Category: Sports News

MATCH REPORT – League match 23/10/10 – Witney Town 5, Thame United 2.

Thame United were defeated 5-2 at Witney United on Saturday. Manager, Mark West was forced to field a weakened team due to injury and the non-availability of several first team regulars. Although the stand-in players gave it their best shot, many lacked experience of playing at this level, and Witney were marginally the better side, albeit the score flattered them.

Thame opened the scoring after 10 minutes when a long goal kick was collected by Mark Jones who beat his man and ran at goal before squaring the ball to Aaron Rogers whose shot went in off the goalpost. Witney equalised 2 minutes later when Wright found the space to hit a well-placed shot from the edge of the area, in off the far goalpost. The home side?s second goal came 10 minutes later when the ball was played through to McKeon whose shot was parried by Thame keeper Milan Barisic, but the ball fell into the path of Colwell, who finished from close range.

Five minutes into the second half, the home side scored a goal which even had the Thame fans applauding. Following a long clearance, the ball was played to Lewis in space on the right who hit a spectacular 35-yard thunderbolt pass Barisic into the top left corner. It was 4-1 five minutes later when McKeon was given the space to run at goal before squaring to Wright who hit another well-placed shot pass Barisic. Thame heads did not drop and they fought hard to reduce the deficit. Stuart Braun was unlucky when his strong shot brought of a good point-blank save from the home keeper. Braun skillfully scored the visitor?s second goal in the 65th minute when he met an Aaron Rogers corner with a glancing, lobbed header over the keeper and in off the far post. The final goal came with 10 minutes to play when Allmond, near the right by-line, hit a hard shot from an impossibly acute angle which somehow went in. In the dying minutes, Thame forced three corners, but it was Witney who took the points.

Thame United: Barisic, Mitchell, Way (Hunt), N Rhodes, Brown (Rantle), Cowan, McDonald, Braun, Jones, Rogers, Newell (Clarke).

PHOTO: Manager, Mark West

LORD Williams?s student and Thame Duellists Fencing Club member Daniel Kovacs (12) took third place in the Bucks, Berks & Oxfordshire Under 14 fencing championships at Langley recently.

Daniel, who at 12 years-old, is one of the younger fencers in the age group and fencing in his first competition, kept a cool head and came through the group stage of the competition with three wins and one defeat and was seeded second going into the knockout phase, giving him a bye into the quarter-finals.

He was never under pressure in his quarter final bout and guaranteed himself a medal with a 15-7 win. The semi final though was a much closer contest.

Frustratingly Daniel was trailing by just one hit at 6-7 down when the clock ran out after nine minutes of fencing, leaving him with a bronze medal that far exceeded expectations for his first competition but also agonisingly close to a place in the final.

?It was disappointing that I was so close, but third is better than I expected,? he said afterwards.
His next challenge will be to test himself at the more demanding level of the Southern Regional championships in the Spring.

Thame Duellists Fencing Club welcomes new members, both adults and juniors. Anyone interested should call Club Chairman James Kingston on 07947 049511.

MATCH REPORT: National 3 SW – Saturday, October 23, 2010; Chinnor 38 vs Cheltenham 15.

Without ever hitting top gear, Chinnor comfortably saw off Cheltenham by 38 points to 15, scoring six tries in the process and a valuable bonus point.

Chinnor started brightly with their first try a winger?s special from fleet footed Pip Seymour. Straight from the restart, Chinnor worked the ball to number 8 Alex Fan who, with surprising pace, sped along the tram lines to dot down in the corner. Cathcart converted and with 12 minutes on the clock, Chinnor were 12-0 ahead.

Cheltenham were next to score with an unconverted try from Richard Morris on the 17th minute, after a mix up in the Chinnor midfield. Two minutes later, Chinnor?s scrum half Prescott fielded an intended touch finder about 12 metres inside the Cheltenham half. Threading an intricate line through Cheltenham?s massed ranks, Prescott?s speed saw him dot down Chinnor?s third try under the posts leaving Cathcart an easy conversion. Chinnor?s fourth and bonus try came from a forward drive with Cawston grounding the ball for the home side. With Cathcart?s conversion, Chinnor now led 26-5.

The next 10 minutes belonged to Cheltenham with a second try from Morris, converted by Mike Wilcox who shortly afterwards slotted a penalty goal for the Tigers as the half time whistle sounded for a 26-15 lead to Chinnor.

The second half proved to be a little less frenetic than the first half, with the Chinnor defence preventing Cheltenham scoring further. Chinnor?s influential centre Matt Goode had to be replaced at the start of the first half, after failing to shake off the effects of an off-the-ball incident of foul play. Chinnor?s fifth try was from Harry Jackman who shortly afterwards had to leave the pitch with an ankle injury. Cathcart?s conversion gave Chinnor a 33-15 lead. Ian Stock was then credited with Chinnor?s sixth try as the home pack began to press the visitor?s line. The introduction of Whelan for Stock shortly afterwards then increased the pain for the Tigers as the match reached its conclusion with a 38-15 victory for Chinnor.

