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Oxford United have been drawn away to Premiership side West Ham United in the second round of the Carling Cup on Tuesday, August 24.

Two “Mosquito” gadgets have been stolen from the village hall in Lockway, Drayton, near Abingdon. The devices, which emit a high-pitched sound to deter young people, were fitted by police to discourage youths from gathering. Anyone with information

Four homes were evacuated in Hailey, near Witney, tonight after a car crashed into a gas main, causing a leak. Engineers made the property safe before families were allowed to return and are believed to be carrying out repair work to the main today.

A pilot and his passenger walked away uninjured after their plane crashed in countryside. Fire crews were called to the field at West End, Hornton, near Banbury, at 3.40pm yesterday after the single-engine aircraft crashed into a tree. The plane was

A man arrested following the death of Kidlington teenager Tom Kahl has been rebailed by police until Tuesday, September 21. The 54-year-old was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol, following

TRYING to stop young people from going to school is not something you would normally expect of teachers. But staff at Wheatley Primary School and neighbouring John Watson special school have been doing just that. They have installed a high-pitched Mosquito

A 47-YEAR-OLD Oxford woman who falsely claimed more than £60,000 in benefits had her sentence reduced. As we reported yesterday, Regina Hutchinson, of Abingdon Road, made illegal claims totalling £60,365 over more than 10 years. She

A GUNMAN wearing a Halloween mask escaped with the contents of a Bloxham supermarket's safe. The man went into the Co-op, in High Street, at about 9.45pm on Sunday, took out a gun and rounded up staff and customers. He then told one of the employees

DRINKERS in Abingdon are being invited to help choose the first new beer brewed in the town since the closure of Morland. The new Loose Cannon brewery, in Suffolk Way, off Ock Street, has created two trial brews for the public to choose which

IN January, Stephen Furze was stabbed in the stomach and left for dead in an Oxford street as he walked home after visiting family. It took him months to recover physically from the attack, in which he suffered a 3.5in knife wound and a punctured liver

AEA Technology 17.75 BMW 3534 Electrocomponents 213.8 Nationwide Accident Repair 82.5 Oxford Biomedica 9.9 Oxford Catalysts 72.5 Oxford Instruments 345 Reed Elsevier 531.25 RM 131.5 RPS Group 184.75 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

Police are appealing for witnesses after an incident of criminal damage in the Hardwick area of Banbury. At about 12.07am on Sunday, a brick was thrown through the window of a property in Ironstones. No one was hurt in the incident. PC Duncan Vale

Police are appealing for witnesses after an armed robbery at a supermarket in Bloxham. A man entered into the Co-op store in High Street wearing a Scream-style Halloween mask and armed with a gun and rounded up staff and customers in the store.

This summer The Birmingham Stage Company brings one of Roald Dahl’s best loved children’s stories, George’s Marvellous Medicine, to life at The Oxford Playhouse. Packed with all of the original charm of Dahl’s tale, this adaptation also succeeds in keeping

THE leader of Oxfordshire County Council has demanded the “harshest punishment” possible for vandals who stole copper cabling from a train signal box. Hundreds of commuters were left stranded at Oxford station on Friday after the theft caused the cancellation

At a time when relations between Britain and Pakistan are high on the political agenda, it is instructive to recall an earlier occasion when these were potentially compromised. The episode concerns the honorary degree that was offered by Oxford University

The development and spread of superstores coincides almost exactly with the 40 years I have been working as a journalist. My first years as a reporter were punctuated by a series of major planning inquiries at which Sainsbury’s — it was generally Sainsbury

Anyone driving along Oxford’s High Street — on the rare occasions that you can — will probably have noticed the dangerous obstacle sited in the middle of the road just west of The Queen’s College. It appears to be some sort of lampstand, or possibly

If you are inundated with courgettes, but hate to waste them, try making this tart as a lunch dish — it’s easy to make and delicious to eat. YOU WILL NEED 14 oz (350g) shortcrust pasty Three medium-sized courgettes Two cloves of garlic 4 tbspns

You know that summer has really arrived when friends begin bringing you bags of courgettes that need using up because they have a glut on their allotment or in the garden. Runner beans are suffering at the moment because of the lack of rain, and

