Police are appealing for witnesses after £3,000 worth of cigarettes were stolen from a van in Oxford. The white Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van was parked in Underhill Circus, Barton, where it was making a delivery at about 1.22pm yesterday.
Graduates of an Oxford college gathered to pay tribute to one of their lecturers, who has retired after more than 30 years. More than 200 former students met at St Anne’s College in Woodstock Road for a reunion to mark the retirement of Dr
Supporters trust OxVox have launched their latest 12th Man initiative – a new white away 12th Man badge, with a design which mirrors the team’s away strip. They will be on sale – at £2 each – for the first time today, fittingly, to fans travelling to
Adam Chapman admits Billy Turley has kept him going while he’s been out of the Oxford United team. The former Sheffield United player, who marked his return to the side with a cracking free-kick drive in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Crawley, may
CARERS who allowed a teenage girl to be scalded to death in a hot bath last night faced a massive fine after magistrates ruled they should be punished by a judge. The company running the care home in Owens Way, Cowley, Oxford, where disabled Yelena Hasselberg-Langley
THREE brothers have been banned from every football ground in the country after drunkenly clashing with police following an Oxford United match. Matthew Claridge, 21, and twins Adam and Andrew, both 19, all from Witney, admitted their part
A WOMAN was tonight beginning a prison sentence after killing a pensioner and seriously injuring her daughter when she drove a 4x4 car and a horsebox through a crossroads without stopping. Deborah Hodson, 47, was at the wheel of a Land Rover
EIGHT children were taken to hospital after they were hit by debris when a tyre on a school bus exploded. The Chipping Norton School pupils, aged 11 and 12, had just been dropped off by the bus at the junction of The Slade and Ditchley Road, in Charlbury
The conditions were just about perfect for the Oxford Bus AC’s match on the lake at Fritwell. A good turnout of nine anglers took part, although the lake was just a bit below its normal level with all the dry weather. Pete Clark, sat on peg seven,
Water levels remain low over at Farmoor Reservoir with some algae growth during the warm weather. Farmoor I remains quiet with only a handful of anglers fishing. Those that give it a go are finding good fish on nymphs and buzzers with some also coming
Yarnton's stretch of the Thames at Cassington came up trumps for friends Ricky Neal, from Hook Norton and Stewart Cable, from North Leigh. The pair spent a day lure fishing, with some success, culminating in this beautiful 3lb 8oz perch (pictured left
Spending a day on the Club Lake at Dorchester, Abingdon angler Jonny Reeve was fishing for the large head of carp and tench that inhabit the water. But he got more than he bargained for when he came away with a huge catfish weighing 44lb 5oz. When Jonny
AEA Technology 26.75 BMW 2924 Electrocomponents 147.2 Gladstone 28 Nationwide Accident Repair 78 Oxford Biomedica 10.6 Oxford Catalyst 57.5 Oxford Instruments 197 Reed Elsevier 463.8 RM 157.25 RPS Group 215.1
PAST volunteers and members of a Didcot club for young people with learning difficulties are being invited to a mass reunion. The Northbourne Gateway Club was set up in April 1982, moving to the Didcot Youth Centre in Park Road in 1984. For 27 years
Police this afternoon appealed for witnesses after an aggravated burglary in Banbury. Three men forced their way into a house in Cromwell Road shortly after 10pm on Wednesday and assaulted the 18-year-old occupant, before stealing some jewellery and
DEEP in the former Soviet Union, a UN aid helicopter has crash- landed and British soldiers have been ordered to secure it and its valuable cargo. Nearby, two British troops have been hurt on the battlefield – one has been shot – and colleagues must
A woman has been jailed for an attack on a teeanger in Oxford. Simone Andrews, 23, of Iffley Road, was sentenced to four months imprisonment after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. This is in relation to an offence that