Cheltenham must be credited for their never say die attitude and willingness to attack at pace at every opportunity.

Chinnor will be disappointed at the two breaches in their usually reliable defence but will be pleased to have scored six tries with a gear to spare. The forced replacements in the second half seemed to disrupt Chinnor?s poise although the new players contributed well with Devine busy on the deck and imperious at the line out. Seymour was threatening throughout and back rowers, Hastings and Fan, had influential matches for Chinnor whose tight five were very solid in all that they did.

Scorers: Chinnor: Seymour T; Fan T; Prescott T; Cawston T; Jackman T; Stock T; Cathcart 4C

Cheltenham: Morris 2T; Wilcox T, PG

By: Bill O’Donnell

MATCH REPORT – Thame United 3, Woodcote/ Stoke Row 1. On Saturday, 16/10/10 – Oxfordshire Senior Cup 1st Round.

A Stuart Braun hat trick secured victory For Thame United at Wallingford last Saturday, when they defeated Reading Senior League outfit Woodcote and Stoke Row 3-1. This entertaining game was however closer than the score suggests as the visitors controlled long periods of the second half.

Opening play was fairly even with Woodcote looking dangerous. As the game progressed, Thame gained the upper hand and went ahead in the 21st minute. They won a corner on the left which Aaran Rogers hit to the far post for the unmarked Braun to comfortably head home from close range. The visitors had a good chance to equalise a few minutes later when their impressive striker Toby Nowell had only Thame keeper Milan Barisic to beat, but his lobbed shot was high. United?s second goal came in the 28th minute when Adam Rhodes pulled the ball back from the right by-line for Braun to finish confidently from 15-Yards. The home side controlled the remainder of the first half without increasing their lead.

Woodcote came out fired up after the break and immediately put Thame under pressure. This paid off in the 52nd minute when Nowell met a corner with a well-placed 25-yard volley, into the bottom left of the goal, giving Barisic no chance. The visitors continued to attack as Thame struggled to reassert themselves and Stuart Barr did well to clear the ball of the goal line when a shot rebounded off the post across goal. Minutes later, Nowell hit a strong goal bound shot only to see it blocked by one of his teammates. The on-form Barisic was kept busy but Thame fought their way back into the game and Braun completed his hat trick when, with 8 minutes remaining, he met a Rogers corner with a low 15-yard header, which somehow found its way through a packed goalmouth and beat the visiting keeper. The gutsy visitors were by now a spent force and United controlled the final few minutes.

The next round will be played on 20th November when Thame are at home to Hellenic Division 1 West club Clanfield.

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

NATIONAL 3 SW Division; Saturday 9th October 2010; Chinnor RFC 10, Bournemouth 8. MATCH REPORT: On a gloomy, grey day, the rugby on display matched the weather with Chinnor just managing to scrape through with a 10-8 victory at home to Bournemouth.

Chinnor, with a significant injury and absence list, had to bring in several replacements. Whelan started for Pickett, Morgan for Stoop, Hastings for Mowbray, Cathcart for Hewitt. Angell and Devine were moved up from the 2s and Seymour and Prescott were back after a long lay off.

The first half began with Chinnor defending against a determined Bournemouth side. In one of the few breakouts from their own half, Chinnor opened the scoring in the 13th minute. Overturning ball, Chinnor ran the ball through their backs. With space running out on the right hand side, Williams put in a grubber kick which bounced up at the right moment into Seymour?s midriff to allow him to scamper under the posts for a try. Cathcart converted to put Chinnor 7-0 up. A few minutes later, a Chinnor indiscretion was punished with a penalty goal from Bournemouth fly half Dan Pollard to make the match score 7-3 in favour of Chinnor, which remained the score until half time.

The second half began much like the first half, Bournemouth with all the ball and territory. This superiority was converted to points in the 49th minute when Bournemouth exploited a 4 on 2 overlap for Sam Yarwood to score in the corner. With the resultant kick unsuccessful, Bournemouth led for the first time in the match by 8 points to 7.

Chinnor then began to get more into the match and had several visits to within 10 metres of their opponent?s line but all resulted in penalties awarded against the home side. From one of the rare penalties in Chinnor?s favour, Cathcart recovered the lead for Chinnor with a penalty goal to make the score 10-8 on the 68th minute. Chinnor managed to defend this score until the referee blew for full time.

Bournemouth couldn?t quite find a way of breaking through a very resilient Chinnor defence and sometimes resorted to less favourable means in order to gain an advantage.

