THAME’S town partnership, 21st Century Thame, which runs the Thame Carnival, Thame Tidy Day and Small Business Saturday among other events, and has been instrumental in initiating so many great projects such as the Food Festival, the Thame Equipment Bank, Blue Plaques, Historic Walks pavement waymarkers, more bicycle racks, planters at the town’s main entry points, Welcome Packs and loads more, is looking for new blood.
A planned AGM for October 7, unfortunately had to be postponed and the new date will be Tuesday, December 8, at 7:30pm in the Upper Chamber of Thame Town Hall. If you run a business, or work or live in the town, and want to help shape Thame’s future for everyone, 21st Century Thame would love to see you at the AGM and to hear what you might have to offer.
21st Century Thame is a Town Partnership, including local authorities, local community groups and volunteers, set up to facilitate projects which enhance the town for residents, businesses and visitors alike. It’s stated aim is: “To enhance the historic market town of Thame by protecting its past and promoting its future as a vibrant and flourishing centre serving the whole community.”
A Thame Town Charter, aimed at strengthening community spirit throughout the town, has been launched by the Mayor of Thame.
Graham Hunt, Cllr Nichola Dixon and Phil Stratton
Cllr Nichola Dixon, alongside the Town Clerk, Graham Hunt, and representatives of Sharing Life Trust, came together on Friday, November 27, 2015, to formally launch the Thame Community Charter and it is hoped that local groups, clubs and businesses will sign up to share its vision and spirit.
The Charter is described as: “Setting out a vision for our town around which individuals and both the voluntary and commercial sectors can coalesce and actively participate in building a stronger community identity. The simple, recognisable ‘mark’ of the Charter will be a clear identifier of all that makes our town a special place in which to live and work.”
On receiving her copy of the Charter, Cllr Dixon said: “Thame is such a wonderful place to live; full of passionate individuals and businesses who care deeply about the future of their community. This Charter puts into words what we are all striving towards for our town. I am delighted to support it and strongly encourage others to do so.”
Phil Stratton of Sharing Life Trust said: “As a local charity providing relief of hardship and poverty, we are passionate about enabling those in the community to make a difference.”
Anyone wanting to adopt the Community Charter, can visit www.thamecharter.org or contact Sharing Life Trust on 0845 466 0264.
THAME Chamber Choir, together with its children’s choir, TCC2, is putting on not one but two concerts of Christmas music, on Saturday, December 19.
The evening performance at 7.30 pm will be preceded by a shorter matinée at 4.30 pm., specially for younger children and their parents. As well as home-made mince pies there will be plenty of music for all tastes: traditional carols, modern carols, jazzy carols, and carols to sing along to – with mulled wine to keep vocal cords lubricated (and juice for the children).
Both concerts will be in St Mary’s Church, Thame. Tickets are available from the Book House, Thame, or on the door, and are free for children under 16!
CHINNOR started with a strong cross wind in their favour and tackled well to prevent Old E’s from crossing the gain line and keeping most of the play in the opposition’s half. Chinnor then took an early lead winning quick line out ball for the three quarters to use a miss move to put full back, Ollie Heath through a gap for an unconverted try.
Chinnor’s enthusiasm resulted in a penalty to Old E’s who kicked deep into Chinnor’s 22m area. A driving maul from the resulting line out put their No 8, Nelmes over for a try converted by full back White.
An Old E’s error on the half way line enabled Jack Adams to flick the ball between his legs to winger Jake Olley who sprinted to the line to score Chinnor’s second try converted by Heath.
Old E’s were unfortunate not to score just before half time but the disallowed try was deemed to involve a double movement of the ball so Chinnor led 12 – 7 at the interval.
Old E’s started well in the second half when a Chinnor penalty failed to make touch allowing their winger to weave his way into the Chinnor half. From the resulting maul Old E’s used the wind to kick deep into Chinnor’s try line and their winger Dowsett won the race to the touch down for an unconverted try. For the next 20 minutes Old E’s used high kicks and grubber kicks to pin Chinnor in their own 22m area and forcing lineouts from which their forwards drove over to score two tries for Rudland-Thomas and Culllen. White kicked one conversion and later a penalty to create a 27 – 12 lead for the home team.