CHILDREN in Oxford will be sad to hear that party clown Jenny White has hung up her red nose and giant shoes after 10 years. But Jenny the Party Clown has quit the job for good reason – she wants to bring laughter to the lives of Oxford’s elderly and

Even by the somnolent standards of the Shires, they knock things on the head very early at The Greedy Goose — should that be The Sleepy Goose? — at Chastleton, near Chipping Norton. Having noticed the appealing exterior of the place on a recent

Every journalist these days knows in their bones that “you cannot libel the dead”. All the same, Oxford antiquarian, journalist, historian — call him what you will — Anthony Wood, was done for saying rude things about a dead person all right. A new

Halfway through Jon Turteltaub’s fast-paced yarn, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the eponymous hero calls upon what little magical knowledge he possesses to command an army of mops to clean his secret hideaway. It only takes a couple of notes of Paul

YOUNG people are dusting off their skateboards ready for Carterton’s annual skating and music festival on Saturday. The Carterton Extreme Wheels project is organised by regular users of The Dell Skate Park, in Upavon Way. There will be skateboard, inline

A SHOP staffed by a small army of volunteers has opened in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell near Wallingford, eight years after the last village store closed. More than 100 local people have been involved in setting up the £150,000 store, behind the

Sketch comedy is tricky to pull off, especially when you’re just starting out. It takes a wealth of imagination to create and manipulate characters and then ditch them almost instantly. Of course, if you follow the formula set down by Catherine Tate and

‘You must be mad!” How many people uttered those words when producer Maya Sprigg announced her intention of staging Billy Elliot — The Musical on five-and-a-half days of rehearsal? The show runs for two hours (plus interval), and is stuffed with

David Dixon, assisted by Oxford Brookes art student Emily Stanworth, has used more than 3,000 books and a substantial number of book boxes to create an installation that is site specific to the Art Jericho gallery. The books and the boxes were donated

Oxford last weekend enjoyed two staggering demonstrations of the wealth of performing talent growing up in our midst. At the Theatre in Headington (see Giles Woodforde’s review below) Stagecoach Oxford presented a polished performance of Billy Elliot

‘Schiff stands with perhaps only a handful of pianists in his total achievement of the most severe beauty,” reported the Philadelphia Inquirer after András Schiff had given a concert in the city. The description could apply to Schiff’s recital, given

A glorious selection of paintings by the internationally renowned artist John Lendis, adorn the walls of a spacious new art gallery that has opened in the High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh. They are large works in acrylic that need space to breath, and the

Walking through the walled garden of the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock you reach a shaded room in the Brewhouse — an ideal place to hold an exhibition of watercolours by this contemplative poet and artist. He read classics at Pembroke

Showcasing the talents of exceptional young musicians from the UK and America, in diverse and inspirational programmes, is the philosophy behind the International Youth Music Festival, the brainchild of violinist and former Oxford resident Erika Miranda

World Cup-winning scrum half Matt Dawson passed on tips and answered questions during a visit to his academy at Abingdon School yesterday. Dawson, who won the trophy with England in 2003, sought to inspire youngsters during a day that also saw him attend

Wootton & Boars Hill were crowned the first winners of the Oxford Premier League (OPL) with a two-wicket victory in a last-ball thriller against Court Jesters at Charlbury CC. Alex Kidd smashed 44 off 30 balls to be named man of the match as Wootton

“THE lowest of the low” is how a Witney shopkeeper has described thieves who stole a charity jar for victims of the Pakistan floods. The owners of Newslink, who are originally from Pakistan, had collected almost £100 in the jar when the thieves

A CYSTIC fibrosis sufferer who had sexual activity with a 15-year-old in an Abingdon park and then set fire to his flat while on bail has been jailed. Samuel Harkins, 23, bought alcohol for a group of teenagers in Abbey Meadows on December

Oxfordshire experienced mixed fortunes in their ECB Women’s County Championship Twenty20 competition at Solihull. Their opening Midlands & North Division 4 match saw Leicestershire prevail by ten wickets. But Oxfordshire bounced back to secure a thrilling

OXFORD City Council has defended its ability to catch benefit cheats as the Government annou-nced a crackdown on the fraudulent claims costing taxpayers £1.5bn a year. As reported in yesterday’s Oxford Mail, Regina Hutchinson, 47, of Abingdon

