TWO fire crews from each of Thame and Wheatley Fire Stations were rushed to the M40 earlier today near Junction 7 for Thame, where a car was reported to have been on fire.
Fortunately, they were able to eventually extinguish the fire but the vehicle was completely burned out. No casualties have been reported.
RACQUETS Fitness Centre, Thame, member Gillian Brannan, took part in the London Marathon this year along with four other lady members of the club, just 18 months after, as she admited, she was unable to run for even a minute!
In the recent London Marathon, Gillian completed the full 26.2 miles in just 6 hours 8 minutes. Just 18 months ago, Gill was totally unfit and two stone heavier. She said: “Taking part in the London Marathon and all the training and preparation that is needed for it is one the best achievements of my life.” She is so pleased with her achievement, that Gill has entered the ballot for 2020 !
What is the Culvert Trust?
Running for the Calvert Trust, Gill has so far raised £1,501.96. The Calvert Trust provides people of all ages and all kinds of disability with the opportunity, through its centres in Keswick, Kielder and Exmoor, to participate in all kinds of outdoor activities including riding, sailing, swimming, rock-climbing, canoeing and much else. “It’s not what you can’t do, but what you can that counts,” the Trust believes.
Helping another runner in distress
Not only did Gillian manage the whole 26.2 miles but she also stopped to help and encourage a lady 30 years younger to get all the way round. Gill’s new London Marathon friend was running in memory of her recently departed mum and was so emotional that she was struggling to run. With Gill’s support the lady managed to complete the course.
Thanks to a gym that ‘isn’t intimidating’
Gill would like to thank everyone who encouraged her in her achievement, including her personal trainer, Nig Pattison and Racquets Fitness Centre, where Gill said: “I’ve joined gyms before but Racquets is the only one that I don’t find intimidating.”
“We are all very proud of Gill and her achievement,” said Sue Martin Downhill, Joint Director of Racquets Fitness Centre and Squash Academy.
If you’d like to add to Gillian’s fundraising total, you can visit: to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gillian-brannan
ON a cold and damp evening last Friday, May 3, Thame Town Cricket Club’s Under-15s played and won the first competitive match of the new season, in front of the new clubhouse at Church Meadow.
Both teams were keen to get a game on despite the poor weather conditions. Cublington batted first and could only muster 68 all out, with wickets spread around the Thame team, plus excellent fielding yielding 3 run outs. In reply, Thame cruised to 70-2, thanks largely to the composed opening partnership between Elliott Dales (30 retired) and Ishaan Barde (11*).
Parents and supporters were able to watch the game in the warmth of the ground floor, function room and bar, which is available for hire to members and non-members alike.
The Under-15 squad trains on a Tuesday evening from 6pm and play in the Aylesbury League. Anyone who would like more information can visit: http://www.thamecricket.org.uk/junior-cricket/u15/
Thame’s four adult men’s teams start their competitive league season on Saturday, May 11m the first XI playing against Burnham (at home, 11.30) in the Home Counties Premier League. Meanwhile the Women’s squad played their first games (a Super-8s, three-way contest) last Sunday, including a win against Deddington.
THE Thame Carnival committee have met this week and as the day draws closer, the list of applications for stalls and carnival floats is growing for what promises to be the ‘greenest’ carnival ever!
Rumour has it that the Thame stocks are going to be resurrected at the fete, following the carnival procession, and that the town Mayor could be the first to take the flack!
RACQUETS Fitness Centre, in North Street, Thame, will be hosting a graded Doubles tournament on June 15, 2019, and all standards are welcome to take part.
Prize money will be up for grabs in the A grade.
For more information visit: LINK or to enter for the link HERE
Entry fee includes T-shirt, food on Saturday and a free beer!
(Local matches may start on Friday)
GRADES A, B, C, D, E (Any gender mix)
PRIZE FUND of £500 Cash and Equipment prizes
A Grade Winner £200
A Grade Runner-up £140
Losing A Grade Semi’s £80
SATURDAY EVENING – There will be music and drinks in the bar after so why not stay for bit of social?
