A FEW eyebrows might have been raised when Oxford United manager Chris Wilder, pictured, said that he didn’t get in until 4am the night before the OX5 Run at Blenheim Palace on Sunday.

But the U’s manager was actually taking the race seriously – and went home when others from the club were still enjoying a night out.

After seeing his side draw 0-0 at Cheltenham the previous afternoon, Mr Wilder – with several other officials and players from the club – raced back to attend a fundraising ball for United’s youth set-up.

And when the party was in full flow – all in the name of charity – Mr Wilder decided he should beat a retreat and go home, especially as he realised that the clocks went forward an hour too.

So credit that he was at the start line on time and completed the course in one piece to help Oxford’s Children’s Hospital.

Yes, election season is upon us. So residents in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse will be getting a bit nervous given the polling and postal vote blunders of recent years.

But they can rest easy.

The Insider can reveal there will be no such problems this May... because there are no elections in either district until 2015.

HARD-BITTEN Cotswold Line commuters could be forgiven for having a sense of deja vu about the imminent return of Class 180 Adelante trains to the route after a three-year absence.

In the April issue of Modern Railways magazine, train operator First Great Western’s managing director Mark Hopwood says that apart from one morning peak service “everything on the Cotswold Line from Monday to Friday will be a High Speed Train or a 180; it turns it into an InterCity railway”.

This bit of spin rang a bell with the Insider’s spy on the Cathedrals Express and some detective work on FGW’s old website, now in suspended animation on the Internet, uncovered a press release about the service improvements included in the company’s December 2004 timetable, which promised: “The new 125mph Adelante trains will operate the majority of services between London Paddington and the Cotswold Line, delivering InterCity quality and comfort to the route throughout the day.”

Nice to see FGW doing its bit for recycling.

One county councillor appeared to take social networking a bit far last week. Conservative Arash Fatemian, the cabinet member for adult social services, is an avid tweeter and is passionate about talking to the people.

But he raised a few eyebrows when he sent out this invitation on Twitter: “In bath and got an hour to kill. Holler if you want to grab a coffee.”

Not sure how many takers Mr Fatemian got as a result but it wins the prize for innovation in councillor surgery location.

Or he may have just failed to capitalise the ‘B’.