Chinnor then replied with determined running and second phase handling for a good five minutes. Eventually centre Alex Dancer found a gap to score under the posts with Heath being successful with the conversion. With just 5 minutes to go there was not enough time for Chinnor to score again to earn themselves a losing bonus point. Old Elthamians ran out worthy winners 27 – 19 points.
THAME High Street has been officially recognised as a ‘Rising Star’ among British high streets, and yesterday (November 30), was honoured with a special certificate at the Great British High Street Awards ceremony at Admiralty House, in Whitehall, London.
L to R: Marcus Jones MP, John Howell MP, Helen Johns, Sonja Francis and Simon Roberts
The event was hosted jointly by High Streets Minister, Marcus Jones, and the President of Boots, Simon Roberts, who are co-Chairs of the Government’s Future High Streets Forum, which instigated the Great British High Streets Awards. The judging panel said that the Rising Stars particularly impressed them ‘with their commitment to working together to bring new life into their high streets’ and of Thame in particular, special mention was made of its Neighbourhood Plan and for the way Thame has ‘been put back on the map through the use of social media’.
Two of Thame’s GB High Streets team, Helen Johns and Sonja Francis, were at Admiralty House to receive the award on behalf of the town, supported by Thame’s MP, John Howell, who was instrumental in formulating the Government’s Neighbourhood Planning policy.
After the event, John Howell said: “It was a great pleasure to be at the awards ceremony and to support Thame. I think Thame did very well to be chosen from across the country and I was particularly pleased to see that its Neighbourhood Plan was specifically mentioned. This is good news for Thame and the excellence of what it has to offer in its High Street.”
In his introduction Marcus Jones said: “All of today’s finalists have proven themselves to be among Britain’s best high streets and I congratulate them on their good work. We’ll be sharing all of their top tips with other high streets across the country to make sure others learn from their success.”
A delighted Helen Johns from the Thame team said: “A small group of people put time and effort into preparing Thame’s application during the summer and it is fantastic to hear that our hard work has paid off because of the Rising Star award being given to the town. I would like to thank all those who worked hard to ensure Thame has been put on the national map in this way and hopefully, next year, when we are told the competition will be even bigger, we can look forward to seeing Thame moving up the scale and awarded as winner in the market town category.”
A charity Cake Fest, held in a Thame pub, by the the Thame Scooterists’ club, The Red Kites, has raised over £200, towards Cancer Research.
Amy Southern
With the support and donations from the landladies of the Falcon pub in Thame, bar staff, all the regulars, Red Kites scooter club members, work colleagues and friends, the daughter of one of the club’s members, Amy Southern, has raised the first £K of her target £3K for the charity.
Red Kites member, Serena Chamberlain, explained: “Amy is currently studying at Cardiff University and hopes to enter the field of medicine when she graduates, and this charity is very close to her heart. We wanted to help support her and by selling home baked goodies, the grand total from the Red Kites Charity Cake Fest was £233.45, money that will go directly to Amy’s donation page https://k16cardiff.everydayhero.com/uk/amy-southern
In August 2016, Amy will be undertaking the challenge of a lifetime, climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise more money towards her target £3K which will go to Worldwide Cancer Research to help them pay for the technology and resources required to find cures for all types of cancer, all over the world.
Amy said: “I am overjoyed and hugely appreciate everyone’s help and support. Sadly, cancer can affect many of us, whether personally, or through family and friends.”
ACTION Fraud (National Fraud Intelligence Bureau) has warned today that there has been a series of incidents recently whereby fraudsters either phone or call at the homes of elderly people, claiming to be police officers.
