THREE local venues are launching a Rural Comedy Circuit this autumn, presenting three shows. The first will be in Chinnor on November 1, followed by Chilton on November 20, and the annual, Xmas Xtravaganza in Ludgershall on December 18th. See https://www.facebook.com/newvariety.lives for more details and the information about the line ups for the three events.
The Rural Comedy Circuit when the landlady of Ludgershall’s Bull and Butcher pub, Pat Crisp, persuaded the resettled Hackney Empire director and producer, Roland and Claire Muldoon, both recognised for their pioneering role in the development of modern comedy, ‘..to stop talking about their experiences and put some shows on.’
Claire Muldoon herself explained: “For the last seven years the shows have sold out four times a year and the club has become a local legend, adding new status to this small village. We have won a reputation for presenting ‘Bills’ from the national comedy circuit and udiences from across Bucks and Oxon book early and regularly, to see such artists as Jo Brand, Barry Cryer & Ronnie Golden, Jenny Éclair, Mark Little, Rudi Lickwood, John Moloney, Felix Dexter and the fabulous Otiz Cannelloni, an audience favourite.”
Such has the demand been that they have now set up the fledgling Rural Comedy circuit in three Bucks and Oxon towns and villages; and possibly more.
The shows are set out in a cabaret format with a strong pa, atmospheric lighting, full technical support, a friendly bar, four professional, experienced comedy acts and compere, and the occasional special guest.
Claire concluded: “A fully professional evening, promising a great night out for those over 18.”
THAME’S Mayor, Jeannette Matelot Green, will be showing her artistic side when she exhibits alongside 100 other artists and craftspeople at this year’s Aylesbury Grammar School Art and Craft Fair, on November 21.
Jeannette Matelot Green with her tiger sculpture, at a previous exhibition
The school’s PTA has been staging its impressive display of local arts, raising funds for the school and providing an invaluable showcase for leadling local artists, professional and amateur alike since 1993.
As the promotional material states: “The Fair has gone from strength to strength and in the past few years, has also provided the venue for an innovative and tempting display of local crafts. This year we will also be showcasing the prodigious talent of the AGS sixth form in our special Student Expo.
Last year thousands of pounds were raised for the School as visitors enjoyed the creativity on display. This year, with your support, the event promises to be bigger and better than ever before.”
WITH Halloween fast approaching, the police are reminding people to make sure that they spend their time trick-or-treating responsibly.
Many residents enjoy Halloween and view it as harmless fun, but for others it can be distressing receiving visits from unexpected callers, particularly the elderly and those that live alone.
The neighbourhood police teams in the Thames Valley will be undertaking high-visibility patrols over the Halloween period to deal with any anti-social behaviour. They also work with schools and parents to reduce the incidents of nuisance and criminal damage that can happen at this time of year.
You can download and print a ‘No trick-or-treat’ flyer from the Thames Valley Police website and display it in a window or visit your local station to pick up a copy.
THAME was’ live’ on the radio tonight, when the BBC Radio 4, topical discussion programme, Any Questions? chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby, was broadcast from The Spread Eagle Hotel. The programme was invited by the organisers of the TAL (Thame Arts and Literature) Festival which is currently running until Sunday, October 19.
Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, with Town Cllr Mary Stiles after last night’s Any Questions? broadcast from Thame
The distinguished panel consisted of Lord Heseltine, former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister, Chuka Umunna, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC and James Delingpole, described as an author, journalist, broadcaster and critic.
The programme can be heard again repeated, tomorrow (Saturday, Oct 18) on BBC Radio 4, at 13:10, or listened to now or at any time here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04l3ly4
* A solution to Thame’s parking problems looks unlikely any time soon, as the county council and the district council wrangle over which parking areas will be run by whom. Very little parking enforcement has been carried out since parking was decriminilised three years-ago and is no longer the responsibility of the police. They can however, act if a vehicle is causing an obstruction. When the issue has been resolved, SODC will carry out the enforcement, probably using contractors, and the money will go to which ever council owns a particular car park. Thame Town Council has urged the county and district councils to consider parking for town centre residents when drawing up the new enforcement policy.
