YEAR 12 students from Lord Williams’s school’s Ambassador Team recently ran a ‘Food Drive’ across the whole school, collecting food, Christmas items and toiletries to donate to The Trussell Trust, a charity which provides food and supply boxes for families in crisis.
The team collected donations between December 4-8, and delivered them to the warehouse on the afternoon December 15, and the combined donation total weighed in at over a ¼ tonne – an impressive 232.8KG. The volunteers were overwhelmed by the amount the school had collected and have written a letter to express their gratitude to all of those involved.
The Year 12 Ambassador team would also like to thank everyone for their generosity in helping us to make such a success of this event.
RACQUETS Fitness Centre’s Junior squash players, have been mixing it with the adults to really test their metal and get tournament experience.
Left to right – Artie Shrimpton and Noah James
Racquets hosted an Adult Graded Squash Tournament on Saturday, December 16, with 37 players of all standards entered across four categories. Grade D was populated by a host of junior players who all decided to enter the adult orientated tournament for match play experience.
Coach, Sue Martin Downhill said: “It was fantastic to witness the next generation of squash players coming through and mixing in with more experienced players, watching and taking notes as well as trying their hand at marking the senior competitors.”
Ten year-old Alex Bozon was quick to volunteer as referee in between his own matches, showing confidence in tracking the score. He had a close match with peer Andrew Worby who has only been playing squash for three months but managed to serve well on the day to sneak a win.
In the other half of the competition original Academy player, Allegra Michopoulou, took on newby Matthew Bailey who started playing squash in October when his school attended squash sessions at Racquets. Both players showed grit and determination but it was Allegra who had the slight edge. Sue Martin-Downhill emphasised the importance of introducing schools to squash for the future of our sport: “People rarely stumble across squash,” she said. “It’s up to us and our squash community to offer opportunities to play.” Racquets currently works with local schools during the daytime and also run junior squash sessions six days a week outside of school hours. Offering all these opportunities to play has seen the junior set up in Thame flourish over the last six months.
Sue concluded: “The tournament was a great success with over 50 matches being played across the day. Players earned their mince pies, particularly nine-year olds Noah James and Artie Shrimpton, who ended the day with a tight five set match in the D grade final. Over 40 minutes of play, Artie came out triumphant, beating Noah 11-7.
“Well done to all the juniors who played and marked over the weekend; it was fantastic to watch the new generation of young talent on our squash courts here in Thame.”
THAME Swimming Club put in an amazing performance in the recent Watford County qualifier meet, taking advantage of the penultimate weekend before the county qualifying period closed!
In all, Thame won 34 Medals as well as a whole host of Personal Bests – 11 Gold, 11 Silver, and 12 Bronze medals were carried home.
Thame Swimming Club spokesman, Will Hard, said: “The team had great fun at the meet warming up to Macarena and YMCA, but giving their best and showing great camaraderie and friendship along the way. It was brilliant to see the team having so much fun, but giving their absolute best in the pool.
“The swimmers gained a plethora of county qualification times for the Oxford North Bucks County Championships, which will be held in January and February of 2018.
INDIVIDUALS and businesses are being warned to watch out for cold calls and online contact from fraudsters who are offering victims the opportunity to apply for Government grants for an advance fee.
To make the grants look legitimate fraudsters have set up bogus companies and convincing looking websites that claim to be operating on behalf of the UK Government.
Fraudsters cold call businesses and individuals offering the grant and if they’re interested direct them to fill out an online application form with their personal information.
Once the fraudsters have that information they’ll contact back victims and congratulate them on being accepted onto the grant programme.
Pre-paid credit cards
Applicants are then asked to provide identification and are instructed to get a pre-paid credit card to deposit their own contribution to the fake Government grant scheme. Fraudsters will then contact victims on the phone or are emailed and asked for the details of their pre-paid credit card and copies of statements to in order for them to add the grant funds.
Of course the grant funds are never given by the fraudsters and the money that’s been loaded by the victim onto the card is stolen.
If you receive one of these calls, hang up immediately and report it to us. We’ve already taken down one website fraudsters have been using to commit this fraud and are working with Companies House to combat this issue.
How to protect yourself
Be wary of unsolicited callers implying that you can apply for grants. You should never have to pay to receive a government grant, and they definitely won’t instruct you to obtain a pre-paid credit card. The government should have all the information they need if a genuine grant application was submitted, therefore any requests for personal or banking information either over the phone or online should be refused.
What to do if you’re a victim
If you think your bank or personal details have been compromised or if you believe you have been defrauded contact your bank immediately.
Stop all communication with the ‘agency’ but make a note of their details and report it to Action Fraud.
