001 and subsequently turned into a successful film directed by its writer, Neil LaBute. It addresses the question of how we see ourselves and, as important, how
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Addy Gardner: Art Jericho
Oxfordshire painter Addy Gardner has created a substantial exhibition of 44 works, most from the last year and drawn in the main from Oxfordshire’s landscapes. She works in oils, using sand in some pieces to add texture and depth, both of which are clear
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Josie Long: The Wheatsheaf
Josie Long has slowly built her stand-up reputation as the antidote to most of the successful comics treading the boards. Hopeful, when others are despondent; optimistic when most are bathing their audience in cynicism. And, for want of a much better
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Rapunzel or the Magic Pig, Creation Theatre Company, the Mirror Tent, the Mini Plant, Oxford
Creation Theatre Company has come up with a brilliant idea. Instead of keeping their new version of Rapunzel moored in its native Germany, they’ve set it in Tuscany. That gives an altogether warmer glow to the proceedings — a glow aided by remarkably
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Wallace wins BRDC award
Former Oxford racing driver Andy Wallace took a top accolade at the British Racing Drivers’ Club Annual Awards. Wallace and Mike Newton were presented with the Woolf Barnato Trophy as the highest-placed finishing British and/or Commonwealth driver, in
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Local shares (PM)
AEA Technology 5.45 BMW 5397 Electrocomponents 278.2 Nationwide Accident Repair 96.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.25 Oxford Catalysts 60 Oxford Instruments 598.5 Reed Elsevier 517.25 RM 153 RPS Group 239.4 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
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Barrichello wins top award
Grove-based AT&T Williams team driver Rubens Barrichello has won the prestigious Gregor Grant prize at the Autosport Awards. Held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the British motorsport industry’s annual awards evening last night honoured
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Man, 80, scares off burglars
Police are appealing for information after a burglary in Faringdon where burglars were scared off by the elderly homeowner. Between 11.30pm yesterday and midnight, burglars forced their way into a house in Westland Road. PC Fran Griffin said: “
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Crash partly blocks A40
A crash partly blocked the A40, near Wheatley, this afternoon. Reports say a single vehicle has struck the central reservation, partially blocking the eastbound carriageway, before the M40.
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Blind swimmer goes the distance for troops
BLIND swimmer John Breckenridge will swim 64 lengths of his local pool later this month to raise money for injured soldiers. Mr Breckenridge, 51, is no stranger to charity swims. In the summer he swam 50 lengths of Kidlington and Gosford Sports
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Headington hairdresser burgled
Police are appealing for information after a shop in Headington was burgled. Between 6pm on Friday and 8.30am on Saturday, burglars forced their way into the Cut ‘N’ Create hairdressers in London Road. Once inside, they stole £349 in cash, money
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Scales of justice
DIDCOT Adrian Lear, 38, of South Street, Blewbury, convicted of receiving stolen goods, namely a wallet and credit cards, between February 22 and March 20 in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. Fined £100, a £15 victims’ surcharge and £350 costs. Daniel Butterworth
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Lighting up for Christmas
OXFORDSHIRE residents’ eyes lit up as their Christmas lights were switched on for the festive season. Alvescot Road, Carterton, was filled with stalls for the event on Friday and residents enjoyed a fun fair in the town library’s car park and music from
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RUGBY UNION: Varsity Match promotional video
Click on the link below to view the video One of the longest rivalries in rugby and sport will be settled, for this year at least, at Twickenham on Thursday December 9th 2010. With the line-ups for the Nomura Varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge
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'We're becoming a Ghost Town'
THERE are fears that Wantage is turning into a ghost town, because of the amount of services being lost. Councillors say the town has a “battle on its hands” after it faces losing more key public facilities, councillors say. In recent years, the town
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Film by troops' children shown at Imperial War Museum
IT is hard for any child to be away from their parents at Christmas. But it is particularly hard when those mums and dads are in a warzone on the other side of the world. Pupils at Carswell Primary School in Abingdon are all too familiar with this situation
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Monday, December 6: Fraudster wanted
A WOMAN who is wanted for fraud is lurking behind the door of today’s criminal countdown. Themboni Masuku features in the Oxford Mail’s Badvent Calendar, which is bringing Oxfordshire’s wanted criminals under the spotlight. Police hope to round all