This was another match in which the opposition had most of the ball and territory but foundered on stiff and well organised defence. Huw Morgan had a promising start for Chinnor, Matt Goode looked threatening in his few possessions of the ball and Harry Jackman?s industrious defence was admirable.

The highlight of the match was the swarm of under 6 Minis, resplendent in Chinnor jerseys, coming on as water boys during stoppages. The timing of their runs and general handling served as pointers to the others on the pitch.

Scorers: Chinnor: Seymour T; Cathcart C, PG

Bournemouth: Yarwood T; Pollard PG

Chinnor team: Williams, Seymour, Goode, Morgan, Corpe, Cathcart, Prescott, Winpenny, Tattersall, Whelan (Stock 59), Hutchings (Devine 74), Smith, Hastings, Harrison, Jackman

Replacements: Stock, Devine, Angell

By Bill O’Donnell

A DECEMBER 1st launch is planned for Meadow View Park, Thame’s new football complex, and as part of the celebrations during the month, Thame United have secured a friendly against Oxford United on Tuesday, December 21 at the ASM Stadium.

The kick-off will be at 7.30pm. Thame are hoping to play their first Hellenic Premier League game on Saturday, December 4, against Wokingham & Embrook at Meadow View Park.

GIVEN their mounting number of fixtures to be played in the League, United will not have been too disappointed to have been beaten on penalties (7-6) by Flackwell Heath in the league Challenge Cup on Saturday, following a nil, nil score.

Manager Mark West took the opportunity presented by the game to rotate the squad, with James Way, Paul Searl and Mitchell Meredith all starting, and Sam Cowan making a welcome return. The first half was largely uneventful with the game contained in the middle of the park with few goal scoring opportunities, albeit the centre back pairing of Nik Rhodes and Meredith were kept occupied by Riccardo Cannon, the talented Flackwell Heath striker.

Whilst the second half started in similar vein, the game gradually became more open as both sides pushed forward for the elusive first goal. Indeed, it was United who created the first clear goal scoring opportunity when Aaron Rogers, playing against his former club, found space inside the box following a goal mouth scramble and saw his shot beat the home keeper before being cleared off the line. Flackwell responded with a series of dangerous crosses in to the Thame box with Searl pushing a goal bound header around the post before Alex MacDonald on the wide right crossed for Alex Stewart whose powerful header was heading for the top corner before being pushed over by the home keeper. Moments later Rogers was put clean through and, just as he was about to make contact with the ball, was pulled back by the retreating central defender. Whilst this forced the striker to place the ball just wide of the post, United looked to the referee in anticipation of a foul, only to see the official wave play on.

This was the last real chance of the 90 minutes and the game went in to extra time with both teams again looking for the inspirational moment that would turn the match. This was not forthcoming, despite an excellent Searl save from a corner, and a header from MacDonald that went just wide of the post. With the score still tied, the match went down to penalties and with some interesting officiating, that saw the experienced Flackwell Heath player, James Pritchard, sent from the field of player, it was Flackwell who finally edged through 7-6 after nearly two hours of play.

United are again without a league games this coming Saturday (16th October) as they face Woodcote and Stoke Row at home (AFC Wallingford) in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup, a competition where they will be looking to make significant progress.

Thame United: Searl, Newell, Cowan, Meredith, N. Rhodes (Fisher), Braun, A.Rhodes, MacDonald (Lovell), Rogers, Stewart, Way

MATCH Report – Thame Netball Club 06/10/10 – Tornadoes 37, V Wingrave Rockets 6: The Tornadoes blew Wingrave Rockets away on Wednesday evening, beating them 37 ? 6. The game started off fast and frantic but Tornadoes soon took control, not conceding a single goal in the first quarter.

Wingrave put up a good fight in the second quarter, scoring 4 of their 6 goals. Tornadoes kept up the pressure throughout the game, forcing errors from Wingrave. The Tornadoes shooters were able to capitalise on these mistakes to ensure Thame secured the win. Notable performances came from player of the match Karen Fowler and C Lisa Sydenham who between them managed to control the mid-court play. The victory gave Tornadoes their third win of the season, meaning they retain their place at the top of the league.

Team: Hannah White (captain), Sheena Maguire, Karen Fowler, Lisa Sydenham, Lynn Palmer, Sarah Piddington, Helen Hann and Lauren Fairbrother.

Hurricanes V Cyclones
43 ? 22

Thame Hurricanes and Thame Cyclones met this week in a hard fought local derby. Both teams played amazingly well and determination was sought throughout. After leading 8 ? 5 at the end of the first quarter, Cyclones lost a player to injury and had to battle on with 6 players. Hurricanes slowly made the extra player count and with some increasing pressure from Cyclones continued to build the lead to a final score of 43 ? 22. Both teams played with great enthusiasm and team spirit.