Police are appealing for witnesses after a disabled man was assaulted in Nelson Street, Jericho. Between 9pm and 9.30pm on Saturday, a 52-year-old man opened his front door, believing that his carer had arrived. He saw four men in a blue Ford Fiesta
TWO business experts have been employed to put Abingdon back on the map as a key shopping centre. Retail expert Heather Brown and business consultant James White have been set the task of improving the town’s image, helping with local issues and devising
ENGLISH graduates of an Oxford University college gathered to pay tribute to one of their lecturers, who has retired after more than 30 years. More than 200 former students met at St Anne’s College in Woodstock Road for a reunion to mark the retirement
POLICE are telling people to keep their windows shut as part of a campaign to cut burglaries in Oxford. Police took to the streets of Headington to remind residents and students in the area to keep their homes secure. Det Sgt Marc Tarbit said: “It’s
A driver has been taken to hospital after a collision on a busy Oxford junction. Police and ambulance crews were called to the Garsington Road, at the Cowley Interchange, beneath the A4142 eastern bypass flyover at about 1.10pm, after a collision
THIS was a beer drinking trip. It was not a drinking trip and THAT is the important difference. I hear you scoff, but a trip to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of Europe, is about the taste of the beer and, as I unexpectedly found, the food as well
A CELEBRITY chef cooked up a treat for pensioners in Oxford to help launch a new scheme to combat loneliness. Thousands of people are thought to be on their own in the city and very rarely see or speak to other people, according to the charity Age Concern
BICESTER is blooming – that’s the verdict of Thames and Chilterns in Bloom judges. The town picked up gold in the large town section of the competition, beating more than 20 competitors from across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire
YOU may not think moths emit the sexiest of smells, but scientists at an Oxfordshire laboratory have cracked the mysteries of their mojo. Researchers at the Diamond Light Source, Harwell, have identified how the female insects’ odours offer
A WOMAN who caused the death of a west Oxfordshire pensioner and seriously injured her daughter in a car crash was this morning jailed for 18 months. Deborah Hodson, 47, drove her Land Rover Discovery, which was towing a horse box, into the
TRAINER Ian Wills has his final runners at Oxford tomorrow before moving to Hall Green on Monday. PROPERTY Care complete Maintenance have confirmed the 2010 backing of the Oxfordshire Stakes for the third year running. JOLLY Poacher, unbeaten in four
Ashton captain Terry Chambers made a superb break of 60 as his team got off to a flying start in the Oxford & District League. Pete Fenn (+50) got Ashton off the mark by beating Ghassam Al-Murani (+90) 150-139. Chambers (scratch) then saw off Tony Palmer
Oxford City Stars forward Tom Roles has rejoined Milton Keynes Thunder. Roles had integrated well into the Stars side, but needed to be closer to home due to meet work commitments. Stars head coach Simon Anderson is already working on finding a replacement
The fast-finishing Kilgraney Saidso looks good value in the “To Be Decided Stakes” over 450m at Oxford Stadium on Saturday night. Paul Clarke's runner finished well behind Carkills Express last time out and can go one better in a race sponsored by Oxford
Four Oxfordshire youngsters let their legs do the talking when winning the final round of the PC3 British Pedal Car Championships. The Brill 1st pedal car team, consisting of Guy North, Louie Ludlow, Jordan McCrae, all from Lord Williams’s School,
David Murphy, of Didcot Barramundi, won three gold medals at the Separated Medley in Coventry. The ten-year-old took the 50m breaststroke (42.10), the 50m freestyle (33.46) and the 200m IM (3.01.08). Elder brother, Alex, 14, won the 50m breaststroke
Bampton's Patrick Lay wrapped up the Easykart UK Championship after a superb showing in the final round of the season at Ellough Park, Beccles in Suffolk. The 14-year-old made the most of excellent conditions to qualify on pole. In the pre-final, Lay
