A graded squash tournament for all standards, being run for local fitness club, Racquets, has attracted World Ranked squash stars, following an announcement that a Racquets Member has put up a £2,000 cash prize!
Adrian Waller
Adrian Waller, England international and World ranked 27, and Australian, Rex hedreichn World Ranked 57, will be taking part in the top grade, as well as local Oxfordshire professionals such as Scott Handley, ex top 40, and Racquets rising star and PSA pro, Will John.
But the Racquets tournament is not only for the high-flyers; they are also running grades down to E grade for beginners to the sport, and Juniors grades as well as a fun Doubles tournament.
Racquets’ Manager, Simon Martin, Said: “Eddy Smythe is also bringing his band along ‘The Connection’ for a gig on the Saturday night. The bar will be open and food available all weekend with a mini beer festival going on too, with guest beers and ciders. So it should be a great fun weekend.”
A new face has been out and about in Thame this week, finding her way around and introducing herself to the community.
PCSO Isobel Hignell
Isobel Hignell has joined the Thame Sector Community Policing team as a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer) and has been shadowing her supervising officer, PSCO Jackie Madden, who has been in the area for over nine years, and a familiar face in the town.
Isabel hails from near Kingston Bagpuize but has lived in Oxford more recently since leaving her family home at Millets Farm. She joined Thames Valley Police after studying Animal Care and completing her Policing degree at Oxford Brooks University.
Although she could have become a Police Constable, Isabel told Thame.Net: “Rather than be involved in responding to crime, I found I was interested in crime prevention and the community side of policing and already, after a couple of weeks, I’m really enjoying meeing the people of Thame and listening to their concerns. I’m looking forward to my time here very much.”
SOUTHERN League Premier Division side Burnham brought Thame’s FA Cup run to an end on Saturday, with a 2-1 victory at the ASM Stadium.
Dan West, who scored Thame’s goal against Burnham on Saturday
The game got off to the worst possible start for United when, after eight minutes, and with goalkeeper Josh Cockerill already called in to action twice, United were reduced to ten men when Ellis Hercules was adjudged to have handled on the goal line. Hercules was immediately dismissed from the field of play with Burnham captain, Nathan Poulton, despatching the penalty.
The sending-off forced manager Mark West to re-organise, with Dan West moving to Centre Back from Midfield. Whilst, as a consequence, Burnham maintained the bulk of possession, they were unable to break-down a well organised defence, with the best chance for Thame falling to Luke Ricketts in the 34th minute whose drive from an acute angle was saved by the Burnham keeper.
With no change in the score line at half-time, United thought they had earned a penalty of their own in the 52nd minute when an Adam Morris cross hit the hand of a visiting defender, but the referee waved away the appeals. Burnham, however, continued to enjoy the bulk of possession without threatening Cockerill, and indeed it was United who almost equalised in the 66th minute when a 20-yard drive from Ollie Lynch was tipped over the bar. Five minutes later and Burnham extended their lead when a cross of the right was met by Lockhart-Adams, who scored from close range.
United were left hoping that lightening would strike twice and that they would again come back from two down in the FA Cup, and a Dan West effort from close range in the 89th minute suggested this may be the case. Alas, it was not to be and it is Burnham who progressed to the next round.
HUNDREDS of local people, including many from Thame, lined the lanes and hills around Chinnor, Princes Risborough and the Chiltern Hills on Friday (12/09), to see the top guns of World cycling, race by in the Friends LifeTour of Britain road race.
Sir Bradley Wiggins (front) rounds a bend, captured by Benjamin Kelsey
Two of the most popular places for spectators to gather were undoubtedly Chinnor Hill, where Thame’s Mark Ansell commentated for BBC Radio Oxford, and Kop Hill, where a lively and enthusiastic contingent from the High Wycombe Cycling Club, were able to spur on their heroes, including Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and the day’s Stage winner, Alex Dowsett racing for the Movistar team.
High Wycombe CC cheer a Belkin Pro Cycling team racer up Kop Hill; He’s just behind Tom Moses of Rapha Condor JLT
John Francis from Thame, a member of the High Wycombe Cycle Club, was there. “It was so good to be part of an occassion where you felt so ‘at one’ with, what feels like, the great family of cyclists,” he said.
“With other great sporting occassions, you feel remote from the action, but standing there on Kop Hill, it felt more like a shared experience because you knew you’d done the climb yourself. It was good fun and so exciting to be within touching distance of our cycling heroes. I hope the competitors got some encouragement from those who came out on the road to support them.”
