NEIGHBOURS tonight described their shock when a pensioner died after he was found trapped under what was believed to be his own car in Chipping Norton. Derek Perriton, 73, of Tilsley Road, was pronounced dead at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital
Mark Bradstock’s Letcombe Bassett yard, near Wantage, has been dealt a huge blow with stable star Carruthers ruled out of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday. The six-year-old gelding was one of the leading fancies for the £200,000 showpiece
A ROBOT surgeon is set to carry out operations on hundreds of cancer patients at an Oxford hospital. A £2m robotic surgery system has been installed in an operating theatre at the new Oxford Cancer Centre and will be used for patients undergoing
COUNTY council leaders in Oxfordshire are considering a lower increase in council tax than first planned, it emerged today. The council is looking at making £106m worth of budget cuts over the next five years, following a predicted reduction in Government
TWO Brazilian men were arrested after immigration officers raided two North Oxford restaurants today. UK Border Agency officers targeted Mamma Mia Pizzeria and Portabello Restaurant in South Parade, Summertown, at about 1pm in an operation to target
A family and their dog escaped from their home after a faulty tumble dryer caused a fire in a utility room. The couple and their two children were alerted by smoke alarms and left the house, in Folly Court, Main Street, Sibford Ferris, north Oxfordshire
OXFORD City Council is investigating alleged racial discrimination at a taxi firm. The move comes after cab drivers of Pakistani descent suggested they were being discriminated against by a colleague. Oxford City Council is investigating complaints
A BUSINESSMAN arrested at an Oxford hotel over an alleged £1.3m fraud is expected to appear in court tomorrow facing extradition to the US. Kevin Halligen, 48, who ran a firm that helped look for missing girl Madeleine McCann, was arrested
A FORMER manager of a Woolworths store has decided to become a plumber. A year ago today, Martin Street heard the business and his livelihood were in the hands of the administrators. Mr Street was one of almost 700 people employed by the High Street
RESIDENTS protesting against plans to build 140 homes in Sutton Courtenay have been told the scheme is likely to be granted planning permission. Plans have been lodged to build a mix of homes ranging from two to five bedrooms at land between
Switching from American Football is certainly paying off for Oxford University prop Will Johnson who helped USA qualify for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Johnson started at tight-head in both play-off matches as the US defeated Uruguay 54-28 on aggregate
Tim Catling, who starred with a hat-trick of tries in the 2008 Nomura Varsity Match, has been voted Oxford University Sportsman Of The Year. The wing (right), who has been among the tries again this campaign, collected the award at a ceremony last week
Banbury Under 12s shared top billing with Macclesfield for the second time in three weeks. The two sides were joint winners of the invitation-only Braemar Cup in the Champions of Champions tournament at Cobham after drawing 0-0 in the final. Having
Chipping Norton’s director of rugby Andy Dawson said they had no choice but to give North Dorset a walkover in the Southern Counties Intermediate Cup. The withdrawal due to injury and illness meant no Oxfordshire side reached the regional semi-finals
Oxford Ladies edged out local rivals Witney Angels, who had only 14 players, 8-5 to stay top of Midlands 1. Despite controlling much of the first half, hosts Oxford trailed 5-0 at the break after Witney fly half Emma Paterson scored a try. In the second
Grove coach Nathan Brooks says their Southern Counties North season is about to hit crunch time. And he stressed they cannot afford to repeat their second-half cup display against Milton Keynes on Saturday if they are to vie for promotion. After that
Oxford Cavaliers teamed up with Spirit Health Club to help raise funds for the rugby league side. Teams of five had to perform 100 50-metre shuttle runs while carrying a 5kg medicine ball in Oxford’s South Park. Matt Walsh, Stewart Hannah, John Conway