Leanne Brooks led the way with four gold medals for City of Oxford in the Maxwell Open in Aylesbury. Brooks, 16, stormed to victory in the 400m freestyle in 4mins 44secs, the 100m butterfly (1.12), 200m medley (2.34), and 400m medley (5.22)
Horspath Hammers suffered their first defeat for more than three months when they went down 92-86 at Southampton in South West Division 1. Despite being without one of their top riders, Hammers were given a good showing from their youngsters, but fell
‘Still Life’ rehearsals steam on with some keen types having books down already. The play was written in the forties but could be a world away from today with social niceties now having gone by the board by and large and respect for older people
DAYLESFORD ORGANICS, NEAR KINGHAM 01608 731700. KATHERINE MACALISTER sniffs out the food – and the money – at one of the country’s finest farm shops. If CARLSBERG did ladies-who-lunch, they’d have come up with Daylesford Organics
ANDREW FFRENCH takes the time to find out more about our latest Book of the Month, The Time Traveler’s Wife. THE BOOK: I’m ashamed to say I missed this first time round, but now it’s back in the bestseller lists, thanks to the
KATHERINE MACalister dips into a huge glass of Pimms and rediscovers the lost art of relaxation... Maybe I was taking this relaxing business a bit too seriously I mused as I nursed the most enormous Pimms I’d ever encountered, while slumped
PANDORUM (15). Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller. Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, Antje Traue, Cung Le, Cam Gigandet. Director: Christian Alvart. Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt haul the sets of their 1997 collaboration Event Horizon
DRIVING APHRODITE (12A). Comedy/Romance. Starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Alistair McGowan, Caroline Goodall, Ian Ogilvy, Sophie Stuckey. Director: Donald Petrie. Originally titled My Life In Ruins,
THE INVENTION OF LYING (12A). Comedy/Romance. Starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor. Directors: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson. The truth about Ricky Gervais’s new comedy, co-written and
KATHERINE MACALISTER finds out how, and if, global fame has changed singing star Paul Potts. Paul Potts is a busy man. In the past few weeks alone he has been to Peru, Columbia, Tokyo and Margate. “Margate?” I query. “Yes, I did a wonderful
Daniel Hill is sporting a moustache at the moment for his part in Dial M For Murder, so he’s getting a lot of stick at home. But his main worry is being typecast by it. Katherine MacAlister investigates the strange world of Daniel Hill’s facial hair.
When I Found You Catherine Ryan Hyde (Black Swan, £6.99) Nathan McCann is middle-aged and unhappy in his marriage. But everything changes when he discovers an abandoned newborn baby while out with his dog one morning in 1960.
RICHARD BELL chills out as the curtain goes up on an amazing line up of acts for Creative Tuesday @ Café Tarifa. Café Tarifa’s eclectic and exotic ambience wouldn’t withstand a thumping electro night, couldn’t cope with a grimy drum and bass
Claire Harman’s career has been defined by digging. As a literary biographer, who has written about Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Burney, Sylvia Townsend Warner and, most recently, Jane Austen, she is an expert excavator. She delves into the lives of
BEWITCHING, dreamy and mysterious, Bat For Lashes is one of the most intriguing acts to have emerged in recent years. Her two albums have been nominated for Mercury Music Prizes, and BFL – aka Natasha Khan – also earned nominations for Best Breakthrough
Peter Hook of New Order confides in Tim Hughes about the highs, lows and utter folly of trying to run your own nightclub. IT takes a brave man to admit his mistakes, and an even tougher man to laugh at them. But Peter Hook has never
Churchill's survival as a warlord was never more greatly tested than in the 30 months between the Battle of Britain and El Alamein. As German forces ruthlessly crushed Europe, and the Japanese seized fortresses in the East, it took an indomitable spirit
Neel Burton is a psychiatrist, philosopher and writer who lives and teaches in Oxford. Plato’s Shadow (Acheron, £14.99) aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Plato’s thought.
