Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • 13/01/11….Top female novellist set for Thame festival

    FOLLOWING the success of last year’s Thame Arts and Literature Festival(TAL), the date for this year’s festival has been announced, and there are to be some real literary ‘big hitters’ taking part.

    TAL 2011 is being planned for October 14, 15, & 16, and aims to bring ‘another amazing weekend of intriguing, fascinating and compelling talks, debates and workshops to Thame’.

    As well as visits from established, local and new authors, there will also be a programme of music, performance and poetry, a brilliant Children?s Festival, called TALk2 and look out for the all-new TAL Art Show.

    All events will be on the TAL website as soon as they are booked so keep an eye on www.talfestival.org or register by email by contacting: info@talfestival.org to get regular newsletters.

    A series of events called ALONG THE WAY will lead up to the festival and to get the year off to a wonderful start, TAL Festival Director, Yvonne Maxwell has announced An Audience with Joanna Trollope, the popular writer of up-market family dramas, romances and historical novels. Joanna is celebrating her new book, Daughters-in-Law, which will be launched in late February. She is an excellent speaker by all accounts and will take questions and be available afterwards to sign copies.

    An Audience with Joanna Trollope will be held at Thame Town Hall on March 4, at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm.
    Tickets

  • 13/01/01….Volunteering opportunities in Thame

    ANYONE looking for volunteering opportunities in and around the Thame area need look no further than the Thame branch of Citizens Advice Bureaux. It now has a Volunteer Point with full details of many local organisations in need of help.

    Opportunities include Age Concern, Scouts, Environmental groups, driving elderly people and others to appointments etc.

    Details of these and many other volunteering possibilities in Thame, Long Crendon, Haddenham etc are also available at the Chinnor Village Centre and the libraries in Haddenham and Long Crendon.

    Thame CAB’s opening hours are:
    Mon, Thurs & Fri 9.30am 4pm

    Tues, Wed 9.30am – 1pm. Call: 01844 217186 for more information or if YOUR organisation would like to be added to the Volunteering Point.

  • 12/01/11…….Entertaining encounter at Meadow Park View

    LEAGUE GAME – Tuesday, January 11 – HOME: Thame United 1, Reading Town 0. MATCH REPORT – Contributed

    A crowd of 135 ventured out last evening, preferring to see Thame United v Reading Town at Thame?s ASM Stadium, rather than West Ham v Birmingham on TV. They were not disappointed! The game was played at pace, with the evenly matched teams contesting every ball, making it an entertaining encounter to watch. Thame won 1-0 and, as a result, move up one league place to 12th in the table.

    Within three minutes of the start, Thame?s Alex Stuart headed the ball into the net but his effort was disallowed. Minutes later a strong shot from Stuart Barr forced a good save from the visiting keeper. Following the resultant corner Nik Rhodes was fouled just outside the penalty area. Stewart took the free kick, hitting a rocket which took a deflection off the wall to beat the keeper. The visitors fought back and mounted attack after attack, with United?s keeper Milan Barisic by far the busier of the two keepers. He was however in good form, making some first rate saves.

    Second half possession was more even and United almost increased their lead shortly after the restart. Mitchell Meredith took a long free kick which both the keeper and Stuart jumped for, Stuart?s header hitting the post. Sadly, nobody was following up and the ball was cleared. There then followed some attractive end-to-end football with Rhodes and Saulsbury outstanding in defence, and Barisic determined to keep a clean sheet. With about 20 minutes remaining Aaron Rogers hit a strong volley from the edge of the box forcing an excellent save from the visiting keeper. The last few minutes saw the visitors laying siege to the Thame goal, causing manager Mark West to bring on defender, Pete Way for striker Rogers.

    Thame United: Barisic, Barr, Newell (Meredith), Saulsbury, N Rhodes, Cowan, Connelly, Hayes, Stuart, Rogers (Way), Braun (Jones)

    Thame are away to Wotton Bassett Town on Saturday, January 15 and Thame United Reserves play Bletchingdon in the quarter final of the Oxfordshire Intermediate Cup at the ASM Stadium, in Thame. Kick off is at 1.30pm.

  • 12/01/11……….Telephone scammers target computer users

    OXFORDSHIRE’S Trading Standards team is warning people about conmen who are cold calling residents and claiming that their computers are infected with viruses which they can fix.

    The number of complaints received by Trading Standards has risen in the last month with 23 people reporting the scam since the beginning of December.

