Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • Wednesay night is curry night!

    FANCY a curry in a safe, spacious, socially-distanced setting? Well, Chinnor RFC Thame is the place for you!

    On the last Wednesday of every month, it will be Curry Night in the Marquee at Kingsey Road.

    Starting next Wednesday – August 26 – you will be able to sit in the comfort of our relaxed venue and enjoy delicious home-cooked food.

    Providing a set menu every time with a vegetarian option, the club will be offering a large variety of curries from all over the world, which means it will be a different experience every time you visit the Club for a curry.

    Food will be served from 8pm and priced at £10 a head. To book a table of up to six, email bars@chinnor-rfc.com.

    All meals will be cooked by the club’s ‘wonderful Head Chef.’ See below for the menu for next Wednesday.

    For £10 you will be served:

    Tamatar Gosht – a lamb tomato curry from Pakistan
    Murgh Makhani – an old Delhi-style chicken curry
    Pilau rice
    Aubergine green bean vegetarian dish
    Naan bread
    Raita
    Mango Chutney
    (vegetarian option available)

    A club spokesperson said: “We are working hard to ensure Kingsey Road remains a safe place to visit and we strictly follow the government guidelines at all times.”

     

     

     

     

  • Thame Cricket Ground- Public access notice

     FOLLOWING several recent and continued incidents by various groups and individuals who have been littering, drinking under age, taking drugs, dealing drugs, urinating on the ground, damaging property, playing loud music, shouting and swearing late at night, Thame Town Cricket Club (TTCC) has consulted with the Police and the Town Council and has put in place the following rules with immediate effect:

    1. Alcohol may only be consumed on the ground if:
    2. it is purchased from the clubhouse bar under the clubs licensed agreement; and
    3. it is consumed within the area licensed to the club; 
    4. After 9:30pm loitering will not be allowed anywhere on the ground or in the car park
    5. The Car Park between the clubhouse and The Barns Centre is Private and is solely for the use of Cricket club members, authorised clubs, associations and guests. There are allocated car park spaces which are marked and licensed to the Barns Centre (18 spaces) & Church (2 spaces) 
    6. The Car Park will be locked overnight with authorised access only 
    7. CCTV with a direct link to the Police will be in operation.

     Thame Town Cricket Club and Thame Town Council reserve the right to take legal action against anyone found trespassing or not adhering to the rules set out herein. 

    Thame Town Cricket Club is located on land leased from the Town Council next to St Mary’s Church in Thame in a conservation area. It comprises of the Cricket ground, clubhouse, service yard, nets and Car Park. Thame Town Cricket Club is enclosed by a fence along the Aylesbury Road, St Mary’s Church burial ground wall, fences / hedges at the top and bottom of the ground and surrounding the car park. 

    The Cricket ground, clubhouse, nets and car park are for use by Cricket Club members, authorised clubs, associations and guests only. Allocated spaces in the Car Park are licensed to the Barns Centre for their clients to use. The only public access to the ground is via two kissing gates which are located: 

    1. By the Waitrose roundabout 
    2. In front of the Church, in the middle of the burial ground wall 

    The only public usage of the ground is the footpath which runs around the playing area of the ground between the two kissing gates.  

     

     

  • Bus service changes from September 1, 2020

    Carousel Buses route 40 (Thame – Chinnor – High Wycombe)

    • Evening and Sunday journeys which currently only operate between High Wycombe and Stokenchurch are extended through to Thame, providing later journeys and a Sunday service on this section of route – See the new timetable HERE

    Red Rose 275 (Oxford – Chinnor – High Wycombe)

    • New Saturday service from 5th September – More details HERE

    Redline 320 (Chinnor – Princess Risborough)

    • New off-peak journeys between existing peak journeys – Download Timetable HERE

  • Exam results – Congratulations to Lord Bill’s students

    THE staff at Lord Williams’s School have today congratulated the school’s Year 11 and Year 13 students on the grades they have achieved at GCSE and A-Level, while they await the government-delayed results of the BTECs.

    Head Teacher, Jon Ryder, said: “It has been a very difficult time for students and their parents/carers as the different arrangements for examinations this year have developed, but I am glad that all our students will now receive grades that their teachers believe they deserve.

    “As we completed the process of assigning Centre Assessed Grades in good faith, our results this year, both at GCSE and for the Sixth Form, are very similar to the grades our students have achieved in previous years. 

    “We continue to work with Year 13 students to help them secure the next steps of their education or career, and we look forward to enrolling the majority of our Year 11 students to the Sixth Form this week, ready to begin the next stage of their education with us. For those students moving on to college or apprenticeships, we wish them every success for their futures.”