06/10/10 – Cyclones 14, V Cherokees 2, 33

New Team Thame Cyclones faced tough opposition in Cherokees 2 with their strong defence and accurate fast ball passing right from the off. Cyclones defence Kelly and Kelly, GD and GK, put in maximum effort but Cherokees assertive play made it difficult for Cyclones to get off to a good start. With fresh legs from C Shelly and GD Sue in the second quarter Cyclones proved stronger, particularly around the centre of the court. Again GA Lynne demonstrated some solid shooting from superb feeding by WA Amy. With the coach?s support the team managed to pull it back with some determined play and good presenting of the ball. Cyclones fought hard in this tough game and are determined to learn from their mistakes as they progress through the season.

Team: Jodie Hine (captain), Kelly Quigley, Kelly Guscott, Shelley Weeks, Amy Scullard, Lynne Jones, Jean Garrett, Karen Riddleston and Sue Farrow.

30/09/10

Thame Typhoons V Leighton Buzzard Typhoons
21 ? 7
Thursday evening saw Thame Typhoons face their first game of the season. The team were nervous and not quite sure what to expect, however everyone managed to shrug of those fears and get on with the task at hand, winning the match. Starting from the first centre, taken by Leighton Buzzard Typhoons, everyone was ready. With a good interception, the ball was heading down to the Thame shooters and in went a goal. This was the beginning of a great game for the Thame Typhoons. Thame went on to dominate with some excellent circle defence from GD Emma Pearce and GK Megan Tiddy. WD Katie Vokes provided good support, being ready for the backwards pass when needed. Excellent centre court play between WA Holly Allen and C Tanya Batchellier and consistent shooting from both GS Jennie Rayment and GA Layla Batchellier saw Thame Typhoons win convincingly. Overall the game was fast paced and Thame kept the Leighton Buzzard on their toes. Thame Typhoons worked hard and took away a well deserved win.

Team: Layla Batchellier (captain), Jennie Rayment, Holly Allen, Tanya Batchellier, Katie Vokes, Emma Pearce and Megan Tiddy.

Thame Netball Club has been funded by The Oxfordshire Community Foundation Grassroots Grants Project for the 2010/11 season.

TOP England swimmer, Simon Burnett, an ex pupil of Lord Williams’s school in Thame, has today helped England win a silver medal at the Commonwealth games in Delhi.

Simon, who lives in Tetsworth, produced an impressive second length hand-over to team member, Liam Tancock, in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

During the Beijing olympics, Simon, who is Patron of Thame Swimming Club, broke the British record for the 100m freestyle with a time of 48.20 secs.

PHOTO: Simon Burnett with members of Thame Swimmin Club

AWAY MATCH – October 3, 2010 -HIGHWORTH TOWN 1, Thame United 1. MATCH REPORT from Jake Collinge.

BOTH sides left Highworth?s Elms Recreation Ground this weekend, content with a draw after a match that ebbed and flowed from start to finish.

With top scorer Alex Stewart unavailable, Alex MacDonald came in for his first league start, and Thame were immediately on the front foot as they pinned their opponents in their own half for much of the opening 15 minutes. United nearly took the lead after seven minutes when a flighted cross from Aaron Rogers was met by a thunderous left foot volley from Luke Ricketts that flew just wide of the upright. Five minutes later Thame thought they had taken the lead when skipper Nik Rhodes headed in from a Ricketts corner, only for the referee to blow for an infringement.

Highworth then started to win the midfield battle and place Thame under pressure, taking the lead after 25 minutes. A Martin Brown header was collected on the left and, following a 25 yard shot that keeper Milan Barisic parried, Robertson was on hand to slot the ball home.

Manager Mark West reverted to three at the back at the start of the second half, pushing full back Steve Newell in the midfield and for the first twenty minutes Thame were camped in their opponents half as the midfield battle was won. It was only five minutes in to the half when parity was restored. A Rogers corner was flicked on by MacDonald and Rhodes was on hand at the far post to head the ball home. United then pushed forward for a second but, as with the first half, Highworth came back in to the game following a double substitution and themselves began to create opportunities as they got behind the Thame defence. However, they were met by an on form Barisic who, despite an apparent injury, pulled off a series of fine saves from close range that denied the home side, much to their frustration.

In the end, the match ended all square as United maintained their good away record.

Thame United: Barisic, N.Rhodes, Newell, Saulsbury, Brown (Meredith), Braun, A Rhodes, Barr, MacDonald (Rantle), Rogers, Ricketts.

United have another cup game this coming Saturday (9th October) as they face Flackwell Heath (away) in the League Challenge Cup.