NEAR perfect conditions prevailed for the Thame Triathlon 2014, last weekend, remaining overcast for the prep, swim and the cycle but then the heavens opened during the run to cool off the competitors!
Fastest competitor in the Thame Triathlon 2014, Andrew Queralt
The overall winner was Andrew Queralt from Oxford with an overall time of 57:30. The other main category winners were as follows: U20 M- Stephen Burgess F- Tyla Page
THE clock struck 12, the heavens opened, and over 600 ladies and specially nominated male walkers donning ponchos, macs and pink bunny ears, set off from Aylesbury College for the fifth Gemstone Midnight Walk in aid of the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), which early indications show £45k being pledged on the night with money still to come in.
Sue Heath (left) who works at St Joseph’s school, Thame & Yvette Cundy who runs Kismet Jewellers in Buttermarket, Thame (Image Derek Pelling)
Although bedraggled, the rain failed to dampen the walkers’ spirits and bunny power prevailed with both ladies and silver ballot place male participants powering on in defiance of the weather. Three energy-boosting pit-stops spread across the 13-mile route proved extremely welcoming for soggy-eared walkers, including Aylesbury Waterside Theatre at mile six, which turned pink for the night. Walkers were re-fuelled and re-energised with water, jelly babies (a walker favourite) and jaffa cakes, with a further pit-stop around mile 10 at the Cotton Wheel, Jackson Road, for 13-mile walkers nearing the finishing line.
The first six milers crossed the finish line around 1.30am with the first 13-milers heading in at just after 3am. Richard Williams of Walton Way, Aylesbury (who had decked his shirt with over 350 Swarovski crystals for the night) was the first male 13-mile walker back, marching in at 3.25am.
A fantastic build-up to the launch saw Katy Brown of Mix96 hosting the stage show helping to entertain the crowd, as well as live music from The Zefrones, singer Sophie Ray and a Cha Cha return from Sian McCarthy & Mark Henderson, who proved why they walked away with the Charity’s ‘Strictly Florence’ 2013 dance competition crown last October at the start of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Hospice. The walker warm-up was once again provided by Joanna Beardsmore-Dilks of GLOW fitness, who has supported the event for the past four years, which went down a real treat – thankfully just before the rain came down!
“It was an amazing night, despite the weather,” said FNHC’s Karen Shardlow. “It’s the first-time we’ve had rain in five years, but we were prepared with extra marshals in key areas in case of excess water along the route, and spare t-shirts to hand out to walkers who needed a dry layer after completing the challenge. Our walkers were fantastic and weren’t going to let anything stop them from setting off and taking on their Midnight Walk challenge in our Silver Jubilee year!
“On behalf of Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), I would like to say a very big thank you to our walkers, marshals, volunteers, local business sponsors, and to all those supporters who left signs of ‘good luck’ along the road, or waited up with watermelon and sweetie bowls outside their houses – this really did make a massive difference to our ladies, with the weather as it was. We are absolutely thrilled with the £45,000 pledged on the night, which means we have now smashed our fundraising target of £300,000 – the total money raised since the Gemstone Walk started in 2010.”
Karen added: “We will be announcing next year’s date this week, with some early bunny offers, so please dry those pink ears off and put them in a safe place until the Gemstone Midnight Walk returns in 2015.”
TWO brothers have been jailed for Conspiracy to Burgle in areas across two Police Forces, including several burglaries in Thame.
The pair were sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Friday, July 11, after pleading guilty to a Conspiracy to Burgle charge during an earlier court hearing.
Scott Blundell
Scott Blundell, aged 23, of Tower Field Sqaure, Northampton, was jailed for a total of five years and four months after pleading guilty to one charge of conspiracy which encompassed 19 separate burglaries. His brother Jack, aged 21, of Windsor Crescent, Harrow, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to one charge of conspiracy which encompassed 14 separate burglaries.
Jack Blundell
The pair were arrested as part of an operation led by Thames Valley Police, following burglaries reported in Maidenhead, Aylesbury, Thame, Romsey, Shirley and Basset near Southampton in Hampshire.
The Conspiracy charge, consisted of 24 burglaries in total, although not all were included in the guilty pleas. The Thame burglaries were as follows:
Five offences in Thame on Tuesday, March 4; Hazelrig Drive, three offences in Henrietta Road, and Overton Drive. All the burglaries were committed late at night or in the early hours of the morning when the brothers targeted insecure front doors which had not been double locked with a key by the occupants prior to them going to bed for the night.
THAME Residents have enthusiastically welcomed a herd of cows to the town over the last 18 months. The cows in question are life size models featuring advertising boards which have been stationed at various sites in the town and used to promote local community events.