AEA Technology 26 BMW 2892 Electrocomponents 169.1 Gladstone 29 Nationwide Accident Repair 78.5 Oxford Biomedica 12.1 Oxford Catalysts 52.5 Oxford Instruments 227 Reed Elsevier 474.9 RM 163.75 RPS Group 205 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon
A 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted burglary in Oxford after neighbours alerted police. Officers were called to a property in Old Road shortly after 1pm, after residents spotted a man acting suspiciously had climbed on to a flat
Kidlington will be officially welcomed back into the OCA League at Thursday's annual general meeting at Bicester Town FC (7.30pm). The village club were kicked out of the Cherwell League in 2008 after a series of misdemeanors, and spent 2009 in the wilderness
Former North Oxford member Mark Rummings is homing in on playing in the USPGA Championship after an impressive victory. Rummings won the North Florida PGA Championship at Eagle Creek in a play-off after shooting rounds of 70 and 68 for an eight-under-par
TRADERS in Oxford’s High Street are urging people to go Christmas shopping there now a 10-month resurfacing scheme has halted. Last month, traders complained when Oxfordshire County Council appeared to renege on a pledge to stop the roadworks on November
Banbury Indoor League: General Foods 4, Bowling Green 2; Bicester 2, Chipping Norton 4; Tysoe SC 0, Deddington 6; George 0, Banbury 6; Tysoe SC 3, George 3; Bicester 6, General Foods 0; Chipping Norton 4, Banbury 2; Deddington 6, Bowling Green 0. Top
TRADERS at Witney’s twice-weekly market, are threatening to quit if business doesn’t pick up. They say sales in September and October were down by 50 per cent compared to July and August and are blaming competition from bargain shops and the
NANNY Kelly Fowler was left shocked when she called up the Government — only to be told no one could talk to her because she was dead. The mix-up happened after the 18-year-old received a letter from her former employer saying it had accidentally
I spent last Friday evening at events to support the work of two local theatres, the Oxford Playhouse and the Pegasus. Since the first involved a talk by almost everyone’s favourite raconteur, Alan Bennett (pictured) and the second featured something
Vikings duo Pete Ewins and Mike Jones produced a superb display to knock out favourites Mark Trafford and Kevin Godfrey (Kennington) 3-1 in the Pairs competition. Kennington took the first leg, Trafford beating Ewins 8,310-5,250, aided by a break of
THE 156th University Boat Race next April will be sponsored by Xchanging plc – a global business processing company. After five years as presenting backer, Xchanging plc becomes the first title sponsor of the race, which dates back more than 180 years
Oxford City Stars were left with mixed emotions after battling back from 4-0 down, only to lose 5-4 at high-flying Chelmsford Chieftains in Division 1 South of the English National League. An awful first seven minutes saw the home side race into a commanding
The photographs on this page say all that is necessary concerning the attractive appearance, both inside and out, of Bicester’s new Trinity restaurant. Well, perhaps not quite all. That of the exterior was obviously taken at night, with lights
The pheasant season is now well under way, which is why the Foxbury Farm butchers have loads of plump birds on display in their well-stocked -meat cabinet, all shot locally. This dish is easy to make and will take on a superb mellow flavour if
For several months the excitement mounted as the structure of Foxbury Farm’s new farmshop began to take shape. I remember the enthusiasm with which farmers Di and Colin Dawes first showed me the large muddy space that had been dug out in their
One hundred and fifty years ago the Crown Surveyor, John Clutton, visited Oxfordshire to see the clearing and enclosure of the forest of Wychwood completed. Six years previously, when Parliament had passed the Wychwood Disafforestation Act of 1853