WHEN: Sunday May 12, at 7 pm – UK 2018, 111 minutes, 15 certificate – directed by Wash Westmoreland, starring Kiera Knightley, Dominic West, Fiona Shaw, Eleanor Tomlinson, Denise Gough.
COLETTE was one of the most celebrated French authors of the twentieth century, nominated for the Nobel Prize, and given the honour of a state funeral when she died in 1954. But to begin with, she was Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a young girl from a French provincial town, waiting for her life to begin.
She has an older lover, the literary entrepeneur Henry Gauthier-Villars known as “Willy” (Dominic West). When she becomes his bride, moving to Paris to become part of the literary demi-monde, she anticipates creative and artistic adventure and romantic fulfilment. Things don’t quite turn out that way – Willy is a rake and a philanderer with no intention of setted fidelity, and Gabrielle is bored and frustrated, frequently cooped up in cramped apartments, impoverished and engaged in clerical servitude, liaising with Willy’s factory of writers churning out pulp bestsellers.
But along the way she learns to write. She produces a manuscript about Claudine, a young girl at school navigating burgeoning maturity, and Willy decides to publish it as his own work. It is a publishing sensation, becoming something of a cult, tapping into a hitherto neglected readership of young girls and women eager to consume distinctly feminine narratives. Willy recruits his wife to keep churning them out, spicing things up, feeding the seemingly bottomless public appetite for all things Claudine – but insisting on using his own name as the author.
Knightley palpably relishes this role, and is feisty and playful as a woman grappling with personal, marital and societal constraints, striving to reclaim power and autonomy from her egotistical and pompous husband. This is simultaneously a spirited and celebratory biopic, and a lush and exhilarating portrait of Belle Epoque literary Paris: the bars, the nightclubs, the salons, the characters, the scandals, and the people who moved within them. These include gender fluid trailblazers such as ‘Missy’, a noblewoman and artist who chooses to live as a man, becoming Colette’s lover.
Westmoreland’s film – his first following Still Alice – is a period piece but with a defiant contemporary sensibility, celebrating women’s voices, women’s stories, and one person’s journey towards creative autonomy. View the trailer HERE
THAME mum, Helen Flitton and her children and some friends, held there own School Strike for Climate Strike last Friday, outside Thame town hall.
Helen, who had written to the Head of her children’s school, explaining why they were striking, was joined by other mums including Rosie Pierce and Rachel Lowe, and their children.
Helen published a copy of the letter she sent to her children’s Headteacher explaining why she was taking her children out of school to hold their rally to draw attention to the Climate Change Emergency:
POPULAR TV celebrity cook, Mary Berry, is to appear at this year’s Thame Food Festival on September 22.
Mary will be doing an interview, followed by a book signing. Others appearing in an all-star cast of chefs and bakers on the main demonstration stage include previous The Great British Bake Off and MasterChef winners and contestants, plus lots of new people too, Briony May, Alex Hollywood and Chris Bavin to name a few.
BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW and be entered into the prize draw to have a reserved seat in the front row!
THAME has been in the national news recently because of the Town Council’s (rejected) proposal to erect red plaques commemorating the town’s fictitious involvement in a television series.
Thame does however boast several blue plaques featuring famous real people who lived in the town, one of whom, the poet W.B. Yeats, is the inspiration for Thame Chamber Choir’s recently-announced Choral Composition Competition.
Launched as part of the choir’s 20th anniversary celebrations, the contest asks entrants to set any Yeats poem of their choice to music. Entries will be judged by international composers and conductors, Bob Chilcott and James Burton, as well as the choir’s Musical Director, Duncan Aspden and professional pianist and singer, Anna Markland.
The winning composition will be premièred at the choir’s concert during the 2019 Thame Arts & Literature Festival, and the composer will receive a prize of £1000.
Full details of how to enter are on the choir’s website, www.thamechamberchoir.org