* IN the event of a major incident taking out the use of Thame fire station in Nelson Street, Thame Town Council has agreed to accommodate a fire engine at its maintenance depot. As part of the Fire and Rescue Service Business Continuity Plan for ensuring fire and safety cover is maintained in Thame, it is required to have a minimum of two reserve locations for such an event. The Thame company, CPM, has also agreed to provide space for a second vehicle.
* THAME Town Council has £1.9 million in the bank, a 4% rise in the value of its portfolio of investments, over the past year. Mr Andrew Hess, Investment Director at Rathbones, the council’s Investment Managers, warned that although markets had been fairly calm earlier in the year, they had begun to fall back recently with fears of a global economic slow-down, a possible double-dip recession in Germany, an end to the US printing money (quantitive easing), unrest in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as concerns over Ebola. Interest rates in the UK were unlikely to rise, he speculated, until after the general election. He recommended that the council continued with its ‘defensive’ portfolio of 50% invested in bonds, 10% in alternatives and 40% in equities.
* IN order to carry out essential carriageway repair works, Oxfordshire County Council will be closing Kingsey Road, Thame, for three days from October 27, 2014. A diversion will be put in place. Kingsey Road from Queens Rd to Kings Rd junctions EAST STREET THAME – For further information contact Highway and Transport at OCC on 0845 310 1111.
* RECENT requests for financial assistance from the Thame Welfare Trust (an amalgamation of several small charitable donations from Wills over many years) have come from families needing assistance to pay for school trips, and things like contributions to the cost of a new washing machine. Referrals to help those in need in the town are usually made by Social and Health Workers. More information about the TWT can be found at: http://tiny.cc/qfgwnx
* THE town council’s IT equipment, described by Cllr Peter Lambert as ‘so slow you can go away and make a coffee while it loads’, is to be replaced with the purchase of seven new computers, the upgrading of another PC plus the purchase of 11 Microsoft Office Licences 2013 at a cost of £7580. ipads which were given to each councillor two year’s ago, which the councils says has lead to an increase in efficiency and ‘a significant reduction in costs from the reduction in printing of reports, photocopying packs and delivery of Council papers to Members’, are to be replaced at the beginning of each new administration. The old ones will be offered to councillors to buy and if not wanted, will be sold off for the best price achievable.
* THE trombone player in the band playing at the 1940s night on Saturday, October 25, (See LINK) is being lead by the lead trombone player from the official Glen Miller band.
AFTER the recent death of its leader, Ann Ducker, South Oxfordshire District Council has a new leader. Cllr John Cotton is the new leader of South Oxfordshire District Council following a vote at the full council meeting on yesterday, October 16.
District Cllr John Cotton, the new Leader of the SODC Cabinet
Ann Ducker, who served as leader of the council for 11 years, passed away in September after a short illness.
Cllr Cotton has served on the council since 1999 and during that time has served on the Cabinet as the representative for Planning, IT and for Didcot. He was chosen by the ruling Conservative group as their candidate for the leadership on Tuesday, October 14.
He is the councillor for the Sandford ward, which includes Sandford on Thames, Clifton Hampden, Culham and Nuneham Courtenay.
Cllr Cotton said: “I am excited by the job ahead – it’s a real privilege to have been given this opportunity. Filling Ann’s shoes will be difficult, but I will give it my best and I hope – come May next year – that my colleagues in the new cabinet and I will have given everybody in the district cause to say a job well done.”
In recent years, the interests of Didcot were represented on the cabinet by Cllr Ducker, a position that Cllr Cotton also once held. Cllr Cotton has now introduced a cabinet representative for all of the market towns, as well as for parishes within the district.
The new Cabinet Committee for South Oxfordshire District Council is:
Cllr John Cotton – Leader of the Council and cabinet member for Corporate Strategy, Economic Development and Wallingford Cllr Angie Paterson – Deputy Leader of the Council and cabinet member for Planning Policy and Customer Services Cllr Anna Badcock – cabinet member for Housing Cllr David Dodds – cabinet member for Waste and Thame Cllr Will Hall – cabinet member for Finance and Henley Cllr Elizabeth Gillespie – cabinet member for Development Control, Building Control, Grants and Northern Parishes Cllr Bill Service – cabinet member for Leisure and Didcot Cllr Lynn Lloyd – IT, HR, Legal and Democratic Services Cllr Judith Nimmo-Smith – Health, Community Safety and Central Parishes Cllr Robert Simister – Property, Technical Services and Southern Parishes.