The Tour of Britain is the UK’s top professional cycle race, and took place from 7th – 14th September across England and Wales. Stage six on Friday was a 203km route starting in Bath and finishing in Hemel Hempstead. It included 60 km of undulating Oxfordshire countryside from Wantage to Chinnor, with the testing ‘King of the Mountain’ climb up Chinnor Hill.
The race passed Wallingford, passed through Nettlebed, Cookley Green, Christmas Common and Chinnor before heading off into Buckinghamshire. Part of the route used the Chilterns Cycleway, the very popular on-road cycling route which was launched four years ago. The Cycleway is a 170km circular route which passes through some of the best scenery in the Oxfordshire Chilterns.
Anyone who has been inspired by the professionals to get on their bike can find out more about the Chilterns Cycleway and other great local cycling routes at www.chilternsaonb.org/cycleway
The hosting of Stage six of the Tour of Great Britain was the culmination of the work of the Cycle Chilterns Project, which teamed up with Dacorum Borough Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Oxfordshire County Council and the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
REVIEW by Gwilym Scourfield: “Quartet” by Ronald Harwood was chosen by Bernadette Tildesley to launch the improved theatre in Nelson Street. A bold choice! It revolves around four characters with a long history of performing opera together, meeting again in a senior citizens’ home. They decide, after protracted argument, to perform the quartet from Rigoletto as a tribute to the composer (irreverently referred to as ‘Joe Green’) on his birthday. Bold because the play was recently released as a feature film with an iconic cast of Britain’s best actors.
Thame Players’ cast of ‘Quartet’
Brilliant choice! The play is a far better vehicle for Harwood’s main idea than film. The restricted facilities and intimacy of live theatre enable the contrasts in character of these four to trigger our imaginations and identify with their separate personalities perfectly. We have no distractions from impressive scenes or ultra close-up. We see all the characters all the time. It is their relationships and the benefits they have derived from ageing that give the piece its deep meanings. From separate ‘divas’, downplaying the insignificance of the corps d’opera, pushing themselves into the best downstage light, we watch four real people with all their flaws, discovering how to work together. From ‘competition’ to ‘collaboration’ – a journey’s purpose achieved via maturity.
The final scene in full costume shows the triumph of art over reality when they find at last the harmony their real lives have missed; a beautiful theatrical metaphor. What better way for an amateur company to show its advantages over the professional stage: people who come from all walks of life, motivated and united by their love of theatre (not fame or fortune) and launch a new facility?
The four performances were all sensitively characterised and realistically portrayed. Graham Sinclair Jones breathed life into Reginald, a former tenor who had once been married to Jean. Her appearance at the retirement home is the shock that initiates the action of the play. It was a measured, mature, carefully modulated performance which was always totally credible. Jean, played by Colleen Tudway, is the life-wounded diva who excites little sympathy at the beginning of the play and earns our love and respect as she grows through it; very exacting role, calling for sudden changes of pace and mood. Colleen (though a late addition to the cast due to illness) brilliantly assumed these subtleties and was, like her character, stellar.
Cecily, played by Mary Cleare, is a former ‘lively lady’ – a sexual fantasy for Wilfred. Her effervescence is the yeast of the play. She bubbles and sparkles throughout, always just on the very edge of being ‘barmy’. She is adorable from her first line and delights throughout. Just at the climax of the penultimate scene, she ‘loses it’ and her dementia threatens disaster. A measure of Mary’s success within the role is the huge lump in the throat that this brings to the audience. The writer’s skill is in showing how her colleagues, now a united team, gently enable her to take her full part. The poignancy of these moments carries the play to an entirely unanticipated level, emotionally engaging and deeply imbued with wisdom. Wilfred, played by Tony Long, is the clown with the sad soft centre. Tony’s comic timing is fully capitalised upon and his gentle pushing of the pace always rescues the play’s longer moments. However, it is his deep characterisation and the integrity with which he inhabits his character that make his performance so memorable.
Backstage support was, as usual superlative, flawlessly unnoticeable. Bernadette got the best from an excellent cast and Thame Players have christened their new theatre with a thoroughly well-executed play; a delight to watch, with a great deal to consider in retrospect. Joe Green would have been proud to see it!
THE A329 road is currently closed for repairs between the M40 Junction seven, and Thame Road, Great Milton. The road is expected to re-open on Wednesday, September 17, with a 3-day, 30 mph speed limit. (Source: BBC Oxford Travel)
The legalities of Neighbourhood Planning, food theft, cycling the Western Front & vandalism
IN response to a call for a second referendum on the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, an explanation as to the legal status of the Plan will be made at a meeting of Thame Town Council on Tuesday, September 17.