    These conmen often say they work for Microsoft or Windows, although many different names are used. They will know the victim’s name and address and will suggest that their computer is at serious risk from the VIRUSES or MALWARE with which it is INFECTED.

    SOURCE – Press release

    STEALING INFORMATION

    They may ask the consumer to shut down and re-start the computer or direct them straight to a program called WINDOWS EVENT VIEWER. This will list errors, some of which will be labelled CRITICAL. In fact, there is nothing wrong with the computer and the program is simply being used to con the victim into thinking they have a problem.

    If the consumer falls for the scam, they will then be directed to a website to download a program which will allow the caller to control the computer to fix it. All that is actually happening is that the conmen are being given access to all the data stored on the computer, which could include personal, banking and identity information.

    The caller will then demand payment for the so-called service provided. The victim will be asked for a direct debit or credit card payment and may also be asked to sign up to a direct debit payment scheme for ongoing protection. If they refuse to pay, the criminal on the other end of the phone may threaten to crash their computer. Trading Standards has received reports of up to

  • 13/11/10………Wintry boost for Thame retailers -AMENDMENT

    ADDED 13/01/11 – FOLLOW the LINK to see Thame retailer, Yvette Cundy’s interview with Sky News, when Sky’s live news programme was filmed from Thame market on Tuesday, December 21, 2010

    A QUICK straw poll among Thame’s independent retailers today, 12/01/11 indicates that the severe wintry weather that hit their sales on, what should have been the busiest pre-Christmas shopping day, the Saturday before, actually benefited many of them.

    One of the biggest threats to independent retailers in towns like Thame have been the large, all-encompassing shopping centres like those in High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Bicester and Oxford. But it seems that local publicity to encourage people to shop locally, and the worst snow and ice for years preventing any buses from running, may have persuaded many people not to attempt to drive out of town to do their Christmas shopping.

    “On the day after the heavy snow fall, Sunday, December 19, the town seemed really busy,” said Christian Winslade, of Fore Golf. “There was a real buzz about the town and we were really busy in the shop all day. It was as if people had been putting off Christmas shopping and suddenly realised that they had better get on with it, and come into town. I would say that compared with the same period last year, we were up on our takings.”

    The economic downturn it seems, has had little effect on couples deciding whether or not to wed in 2011. Christian said that, whereas this time last year, Fore Golf would have possibly one wedding hiring booked (they hire out dinner suits, top hats etc) they already has five for 2011.

    Pet Care in Cornmarket, Thame, reported that they had experienced the best December for years and Kismet Jewellers too, said that they had achieved more sales than anticipated. Yvette Cundy said: “We certainly benefited from last minute present shoppers and I am sure that the weather contributed to our customers shopping locally rather than venturing out to the bigger town centres.”

    The gift and card shop, All Wrapped Up, which moved to larger premises in Buttermarket earlier in the month, reported a “tremendous” December, and the proprietor of the lingerie shop too reported that sales were up on last year, noting that her customers were mostly her regulars spending more, rather than new customers.

    The Thatch restaurant and pub, in the High Street, lost 60 bookings over that snow-bound weekend, but according to Manager, Frazer Sutherland, they more than made up for it in fresh bookings during the week that followed in the run up to Christmas itself.

    So, whilst many of Thame’s independent retailers seem to have survived 2010, the rise in VAT and other cuts that will begin to hit in the next couple of months, mean that they are not complacent and will continue to add value to what they have to offer, to concentrate on the great customer service they are known for, and continue to fight for the Thame pound.

  • 11/01/11………….Thame Cinema 4 All – Next showing 15/01/11

    NEXT Saturday – January 15, PARTIR (Leaving) – France 2009, Catherine Corsini; 85 minutes starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi L

  • 11/01/11………..New man at United makes his mark

    LEAGUE MATCH – Saturday, January 8; Thame United 1, Flackwell Heath 0. MATCH REPORT – Contributed

    THAME United defeated Flackwell Heath by a single goal at the ASM Stadium on Saturday. As a result, they gained two league positions and now occupy 13th place. It was however, a frustrating game to watch as, although possession was fairly even, the visitors created few scoring opportunities whilst Thame wasted chance after chance to increase their lead. Alex Stuart was not available, and Adam Rhodes was injured, enabling new signing Connor Hayes to make the starting line up. He won the man of the match award.