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It’s all change on the Botley skyline
BOTLEY is bracing itself for change after plans for 130 new homes were submitted and a proposal for an iconic £3m ‘armadillo’ shaped church and student flats were approved. Bovis Homes has lodged an outline planning application to build 78 private houses
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Local share prices (AM)
AEA Technology 5.4 BMW 5446 Electrocomps 273.4 Nationwide Accident Repair 95.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.35 Oxford Catalyst 59.75 Oxford Instruments 599.75 Reed Elsevier 522.25 RM 153.5 RPS Group 239.7 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
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THOMSON MURDER TRIAL: Jurors told of forensic failures
A FORENSIC scientist told a retrial over the 1995 killing of Vikki Thompson it was “quite possible” new blood stain evidence was missed for the first case. Rosalind Hammond told jurors that the stains, alleged to be on murder accused Mark Weston’s boots
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Mini sales rise slighty
UK sales of the Cowley-built Mini rose slightly in November, bucking the national trend. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show a total of 3,117 cars were registered during the month, compared to 3,097 for the same month
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Jurors told science has ‘moved on’
A FORENSIC scientist told a retrial over the 1995 killing of Vikki Thompson it was “quite possible” new blood stain evidence was missed for the first case. Rosalind Hammond told jurors that the stains, alleged to be on murder accused Mark Weston’s boots
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A34 LAYBY DEATH: Investigations continue
A DRIVER was killed after a car crashed into a parked lorry and caught fire. The green Ford Focus struck the Renault lorry that was parked in a layby on the northbound A34, between Islip and Kidlington junctions, at about 5.20am yesterday.
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RESULTS: December 05/06
RESULTS OFA John Fathers Junior Shield 3rd round: Freeland 3, Heyford Athletic 1; Thame Tn 4, Glory Farm 1. Berks & Bucks Intermediate Cup 3rd round: Reading YMCA 7, Childrey Utd 1; Highmoor/Ibis Res 5, Harwell International Res 2. OFA Under 16
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FOOTBALL: Coleman brace boosts Banbury
Weymouth 2 (Hollran 52, 84) Banbury United 4 (Coleman pen 4, 34, Staff 12, Martin 56) A double from Joe Coleman earned Banbury their fourth Premier Division away victory of the season against ten-man Weymouth on Saturday. The game went ahead after
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Injured council member has to go
A FOOT injury proved, quite literally, to be the Achilles’ heel of a sacked councillor. Mike Green only had to attend one meeting in six months to keep his seat on Wantage Town Council. But the Liberal Democrat snapped a tendon in his heel playing badminton
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Think again
THANK you for your support in the campaign to keep our libraries open. As you quite rightly say in your editorial “it is impossible to over-estimate the importance of our public libraries”. As well as all the usual services, they now
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Cynical decision
DURING the Second World War, when the Royal Navy was sustaining appalling losses evacuating British forces from Crete, Admiral Cunningham silenced those who wished to abandon the troops with the remark that it takes three years to build a ship but 300
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Headington United heroes ready for action
OXFORD and Headington United supporters of long-standing will no doubt remember some of these faces. They were among the 14 players who took to the field at the start of the 1958-9 season, just before Headington United became Oxford United. The pictures
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Developers submit plans to demolish pub
A PLAN has been submitted to knock down The Cavalier pub in Oxford to make way for flats, two years after its former landlord urged punters to “use it or lose it”. Developer I&O Ltd has applied for planning permission to demolish the vacant 1950s Copse
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‘Bring in US-style drug-driver tests’
AN OXFORDSHIRE police officer wants to bring US-style checks for drug-driving to Britain after two weeks’ training with California’s Highway Patrol. Oxford-born Pc Bob Merrill says his ability to spot drug-drivers has improved after learning about US-style
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MAN ABOUT TOWN: Humour wins hands down
THERE was a lot of wit and humour on show in Oxford last week and what a better city it was for it. After all, who couldn’t help but raise a salute to those students who, having learned that county council leader Keith Mitchell had branded them an “ugly
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Officer class
WHY does everyone have to be an officer? A police constable is a police officer, a prison warder is a prison officer and an office clerk is a clerical officer. What next? An ordinary, private soldier calling himself an Army officer? KEN HILL, Trinity
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Who will help us?
