Category: Sports News

A THAME school girl is celebrating after helping to win a gold medal for Great Britain at the fourth Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.

16 year-old Claire Lasko, who attends Lord Williams’s school in Thame, with her partner, Imogen Stanley from Stanton St John, were part of the winning six-strong winning team, the pair winning the race-off finals against Australia.
They both belong to the Oxford Sailing Club

This is not the first gold medal for Claire and Imogen – they won a gold medal at the Youth Team Racing Championships in 2006.

Clair comes from a sailing family and has been sailing since she was seven years-old.
To quote from: http://www.sportsaid.org.uk/athletes/athlete-blogs.html

“Claire has excelled in her sport of sailing in the past and has won numerous national and international events. She is current RS Feva European Champion and has been Belgian Optimist National Champion as well as the only British girl to ever be the Optimist Junior Champion. In addition she has been part of the successful Grafham Gremlins who won the European Optimist Team Racing Championships as well as the RYA Eric Twiname Junior Team Racing Championships. As Juniors they also managed to finish second in last year?s senior Team Racing event.

She was presented with the RYA Regional Young Sailor of the year award by Shirley Roberston SportsAid alumnus and Olympic gold medal winner in Athens (2004) and Sydney (2000), at this year?s EXCEL boat show.”

Photo: Courtesy of: http://www.sportsaid.org.uk/athletes/athlete-blogs.html

THIS Valentine?s Day, February 14, SOLLutions Health and Fitness health clubs are calling on all singletons to get up and get active in the pursuit of love.
A series of activities had been organised at the health clubs, including the TLC, to help people find the man or woman of their dreams.
During February SOLLutions is asking for a voluntary contribution to the British Heart Foundation to ensure as many people as possible have a happy heart this Valentine?s Day.
SOLLutions is also offering a Valentine Competition. By entering you stand a chance to win an overnight stay for two, including dinner and breakfast, at the Shillingford Bridge Hotel in Wallingford.

Claire Millar-Watt, event co-ordinator, explained:”More and more people are meeting the love of their lives in their local leisure centre or gym. Because of this, SOLLutions has put together a number of activities with Valentine?s Day in mind.
“Your local gym is a really good place to meet someone you?re attracted to. The chances are you will share hobbies and interests, so you will automatically have something to talk about. Gyms and leisure centres also have a really relaxed atmosphere ? you don?t feel the same pressure to ?chat people up? as you do in a pub or a nightclub and alcohol isn?t involved ? so you are more likely to be yourself.?

Please contact you nearest SOLLutions Health Club to find out more about special activities on offer this Valentine?s Day.

www.soll-leisure.co.uk

SOLL LEISURE, which manages Thame Leisure Centre on behalf of Thame Town Council and South Oxfordshire County Council, has received a prestiguous award from the Sport England National Benchmarking Service.

Two SOLL Leisure managed sports centres, including Thame, have been commended for Excellence in Finance by Sport England.
On December 6, 2006, Didcot Wave and Thame Leisure Centre received a Certificate for achieving Excellence in Finance in 2006 from the Sport England National Benchmarking Service (NBS).
The NBS measures the performance of leisure centres using performance indictors, including usage by particular target groups, finance, and customer satisfaction.

Peter Taylor (Professor of Sport and Economics & Technical Analyst for the NBS) stated; ?For best practice Didcot Wave and Thame Leisure Centre were selected as two of the five centres in the finance category primarily for their performance in achieving high income and low subsidy requirements. The identification of Didcot Wave and Thame Leisure Centre is a credit to SOLL. SOLL have participated in the NBS since 2002 and they are clearly aware of the value of performance measures in driving improvement in their centres?.

Staff from both centres attended the NBS conference in Sheffield to receive the award and participate in the seminars held throughout the day. The seminars illustrated best practice by using examples from top performing centres related to the specific areas measured by the NBS.

Roger Cowdrey, Chairman of SOLL Leisure commented ?I am delighted that the excellent work at Thame and Didcot has been recognised nationally . This is a credit to all staff at these sites who are focusing on increasing community participation and providing the Council with value for money?

THAME Tennis Club has recently been presented with two significant awards by the Oxfordshire Lawn Tennis Association; OXFORDSHIRE TENNIS CLUB OF THE YEAR and Coach, Simon Langley has won the accolade of OXFORDSHIRE DEVELOPMENT COACH OF THE YEAR.

