Archive

  • UPDATE: No reported disturbances in Oxford tonight

    POLICE have said there have been no significant disturbances across the county tonight. Extra police patrols have been out and a spokesman said things appeared to be quiet. There was also no reported problems from Oxford United's match against Cardiff

  • Oxford Utd 1, Cardiff City 3 (aet)

    Oxford United produced a terrific effort against Championship side Cardiff before bowing out 3-1 after extra time in the first round of the Carling Cup. United fell behind in the 12th minute. Jake Wright attempted to cut out Jon Parkin's

  • Three changes for Oxford United

    Oxford United boss Chris Wilder makes three changes from the team that lost to Rotherham on Saturday. Alfie Potter and Jon-Paul Pittman start alongside James Constable in attack, with Simon Clist coming in at left back. Anthony Tonkin is missing, while

  • Constable in Oxford United starting line-up

    Talismanic striker James Constable, who Oxford United have just rejected a bid for from Luton Town, is named in the starting line-up for the Carling Cup first-round tie against Cardiff City at the Kassam Stadium tonight (7.45). Oxford Utd: Clarke, Batt

  • Keira takes a bow

    ASPIRING singer Keira Cole is on a high after winning the chance to perform at Oxford’s Clarendon Centre over the summer. About 10 different acts will be performing between August 22 and August 29 to entertain the masses in an event dubbed Summer Soundcheck

  • Call for action over 'eyesore'

    Watlington's district councillor is calling for action to deal with an eyesore shop in a prominent position in the High Street. The Paper Shop has stood empty for the past three years and has fallen into disrepair. Councillor Angie Paterson is worried

  • Local shares (PM)

    AEA Technology 2.8 BMW 5028 Electrocomponents 198 Nationwide Accident Repair 87 Oxford Biomedica 6.1 Oxford Catalysts 63.5 Oxford Instruments 841 Reed Elsevier 471.9 RM 97.75 RPS Group 204.9 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • Catch the train to the Show

    Visitors to next month’s Moreton-in-Marsh Show, just over the county boundary in Gloucestershire, can get cut-price entry if they catch a Cotswold Line train to the event. The organisers are offering reduced admission prices to anyone showing a valid

  • Solution to parking problems?

    A new housing development could help solve chronic parking problems around Long Hanborough’s railway station. Growing numbers of commuters driving to the station to catch trains to Oxford, Reading and London have overwhelmed the 50-space car park, with

  • Thousands of loyal readers benefit

    More than 7,000 people are benefiting from hundreds of discounts through our Oxford Mail loyalty card scheme. Everyone who signs up to get the paper delivered six days a week will receive the discount card. For hard-pressed families struggling to find

  • Parishioners have a fight on their hands

    IT HAS a rich history and a Civil War battle named after it. But the parishioners of Gosford and Water Eaton say they face a fight to preserve their identity from encroaching Kidlington. Community leaders say people repeatedly state that Thames Valley

  • The coaches are big but the seats aren't

    The coaches may be huge — but, my goodness, doesn’t the Oxford Tube pack ’em in! I recall that a year or so back, when the new vehicles were introduced, a letter to the editor of The Oxford Times pointed out that they had a less generous seat pitch

  • A reminder of a weird sixties singer

    The latest issue of Private Eye contains an amusing lookalike comparison between the journalist Rebekah Brooks and Rab C Nesbitt’s Davina, as played by David Tennant. I see it. But I see, too — and have long seen — the similarity in appearance between

  • The Half Moon, Cuxham, near Watlington

    I have been a visitor to The Half Moon at Cuxham, near Watlington, over three decades. During that time this quintessentially English thatched pub, parts of which date back to the early 17th century, has enjoyed a fine reputation for its food,

  • Sir Thomas Bodley: A life devoted to books

    One of the most spectacularly suitable memorials to the great and the good in Oxford must be that of Sir Thomas Bodley (1545-1613) in Merton College Chapel. The baroque black-and-white alabaster monument was carved by Nicholas Stone, master-mason

  • Recipe for plums and lamb chops (serves two)

    If you have a plum tree in your garden you will have noticed it ripening early this year — two or three weeks early at least. Like apples, they are responding to the unusual weather conditions we have had this summer and are ready now. Don’t waste them