THE brother of a canoeist who died after getting trapped under his kayak in a flooded river has paid tribute to a “great friend”. Chris Wheeler, 46, a member of Abingdon’s Kingfisher Canoe Club, was pulled from the River Dart, in Devon, on Saturday afternoon
Luis D’Agostino, back in the UK for a short tour after returning to his native Buenos Aires two-and-a-half years ago, was greeted with a spontaneous round of applause when he mounted the stage at the Spin. This was redoubled when he was announced by Pete
As any regular concert goer will know, there are very very few acts that can get away with a set that goes beyond the 90-minute mark. That sort of length is reserved for the Springsteens and McCartneys of the musical world, not the Magic Numbers and especially
THE wife of a popular Carterton councillor and businessman who died suddenly has paid tribute to a “wonderful family man”. Dave King, right, who represented the town on West Oxfordshire District Council, died while staying at a friend’s home
How do you turn 15,000 dollars into $100m? If you’re Israeli-born film-maker Oren Peli, you write and direct a low-budget supernatural horror movie, shoot it at your own house in your spare time and watch as that modest vision becomes a 21st-century Blair
The last time I attended a Pavlova Quintet recital at the Holywell, the attendance was pitifully thin. Happily, their supporters turned out in force for their tenth anniversary concert last Friday, and by the time the players walked out to welcoming applause
A GRANDMOTHER who is refusing to let developers bulldoze her bungalow to make way for social housing has thanked people in Oxford for their messages of support. Oxford Mail readers have been backing Beryl Mitchell, 87, who bought her former
Ben Power’s version of Paradise Lost was one of the shows that helped make the (now stellar) name of Rupert Goold during his time as artistic director of Northampton’s Royal & Derngate Theatres. In view of the hatchet job that had already been done on
‘I’d like four candles, please,” says a customer in Alderman Fitzwarren’s shop, reprising one of Ronnie Barker’s best jokes (now commemorated in the name of JD Wetherspoon’s pub in George Street, Oxford). It’s a nice touch added to this year’s
Anyone who has tried drawing will appreciate the difficulties of characterising drapery. Whether its softness, smoothness, sheen, texture or bulk, or the fall of drapes over an imagined figure, it poses one of the great challenges in art. It’s been long
It was a cold winter’s night and the rain was lashing down, but once safe inside Art Jericho feelings of gloom vanished. I was in a buzzy space filled with a glorious selection of pictures painted by members of the Oxford Art Society for their Winter
Even the Lord Chamberlain wouldn’t have minded a bit of haze, surely? Yet a sign on Tuesday’s opening night listed it, with violence and nudity, as one of the features that made this Oxford Brookes Drama Society production an affair aimed at over-16s.
If you are looking for an unusual handcrafted Christmas gift that will delight and surprise, the Garden Gallery of the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, is where you should be heading. Until the end of the year members of the Oxfordshire Craft Guild are
‘A palid affair,” and “a bland blancmange” were two of the descriptions applied to Glyndebourne’s current Così fan tutte when it first appeared in 2006. But it’s not like that any more – as revived by Glyndebourne on Tour this year, both these criticisms
‘Don’t just sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon”, says the polite and socially aware Henry Higgins (Professor of Phonetics) to flower-seller Eliza on their first encounter in Covent Garden. Such a charmer, and what a way to launch the roller
A FIREFIGHTER who dances flamenco in his spare time has written a book to help others learning the Spanish moves. Chris Wilson, who has been studying flamenco since 1996, noticed a gap in the market for a English guidebook. So he put pen to paper,
A DYSLEXIC youngster has won first prize in a national poetry competition. Sibford School pupil Brigid Davidson, 11, won first place in Charley Boorman’s Poetry Competition, organised by Dyslexia Action as part of Dyslexia Awareness Week.