The cows were provided by 21st Century Thame and formed part of a project to promote market towns, which was funded by South Oxfordshire District Council and LEADER, a European Commission programme that supports community-led local economic development in rural areas. The herd are looked after by various businesses throughout the town.
You may have noticed that the cow usually next to Kismet Jewellers in the Buttermarket has moved recently to be part of the window display in Greens Furnishing. When the display is next changed, the cow will sadly have no home. So if you have an area at your business or home that is not on the public highway and you would like to give her a home where she can continue to promote community events, please get in touch with Mary Stiles at 21st Century Thame. Tel: 01844-213851 or 07779-654840, or email maryandstella@aol.com.
PADDY Harris, the popular pastor of Cornerstone Church in Thame. has had his red racing bike stolen from outside his house. Some of his friends and parisheners have set up a Crowdfunder page to raise the money to by Paddy a replacement bike.
If you would like to help ‘Let’s get Pastor Paddy pedalling again’ visit Crowdfunder.co.uk to find out how you can contribute. http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/Get-the-vicars-bike-back
DEFIBRILLATORS in more and more public places in Thame, is the aim of the Staying Alive action group, and after a successful presentation to Thame Town Council this evening, a grant from the council will allow them to install a third defibrillator somewhere in the town that could save a life.
Image courtesy of AED.com
Speaking at this evening’s Policy and Resources committee meeting, Dick Tracey, South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) divisional responder manager, told councillors that cardiac arrest is the UK’s biggest killer, and that for every minute that passes before a heart can be started again, the chances of a successful resuscitation diminishes by 10 per cent on average. He explained that from a survival rate of just 4 – 5% currently, it is possible to increase that to up to 62% as has happened in Seattle, by the use of these publically available defibrillators.
The defibrillators like the one recently installed outside Brothers Hair Salon in Buttermarket, Thame, (see LINK) are specially designed to be used by members of the public with no First-aid knowledge whatsoever, ‘talking through’ the procedure step by step. Whenever someone rings 999 and asks for an ambulance, once the operator has identified that a possible cardiac arrest has occured, he or she will immediately direct the caller to a defibrillator if there is one close by, and help them operate the equipment if necessary by entering an activation code.
There is another defibrillator outside the Scout HQ in Southern Road, Thame, and one each at Upper and Lower Lord Williams’s School, and the young people are being trained so that if the need ever arose, they would not be afraid to use t
THIS year is the 25th anniversary of the reintroduction of red kites in the Chilterns, one of the most successful conservation projects ever carried out in the UK.
Image: Classic Kite (copyright Gerry Whitlow)
On August 1, 1989, in a quiet tranquil valley on the Bucks/Oxon border within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, five young red kites were released into the wild. This project, to re-introduce a native species that had been wiped out over previous centuries, was one of the first of its kind in the UK, and the people behind it could only hope that the young birds would thrive and breed.
As we now know, the project could not have been a greater success. Over the next five years, another 88 red kites were released in the Chilterns by English Nature and the RSPB. With a few exceptions the young birds thrived in their new home and started breeding. The population has steadily built up ever since, gradually spreading out from the release point. 25 years year on, these beautiful birds are an incredibly common sight in the southern Chilterns and beyond, including above Thame. There are so many now it is impossible to know their exact numbers, but there are at least 1,000 breeding pairs spread across large parts of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.
Cathy Rose of the Chilterns Conservation Board said: “The site in the Chilterns was picked as the first for re-introducing kites into England because there’s plenty of natural food for them to scavenge and places to nest in here. The Chilterns area is also nationally-protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It wasn’t a certainty though that the project would be a success so it is absolutely fantastic that the kites have done so well.”
Neil Douglas, Senior Nature Policy Officer at RSPB HQ commented: “The Chilterns reintroduction has been fantastically successful in bringing red kites back from the brink. Previously driven to extinction in England, it is heartening to see these impressive birds become a popular spectacle and well-loved feature of our landscape.”
Kites have thrived so strongly in the Chilterns that nearly 300 young birds have been taken to start re-introduction schemes in other parts of the UK such as Gateshead and Yorkshire.
Find out more about the Chilterns’ kites at www.chilternsaonb.org/red-kites
SOURCE: Contributed by Claire Forrest of The Chilterns Conservation Board
THAME Players produced top-class performances of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, in front of a capacity audiences in the beautiful setting of The Elms in Thame, from Tuesday to Saturday last week.
Claire Southeard and Richard Roach as Beatrice and Benedick
Although now twenty years since the Players last performed open-air in the same delightful garden setting, you would not have thought so, because this production, set in the Edwardian era with the Grade II listed house as backdrop, and complete with Charleston dancing and 1920s jazz music by Jelly Roll Morton, was highly professional, slick, and well thought-out by its director, David Bright.