  • Make the most of our versatile plums

    Never have plums matured as early as they have this year. Like apples and various other fruits they have ripened several weeks before their usual time but have lost none of their juicy flavour because of this. They are best when eaten ripe from

  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Devil's Double

    Man learns a harsh lesson about meddling with Mother Nature in Rupert Wyatt’s splendid new chapter in the Planet of the Apes saga, based loosely on the novel by Pierre Boulle. Drawing elements from different films made famous by Roddy McDowall

  • The Mechanicals: Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock

    A gift for summer holidays, this joyful interactive exhibition of comical, beautifully made automata will give fun and knowledge to old and young. Long ago and far away, in Cornwall in 1979, Sue Jackson opened a craft shop, Cabaret. It became the Cabaret

  • Radio Times: The Watermill Theatre, Newbury

    As wartime bombs fall on London, deep underground alongside Piccadilly Circus a radio programme called Variety Bandwagon is about to go on the air. But all is not well in the subterranean surroundings of the Criterion Theatre, which has become a BBC studio

  • Made for Trade: Pitt Rivers Museum

    The first impression of this exhibition is one of overwhelming chaos, not dissimilar to the initial overwhelming nature of the museum itself. But like the museum, the objects, gleaned from different parts of the world and from different centuries

  • The Wally: Opera Holland park

    Jean-Jacques Beineix’s film Diva, released 30 years ago, made popular for a time the aria Ebben? Ne andrò lontana, from Alfredo Catalani’s opera La Wally, which figures prominently in the soundtrack. The occasional concert performance apart, the movie

  • Tracey Emin: The Hayward Gallery

    What has Tracey Emin been up to since her show that opened the refitted and renamed Modern Art Oxford back in November 2002? A mid-career retrospective until August 29 at the Hayward Gallery, London has the answers. And there’s plenty; Tracey Emin

  • Ian McLagan: The Bullingdon Arms, Oxford

    Exactly a month after headlining the Cornbury Festival with the Rodless Faces, Ian McLagan was back on stage in very different surroundings. He opened his A Guy Walks Into a Bar tour at Oxford’s Bullingdon Arms, back to performing solo on keyboards after

  • Oxford Scribes: West Ox Arts

    Calligraphy is the most thoughtful and artistic of the arts, transcribing ideas into beautifully written words. The Oxford Scribes, an international body, was founded in Oxfordshire, welcoming beginners and seasoned professionals. Tim Noad belongs to

  • Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival

    Pianist Nuron Mukumiy was injecting a lot of fireworks into Chopin’s Four Scherzi, but he was soon interrupted. “Too showy, you must love every note,” pronounced the lady sitting beside him. Then followed a question that visibly threw 15-year-old

  • Becoming a grown-up can be embarrassing

    There are certain rights of passage everyone must go through on their way from childhood to adulthood. Your first kiss, the first dance, your first car, the first time you realise that you wouldn’t exist if your mum and dad hadn’t …well you know…..

  • Higher cost

    IT IS hypocritical of Keith Mitchell to profess sympathy with the victims of bed blocking (Oxford Mail, July 28). Councillor Mitchell conveniently overlooks the fact that he is responsible for the county council, including social services. He should

  • Continue to recycle

    PAMELA St Clair (Oxford Mail, August 5) has a point. The green hessian sacks for garden clippings was indeed a perfectly good scheme. But when the Government has cut the city council’s grant by a quarter over two years, something has to give. That’s

  • Lest we forget

    I WAS, of course, pleased to read in your pages that children had floated lanterns down the river to commemorate the end of the Second World War and the Hiroshima bombing. I remember this occasion well as I was youth hostelling with my older sister,

  • Getting the hump

    WITH regard to the debate on speeding, may I be brave enough to suggest doing away with speed cameras, speed humps and chicanes while leaving enforcement to the police with no fines imposed. Instead there would be a three- or six-month (depending on the

  • Fine for fouling

    I HAVE found the letters with reference to “horses and carriages coming to Oxford” rather amusing. People today don’t seem to pick up after a horse has passed and left a deposit, like they used to. When I was a boy and a horse lifted its tail as it went

