Archive

  • Supporters slam claims

    Supporters group OxVox have hit back at claims by the Conference that they have received “unwarranted abuse” from football trusts unhappy at the way they have conducted their internal review. The review into the organisation and procedures at the Birmingham

  • FOOTBALL: Ford demands City response

    Assistant manager Mike Ford says Oxford City have to show their mettle and not play “like a bunch of children” when they travel to his old side Bedford Town in the British Gas Business Southern League Premier Division on Tuesday night. It

  • Council backs rival ecotown plan

    Councillors backed their own plan for a rival ecotown to the proposed Weston Otmoor scheme despite a stormy meeting tonight. Cherwell District Council's executive decided it would press ahead with trying to get the Government to agree to its

  • Headington: Mum jailed for fake passport

    A FAILED asylum seeker was jailed for 11 months yesterday after using a fake passport to work as a carer. Pauline Munene, 49, used a fake Kenyan passport to gain work with Chrysalis Community Care, formerly known as Blue Arrow, while living in Gladstone

  • Tackley: Safety call for death crossing

    VILLAGERS campaigning for safety improvements to a level crossing where an elderly woman lost her life a year ago today, have welcomed a string of recommendations made in a report into her death. Margaret Evans, 80, of St John’s Road, Tackley, died after

  • Golden couple: Never looked back after swapping dates!

    A COUPLE who today celebrated 50 years of marriage, admitted they had originally arranged dates with each other’s friends before falling in love. Eileen and Edward Whitworth, of Dodgson Road, Cowley, Oxford, were married at St Matthew’s Church, Grandpont

  • Rock fans queue for Reading Festival tickets

    Rock fans who started queueing from 8pm yesterday outside HMV, in Cornmarket Street, Oxford, to snap up tickets for this year’s Reading Festival when they went on sale at 7pm today. By 3pm, an 80-strong queue snaked up to the store, one of

  • BMW worker handled stolen parts worth £40k

    A FORMER BMW worker is facing jail after admitting handling £40,000 of stolen car parts belonging to the firm, between July 2006 and September 2008, before they were sold on Internet auction site eBay. Sacha Delastic, 25, of Fernhill Close, Tiddington

  • Blinking saved Botley robbery victim's sight

    A SPLIT second’s blink saved the sight of a woman who was slashed across the face by a robber in her home. Diane and Shaun Bradford, and their son Alex, were attacked in their home in Crabtree Road, Botley, Oxford, on Wednesday night by three

  • Hamilton facing 'big challenge'

    Lewis Hamilton believes he is facing the hardest challenge of his career to help McLaren become world title contenders again. Against the odds, the reigning world champion clinched third place in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix in a car he has revealed

  • 45 held in crime crackdown

    Police arrested 45 people in a two-week operation to crack down on crime in north Oxfordshire. Operation Juggernaut was a co-ordinated operation to target anti-social behaviour, burglary, robbery, knife crime and drug offending in town centres

  • RUGBY UNION: Comeback is in vain

    Chinnor 25, Lydney 27 Chinnor have made a habit of doing things the hard way this season – and that is now the only way they will stay up. They came agonisingly close to a dramatic comeback in this exciting National 3 South clash. But a narrow defeat

  • RUGBY UNION: Quins safe despite defeat

    Oxford Harlequins are now safe from relegation, despite a 29-24 home defeat to Old Patesians in South West 1. Whatever happens in their remaining two matches, Quins will now finish on more points than the lowest-placed sides in North 1 and Midlands 1

  • RUGBY UNION: Wallingford battle back

    A strong second-half performance ensured Wallingford ran out comfortable 38-10 winners in their local derby against Henley Wanderers in South West 2 East. It was a tight contest until 50 minutes when Wallingford’s superior fitness told.