A recent public meeting called by the Save the Elms Petition group
The agenda item is in response to a call for a second referendum from The Elms Petition Group, who are against development on the land know as The Elms, off Thame’s Upper High Street, and want it removed from the plan. As things stand at the moment, there would have to be a second vote by the people of Thame, to make any changes to the Neighbourhood Plan.
The council will also address various statements made by The Elms Petition Group questioning the rationale for including The Elms as an allocated site in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, in the first place.
THE Neighbourhood plan will also feature in the same meeting when a planning application for a total of 187 homes, and various aspects of Highways access to the proposed development on land east of Thame Park Road (Neighbourhood Plan – Site C) will be discussed.
A WOMAN from Thame has been sentenced by Oxford Magistrates Court for stealing food from a Thame store.
Hannah Bayliss, 18, of Chowns Close, Thame, admitted stealing £10.82 worth of food from the Esso convenience store in Thame, on April 21. She was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £10.82 compensation and a £15 victim surcharge.
THE police are appealing for witnesses after a wooden bench in Upper High Street, Thame, was damaged. Two names; ‘Danni’ and ‘Reec’ were engraved into the bench. The damage was reported at 4.30pm on August 22, and is thought to have happened earlier that day.
If you don’t want to speak directly to the police, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers https://crimestoppers-uk.org/ anonymously on 0800 555 111. No personal details are taken, information is not taced or recorded and you will not go to court.
FOLLOWING a previously successful bike ride in 2012, a team of cyclists from Buckinghamshire Fire & rescue Service will cycle the route of the Western Front in memory of two colleagues, Keith Holland and Peter Soulsby.
The ride is also in remembrance of those from Buckinghamshire and elsewhere who gave their lives during the first World War. The group’s nominated charities for this event will be the Firefighters Charity, The Royal British Legion and the Florence Nightingale Hospice. You can support them by visiting: https://www.justgiving.com/Tim-Parkins0
A star-studded line up of National celebrity and high profile local chefs will be making an appearance in Thame later in the month as Thame’s annual Food Festival takes over the whole of the town centre – and there’ll be not one but TWO chances to see many of them in action.
John Whaite, Great British Bake Off winner
The double-bill planned for this year will see chefs including Raymond Blanc OBE, Adam Simmonds, Sophie Grigson, Jonathan Phang, David Mooney as well as Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi taking to the main demo stage, which will once again be compèred by BBC Radio Two’s Ken Bruce. Between them, they will serve up a mouth-watering selection of dishes and inspiring ideas to try at home.
Two stars of the baking world, ‘the boy who bakes’ Edd Kimber and his fellow winner of BBC Two’s the Great British Bake Off, John Whaite, will be joining forces to do a fabulous double-act on the day, with whisks at the ready at 10 am. Edd will be rustling up some sublime chocolate soufflé tarts with salted caramel from his new book, Pâtisserie Made Simple, whilst John will make an irresistible blackberry and gingernut marshmallow mousse cake.
TV chef, Jonathan Phang, will be cooking up his favourite monkfish curry recipe at 12.30, closely followed by Raymond Blanc who will share his love of simple seasonal food done to perfection in his 45 minute slot, from 1.30pm onwards.
Things really start to hot up at 4.30pm, when chefs from the world-famous Raymond Blanc Cookery School take on their counterparts from Aylesbury College in the fun cook-off, now making its third appearance at the festival.
Mark Peregrine, head tutor and Raymond Blanc’s right hand man in the kitchen, and his colleague Adam Johnson, Development Chef at Belmond Le Manoir, will take on students from the college as they expand their culinary horizons and try to make it 3-1 in favour of the college.
After watching all these great chefs in action, you can then enjoy a second helping by making your way over to the interview stage outside the AGA Showroom on the Upper High Street, where festival patron, TV chef and writer Lotte Duncan will be putting many of them through their paces. Headlining on the interview stage at 12 noon will be Tom Kerridge from the only pub in the land with two Michelin stars, The Hand & Flowers in Marlow, alongside Edd Kimber and John Whaite from 11am, and Monsieur Blanc from 2.45pm.
An all-day programme of food and drink workshops will be running at two locations across town, the Stoneworld Gallery in the Upper High Street and the Upper Chamber in the Town Hall, with sessions on pasta and sausage making as well as bread shaping and wine tasting. Sessions can be booked in advance by going to http://www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk/ Click on ‘Workshops & Talks’ from the main menu where you’ll see a drop-down list of the workshops and events.