Club Chairman, Aidan Coles, said: “We are thrilled to receive such accolades, where we were up against the big city clubs in Oxford and these are in recognition of the tremendous strides forward that the club has made recently.
“The Oxfordshire Tennis Club of the Year award was based on our improving the facilities at the Club, with the new all-weather courts and court lighting, as well as having achieved the highly sought after LTA Mini Tennis accreditation status.
“In turn, Simon?s award of Oxfordshire Development Coach of the Year was based on that as a fully qualified and LTA licensed coach. He has not only developed a comprehensive and integrated coaching programme at the Club, he was instrumental in the Club both achieving the Mini Tennis accreditation and its inaugural success in the Oxfordshire county mini tennis competitions and has also set up a Mini Tennis programme at six local primary schools which involves nearly two hundred young players.”

MIXED RESULTS FOR THAME TENNIS LADIES

DESPITE the cancellation of some matches due to poor weather, Thame Tennis Club teams have completed some ties in the Aylesbury League.
In Division 3, the Ladies first team, captained by Dawn Munro have played 3 matches so far this year and have secured two wins. Away to Tring II, they won by 5 sets to 3 and in another away tie, took a resounding 7 sets to 1 win over Marsh Gibbon.
However, last weekend (Feb 4) their winning streak came to an end with a 3 sets to 5 loss at home to division frontrunners Halton II.
Team: D Munro, R Suter, S Thompson, A Gornall, C Carder, J McCloud, A Green. second team, playing in Division 5, have also been in action. Missing one of their usual players, Louise Wilkins, one of the clubs junior members stepped in and played very well, helping the team to secure a good victory of 6 sets to 2 at home to Cheddington.
Team: L Broadway, L Wilkins; A Green, R Knight (c).

THAME United were outclassed at Hungerford on Saturday, The home team being better organized, passing the ball crisply and generally more purposeful than their younger opponents.

The ball had not crossed the halfway line into Hungerford?s half when, after two minutes a Thame clearance fell to Bradley Ward who hit a powerful shot from 25 yards which took a deflection before finding the back of the Thame net.
Twelve minutes later a cross from a short corner fell to the feet of defender, Nick McCrae, amazingly unmarked six yards from goal and able to shoot home for Hungerford?s second. The game was effectively over as a contest in the 17th minute when Ward hit a beautiful volley from the edge of the area to make it 3-0.
Thame pulled a goal back five minutes before half time when a ball from Sion Kitson found Nathan Jack who beat his man, sprinted to the by line and hit a low cross which Paul Reading tapped in at the far post.
The home team continued to control the game in the second half with the talented Shaun Terry scoring a hat trick with goals in the 48th, 61st and 63rd minute. Thame went close to a second when Sam Cowan forced a good save from the home goalkeeper and in the final minute Sion kitson has a good chance when he followed up on a parried Nathan Jack shot, but sadly Thame were unable to reduce the deficit.

This was only player/manager?s Mark West?s second game in control after his return to the club, and there were times when improvements could be seen in the way the team functioned. It is becoming clear however that he will have to make some changes in order to raise the club clear of the relegation zone.

Thame United: Farrow, Higgs, Watkins, Graves, Hocking, Kitson, Connelly, West (Cairns), Jack, Reading (Bell), Dawson.

Thame United entertain Hounslow Borough next Saturday, February at Hithercroft Stadium (Wallingford). Thame beat Hounslow away 2-3 in early September

Bob Dixon

Beaconsfield RFC were Chinnor Minis first opponents since Christmas and were welcomed with brilliant sunshine to play three matches against the Under 12 squad. The squad seemed to forget about their traditional slow start and a great offload by Ross Bunsell led to Dominic Bradbrook Taylor scoring promptly in the first match, followed by three more tries in the first half from Ross, Ollie Wingfield and Lewis ?Mini? Aitken.
Immediately after the break there was a period of sustained pressure from the Beaconsfield boys which led to two tries in quick succession. Chinnor pulled themselves back together though and Ollie added one more try to his total, leaving the final score at 25-10.
A quick change of personnel and the second match was underway and again Dominic BT was quick to score the first try. The match was much more competitive though and there were no more points scored in the first half. Nic Barker and Adam Isherwood scored immediately after the break and the final score of the match went to Ben Robinson (made by a great charge down from Dom.)
The final match was tough on the small Beaconsfield squad and tiredness made the game somewhat frustrating for them. There was plenty of niggling in the scrum from both sides but Ollie Wingfield scored again early on followed by the now infamous wedge try from prop Guy Carter. There was a superb hat trick from Ross Bunsell and Rob Gascoyne broke through for a try as did Hamish Chalmers. The Beaconsfield spirit should be praised however as they hung on to the bitter end and managed to score twice before the final whistle. Final score 35-10.