James McCann, the sound engineer, deserves a particular mention for the clarity of the sound production – not always easy in the open air with cast members moving around on stage.
The lead parts of Beatrice and Benedick were played beautifully flirtatiously by Claire Southeard and Richard Roach, with a superb cast of 20, including the bad guys, suitably hissed at by an appreciative audience, played by Tim Shepherd, James Whitaker and Andrew Clamp, and comic relief uproariously provided by Tony Long, Colin Love and a trio of watchmen.
The cast of Thame Players’ production of Much Ado About Nothing taking a well-earned bow at the end of Friday’s performance
Fine weather prevailed for all performances, marred only by some light rain on the opening night, and audiences flocked to The Elms, generously opened to the public by its owners for the week, to enjoy picnics on the grass before the show, with delicious home-made food provided by local cooks, Kirsty’s Kitchen and Made by Mums. This was surely an idyllic experience for all who came to enjoy one of the Bard’s most joyful plays in such a fine setting, and one to remember fondly in the colder months ahead.
Thame Players, who this autumn will be celebrating 70 years as an amateur theatre group, are grateful to their sponsors, Rectory Homes, Reaston Brown, Wills & Trusts, Pearson Insurance, RCP Service Centre, Abbotts Office Solutions, Richardsons, XT Brewing and Connect Scaffolding, for making such a polished production possible.
To obtain tickets for Thame Players’ next production, Quartet by Ronald Harwood, at The Players Theatre in Nelson Street from September 9 – 13, call Tickets Anywhere on 01844 217228 or book online at http://www.thameplayers.co.uk
To become a Thame Players member, friend, or to help as a volunteer, call Tony Long on 07938 857291.
CHINNOR Football Club is hoping to get the whole community involved in it’s 24 hour Football Festival, open for all ages, male and female.
The event will run between 6pm on Friday, July 18 to 6pm on July 19, and will be a six a side event with participants playing four, 15 minute games. It’s non competitive and is all about the whole community having a bit of fun.
The cost to enter is £30 per team or £5 pound per player. Camping will be available and as there will be lots of children attending, a No Alcohol policy will be in place. There will, though be food available – burgers, sausages and bacon rolls and soft drinks for sale. The money will be split between the football club, the new Community Pavilion in Chinnor and a local charity to be decided.
There’ll be a raffle with some signed memorabilia and some great prizes. The festival will take place at White Field, Mill Lane, Chinnor OX39 4RF
So, if you fancy getting a team together or going along as a single competitor and teaming up with others, send your application to play, with your team name and age group, to Ben Davies,42 Beech Road, Chinnor,Oxon. and pop it through the letterbox; or Email: Chinnorfootballinthecommunity@hotmail.com
Please make payments payable to Chinnor Youth FC or cash in a sealed envelope with your application.
THOMLEY Activity Centre near Thame, which specialises in providing play and activities for young people with special needs, received a huge boost this week when an Oxford Accountancy firm made a very generous donation.
Hannah Cartlidge of Shaw Gibbs (second left) with Harriet Hieatt-Smith of Thomley Activity Centre. The children are Sophie (10, from the Communication & Interaction Service Base in Chinnor, visiting with friend Harvey (8)
Oxford accountants, Shaw Gibbs, had made the centre its Charity of the Year 2013, and the money was raised by the employees in a variety of activities including bake sales and prize draws, auctions for the office reception flowers each Friday and quarterly ‘dress down Fridays.’
The whole firm was involved in one way or another over the course of the year. One donation of £200 came from a refund at a restaurant, which the Shaw Gibbs employees chose to donate to Thomley Activity Centre. Staff also organised a boxing night by showing old boxing matches on TV and charging for entry. At Christmas they donated to the charity instead of buying Christmas cards to give to each other.
Hannah Cartlidge, Facilities Manager at Shaw Gibbs, coordinated the fundraising efforts. She presented Harriet Hieatt-Smith of Thomley Activity Centre with a cheque for £3,892.81 at the Centre on Friday, (July 11). Accepting the cheque, Harriet said: “It has meant a great deal to Thomley to have been chosen as Shaw Gibbs’ charity of the year. Having been our accountants, Shaw Gibbs know how careful we are to spend donors’ money wisely, ensuring we provide the best possible service for our beneficiaries whilst keeping our costs manageable and sustainable.
“We are grateful to the staff at Shaw Gibbs for all their hard work to raise this fantastic amount, helping us to support the thousands of disabled young people and families that visit our centre each year.”
Hannah Cartlidge of Shaw Gibbs added: “Thomley Activity Centre is a very welcoming, accommodating facility which provides activities for young disabled people within a completely safe environment, as well as providing much-needed support for their parents and carers.
“The main focus of the charity is to instill confidence, teach life skills and encourage a feeling of inclusion, for young people of all ages and all needs.”