Festival patron and celebrity cook, Lotte Duncan, said: “We’ve really got an incredible roll-call of cheffing talent coming to Thame on the day, as well as our biggest ever array of local and artisan food and drink, hands-on workshops and exciting live entertainment. Not only will you get the chance to watch a thrilling double-bill of top chefs in action, you can also get your hands on all the latest cookery books, many signed by the chefs, in our first ever pop-up book shop run by Thame’s independent book seller, The Book House.
“Afterwards you can feast on some amazing street food, have a pint at The James Figg and The Thatch pop-up pub and listen to great live music. We’ve really got all the ingredients for an unforgettable day, so mark your calendar for Saturday, September 27, and join us for a fantastic, free foodie day out!”
The Thame Food Festival takes place from 9am to 5pm on Saturday, September 27, in the heart of Thame town centre.
MOST of us have known a friend or relative who has been supported through a life-limiting illness, by the Florence Nightingale Hospice in Aylesbury, but not all of them may realise that it can only function through the goodwill of donated funds. Often these funds are raised by crazy, brave, kind-hearted individuals and groups who go out of their way to challenge themselves in return for sponsorship by friends and colleagues.
The Haddenham Hillbillies with staff outside the Florence Nightingale Hospice
ON the morning of Wednesday, September 17, a group of 15 ‘Haddenham Hillbillies’ will saddle up to take on a three-day cycling challenge from Thame to Montesson, France, Thame’s twin town, in a bid to raise over £9,000 for Florence Nightingale Hospice in its 25th anniversary year.
Thame businessman, cyclist and Haddenham resident, Justin Shardlow explained: “We decided to commemorate the Hospice’s 25th anniversary by cycling 90 miles a day, for three days. Training has involved three to four weekly cycle rides taking in as many hills as possible. The route from Caen to Montesson is very hilly but having the Chilterns to train in has been a great help. Typically we ride as a group on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, plus Saturday and/or Sunday mornings.
“With the nights drawing in, our evening rides are usually about 20-25 miles. Our weekend rides are longer, usually around 50-60 miles. Some of the group also rode from Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, back to Haddenham, Oxfordshire, recently as a training exercise which was just over 100 miles in total.”
A travelling supporter bus will also be leaving Thame on the same day to cheer on the cyclists as they leave England, and on their arrival in Montesson, they will be met by a contingent from Thame, organised by the Thame & District Twinning Association. A welcome party of Montesson cyclists, dignitories and other local supporters will also be waiting to welcome the Haddenham Hillbillies to France when they arrive on the Friday evening of September 19.
Nuffield Health, Portsmouth, has kindly offered to open its doors as a ‘freshen up’ point for the challengers before they make their ferry crossing to France.
Justin added: “We’re hoping to raise £9,125 for this wonderful cause – a £1 for every day it has been open.”
IN a game where both sides missed penalties, the one-all, drawn match on Tuesday (09/09) between Thame Utd and Holyport was a fair result as neither side created quite enough in the final third to take the three points.
Dan West, who scored Thame’s goal against Holyport, on Tuesday
The first half, however, belonged to United as they put their hosts on the back foot from the start. With Adam Morris dominating the midfield, the first chance came after only three minutes when an Ellis Hercules header from a corner came back off the post and the ball was scrambled clear. Whilst United were dominating possession, they were somewhat surprised to see a penalty awarded against Matt Hall in the 15th minute for hand ball. However, keeper Josh Cockerill did well to save the spot kick from Jamie West.
Three minutes later and United were in front when Dan West did well to turn in the box before firing in to the top corner. Luke Ricketts nearly doubled the lead with a drive from 20 yards three minutes later, before a sublime cross from Dan Jones in the 29th minute was met by the head of Ben Connelly, only for the header to go narrowly wide of the post. Two minutes later and Jordan Davis headed over from an Adam Morris cross. Despite the goal attempts, Holyport equalised five minutes before the break when Jamie West struck a powerful effort from 20 yards that swerved beyond Cockerill.
Holyport came out fired-up for the second half and, for the first twenty minutes, United struggled to find the rhythm that had served them so well in the first half, with the best opportunity again falling to Jamie West, with Cockerill saving well. Ellis Hercules also went close with a header before United were given the chance to take all three points when Dan West was adjudged to have been fouled in the penalty area. However, the penalty from Dan Jones was saved – the last meaningful action of the match.
Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division – Holyport 1 – Thame United 1