  • Silence is deafening

    AS PEOPLE who take an active part in our local communities, we are concerned that our city councillors seem to be making no attempt to set up the new Area Forum for this part of Oxford. The other five areas have already each had one meeting, with another

  • On the spot

    I WRITE in response to your recent letters regarding tail-gating. Mr Thomson states that tail-gating only happens because the vehicle in front is not going as fast as the vehicle behind. No. The reason for tail-gating is that the vehicle behind is

  • Memories evoked by new rail tracks

    I APPLAUD Network Rail for reinstating the new train tracks between Charlbury and Ascot-under-Wychwood. It seems trains are now valued more than ever, with a £67m pot allocated to the Cotswold Line improvements. Gloucestershire Warwickshire

  • UPDATE: Police round up from last night's incidents

    A MAN was taken to hospital after a fire outside flats in Oxford last night, police have just said. The 48-year-old man was hospitalised with smoke inhalation after a fire outside flats in Hollow Way, Cowley, at around 9.40pm. The front

  • Residents fight plans for homes developments on beauty spot

    RESIDENTS in Wantage are fighting two planned developments in an area of outstanding natural beauty. People living in Newbury Street and Manor Road are concerned about the impact on surrounding green space and extra traffic on the busy A338

  • Children help rewrite the Bible

    CHILDREN across Oxfordshire have been creating their own illustrated manuscripts for a project celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Youngsters from 84 Church of England schools across the county have been painstakingly copying out

  • Vehicle rally aids charity

    FUNDRAISERS at Wallingford Vehicle Rally and Parade raised thousands of pounds for a bereavement charity and other groups in the town. The rally, in May, raised £2,981 for SeeSaw, the Oxfordshire charity which supports bereaved children and their families

  • Police patrol to stop children starting fires

    SUMMER holiday police patrols will crack down on children starting hay fires around Oxford’s Barton estate. A string of minor fires in the fields at the back of Underhill Circus have been reported to the neighbourhood police team in recent weeks. Sgt

  • Two quizzed after fast food chain attack

    TWO teenagers are being questioned about an arson attack on an Oxford branch of McDonald’s. An 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were arrested in the early hours of this morning. The Risinghurst fast food restaurant, in London Road

  • Local share prices (AM)

    AEA Technology 2.8 BMW 5293 Electrocomponents 204.5 Nationwide Accident Repair 87 Oxford Biomedica 6.1 Oxford Catalysts 61.25 Oxford Instruments 841 Reed Elsevier 485.3 RM 97.75 RPS Group 213.1 Courtesy of Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon

  • Swinford toll closed after crash

    A collision between a van and car closed the road over the Swinford toll bridge at lunchtime yesterday. No one was injured in the accident just before 12.50pm, involving a Ford Transit van and a Vauxhall Meriva. The B4044 Oxford Road

  • Protest outside Mini Plant

    A protest took place outside the Mini Plant Oxford yesterday. The protesters turned out to call for BMW managers to intervene in a dispute involving workers in the USA. Union members were showing their support for those affected by the row in California

  • Delicate task as church bells are sent for tuning

    There would have been an almighty clang if something did go wrong, but churchgoers breathed a sigh of relief as eight bells were safely winched down the side of an Oxford church yesterday for retuning. Workmen safely removed the bells from St Giles’

  • Former boyfriend admits to murder

    The boyfriend of former Bicester woman Denise Skilbeck was last night facing a life sentence after admitting her murder. Gary Spalding, of Dobsons Quay, Newark, entered his plea at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday and was remanded in custody

  • CRICKET: Morris stars against former side

    FORMER Oxfordshire player Fi Morris returned to haunt her old side as Gloucestershire hammered them by 209 runs in ECB Women’s County Championship 5 South & West at Charlbury. Morris smashed 127 in Gloucestershire’s 269 all out, then took 3

  • We can take the heat, says Oxford United keeper

    Goalkeeper Ryan Clarke says that any pressure Oxford United are under against Cardiff is put on by themselves. The U’s squad go into their Carling Cup clash desperate to put right a disappointing performance at Rotherham. And Clarke says that everyone