    United?s first real chance fell to Luke Ricketts but his volley was high. Thame took the lead after 10 minutes when Ben Connelly collected the ball near the halfway line and ran to the edge of the box before crossing to Stuart Braun whose clinical header gave the goalkeeper no chance. Within a few minutes, a Sam Cowan header hit the crossbar. It looked as if a comfortable win was on the cards for Thame but the visitors had other ideas and the remainder of the half was fairly even without either goalkeeper being really tested.

    A few minutes after the restart Milan Barisic did well to deflect a goal bound shot wide. United created several chances via their wingers but a Braun, shot was high, an Aaron Rogers shot was weak, and Ricketts missed a good heading chance. Flackwell almost scored in the 70th minute when a quickly taken free kick surprised the home side but fortunately for Thame, the ball hit the goalpost. The Thame goal was under pressure for a while but some solid defending snuffed out any serious scoring chances. Thame created, two more good scoring opportunities, both of which fell to the head of the usually deadly Ricketts, but it was not his day. The first was high; the second brought a good save from the keeper. A one-goal lead is always vulnerable, and Thame supporters breathed a sigh of relief when the final whistle blew.

    Thame United: Barisic, Barr (Meredith), Newell, Saulsbury, Brown (N Rhodes), Cowan, Connelly, Braun (Jones), Hayes, Rogers, Ricketts.

    Photo: Connor Hayes

  • 11/01/11……Thame Boys still at the top

    THAME Boys Under 12s football team crushed their top-of-the-table rivals on Saturday and consolidated their position at the top of the Bucks 2nd division table with an emphatic 7-1 win over Chinnor Youth U12s.

    Thame dominated play from start to finish and the score line was justice to a display against a strong team also vying for promotion from this division.

    Despite some early pressure from Thame, Chinnor went ahead with a Thame mix up between keeper and defender allowing the attacker to steal the ball for a 1-0 lead. Thame heads did not go down and they piled on the pressure to level just before half time when Max got his just reward for an excellent first half by smashing in a rebound.

    After Olly Ralphs had dispatched a penalty to take Thame 2-1 up, it became a matter of how many Thame would score. Despite being man marked by two defenders, Alex McDonald ran the Chinnor defence ragged and managed to calmly slot two more Thame goals. Further goals came from Austin, an impressive Nathan and a superb long range shot from Matthew. Alex Ingle showed why he was preferred upfront with his pace troubling a packed Chinnor defence.

    Thame?s performance was a superb team display with the defence allowing nothing past them. They more than made up for the earlier mix up with nothing getting past Duncan as last man, and Lewis being awarded man-of-the-match through his determination and tenacity against considerably bigger players.

    George, Louis and Cameron held firm and passed out of defence to midfield with growing maturity and Brad and Olly put at least 10 corners in to the Chinnor defence that summarises the level of possession Thame had. Aiden had a quiet day in goal thanks to his defence but when called into action made a superb reflex save to deny Chinnor a second. His kicking was also excellent in tough boggy conditions.

    Thame lead the division by five points.

    SOURCE: Contributed

  • 11/01/11….Unexpected opportunity on new industrial development, Thame

    ADVERTISING FEATURE – A unit has become available on the most recent industrial development in Thame.

    This most attractive corner unit is now available, following the restructuring of the current tenant?s business. The accommodation provides a warehouse of approximately 12,400 sq ft plus modern and fully-fitted Offices of around 4,800 sq ft.

    There are a host of tenant?s improvements to entice a new occupier, including air-conditioning and carefully planned Warehouse lighting and heating.

    It is unusual for a building of this quality to become offered in the market, with its prominent location and excellent car parking.

    For full details, contact the agent, Fields, on 01844 261121, email holi@fields-property.co.uk or website:
    http://www.fields-property.com/

  • 11/01/11……….Unexpected opportunity on new Thame industrial development

    ADVERTISING FEATURE – A unit has become available on the most recent industrial development in Thame.

    This most attractive corner unit is now available, following the restructuring of the current tenant?s business. The accommodation provides a warehouse of approximately 12,400 sq ft plus modern and fully-fitted Offices of around 4,800 sq ft.

    There are a host of tenant?s improvements to entice a new occupier, including air-conditioning and carefully planned Warehouse lighting and heating.

    It is unusual for a building of this quality to become offered in the market, with its prominent location and excellent car parking.

    For full details, contact the agent, Fields, on 01844 261121, email holi@fields-property.co.uk or website
    http://www.fields-property.com/