A WOMAN who bought a false passport was jailed for attempting to use it at Oxford’s JobCentre. Malaysian Lim Lihwei, 39, tried to use a Portuguese passport in her own name to register a NI number at the George Street office on June 25. Jonathan Stone

Oxford captain Jason Harrison was pleased with his side’s efforts despite losing in the Cockspur Cup’s Home Counties Premier League final. Harrison’s men went down by six wickets to Welwyn Garden City at Bishop’s Stortford in the Twenty20 event on Sunday

With the school holidays here, young people will be looking for excitement and places to hang out with their friends. I would like to appeal to parents to ensure that their youngsters are not tempted to enter local quarries uninvited. Over the past

Two very interesting letters from Ruth Wilkinson and Hugh Jaeger (Oxford Mail, July 21) prompted me to write regarding another dreadful example of road planning in the Headington area – namely Headley Way from the John Radcliffe Hospital junction to Cherwell

OVER the past few years, myself and other current and former East Oxford Green Party Councillors worked hard to transform Cowley Road. We did this by introducing new wider pavements, trees, outdoor cafe seating, benches, bike racks and lower speed limits

I OCCASIONALLY suffer from insomnia but I have found over the years that one remedy is to read the readers’ comments that are posted below the Oxford Mail stories online. As someone who shares his opinions with others I can hardly complain about people

I was talking to Raymond Blanc the other day (excuse me, while I pick up that name I just dropped), and one of the things that came up was how nothing seems to ever stand still now days. RB (as his staff affectionately call him), was just back

SIX thousand litres of diesel fuel were stolen from a garage in Shipton-under-Wychwood. Thieves broke into an above-ground fuel tank at Station Road Garage sometime between 11pm on Saturday and 1am on Sunday. Police said the thieves drove into a field

THE first steps were made yesterday to close Oxford School and turn it into the city’s second academy, despite opposition from parents. Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet agreed to publish a statutory notice for the closure of the school in Glanville

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the passers-by who stopped to help my grand-daughter and me on Friday, July 30, when I collapsed outside the Londis shop in Abingdon Road at about 6pm. Katie, aged 11, was extremely upset and a number of people

IT may not seem to be a natural fit, but Wantage should be praised for trying to honour the Scots Guards. The link is a significant one in that the first Lord Wantage, who did much for the town, won a Victoria Cross fighting for the regiment

SCIENCE buffs are being given the chance to take part in a summer treasure hunt – with a hi-tech twist. The activity is called geocaching, and gives people of all ages the chance to explore the wildlife of Oxford University’s Harcourt Arboretum, in Nuneham

THE Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will today appeal over the two-year jail sentence given to a man who attacked his girlfriend outside an Oxford bar. Canadian Michael Slinn, 46, fled to Thailand while awaiting sentence for the 2005 attack

AN unlikely bond is set to be formed between an Oxfordshire town and Scotland’s most famous army regiment. The Scots Guards could be the first given the freedom of Wantage, which would mark a historical link dating back to the Crimean War.

WHETHER or not we should be gloomy about the housing market depends on who you listen to. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors paints a pessimistic picture with its report forecasting a drop in prices caused by more properties on the

Police are appealing for witnesses after a burglary in Long Crendon. The burglary took place between 12pm and 3.30pm on July 29 at a property in Chearsley Road, where offenders forced entry through a ground floor window at the rear of the property

PROPERTY experts are predicting a fall in house prices across the county as supply starts to outstrip demand. A Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) survey showed a growing number of estate agents in the area have more properties

An aircraft pilot and his passenger walked away unscathed after their plane crashed in countryside near Banbury. Fire crews were called to the field at West End, Hornton, at 3.40pm yesterday after the single-engined aircraft crashed into a tree. The

Oxford United delivered a result last night that will reverberate around the Football League. Their 6-1 thrashing of Bristol Rovers in the Carling Cup first round was a magnificent exhibition of attacking football from first minute to last – and there

THE TEAM behind Oxford’s Jack FM are to target women with the launch of a new county radio station next week. The station, the name of which has not yet been revealed, will replace dance and R’n’B station Oxford FM107.9. Its target audience

AT THE age of two-and-a-half, Logan Goodall does not say a word, while four-month-old Kayleigh Finnemore suffers up to 10 fits a day and may be blind. The two tots are the latest children facing the toughest of starts in life to be supported by Didcot