  • ‘No more raw sewage in our river’ call from River Thames champion

    SOUTH Oxforshire’s Thames Champion, Cllr Jo Robb, has written a letter to neighbouring councils and user groups inviting them to work together to stop raw sewage from being dumped in the River Thames and its tributaries. 

    Cllr Robb’s role as Thames Champion is to encourage sustainability and improve access to the river so that everyone can enjoy the River Thames.  The Green Party ward councillor for Woodcote and Rotherfield, took on the new role in June to tackle water quality concerns and enhance the biodiversity and cleanliness of the river system in the district and beyond.  

    The district council is investigating ways to obtain Bathing Quality Water status for stretches of the Thames in South Oxfordshire, and asking to work with other councils and local river user groups to campaign for the removal of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) that can discharge untreated human waste into rivers and streams during heavy rainfall or floods. 

    Cllr Robb said: “As you will be aware, wild swimming, paddling, kayaking and paddle boarding have grown in popularity in recent months and there is increasing concern both locally and nationally about water quality in our inland waterways.  

    “I would welcome the opportunity to share knowledge, and come together with a united voice to call for accurate, real-time, publicly available information on CSOs and for a change to national policy to ensure proper investment in our sewerage infrastructure and the elimination of CSOs so that our rivers are clean and safe for all.” 

    You can read the full letter here (179.2 KB) . 

    Cllr Robb is keen to hear from anybody with ideas or suggestions on how sustainability and biodiversity at the river could be improved, and how the river could be made easier to access for the public.  Her email address is Jo.Robb@southoxon.gov.uk



  • Have your say on parking in the district

    SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council is to carry out a public consultation later this year on potential changes to parking in the district. 

    The council will ask people to comment on a number of options which will form its new parking order and determine how it operates its car parks across the district.

    Options that people will be able to have their say on include:

    • Standardising the charging hours across the district so that all areas are treated equally;
    • Introducing Sunday parking fees to help ensure spaces are available for people wishing to visit local shops and cafes;
    • A full review of how permits work to ensure they are allocated appropriately, depending on the size and location of the car park;
    • Offering discounted permits for users of electric vehicles;
    • Introducing limited waiting to address parking issues in the Chinnor.

    People’s comments will be considered as part of a formal consultation process with statutory organisations such as the highways authority, police, town and parish councils.  The council will look at all comments before finalising and introducing the new arrangements in 2021.

    MORE INFORMATION on the SODC website – LINK HERE

     

  • Walking Rugby at Kingsey Road!

    CHINNOR RFC Thame have announced that the club has secured funding to begin Walking Rugby at the Club. 

    Image courtesy of Maldon RFC

    Grants from The National Lottery Awards For All Community Fund and Tesco Bags of Help COVID-19 Communities Fund for the project have been awarded from applications by the club’s  Head of Community, Matt Goode. 

    Walking Rugby is a simplified version of Rugby, suitable for all ages, abilities and genders. It is a competitive passing game, ideal for ex-players, injured and rehabilitating current players and those interested in the sport without any experience. Sessions will have an emphasis on socialising and having fun, with refreshments also provided.

    “We will announce in due course when Walking Rugby will begin at Kingsey Road and we hope it proves a popular addition to our offering,” said Matt. 

    “This is a great opportunity for people to lace their boots up again and to be active without having to do any running. It’s also a fantastic chance to catch up with some old friends, meet new people, get back to holding a ball again and reliving some of the memories they had years ago. However, it’s also for people who have never played rugby before and it’s a great way for people to keep fit.” 

    Walking Rugby What you need to know 

    • No running 
    • No contact – similar to ‘touch rugby’ rules – two hands on shorts is all the contact made which qualifies as a tackle. 
    • No Mauls, Rucks or Lineouts
    • Scrummaging – max three players per team stood in upright standing position and non-contested. 
    • Passing backwards or lateral – offside rules apply 
    • A try requires no bending – you walk across the try line ball in hand

  • Teachers’ GCSE grades will count at Lord Bill’s

    FOLLOWING the A Level results fiasco, the Headteacher of Lord Williams’s School in Thame, has written to all students, carers and parents of Year 11 (the letter was written before today’s government announcement both A Levels and GCSE results will now be based on teacher assessments, unless that previously awarded to students is higher):

    Dear Year 11 Students and Parents/Carers

    As I am sure you know, there has been a great deal of controversy and upset over the awarding of A-Level grades last week. We do not know how the process of awarding GCSE grades will affect our students, but it seems likely that there will be significant changes to the Centre Assessed Grades that were submitted in good faith by teachers and signed off by Subject Leaders.