I READ in the papers that our national debt is £1,300 for every man, woman and child in this country and yet the Government is still giving millions in aid to other countries who have disasters. To top it all, they have agreed to put £7bn towards the
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Teaching truths
IT would be wrong to assume that those with the best academic qualifications make the best teachers. The truth is that those teachers, when students, who had difficulty understanding the more technical subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry
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Library closure plan ‘driven by ideology’
Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell cries crocodile tears as he announces that 20 of our county’s much-loved public libraries face closure. Behaving like some Burmese military dictator, he arrogantly tells us that us that it’s no use us
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Scouts taken from hospital to camp in lorry
CAN you imagine this happening these days? The health and safety brigade would have a fit. The 8th Oxford (Highfield) Scouts were doing a favour to their less fortunate colleagues. Members of the Scout troop at the Wingfield-Morris Hospital at Headington
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The changing face of Sandford
DAVID and Kim Harris were determined to liven up the Catherine Wheel pub when they took it over in 1984. They had been involved in amateur dramatics for years and planned to hold regular music hall evenings and shows. They are pictured below with guitar-playing
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Church children's guild was good fun
WHO remembers the Queen Victoria Guild? It was the name given to the children’s service held on Sunday afternoons at St Michael at the Northgate Church, in Cornmarket Street, Oxford. Reader Myrtle Cracknell writes: “In the 1940s, families still lived
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Wheatley Park dramas were class act
STAFF and pupils at Wheatley Secondary School produced a series of successful stage shows. The annual productions in the 1950s reached a high standard, thanks largely to the efforts of drama teacher Gerard Gould and music teacher Jeffery Babb. Former
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School rugby team enjoyed unbeaten season
THIS rugby team from the City of Oxford High School enjoyed a hugely successful season. The first XV finished the season unbeaten in 1944, winning 13 and drawing two of its 15 matches, with 352 points for and 87 against. The picture
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COMMENT: Weighty issue
WHILE 36-year-old Fabia Cerra may not be the front runner in the search for the face of Oxford Fashion Week, judges should take her point about size zero models on board. The auditions on Saturday saw a good range of body shapes vie to represent the
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Search for the face of fashion week begins
DOZENS of would-be-models took to the catwalk on Saturday in the hope of becoming the next face of Oxford Fashion Week. Organisers are looking for just one model to become this year’s fashion pin-up, setting them on the road to a professional
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Wilder hails United spirit
Chris Wilder hailed the character of his Oxford United players after they came from behind to clinch victory – for the second game running. Trailing at the break against Barnet on Saturday, an own goal from Anwar Uddin and James Constable
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COMMENT: A review could bring nasty shock
AS IF paying council tax was not enough of a headache, we report today on the absurd situation facing residents in one Oxford street. Some are paying £350 more than those just a stone’s throw away in identical houses. Yet those in charge of valuing
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Neighbours' council tax bill shock
HOW would you feel if your neighbour, living in an identical house, was paying £350 less in council tax a year? That is the situation facing residents in an Oxford street who have discovered they are in three different council tax bands despite
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FOOTBALL: Didcot’s miserable run continues
Salisbury City 4 (Reid 26, 71, Kelly 42, Heapy 47 og,) Didcot Town 2 (Osborne-Ricketts 55, Dutton-Black 83) Didcot’s winless run stretched to nine Premier League games with defeat at the title-chasers. A snow-clearing operation meant the match
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Oxford Utd 2 Barnet 1 (4/12)
James Constable came off the bench to help United to victory over Barnet. His battling, bustling style brought the U's an equaliser after they trailed at half-time. And then he drilled in a winner seven minutes from time, beating Jake
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Sub-zero temperatures return to UK
Sub-zero temperatures will return to the UK following a brief reprieve from the freezing weather, forecasters warned. Sunny spells graced many parts of the UK on Sunday enabling snow to thaw. But the arctic temperatures returned with a vengeance
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Out to impress
Leading scorer James Constable revealed how he was desperate to make his mark after helping to turn defeat into victory for Oxford United on Saturday. The bustling striker proved the difference when he came off the bench in the second half and promptly
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Housebuilder’s city HQ will create 100 jobs
UP to 100 jobs will be created after a major housebuilder unveiled plans to open a new regional headquarters in Oxford. The Galliford Try Group, which trades as Linden Homes, has already set up a temporary base in Abingdon and is now looking for suitable
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Businessman’s close shave in aid of charity
A BUSINESSMAN who has had his beard for 10 years has shaved it off all in the name of charity. Simon Biltcliffe, who runs printing firm Webmart, in Wedgwood Road, Bicester, had his beard shaved off to raise cash for Macmillan Cancer Support and the Starlight
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Developers home in on town views
HOUSEHOLDERS have been given a glimpse of plans for a huge housing development that will boost their town’s population by a third. A public exhibtion showing part of Didcot’s 3,300-home Great Western Park development was held by housebuilders Taylor