The fake officer/s claim that they are investigating a fraud which they believe the elderly person to be a victim of. The fake officer/s will then request the bank cards and personal identification numbers (PIN) of the victim and claim these are needed for investigation purposes. If the first contact was made by a phone call, the fake officer/s will tell the victim that someone will be over to collect the evidence. In one case the victim was instructed to attend their local bank and withdraw all of the money from their account. The suspect was left alone in the victim’s house whilst the victim carried out the instructions.
The advice is, before letting anyone into your home who claims to be from any law enforcement agency, ask to see their identity card and check it by calling 101.
Ask if they can attend at a pre-arranged time when a family member or friend can also be present.
If you receive a phone call from a police officer, ask for their name and force and tell them you will call them back. Wait a few minutes and then use 101 to call them back through their force’s switchboard and verify their identity.
The Police will never ask for your PIN or passwords. Do not give this information to anyone.
The Police will never request that you withdraw/transfer any money to them.
If you believe that you have been a victim of fraud you can report it online via http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud or by telephone 0300 123 2040.
FOLLOWING complaints about peak time services by Chiltern Railways passengers, extra carriages are to be added to some trains, when the company’s new timetable comes into operation on December 13.
Chiltern Railway’s train at Haddenham & Thame parkway
The main change affecting Thame commuters will be the lengthening of the 06.37 from Haddenham and Thame Parkway, from two to three carriages.
Other changes include the 6.25am and 7.11am trains from Bicester North to London Marylebone will have seven carriages instead of the current six. To see the full range of changes, visit: Chiltern Railways website
LAST night was a proud one for sport in Thame, and particularly for those clubs represented at the 2015 Oxfordshire Sports Awards, held at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford, organised by Oxfordshire Sport and Physical Activity.
Representatives of Thame Town Cricket Club proudly display their nominees certificate
Thame Town Cricket Club narrowly missed winning Club of the Year, though were in the top three clubs nominated. The award, which recognises ‘the exemplary commitment of the club to their members, to their local communities and to their sport’, finally went to Banbury & District Canoe Club.
Representatives of the Oxford School of Gymnastics with their award
The Oxford School of Gymnastics, which is based at Lord Williams’s School, Thame, under the leadership of Emma Parr, were luckier, winning the coveted Sports Team of the Year award, beating Oxford City Lions Men’s Futsal Team and Oxford University Company of Archers, Women’s Team.
Speaking to BBC Oxford’s Jerome Sale after receiving their award, the young gymnasts spoke of how the whole team is a family, each depending on the other to perform well. The team had come back from a spate of injuries to a level where they were able to trial for the GB team and had recently returned from Italy with a Gold medal.
Another local boy, Jack Brooks, who hails from Tiddington and now plays cricket for Yorkshire, was awarded Oxfordshire Sportsman of the Year 2015.
Oxfordshire Sportsman of the Year, Jack Brooks (Image courtesy of @bbcoxfordsport
MUSIC, wine, stories and songs in the village church, will launch the first volume of a book about the history of the village of Shabbington, near Thame, next Friday (December 4).
The richly-illustrated book ‘Shabbington, A Thousand Years of Village History’ recounts the fascinating story of the village and its relationship with Thame, through centuries of momentous events from Domesday to the First World War. The proceeds from sale of the book will go to charity.
Writer Richard Mayou said: “Shabbington fields are full of mysterious lumps and bumps. The church dates back to medieval times, and there are stories of ghostly sightings. The village has been hiding a fascinating history.”
The highly-readable account touches not only on nationally-important events such as the Norman conquest, the Black Death, and the Civil and Napoleonic wars, but brings alive the everyday hardships of villagers in rural poverty, and the manoeuvrings of the wealthy lords and vicars that put their successive stamp on the village down the ages.
A second volume will explore life from 1920 to the present day. The book costs £14.99 and all proceeds will go to the Friends of St Mary Magdalene Church. The book can be bought from The Book House in Thame High Street, and the Thame Museum, and signed copies will be available from the author at the launch party at 7.30pm, at St Mary Magdalene Church, Mill Road, Shabbington.
