Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • Change Of Broadcast Date For Weakest Link

    THE episode of TV’s, The Weakest Link, that will feature Chinnor man, Donald Avery, will now be shown on November 2, and not November 1, as first announced. See below

  • First Clean Sheet For Thame United !

    Chipping Norton 0, Thame United 3 – 21/10/06 – League Match Report (Contributed)
    THAME United recorded their first victory since September 9 on Saturday, with a convincing win at ninth placed Chipping Norton Town. They also kept their first clean sheet this season.
    The Thame back four, which comprised newcomers Mark Bell and Matt Groves, together with Chris Watkins and Patrick Johnson, played well and the defensive problems of recent weeks seem to have been eliminated.

    Initial possession was even, but Thame were beginning to get the upper hand when, in the 24th minute, a long ball found Thame?s Jordan Weaver whose header fell to Magpie defender Gary Morrison. Seemingly unaware that his goalkeeper had come off his line, Morrison attempted a back pass but only succeeded in passing into his own undefended net. Thame put together some quality moves and on 37 minutes, one was rewarded when Graham Jackson played a defence- splitting ball to the unmarked Ben Connelly who confidently fired home from 15 yards. Five minutes before half time, Chris Watkins took a free kick from just inside the Thame half, and Nathan Jack rose to impressively head it in from 12 yards.

    Thame went in for half time winning 3-0, a completely different situation to last week when at half time they were losing 0-5. Although Thame were playing into a strong wind the visitors controlled the second half and with better finishing could have scored more.
    Jordan Weaver, Nathan Jack, Nick Gibson, and substitute Paul Reading all had good chances to increase Thame?s margin and with two minutes remaining, Joe Da Silva was unlucky to see his shot hit the crossbar.

    Thame United: Searl (Capt.) Johnson, Watkins, Groves, Bell, Connolly (Trip), Jackson, Da Silva, Weaver (Reading), Jack, Gibson.

    Thame United entertain 10th placed Carterton next Saturday (28th) at Hithercroft Stadium, Wallingford.

  • Chinnor Seconds ‘Elated’ After Defeat Of Reading

    CHINNOR RFC Seconds 29 pts vs Reading Seconds 10 – October 21 – Home League Game – Match Report – (Contributed)
    Tries: Nick Grimsdell, Joe Iosefo and Ed Orchard x 2.
    Conversions: Gareth Duder x 2

    CHINNOR seconds are back to their winning ways with a great win against a very strong Reading seconds, beating the visitors 29 points to 10.
    This makes it three wins and three loses in this very competitive Canterbury Shield, Division 2 League, playing against major clubs with large pools of players, and the boys are holding their own.

    Chinnor went behind within three minutes of the start to a penalty but pulled it back in the 10th minute after some good work by both forwards and backs, cluminating with Joe Iosefo going over in the corner. This was then well converted by Gareth Duder from the touch line against the wind.
    The lead was brief however, with Chinnor dropping behind again five minutes later to a converted push over try, and Reading was confidently ahead 10 points to 7.

    Chinnor then started to take control, despite some strange decisions that saved Reading from going further behind. Nick Grimsdell scored to take Chinnor into the lead 12 points to 10. This was followed by a well worked try by Ed Orchard and again converted by Duder, which saw the first half finish with Chinnor 19 points to 10 in the lead.

    The Chinnor boys kept control of the game but were denied adding to their points tally by being blown out of the game with 19 penalties to 4.
    This added to their own mistakes and some dubious choices, besides not keeping control of the ball and at least five forward passes with the line at their mercy. This was duly rectified with Orchard going over for his second try. Ed Devine, who has been out of the game for three months after receiving a knee injury at practice, came on as a replacement for the last 20 minutes and did very well to score the next try.

    An elated Chinnor team finished the game ahead 29 points to 10.

    All 19 players had good games and although Ian Stock was taken off for the last 20 minutes, he was adjudged man of the match.

    Walter McGuicken
    Second Team Manager

  • County Pleased With Exam Progress (Press Release)

    OXFORDSHIRE’S GCSE pass rate has risen and the number of pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and maths, has risen according to provisional figures released today.

    56.4 per cent of the county?s pupils achieved five or more A*-C passes at GCSE, an increase of two percentage points on last year and broadly in line with the national average for state schools (57%).

    The figures, including English and maths, also show improvement with 47.3 per cent making the grade, compared with 43.8 per cent nationally.

    Most Oxfordshire schools have made real progress under data analysis produced by the Fischer Family Trust (FFT) that the county uses, among others, to measure performance.

    This shows how individual pupils should perform by taking their prior attainment into account together with factors such as gender, ethnicity, special educational needs, entitlement to free school meals, month of birth and progress.

    Initial FFT data show the overwhelming majority of secondary schools did better or as well as expected on the 5+A*-C including English and maths measure.

    The provisional A-level results also show an improvement with the average point score per entry at 78.9 up from 77.1 in 2005. The average point score per student rose from 257 to 264 (these figures include further education colleges as well as Oxfordshire state schools)

    The county council?s Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement, Councillor Michael Waine, said: ?The overall picture is very promising and I am delighted that together our schools have improved on last year?s performance. This is a reflection of all the hard work of students, teaching staff and the whole school community.
    ?We are keen to build on this still further which is one of the reasons why we are placing a strong focus on Fischer Family Trust data which gives a real insight into the progress pupils are making from one year to the next.?