  • RUGBY UNION: Chinnor dug own grave

    Chinnor assistant coach John Vaughan was left frustrated by their patchy display against Lydney. “Talk about a curate’s egg of a performance,” he said. “It was pretty poor for 60 minutes, and then we were fantastic for the last 20. “With five minutes

  • RUGBY UNION: Wells saves Henley

    Henley Hawks drew with Rugby Lions for the second time in National 3 South this season after Danny Wells’s late penalty made it 26-26 at Dry Leas. The match at Webb Ellis Road in December had ended 20-20 with Lions’ James Hawken levelling thanks to a

  • RUGBY UNION: Ellis earns Gosford draw

    Tim Ellis’s last gasp try and conversion earned Gosford All Blacks a 22-22 draw at Phoenix, but not safety from relegation from the BB&O Premier Division. Gosford gained a point when flanker Eugene Griffin took a quick tap penalty and combined with fly

  • RUGBY UNION: Bicester drop fear

    Bicester were plunged into further relegation trouble after losing 29-7 at bottom-club Beaconsfield in Southern Counties North. Victory would have secured their status in the league for next year, but with tough matches against Windsor and Witney to

  • Rogue trader sent to jail

    A rogue trader who conned an elderly pensioner out of £1,200 by pretending to fix a leaking roof was last night behind bars. Hughie Fury did work “of no value whatsoever” to the roof of 86-year-old Olive Cutler’s bungalow in Wheatley — but

  • DARTS: Beaten Oxon on the edge

    Oxfordshire’s first season in the top flight is on a knife-edge after they went down 22-14 away to Lancashire at East Challow Royal British Legion in their penultimate fixture. It means they must now win their final match against fellow strugglers Glamorgan

  • DARTS: Four in a row for Shelley Ladies

    Shelley Arms C retained the Greene King ODDA Winter League ladies Premier Division title for a fourth year in a row, making it 12 wins out of 12 when they entertained their closest rivals, clubmates Shelley Arms D. The D side started well when Claire

  • HOCKEY: Rover face Sevenoaks in play-offs

    Rover Oxford Ladies lost 3-0 at home to Cannock in their last scheduled match match in Slazenger England League Women’s Conference West. It was already guaranteed that they would finish second from bottom in the table, and they must now face

  • HOCKEY: Ferraby boosts Hawks' hopes

    Oxford Hawks were re-warded for a positive performance at Maidstone with three valuable South League points in a 2-1 victory. This was among Hawks’ best performances of the season. The players are starting again to believe in themselves

  • On Yer Bike

    Whenever I’m stewing over writing this column and ask friends of mine for ideas, they often tell me ‘You’ve got to write about when I got cut-up on this or that roundabout’, or some such irritation. Because, if you have a bicycle, you’ll know that as

  • Cars collide on A34

    Two cars collided on the A34 near Weston-on-the-Green this afternoon. The incident involved a black Vauxhall Zafira and a grey Skoda Fabia on the northbound carriageway. No-one was injured.

  • Prevent pub cull

    THE Government recently held a meeting with the British Beer and Pub Association to find out why so many pubs are closing. At the last count it was 39 a week – with the loss of 20,000 jobs and a further 75,000 under threat. It did not need a meeting

  • Government puts UKAEA up for sale

    A question mark hangs over the future of about 230 jobs at the nuclear decommissioning business UKAEA after the Government announced that it was looking to sell the company. The move means that employees of the firm, based at Chilton, near Harwell, will

  • £100m plan unveiled to protect Oxford

    Plans to protect Oxford from flooding for the next 100 years have been presented to the public. On Saturday, almost 150 people went to the Town Hall to learn more about the Environment Agency’s £100m strategy to divert flood water away from

  • Block blot

    WHAT is the biggest blot on the landscape – a satellite television dish or a block of flats? Cherwell District Council’s new found commitment to conserve more of Old Kidlington is set to collide with pressure from developers for yet more flats. The

  • Stop our pubs from dying out

    IN THE not to distant future, the acronym RIP will not stand for rest in peace, but Remember Inns and Pubs. Harwell village, even in my memory, used to boast no fewer than five public houses, which all remained going concerns for years. However, with

  • Local share prices (PM)