  • Underground cafe to go overground

    THE owners of Oxford’s first underground restaurant can officially take it overground, despite a petition to stop it. Oxfork was created by East Oxford resident Drew Brammer and chefs Chloe Horner and Becky Craven as a ‘pop-up restaurant’. The idea

  • CRICKET: Marcham withdraw first team

    MARCHAM, who have struggled since a mass exodus before the start of the season, have withdrawn their first team from Division 1 of the OCA. Following a meeting of the OCA, league secretary Colin Olliffe said: “It was agreed to withdraw Marcham’s first

  • CRICKET: Morrick to be captain at Lord's

    ASTON Rowant captain Wes Morrick has been chosen to captain the Club Cricket Conference team at Lord’s. All-rounder Morrick will lead the side against the MCC on Monday, August 22. The Club Cricket Conference, founded in 1915, selects representative

  • Pedestrian seriously injured

    A pedestrian was left with a bleed on the brain after an early-morning crash in Oxford. The 31-year-old was hit in Sunderland Avenue at 12.45am on Monday and was treated at hospital for a fractured eye socket and cheek. A white LDV minibus had stopped

  • ROWING: County's stars on way to Slovenia

    Oxfordshire have a strong representation in Great Britain’s team for the World Championships at Bled, Slovenia, from August 28 to September 4. Frances Houghton, from Wheatley who rows for Leander BC, competes in the women’s single scull at the event

  • ROWING: Oxon trio lift world silver

    Three Oxfordshire oarsmen were in the Great Britain’s men’s eight which won silver in the World Junior Championships at Eton Dorney Lake. John Carter, from Didcot, Wallingford’s Jamie Copus – both from Abingdon School BC – and Oxford’s Cameron MacRitchie

  • UPDATE: Tonight's United match goes ahead

    Oxford United’s match against Cardiff City will go ahead tonight, police confirmed this morning. The U’s will play host to the Welsh side at the Kassam Stadium in the Carling Cup fixture which kicks off at 7.45pm. Thames Valley Police

  • Ace effort still going strong

    Two tennis coaches attempting to break the Guinness world record for the longest continuous tennis match were still going strong last night. Ryan Trickey and Andy Aitken are trying to break the existing record of 60 hours, 59 minutes and 58 seconds,

  • AUNT SALLY: Adams hits a sweet 16

    Philip Adams (6-5-5) clanged off 16 dolls in the Cricketers’ 3-0 win against the Rowing Machine in Premier/Section 1, writes ANDY BEAL. Teammate Jon Townsend (5-5-5) chipped in with 15 dolls. Adrian Shepherd (5-5-5) also clanged off 15 dolls to steer

  • Police forced to counteract tweets as anxiety spreads

    Social networking sites fuelled rumours of disorder and violence in Oxford, prompting police to set up a Twitter account to try to combat fears. Repeated reports of trouble in Cowley Road, banks in the city centre closing early and McDonald’s in Cornmarket

  • Cowley Road grocers re-opens

    A popular Asian grocery store was last night set to re-open after a mystery two-week closure. The Eastern and Continental Store in Cowley Road, East Oxford, closed on July 20 and the shop had been left shuttered up ever since. It is among the road

  • CRICKET: Evans hails Hawtin ton

    RUPERT Evans paid tribute to Oxfordshire captain Ian Hawtin for achieving 100 Minor Counties Championship appearances. Oxon’s head of cricket, who captained Hawtin on his debut in 1995, presented the wicket-keeper with a tankard to mark the occasion

  • Businesses batten down the hatches

    Businesses were warned to batten down the hatches last night as police increased patrols on the city’s streets as a precaution against copycat rioting. It came after an arson attack on McDonald’s in Risinghurst when a petrol bomb was flung through a

  • Literally speaking

    I AM wondering if anyone else is disturbed by the increasingly loose usage of the term ‘literally’. This morning, on Radio 4 (if you please!) I heard a lady state that “the Euro has literally fallen off a cliff”. Well, at least one may have done so

  • Guy in at the deep end for Oxford United in Carling Cup

    Lewis Guy will make his debut for Oxford United on Wednesday – but Chris Wilder would not be drawn on whether he would start or come off the bench. The U’s manager snapped up the 26-year-old striker on a one-month loan from MK Dons after learning