THE CONSTANT ECONOMY Zac Goldsmith (Atlantic, £16.99) Goldsmith, former editor of Ecologist magazine, has developed a theory that “recognises nature's limits” and sets out the details in ten sections ranging from how we can measure human well-being
Susanna Gregory has written a fine yarn in her latest in the 14th-century Matthew Bartholomew series: A Vein of Deceit (Sphere, £18.99). Michaelhouse is the Cambridge college of the story, whose finances have become somewhat irregular. Unfortunately
Adrian Sutil posted the fastest time as the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix was disrupted by poor weather at Suzuka. Persistent rain greeted the drivers for the second 90-minute session, which saw championship leader Jenson
With their latest album prompting surprise and praise in equal measure, TIM HUGHES chats to dance dynamos Simian Mobile Disco about their new musical direction. AS the lads behind some of the biggest floor-filling electro tunes, Simian Mobile
“WHAT part of Scotland are you from?” The smiling 60-year-old woman had listened to my light-hearted banter with a chum who runs a stall on Gloucester Green market. She was American. Charitable I might be, but that’s no reason to excuse someone
The Environment Agency is launching a crackdown on speeding boats on the River Thames. Radar gun operator Matt Strange and colleagues were out on the river bank at Abingdon. He said: “In the past year, we’ve seen a notable rise in the amount
Drivers are still ignoring the new 20mph speed limit a month after it came into force, a speed check has discovered. We revisited Morrell Avenue, East Oxford, a month after a first speed check and found 119 out of 163 vehicles – 73 per cent
YET again, the councils have inflicted unjust fines and removal of facilities on the disabled. Hardly a week passes without this newspaper reporting some poor disabled citizen who has had to endure the wrath of a discriminatory council department
YOU would have thought we would have learned our lesson. The illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on fictitious intelligence surrounding weapons of mass destruction and an intention to attack the West. Now unashamedly and with
DEREK Honey’s letter (Oxford Mail, September 29) appears so angry. What has any religion done to upset him? Except of course to have existed in the first place. We all know that Philip Pullman gets great pubicity for his books when letters are written
THE Oxford Crematorium, in Bayswater Road, Barton, is doing away with live music. The organist who plays the hymns and ‘In’ and ‘Out’ music is to be replaced by a machine. Swindon Crematorium has this ‘machine’ and it is awful. While most people would
The one huge task still facing Oxford United is the purchase of the Kassam Stadium – but Kelvin Thomas remains positive about the possibility. “I am in good conversation with Firoz (Kassam) about ways that our goals can be achieved,” he said. “We both
WALKING up the Cowley Road recently, two people in cars went through a red light at a crossing, four people were cycling on the pavement and two street drinkers were drinking alcohol on the street — and not a policeman or woman in sight! JANE REEVE,
Arguably the biggest decision Kelvin Thomas has made in his role as Oxford United chairman was sacking former manager Darren Patterson and appointing Chris Wilder. A lot of bigger names were linked with the U’s job, but Thomas, along with Jim Smith,
It's been 12 months that Kelvin Thomas will never forget. But the man responsible for overseeing one of the biggest turnarounds in the club’s history is now able to look back with pride on the work done over the past year. Thomas was asked to take over
ONE of Oxford’s oldest choirs is singing from the rooftops after finally finding a new home. The Oxford Welsh Male Voice Choir was made homeless three months ago after being locked out of their practice room at the Lord Nuffield Club in Cowley
CHRIS Wilder has banned Oxford United’s players and staff from using the word ‘promotion’. And the move has the full support of his chairman – even though he is one of the first to fall victim to the rule. In an exclusive interview with the Oxford Mail
ART made from everyday household items is the subject of a new exhibition at the Modern Art Oxford gallery. Principles Of Admitting (Detail) 2009 features models and artwork made from powder paint, sugar paper, spray tan, chalk, concealer stick and lipstick
THE future of Oxford School will be decided by the Government, after county education chiefs made a remarkable move to oust its divided board of governors. Oxfordshire County Council is so concerned that weak leadership and infighting among
WHEN things go bump in the night at one Oxford watering hole, even the landlord’s dog sleeps with one eye open. From guests reporting spooky scratches to a headless horseman roaming, Tim Rackley, the owner of The Priory in Grenoble Road, has had his