    We will be sending you the awarded results as soon as we are able to on Thursday morning. We will then send you the Centre Assessed Grades soon after.

    We will rely on the Centre Assessed Grades in making decisions about entry to Sixth Form courses at Lord Williams’s School. Even if the grades are moderated down by the awarding process, we will stand by the grades that our teachers have submitted, as we feel these reflect the grades that students truly deserve.

    I hope this offers some reassurance at a very stressful time.

    In the case of English and Mathematics, any student awarded a grade below a 4 will be required to re-sit the relevant examination, even if the Centre Assessed Grade was a 4 or higher. This is necessary to ensure that students have access to College, University and Higher Apprenticeships in the future.

    Students who have applications to College or an Apprenticeship will be able to communicate their Centre Assessed Grades to their future provider to support their application for admission, if the awarded grades are lower than those required for automatic entry. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that any other institution will follow our approach of accepting the Centre Assessed Grades as a valid indication of a student’s achievement.

    Yours
    Jon Ryder
    Headteacher

  • Midsomer Tours Return to Thame!

    THIS month sees the return of the Midsomer guided walking tours of Thame, four months later than intended, delayed because of Covid 19 restrictions.

    The government has since given the tourism and hospitality industry permission to re-open, so Midsomer Tours will be recommencing from Wednesday, August 19, and every Wednesday until the season ends on October 28. 

    Tour organiser Tony Long, commented: “Following government advice, we are delighted that the ever-popular Midsomer Tours can start again. We will be ensuring that the now smaller tour groups comply with social distancing guidelines. Participants may wish to wear face masks, but none of the locations involves being indoors, so this is not necessary. Hand sanitiser can be provided on request.”

    The Midsomer guided walking tour has become a great success since it launched in 2017. Knowledgeable tour guides take small groups on an hour-long tour around Midsomer filming locations in the town used in episodes of the popular ITV series Midsomer Murders. Thame is one of the most frequently used filming locations, with 22 locations in the town centre. Amongst landmarks featured are Thame Museum, Thame Town Hall, Market House, Rumsey’s Chocolaterie, the Spread Eagle and Swan Hotels, the Coffee House, and the Black Horse Pub & Brasserie. 

    Midsomer Murders is still going strong after more than 20 years. Tony added: “Over six million people watch Midsomer Murders in the UK, and millions more worldwide. It’s one of our biggest TV exports, and when people see it on TV, they want to come and visit the beautiful towns and villages of Midsomer, such as Thame. When they are here, they spend money in our restaurants, pubs, hotels, and shops – which has got to be good for the town and its economy, especially following the lockdown.

    “We hope people will join the tours, because the more people there are taking part, the more funds we can donate to worthy causes at the end of the season. Last year we donated over £2,000. The guides themselves don’t take any income, and any funds left go towards next year’s promotion.”

    • Tours can only be booked online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/thamemidsomer. Tickets are £7.50 per person. Groups will consist of a maximum of five people plus the guide, in line with government guidance. If a tour is full, we are able to offer a second tour for five people on the same day. The second tour will be led by a second guide and will start off five minutes later than the first tour.  
    • If the advertised tour times don’t fit in with your itinerary, tours can be arranged for groups of up to five people on other days. For more information, contact Tony Long, tour organiser, at thamemidsomertours@gmail.com

     

  • Thame Fair falls victim to Covid-19 restrictions

    DUE to the government’s current Covid-19  guidance for public events, Thame’s September Fair has had to be cancelled on safety grounds.

    In an announcement today, Thame Town Council explained: “This decision was made in the interests of the health and well-being of Thame’s residents and those of nearby villages who usually visit the Fair. Given the ongoing Covid-19 social distancing requirements it is not feasible or responsible to hold the September Street Fair in the town centre this year, and the Showmen’s Guild had not been supportive of proposals to reduce the number of rides. 

    “No other Street Fair had taken place in the UK since lockdown was enforced. A decision on the October Fair will be made nearer the time.”

    A separate statement from the Showmen’s Guild this afternoon read: “Regarding the unfortunate cancellation of the Thame Show Fair, the London & Home Counties Section of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain would like to express their sincere thanks to the Councillors and all representatives of Thame Town Council for their assistance and support during the negotiations for this year’s fair. 

    “The Guild recognises that it would not be possible to manage social distancing or comply with all the Government guidelines and therefore understands and is in full agreement with the decision to cancel the fair.  We will be negotiating the October Fair with Thame Town Council in the hope that this Charter Fair will be able to go ahead.  Once again the  Guild would like to thank the Council and we are now looking forward to the 2021 Fairs.”