  • Plans unveiled to revamp town

    Shoppers in Abingdon are being asked to choose between two major supermarket schemes set to dominate the town centre. The first proposal is for a new “medium to large” superstore at The Charter of 4,800 sq m, about 51,000 sq ft, while the second

  • COMMENT: Keep the balance

    THE state of our market towns is much lamented. In these times of economic uncertainty, it is great news that shoppers in Abingdon are being asked how they would like to see the town centre develop. But the redevelopment must be done properly and in

  • Bids welcomed for new TV channel

    Oxford could get another TV station under plans announced by the Government yesterday. The Government said the city is one of 65 UK locations that regulator Ofcom could award licences to. Bids will be invited later this year, with ministers expecting

  • Oxford United turn down bid for Constable

    “We do not want to sell, and we do not need to sell”. That was the message from Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas after the U’s turned down a bid from Conference side Luton for star striker James Constable. United’s chief added that while every player

  • Man is missing

    A missing man who was last seen at an Oxford hospital is being urged to contact police. Mark Preen, 45, left the John Radcliffe Hospital bare-chested at about 2.15am yesterday and officers are now worried about his safety. He is described as white,

  • Respects to be paid to Marine

    A repatriation cortege bearing the body of Royal Marine James Wright, who was killed in Afghanistan on Friday, will arrive in Oxford tomorrow. The cortege is expected to reach the Headley Way entrance to the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Headington, at

  • Off-duty ambulance man rides to rescue

    An off-duty ambulance technician tended to an injured man lying on a motorway slip road. Chris Smith had just finished a 12-hour shift when he came across the scene on the southbound sliproad at junction nine of the M40 about midnight on Sunday. A man

  • Is there a big cat out there?

    For many years reports have come in following sightings of big cats in the Oxfordshire countryside. Many people are convinced there is a Puma-like creature prowling among our fields and hedgerows, while others dismiss the notion as nonsense. However

  • CRICKET: Oxon denied at the death

    OXFORDSHIRE came within a whisker of defeating Berkshire in an ultimately dramatic Minor Counties Championship match at Banbury yesterday. The Western Division leaders were left clinging on at 194-9, almost 300 runs adrift of the near impossible victory

  • CRICKET: We played all the cricket, says Hawtin

    MINOR COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP IAN Hawtin had no regrets over his late declaration after Oxfordshire just missed out on beating Berkshire in an often niggly clash. Skipper Hawtin only declared when his side reached 352-9 and a mammoth lead of 488. This

  • Olympic pool to miss target year

    The £9.2m swimming pool for Blackbird Leys may not hit its Olympic opening target because of the bid to turn the area into a town green. Fourteen opponents to the pool in Blackbird Leys Park have submitted an application to turn the park into

  • COMMENT: Campaign is short-sighted

    THE right to protest should always be upheld. But as with many rights, those exercising them must show a degree of responsibility. In the case of Blackbird Leys Park a tiny number of campaigners seem hell bent on disrupting the multi-million-pound plans

  • UPDATE: Arrests following minor disorder

    Four people were arrested for causing criminal damage in Banbury last night. It is thought they were linked to damage caused to a shop in the town. Thames Valley Police also said this morning that there were 11 other arrests across the

  • Couple's £1.8m gift to lifeboatmen takes to the water

    A NEW lifeboat bought with the help of a £1.8m donation from an Oxfordshire couple will be named by Princess Anne today. The £2.7m Tamar class boat will be christened Alfred Albert Williams at a dual ceremony when the Princess Royal will also officially

  • Royal British Legion's 90 years of service

    JUST over 90 years ago, a soldier named Lance Bombardier Tom Lister looked at Britain and decided that something had to be done. As a result of the First World War, the country’s economy had plummeted. There were two million unemployed.  More than

  • UPDATE: Police called into three city areas

    POLICE have tonight dispersed groups of people after reports of antisocial behaviour in the areas of Oxford. A Thames Valley Police spokesman said officers had been called to Barton, Blackbird Leys and the city centre to deal with groups after