THAME Charities pre-Christmas Fair will be held this year on Saturday November, 8, 2014, at Thame Town Hall from 10am until 1.30pm.
Thame’s MP, John Howell, visiting the Thame Charities Fair in 2013
There will be sixteen stalls with offerings as diverse as gifts, cards, preserves, bottle stalls, Christmas decorations, books, cakes and other refreshments.
Organisations participating will include Inner Wheel, Thame Activity Group, BBOWT, Operation Christmas Child (shoe boxes), Thame Museum, League of Friends, Day Centre, Thame Amnesty Group, Thame Players, John Hampden Society, British Legion,Thame Guides and Scouts, WI and Dovecote.
New this year is a locally based charity raising funds for nurses for Africa.
If you would like to support these organisations or are interested in what they may have to offer, and do some Christmas shopping, then call in at the town hall on November, 8.
SOME residents of Thame are unhappy about what they feel is a lack of publicity prior to an exhibition of a house builder’s plans for over 200 homes on the outskirts of the town. The proposal is for the so-called Site F, in Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan, on the site of the old pig farm in Oxford Road.
Although a leaflet was posted through the door of some residents in the vicinity of the proposed development and an email sent to members of Residents’ Associations in the area, information does not generally seem to have come to the notice of others in the town.
Comments on social media included: “No body I’ve spoken to knew about it. Would definitely have gone.”
“I saw signage about it but only because I was at Town Hall for a meeting yesterday.”
In a statement today, a spokesperson for Bloor Homes said: “We’ve sent out over 1,800 newsletters directly to Thame residents around the site as well as supplying posters and placing an advert in the local paper. We also provided information for members of the residents associations within Thame.”
He added: “The consultation period is still ongoing.”
For those who do not receive the local free paper, or missed the notice on its Letters page and missed the exhibition, but would like to respond to the consultation, a PDF of the leaflet from Bloor Homes is available here: Site F, Thame – Newsletter – Bloor Homes
THAME Players Theatre Company has been providing the town with first class, amateur dramatics, pantomime, one-man (and one-woman) shows and hosting visiting professional touring companies, for 70 years.
Thame Players Theatre patron, Nicholas Parsons, hosting ‘Just a Minute’
On Friday, October 3, two of Thame Players’ celebrity patrons, Nicholas Parsons, famed host of BBC Radio 4’s Just A Minute, and Bruce Alexander, the actor best known for his role as Inspector Mullett in A Touch of Frost, joined close to 100 members, friends and supporters at The Spread Eagle in Thame, to celebrate.
The distinguished company also included the Mayor of Thame, Jeanette Matelot Green, and the Chairman of South Oxfordshire District Council, Ann Midwinter.
The Mayor Consort, James Green (lower left) and other guests enjoying the repartee of Nicholas Parsons, during the 70th Anniversary birthday party of Thame Players
After a welcoming glass of bubbly to get the party underway, all took their places at tables named after Thame Players’ productions through the decades, including April Fools (1949), Gaslight (1950), Billy Liar (1966), Camelot (1983), Oliver (2001) and, more recently, Arcadia (2012) and Quartet (2014).
Music was provided by Rob Grimwood on keyboards and Nicki Rochford of Towersey Festival’s Songs of the Urban Past, themed to reflect the passing decades from 1944 until the present, with wartime numbers such as Swinging on a Star and classic pieces from musicals such as My Fair Lady, Les Miserables, and Wicked.
Taking pride of place was a display with posters and reviews of past productions, representing the history of Thame Players since 1944, and another collection of images showing refurbishment projects undertaken since Thame Players acquired the freehold of the theatre building in 1997 – a former church hall which was 100 years old last year. The most notable projects were undertaken in 2002 and this summer 2014, with £200,000 raised from public and private sources, including SODC and Thame Town Council.
A highlight of the evening was the auction, which was led by Nicholas Parsons with skill and humour in equal measure. The tempting lots on offer included a week in Tuscany, best-in-house tickets to see The Lion King (donated by Sir Tim Rice), and a case of fine wines donated by The Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc.