THURSDAY is crunch day for the Horton Hospital when NHS Oxfordshire will decide whether to back plans to keep children’s and maternity services running. Proposals for consultants to run paediatrics and maternity services at the Banbury hospital are
THE family of a soldier killed by a rogue Afghan policeman have urged all who knew him to turn up at his funeral to pay their respects. Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from Brackley, was one of five men killed by the police officer, believed to
TWO primary school pupils got an insight into working life when they took on the role of their headteacher for a day. Connor Coates, 11, and ten-year-old Attiya Kausar’s first job of the day was to meet parents as they brought pupils to Dashwood Community
A HOODED robber who wielded a knife at a shopkeeper shouting “give me all your money, or I will kill you” has been jailed for four years. Christopher Huxham, 22, tried to rob A & Y Grocers in Broad Street, Banbury, in June when he stormed into the corner
A MOTHER was horrified to find bags of asbestos waste dumped just yards away from homes and a Bicester playing field. Julie Davis discovered three bags of asbestos while helping her 14-year-old daughter on her paper round in Old Place Yard. Bags were
A YOUNG musician has received a prize awarded at an Oxford school every year in memory of a former student. The Dan Hemingway Memorial Award rewards a sixth-former at The Cherwell School, Marston Ferry Road, for creative work. Seventeen-year-old Jacques
DIDCOT will be transformed into a Victorian winter wonderland as it celebrates a Dickens of a Christmas. A Christmas Carol author Charles Dickens’s great-great-grandson Gerald, who has waived any fee, is guest of honour at tomorrow night’s
A FORMER farmer who worked his way up from delivery driver to become one of the heads of an Oxford hospital retires next month. Ken Hanks, 65, has worked for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust since 1986, starting his working life for the trust as
oxfordmail.co.uk today launches an exciting new upgraded Blue Square Premier service for all Oxford United fans. For the first time we are running a full Conference table, along with a fixtures and results service — updated shortly after full
Two men posed as police officers last night to con their way into the home of an elderly couple in Oxford before stealing several hundred pounds in cash. Police said the distraction burglary took place at the home in Dene Road, Headington, where a 92
AEA Technology 24.6 BMW 2920 Electrocomponents 170.25 Gladstone 29 Nationwide Accident Repair 78.5 Oxford Biomedica 12.1 Oxford Catalysts 52.5 Oxford Instruments 227.75 Reed Elsevier 472.9 RM 165.5 RPS Group 201
Donington Park chief Simon Gillett insists the retention of the British Grand Prix is essential - whether it be at his Leicestershire circuit or traditional venue Silverstone. Bosses at Silverstone claim they are close to agreeing a ten-year staging
BOYS at one of Oxfordshire’s top schools are set to answer to a woman headteacher for the first time in its 750-year history. Felicity Lusk will become the first woman to lead Abingdon School when she takes over the reins in September next year. Her
Well both the technical and the dress rehearsal have been and gone and tomorrow night we open for our three night run of ‘A Brief Encounter with Noel Coward’ which includes the play ‘Still Life’ from which (and I’m sure you will remember this) the film
The former boss of the Enstone-based Renault F1 team, Flavio Briatore, will discover on January 5 whether his appeal against a lifetime ban from motor racing, imposed by the FIA, is to be overturned. Briatore's lawyer Philippe Ouakrat attended the
Oxford United boss Chris Wilder saluted his team’s commitment, desire and resolve as they battled against the elements and a floodlight failure to win at Forest Green last night. A brilliant goal from James Constable brought the U’s a 1-0 victory, which
A businessman, once hired to help look for Madeleine McCann, who is wanted by US authorities over an alleged fraud has been arrested at a hotel in Oxford, according to sources. Kevin Halligen, 48, was arrested at the Old Bank Hotel in Oxford
AN alcoholic has been banned from a series of roads after threatening and intimidating people. Karl Kuhne, 31, has been given a three-year antisocial behaviour order (asbo) by Banbury magistrates, preventing him from entering Bartsia Road, Galingale
CHRISTINA Schmid, the widow of Didcot-based bomb disposal expert Olaf Schmid, is truly a remarkable woman. We have watched how this 34-year-old has borne the loss of her husband with great dignity and strength over the past three-and-a-half weeks.
THIS is Scott Mitchell – wanted in connection with a scam which conned two Oxfordshire pensioners out of a staggering £830,000. Police last night asked our readers to help trace the 39-year-old who has avoided capture for the past five months
Nicky Gordon’s brace knocked his former club Banbury United out of the Red Insure Cup as Woodford United held on for a 2-1 win. Gordon struck on 19 and 30 minutes to give his Division 1 Midlands side victory in the second round of the Zamaretto