If you have been affected by this, or any other type of fraud, report it to Action Fraud by visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.
The information contained within this alert is based on information from gathered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). The purpose of this alert is to increase awareness of this type of fraud. The alert is aimed at members of the public, local police forces, businesses and governmental agencies.
THE team behind Thame’s annual Music in the Park, has recently awarded grants to two local organisations. Barley Hill Church received a grant of £250 to help fund Thame’s Christmas Eve “Carols Around the Tree” event, and Thame Concert Band was awarded a grant of £300 to help it boost recruitment and purchase new music.
Cheques were presented to both organisations by Chris Fram, Chair of Music in the Park’s organising committee.
Michael Lindsay of Barley Hill Church said: “We work with other groups such as Thame Concert Band to organise Carols Around the Tree on Christmas Eve, which, every year brings pleasure to some 500 – 600 Thame residents. This grant will help us provide everyone with a glass of mulled wine to help warm them up.”
Marie Bradley, Chair of Thame Concert Band, said: “Thame Concert Band is a community-based wind band which has been a vital part of the local music scene for twenty-five years. We welcome musicians of all ages, from school children to very senior citizens, and of all abilities. This grant will help us increase our recruitment activities and buy some new music.”
Plans for Music in the Park 2018 are well underway and local organisations that meet the criteria will once again be able to apply for grants.
Grants to local organisations
Music in the Park initially directed proceeds from its event to improving the facilities in Elms Park, where the event takes place. Music in the Park contributed to lighting along the path through the park and bought a commemorative bench to help people sit and enjoy the park. In 2016, Music in the Park announced it would also award a limited number of grants to local organisations that have a clear link to Thame or the surrounding area and meet Music in the Park’s key objective of assisting in the provision of facilities in the Thame area in the interests of art, music or recreation, or other leisure time occupation of individuals or organisations that live or operate in the Thame area.
IT took cool heads in freezing conditions to see off the challenge of free flowing Bury St Edmunds on Saturday, but despite being outscored five tries to six, Chinnor RFC secured their 13th win of the campaign.
For the second week in a row Chinnor got on the score sheet early with an impeccable lineout catch and drive. Jack Gilding emerged from the pile to claim the points on eight minutes. Then Bury struck back with a speculative grubber causing confusion on the Chinnor line allowing the Suffolk side in at the corner flag which on the advice of the touch judge was upgraded to a penalty try with a yellow card issued to Jamel Hamilton for ‘playing the player without the ball’.
Chinnor’s 14 men regrouped and struck back with Jack Ramshaw powering over to give Chinnor a 5-12 lead. Bury had a simple game plan – to hit the wide man Corcoran and let him run! It was a tactic that Chinnor failed to deal with effectively all afternoon. On 27 mins it paid dividends again with the pacey winger running in for the first of his hat-trick.
Chinnor’s scrum dominance strangely went unrewarded by the officials for the full 80 mins. However, they stayed focused and George Oliver duly finished of an excellent series of phase play to give Chinnor a half time lead 12-19
The first score after the break was going to set the scene for the rest of the game. Chinnor, comfortable in possession, gifted an intercept to the home side to allow Corcoran to touch down on on 41 mins and the conversion levelled the scores. It was game on!. Jonny Bentley then edged the visitors ahead with a coolly slotted penalty. A Beales try then swung the pendulum back towards Bury.
There followed an exhibition of running rugby from both sides which was appreciated by the packed Haberden crowd. Henry Lamont cut through the Suffolk sides defence to score and was shortly followed by a superb length of the field run by Kieran Goss which set up Al Gliksten to dive over. These, in true form, were answered by two tries out wide again by the Bury pace men which made the scores level 34-34 with 10 minutes left to play.
Chinnor then showed their class in front of the raucous home crowd by working their way up the pitch and earn a penalty 25m out to the sides of the posts. Replacement Bertie Hopkin stepped up to slot the winning points. With five minutes left to play Bury threw everything at the Chinnor line but it was in vain as after several phases of text book defending Bury St Edmunds infringed and Bertie Hopkin put the ball in touch to seal the five points.
This was a great game for the neutral and the packed Haberden stand helped their side to a deserved two points. Chinnor made life difficult for themselves but it was job done! Five points in the bag and on to Canterbury at home next week.
WITH the exception of John Hampden Primary School, all the other schools in Thame were closed today because of the wintry conditions, so many children were able to enjoy a second ‘snow day’, just like these youngsters enjoying one of the few slopes on Sunday, in Thame, near Lord Williams’s Upper School. (more…)
THE sister of Heston Blumenthal, who lives in Park Street, Thame, has admitted to Oxford Magistrates that she attacked their mother, Celia, aged 76, in East Street, Thame.