Bruce Alexander, besides running the raffle, entertained the assembled company by reciting The Wild Things of Thame, a poem he had written specially for the occasion, celebrating Thame Players as the wild things of Thame, providing a window on the world through the medium of theatre.
Sadly, the evening had to come to a close, but everyone took happy memories away with them of helping Thame Players celebrate their first 70 years and look forward to the next 70. There was icing on the cake too: the auction and raffle had raised the princely sum of £3,500 towards the theatre development fund – there is still renovation work planned for 2015.
This Birthday Bash was a fitting 70th tribute and to see the guests go home with delighted smiles on their faces was indeed an inspiration for the future of theatre in Thame.
SOURCE: Contributed by Helen Johns
NB Thame Players is a registered charity run entirely by volunteers offering a varied range of productions all year round, from serious theatre to comedy and pantomime, including their own productions, visiting shows, and film screenings by Thame Cinema for All. The theatre is also used as a venue during Thame Food Festival and the Thame Arts & Literature Festival.
Thame Players’ next production will be Sleeping Beauty, the annual pantomime, from 5th to 7th and 10th to 14th December, matinees 2 pm and 5.30 pm, evenings 7.45 pm. Tickets cost £9 and £8 (concessions) from Tickets Anywhere Greyhound Walk Thame, Tel 01844 217228 or online from www.thameplayers.co.uk (booking fee applies). Party discounts are available – details on request from thameplayers@gmail.com or 07938 857291.
For more information about Thame Players visit www.thameplayers.co.uk Thame Players are still fundraising: to donate any amount, large or small, to the Building A Better Theatre project, please contact Helen Johns, fundraising committee, on 0771 743 4983
RACQUETS Fitness Centre in Thame is running a one day squash tournament for the juniors this Saturday, October 18, and there are still some places left so get in there quickly!
Happy young squash players who took part in Racquets’ Squash Camp, back in February
There will be round robin events of three, four or five players – so everyone will only be playing others of similar standard, and guaranteed two games.
AUTHOR, Jeffrey Archer, is due to visit Chinnor later in the month, to officially open the first ever charity bookshop supporting the charity, Fight Bladder Cancer.
Jeffrey and Mary Archer – Image courtesy of beyondhall8.blogspot.co.uk/
Jeffry Archer’s wife, Dr Mary Archer, was herself diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2010 and underwent life-saving surgery which resulted in her having to have her bladder removed and a substitute ‘neo-bladder’ being formed out of a piece of her intestine. In the same year, Andrew Winterbottom started up the Fight Bladder Cancer charity in Chinnor, following his own diagnosis of the disease in 2009, when he also had to have his bladder removed to prevent further spread of the cancer.
Andrew explained: “What surprised me at the time of my diagnosis, was that there wasn’t a single charity in the UK dedicated to supporting people affected by bladder cancer. Like most people, I had not heard of bladder cancer before, so I was very surprised to find out that in fact it is the seventh most common cancer there is, has the highest recurrence rate of any cancer and is the most expensive for the NHS to treat.”
Since the charity was formed it has developed a very significant confidential support service for people affected by bladder cancer across the whole country together with a Bladder Cancer Buddy service which links people who live close to each other, so that those who have gone through the treatment can provide one-to-one support for those who are newly diagnosed.
Andrew continued: “We are delighted to get the support of Jeffrey Archer to open our first charity bookshop. The Fight Bladder Cancer charity has grown significantly in a short period by the e fforts of the trustees and volunteer supporters. We are now able to support people affected by bladder cancer right across the country, raise awareness of the causes and symptoms, and help to fund essential medical research.
“Having moved the charity out of the shed at the bottom of my garden into its first small office, we were pleased to be able to use some of the space to open this charity bookshop that will help fund our vital work. Hopefully, this will be the first of many across the country.”
The official opening event will start at 6pm on Friday, October 31, at The Wee Bookshop, 19 Station Road, Chinnor OX39 4PU
Further information about bladder cancer and the activities of the charity can be found at: www.fightbladdercancer.co.uk
The Rural Comedy Circuit when the landlady of Ludgershall’s Bull and Butcher pub, Pat Crisp, persuaded the resettled Hackney Empire director and producer, Roland and Claire Muldoon, both recognised for their pioneering role in the development of modern comedy, ‘..to stop talking about their experiences and put some shows on.’