  • Theft From Cars Appeal – Ring Master Message

    THAME police are appealing for information following four thefts from cars in just over three hours yesterday evening.
    Between 19:30 and 22:45 hours, yesterday, Thursday, October 19, four vehicles were broken into between Tiddington and Thame. Offenders smashed windows to gain entry, then pulled down the rear seats to get into the boot area, from where they stole property including laptops and golf clubs.
    All the vehicles were parked in pub or club car parks.

    Earlier in the morning, between 08:15 and 10:15 hours, three vehicles were broken into at Welcome Break services. The same method of was used to gain entry to these vehicles, and laptops were stolen.

    The advice is, do not leave any valuables in your car even if its for a short period of time.

    Call 08458 505505, if you have any information about any of these crimes.

  • Chinnor Man Is ‘The Weakest Link’

    A CHINNOR man who promised his nieces and nephews he was going to be famous one day, is to appear on the BBC TV programme, The Weakest Link.
    Mr Donald Avery, of Glimbers Grove, Chinnor, took part in the quiz show on October 4, at Pinewood Studios, surviving the hard-nosed ‘mickey taking’ of the programme’s famous compere, Ann Robinson.
    Mr Avery, or Donny as he is known to his friends, works as a grinder for Howle Carbides in Princes Risborough. He told ThameNews.Net that the lady herself is: “..not as bad as people make out. Of course she took the ‘mick’ out of me, but hey, what do you expect if you go on that programme? It’s all part of the fun. She is a nice lady and certainly helped to make the experience something I will never forget.”

    The episode of the programme that Donny took part in is due to be televised on November 1, at 5.15pm on BBC 2.

  • What’s On In Haddenham?

    HADDENHAM MUSEUM. A 2007 Haddenham calendar, with 12 photos of village views, is now available from Haddenham Museum, in the High St, behind the Methodist Chapel, (open Tuesdays 10am-12noon and Sundays 2-4.30pm) and also from Blooming Fruity, Banks Parade.

    Sun 22nd Heart and Sole Walk. This month’s walk (about 4 miles on country footpaths and taking about 2 hours) starts at 2pm from outside Haddenham library. Suitable footwear and clothing are needed.

    Tues 24th-Sat 28th One World Week. Due to a misprint in a publicity leaflet, One World Week was wrongly publicised in September. The week is actually October 22-29 and Haddenham Third World Link will have a display on that theme in the library the whole week. Please note that the library is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays.

    NOVEMBER

    Sat 4th ‘Come and Sing’. Marjorie Johnston and her son, Andrew, who will be taking part in a 340 mile charity cycle ride in India in January, have made a good start to their fund-raising for LEPRA. Their target is to raise

  • Water Company Denies Delays Relate To Its Sale

    THAMES WATER has refuted suggestions that the sale of the company to an Australian consortium may have anything to do with delays in sewage works in Thame.

    A spokesperson for Thames Water told ThameNews.Net that the delay to works in Cedar Crescent, Sycamore Drive and Hawthorne Avenue, due to have begun on October 16, are not related to the sale.

    “All work planned under our current investment programme to 2010 will remain unaffected,” she said.
    “I am trying though to establish exactly what the cause of the delay is and I will let you know as soon as I find out.”

  • County Chief Executive To Visit Chinnor & Towersey

    THE county council?s Chief Executive will be visiting Chinnor and Towersey on tomorrow, Friday, October 20, as part of a series of visits she will be making across Oxfordshire.
    Joanna Simons will join the member for Thame and Chinnor, Cllr David Wilmshurst, for a tour of two local schools and Chinnor Library, and for a discussion session with local representatives.

    The tour begins at 9:45am with a visit to Mill Lane Primary School and the Jack and Jill Pre School.

    The Chief Executive?s next stop will be St Andrews C of E Primary School from 10:15am and includes a visit to the Autism Resource Base attached to the school which provides support for children with autism aged 5-11 years.

    The visit includes a tour of Chinnor Library from 11:15am and rounds off with a discussion about local issues with key members of Chinnor and Towersey parish councils.

    Joanna Simons said: ?I?m looking forward to the visit and, in particular, finding out more about the issues that really matter to people in the local area.?

    NB As Chief Executive, Joanna is head of the paid service (i.e the council’s workforce) and is responsible to the council for carrying out its work. She is the principal link between councillors and staff, and chairs the council’s management team.

  • Tools For Africa

    DO you have any unwanted tools that would be useful to poor communities in Africa?
    The Rotary Club of Thame will once again be setting up a stall in the Upper High Street (opposite The Nags Head), on Saturday, November 4, to accept donations of tools for the Tools for Self Reliance Charity.
    Any useful tool for building or repair work will be gratefully received, but no garden tools please.

    Once collected, the tools are refurbished by a team of skilled volunteers before being shipped to Africa and given free to people there who desperately need them to work with.
    Up to 10 shipments are made each year, each containing 100 kits, each kit reaching 8 ? 10 artisans.
    Tools for Africa (Tools for Self Reliance) helps approximately 10000 tradesmen and women to earn a living.

    Photo by Simon de Trey White