Chinnor Under 10s appeared sluggish from the whistle, perhaps because they had not come up against genuine opposition since before the holidays. Beaconsfield slipped a try past within the first minute of the game, throwing down the gauntlet to which Chinnor responded enthusiastically. Matthew Smith then powered through the opposition to score a try from a Chinnor penalty. Thomas Strathdee had a spectacular run, ending just short of the line, and Liam Evans and Charlie Krabbe showed real teamwork against a tough opposition. A high tackle by Beaconsfield gave Iestyn James the chance to capitalise on the ensuing penalty, touching down Chinnor?s second try. After a half-time talk about playing within the rules (following a certain amount of aggressive play from both sides), Ben Chapman and Matthew started the second half with a series of crunching tackles, and Charlie Proctor and Dominic Whaler got in a couple of nimble runs. Chinnor?s defense was hard pressed, but managed to hold Beaconsfield off from scoring again, ending in a hard fought 10 ? 5 victory.

Grey Alvey and the other forwards showed impressive power in the scrum from the beginning of the second match, giving Sam Edwards the chance to move the ball close enough to the line for Thomas Strathdee to take it over for the first try. Superb tackling and driving by Iestyn, Liam and Thomas resulted in Harry Lowe scoring a well-deserved second. James Millett took the opportunity for a superb sprint to open the second half of the match. Chinnor then gained possession from the scrum before being forced out close to Beaconsfield?s line. Iestyn captured the ball from the line out and scattered the opposition for the third try, bringing the match to a 15 ? 0 win.
The Beaconsfield coach was overheard telling his squad they had played against a ?cracking team? ? tell us something we don?t already know!

RACQUETS Fitness Centre, in Thame has organised kids half term squash coaching and tournaments for February 13, 14, and 15.
The cost will be

Match Report – Home League Game – January 27.
Score: Chinnor 2nd, 31 Pts vs. North Walsham 2nd, 7 Pts
Tries: Johnathan Phipps x 2, John Pritchard, Leon Westerman, Danny Burns.
Conversions: Adam White X 3

CHINNOR seconds have made it two out of two in 2007, with a win in their league match against North Walsham, beating them by 31 points to 7 on Saturday.
It was a game played by two good teams of equal strength and it took until the 30th minute before Chinnor 2nds took the lead with a good try by Johnathan Phipps, which was well converted by Adam White. With Chinnor forwards dominating the game, North Walsham took the easy ?in vogue? option which is becoming the norm, by going for uncontested scrums to neutralise Chinnor?s strength.
Chinnor rose to the occasion and went further into the lead after John Pritchard broke through about five tackles to score again, and converted by Adam White. The first half ended with Chinnor in the lead by 14 points to nil.
Chinnor lost Ian Stock at the start of the second half to a yellow card; this was a somewhat harsh decision by the ref with him having only pulled a player out of a maul. During this period of play, North Walsham scored a converted try due to an interception. As soon as the team were back to full strength Phipps then scored his second try, shortly followed five minutes later by Danny Burns scoring. Chinnor were in the lead by 24 points to 7.
In the closing minutes of the game it was the turn of Leon Westerman to cross the line once again and Adam White was again successful with the kick and Chinnor finished the game winning by 31 points to 7.
All seventeen players had very good games, but man of the match goes to Johnathan Phipps for his work rate throughout the full game.

Walter McGuicken
Second Team Manager

WORK has begun on a

DO you know a sports club athlete or player, coach or volunteer, who has excelled in 2006? The Oxfordshire Sports Partnership Core Team, hosted by Oxford City Council, is calling for all nominations to honour these achievements at the Inaugural Sports Awards in March.
A glittering Awards ceremony and gala dinner is being held on Friday, March 23, at the Witney Lakes Resort to commemorate the achievements of 2006.

The Awards encompass all five Districts within Oxfordshire and aim to recognise and celebrate the wealth of sporting talent and dedication seen in community Sports across the County.

The nomination categories are:

Club of the Year
Volunteer of the Year
Young Volunteer of the Year
Coach of the Year
Sports Achiever of the Year
Young Sports Achiever of the Year
Disabled Sports Performer of the Year
Young Disabled Sports Performer of the Year
If you know someone who deserves to be recognised please request a nomination form from Amie Hill ~ Sports Marketing and Events Officer on ahill@oxford.gov.uk (please quote ref AWM01) or visit www.oxfordshiresport.org to download the forms.

DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS IS FRIDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2007

We are also starting to plan for 2007 Oxfordshire Sports Awards. We are aiming for these to be on a larger scale, linking in with the regional nominations for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2007. The 2007 Awards will be held in November. Please email Michelle Corbett on mcorbett@oxford.gov.uk if you are interested in Sponsorship Opportunities for this event.