Alexis Blumenthal (Image Courtesy of thisisoxfordshire.co.uk)
According the the Mail Online, the court heard how a witness, Mrs Lambert, who lives in Thame, reported hearing the defendant, scream: “You f*****g b***h; I’m going to kill you!” before going out onto the street and calling the police, at which point the altercation stopped and the younger woman left the scene.
It was revealed that Alexis Blumenthal, who had a problem with drink, had on one occasion, grabbed hold of her mother’s hair, repeatedly punched her and almost caused her mother to fall down the stairs, at the older woman’s home in Watlington. In the second attack in Thame, Alexis ‘slammed’ her mother’s head against a car.
Alexis was originally charged last October, with two counts of assault by beating on October 7 and September 9, but failed to show up for the court hearing.
The case has been adjourned for sentencing until January 11, and in the meantime, Alexis Blumenthal’s Bail conditions mean that she cannot contact her mother or call at her house unless accompanied by a police officer with the purpose to collect her own belongings from the property.
THOMAS Wylam, who is in his final-year at school, has completed a productive year developing his business idea, Cupcycl, after winning first prize in the Small Business Saturday Young Entrepreneurs Competition, held in Thame last December.
The competition, which was sponsored by CarmichaelUK, a specialist civil engineering and construction recruitment company headquartered in Thame, was open to young entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who had a great business idea and were based in Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire.
Thomas’s big idea
Over 8 million paper cups are disposed of every day, but they aren’t made from easily recyclable materials and take 30 years to rot down in landfill sites. Cupcycl is a waste management project that aims to reduce the number of throwaway cups being disposed of via landfill by providing the infrastructure for throwaway cups to be properly recycled and turned into new goods.
The scheme will operate by providing collection points in local coffee shops and cafes. Consumers leave a coffee shop with their drink and once done consuming their beverage, drop the empty cup into the nearest collection point as they walk past. Thomas then empties each collection point once a week and once packaged and the different materials segregated, he ships these to a recently launched scheme, Cupcycling , run by James Cropper PLC who use the materials to manufacture some of the world’s most distinctive and technically advanced paper products.
How Cupcycl will makes money
CupCycl is a non-profit enterprise. The revenue comes from local business who pay a membership fee that covers Cupcycl’s fixed costs (the collection point, labour, marketing, waste couriers license) and a small fee per cup recycled through their collection point. Included in the budget is a minimum wage of £5.60 for Thomas himself, or someone else to collect the cups from the coffee shop/cafe.
On completing his first year, Thomas, who attends Princess Risborough Upper School, said: “Thame’s Young Entrepreneur Competition gave me the opportunity to take an idea and run with it. It’s fantastic to have gone through this process and get to where I am now, with a project that brings something unique to the local area.
“Thanks to the event sponsor, CarmichaelUK, the prize included not only the financial means to start up CupCycl, but also 12 months of mentoring. This helped me develop my scheme so that I could exhibit at Thame Food Festival, where I recycled the cups of over 1,200 visitors to my stand. I’m delighted with the interest I’ve had from other local event organisers, who may run this scheme at their events.”
Collection points in Thame
“The goal for 2018 is to install collection points in Thame so that coffee shop customers can dispose of their cups and ensure that they get recycled, rather than go to landfill. Currently, even cups put in recycling bins end up being picked out as contaminants and put into landfill, because recycling authorities don’t have facilities to separate the wax coating that waterproofs paper cups.”
Owen Mendez, Commercial Director of CarmichaelUK, the competition sponsors, said: “It’s great to be able to support innovation and encourage entrepreneurship in the next generation of business people.”
L to R – Sarah Fletcher, Thomas Wylam, Jemima King, Jackie Jarvis and Owen Mendez
Jackie said: “Thomas is really impressive, incredibly well-organised, and has a good business head on his shoulders. He took on board everything I told him about opening up opportunities, participated in my natural stress-free selling programme, and appreciated the value of tips from my book Quick Wins in Sales and Marketing.”
Sarah too was impressed with Thomas. She said: “Thomas attended one of my Facebook workshops and attended a private mentoring session. It was great to see him absorb information and come up with ideas for social media and how he could implement them. I’m looking forward to seeing his business progress and becoming a great success.”
Jemima said: “We discussed business planning, including the importance of budgeting and the implications of different business structures. We were impressed with Tom’s enthusiasm and commitment to running a business while completing his A-Level exams.”
The Young Entrepreneurs Competition has taken a break this year, but it’s intended to run it again in 2018. Sponsors are being sought and if any businesses in the local area are interested, they should contact Helen Johns at helen.johns39@gmail.com or on 0771 743 4983.