    AEA Technology 12.5 BMW 2019 Electrocomponents 120.5 Nationwide Accident Repair 97.5 Oxford Biomedica 5.8 Oxford Catalysts 47.5 Oxford Instruments 107.5 Reed Elsevier 490.75 RM 163 RPS Group 146.75 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • Row erupts over county council's £85k 'spin doctor'

    A ROW has erupted at County Hall over a new £85,000 “spin doctor”. The Tory-controlled Oxfordshire County Council last week announced former Sunday Times journalist James Clark would become its new head of communications in May. He will lead the council

  • Plod Squad joins the race

    FORMER hospital administrator Harriet English is looking forward to running through the beautiful surroundings of Blenheim Palace in this year’s OX5 Run. The 23-year-old, from Churchill, near Chipping Norton, worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital

  • Broken road sign will be replaced in four months

    A road sign in East Oxford which was damaged a year ago is set to be replaced. People living in Divinity Road, first noticed the letters to their street sign had been removed in March last year. Oxford City Council has said it did not

  • Show is top of the crops

    The bright colours of spring were celebrated at a prestigious event in Abingdon. The 124th annual Abingdon Show saw 150 people enter flower display, spring garden, children’s art and cookery contests. Gardeners in the town spent last week putting

  • In court over benefit fraud

    A 45-year-old woman has admitted benefit fraud. On Friday, Louise Clark, of Bartlett Close, Witney, admitted four charges of making a dishonest representation for benefit purposes and one charge of dishonestly failing to declare a change in circumstances

  • Final train rolls into town

    It was the end when the final First Great Western services operated by a Class 180 Adelante train ran during the evening rush-hour. The 5.51pm from London to Worcester via Oxford and the Cotswold Line and a return service leaving Worcester at 8.59pm

  • Toyota clue after burglary

    A burglar broke into a house and stole items including a laptop, an iPod and jewellery from a home in Drayton St Leonard. The incident happened in High Street on Monday last week, between 8.30am and 1.30pm. Police want to hear from anyone who saw a

  • Dead cyclist named

    A cyclist who was hit by a car and killed near a south Oxfordshire pub last week has been named. Jacob Joseph, 39, died at the scene outside the Chequers pub on the A415 Abingdon Road in Burcot last Wednesday. Oxfordshire coroner’s office today confirmed

  • £100m plan to end Oxford flooding unveiled

    PLANS to protect Oxford from flooding for the next 100 years have been presented to the public. On Saturday, almost 150 people went to the Town Hall to learn more about the Environment Agency’s £100m strategy to divert flood water away from the city.

  • Police hail drug crackdown a success

    SIX people were arrested in the final crackdown under the police’s Operation Juggernaut. Officers flocked to Bicester and Banbury over the weekend as part of the month-long campaign against violence and drug related crime. The operation has seen 45

  • Explosive fun as science museum reopens

    A combination of mints, cola and cornflour caused explosions at an Oxford museum. The spectacular bangs were part of a celebration to mark the re-opening of Science Oxford on Saturday. The museum in London Place, St Clements, has recently had a £250,000

  • Military train launches rail freight link

    A train carrying containers from Bicester's Ministry of Defence supply depot was the first to use the new £9m Donnington railfreight terminal, in Telford, Shropshire, last week. The containers, and others brought by rail from Marchwood military port,

  • Young singers raise the cathedral rafters

    THE sound of children’s voices rose to the rafters of Oxford’s Christ Church Cathedral at a special concert. Three city primary schools joined choristers and pupils from Christ Church Cathedral School for a performance of international folk

  • Wantage chef has winning recipe

    A Wantage chef cooked a mouth-watering menu and won himself a place in the final of a national contest. Mark Ord, head chef of Sanctuary Care Nursing Home, in Garston Lane, went head-to-head with three other chefs in the South East regional finals of

  • Finding out about firefighting

    ASPIRING firefighters were put through their paces at a recruitment day. Kidlington fire station threw open its doors as part of a countywide campaign to encourage people to become retained firefighters. There are currently 30 vacancies

  • Pile-up causing A34 delays

    A five-vehicle crash is causing delays on the A34 in north Oxfordshire. One lane is closed northbound between the B4027 and B430, leading to congestion back to the A34 Western Bypass.

  • Desk poem puts young poet in Brookes' contest limelight

    A VERSE about a school desk in the middle of a conflict zone was among the winners of a poetry competition. Nine-year-old Alice Burns, from Leafield Primary School near Witney, was the joint winner of the junior schools poetry section of Oxford

  • Man held after two-car crash

    Police are appealing for information following a collision in the Market Place, Faringdon. At 10.23pm yesterday, near to the Wheatsheaf pub, a silver Peugoet 306 collided with a parked blue BMW 5 Series. No one was injured and a man was arrested in

  • 101-year-old veteran robbery: Man in court

    A 46-year-old man today appeared in court accused of robbing a 101-year-old man in Oxford. Stephen Gillespie, of Goose Green Close, Wolvercote, appeared at the city's crown court, charged with robbing Polish-born Second World War veteran Kazimierz

  • Bonham Carter wins Empire award

    Actress Helena Bonham Carter has been named Best Actress in the Empire film awards for her role in the movie Sweeney Todd. The film was directed by her husband Tim Burton, and the couple own a home in the village of Sutton Courtenay near Abingdon.

  • Whats in a Star?

    [Disclaimer – Please note that the views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of your bartender, and nothing whatsoever to do with his employer or hotel!]....... OK, I admit it, I’m new to this town….another piece of alcohol soaked jetsam

  • Cowboys at Victorian Fayre

    The age of crinolines and bustles – and cowboys – returned to Oxford when the parent-teacher association at St Nicholas Primary School at Old Marston organised a Victorian Fayre in 1975. The event, which raised nearly £300 for PTA funds, began with a

  • City joined nation in mourning King

    Oxford joined the rest of the country in mourning the death of King George V. Many events were cancelled as a mark of respect to the King, who died late on Monday, January 20, 1936. The city responded to an appeal by the mayor, Councillor Mrs Townsend

  • Clubs proved big success

    The St Michael’s Guild and the Wythonians were two of Oxford’s most successful wartime and post-war youth clubs. Tony Jones belonged to both and has fond memories of the activities they offered. He writes: “St Michael’s Guild was attached

  • 'We're not giving in'

    These happy bankers look as if they have hit the jackpot – and, what’s more, they weren’t expecting any huge bonuses. They were just delighted to be surrounded by so much cash. Northway Middle School on the Northway estate in Headington, Oxford, had

  • Job losses sour celebration

    More than 200 jobs are to go at the Brawn GP base in Brackley, it emerged today. The news came hours after Formula 1 drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello scored a one-two victory in the Australian Grand Prix for a team that was almost

  • Job losses sour F1 celebration

    More than 200 jobs are to go at the former Honda Racing base in Brackley near Bicester, it emerged today. The news came hours after Formula 1 drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello scored a one-two victory in the Australian Grand Prix

  • Investigation exposes post delays

    More than a third of first class post arrived late in an investigation into Royal Mail’s service. Tests by us showed just 65 per cent of first class letters achieved the company’s next day delivery standard – compared to its target of 93 per

  • We're still in hunt - Wilder

    BOSS Chris Wilder believes his Oxford United side are still right in the mix for a play-off place after their courageous never-say-die fightback at Stevenage on Saturday. And he saluted the character of his players as they battled back with

  • Mail investigation exposes post delays again

    More than a third of first class post arrived late in an Oxford Mail investigation into Royal Mail’s service. Tests by the paper showed just 65 per cent of first class letters achieved the company’s next day delivery standard – compared to

  • Stink 'draining' shop's takings away

    A sandwich shop owner said his business is being killed by an overflowing drain which spills faeces on to his doorstep. Ricardo Chasebi, owner of Ricardo’s in Oxford’s Covered Market, said he had waited for more than three months for a permanent solution