Stories for 21 January 2005

Oxfordshire Leisure

Bath Place Hotel and Restaurant, off Holywell

The refined Bath Place belies its odd description in top guide...   more...

Bella Pasta, George Street, Oxford

Mama mia - a dish to cry over before the opera  more...

Party Fun at Bistro

It was a proper ladies' night out at Witney's newly opened Bistro 35 restaurant where we arrived on our first visit - I am sure it won't be the last - to find a party of no fewer than 30, with nary a lad among them, ranged along each side the balloon-bedecked, banquet-sized table next to us.   more...

Oxfordshire News

Saudi prince gives record £1.5m to university

Oxford Brookes University is celebrating its biggest ever single donation -- £1.5m from a Saudi Arabian Prince.   more...

Police investigate club fraud claims

Police have started inquiries into allegations of fraud at the Morris Motors Athletic and Social Club in Cowley.   more...

'City needs trams'

Green city councillors want to turn back time by using trams to ferry shoppers to Oxford's revamped Westgate Centre.   more...

Saudi prince £1.5m to university

Oxford Brookes University is celebrating its biggest ever single donation - £1.5m from a Saudi Arabian Prince.   more...

Concern over phone masts

Elderly residents living in a sheltered housing block in Oxford are protesting against the number of phone masts being erected on a roof 20 metres from their home.   more...

Student loses battle to stay

An 18-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who is studying at Oxford University faces deportation after losing his appeal against the Home Office's refusal to extend his visa.   more...

Rampage in tower block

Calls have been made for a security guard to be employed in a vandal-plagued block of flats in Oxford.   more...

Wife `horrified' by drugs crimes

The Mormon wife of a convicted drugs trafficker, who was found with bags of cash stuffed under her bed, told a court she was "horrified" to learn her husband was a criminal.   more...

January 21: Crushing verdict

Richard Howard, the retiring head of school development in Oxfordshire, delivers a crushing verdict on the state of education in the county.   more...

Asylum centre work could start in spring

Major building work for the controversial £60m asylum seekers' accommodation centre outside Bicester could begin in the spring with completion towards the end of 2006, the Home Office has told local residents.   more...

Hospital referendum bid

A REFERENDUM could be staged in Bicester calling for a 30-bed community hospital to be built in the town.   more...

Mayor re-enacts castle jailbreak

Wallingford mayor Theresa Jordan is to become a queen for a day to re-enact a 12th century jail break which led directly to Wallingford getting its charter 850 years ago.   more...

Reservoir project moves forward

THAMES Water delivered the clearest signal yet of its intentions to press for a huge reservoir between Abingdon and Wantage.   more...

What street wardens do

Street wardens spend more time reporting dumped supermarket trolleys and rubbish than they do dealing with criminal damage and domestic disputes, according to a new report.   more...

Police investigate club fraud claims

Police have started inquiries into allegations of fraud at the Morris Motors Athletic and Social Club in Cowley.   more...

Oxfordshire Sport

Football: Mooney hits a new milestone

Oxford United's leading scorer, Tommy Mooney, joins a select band tomorrow when he becomes a member of the illustrious 500 Club.   more...

Football: Didcot bidding to make history

Didcot Town will be bidding to reach the last 16 of the FA Vase for the first time in their history when they host West Midlands Premier Division outfit Ledbury Town at Loop Meadow tomorrow.   more...

SATURDAY

FOOTBALL   more...

Rugby: Scrum half Thompson set for Chinnor debut

Chinnor will give a league debut to 17 year-old scrum half Morgan Thompson tomorrow, when they make the the longest journey of their South West 1 programme to take on lowly Penryn in Cornwall.   more...

Tennis: Henman has sights on breaking hoodoo

Oxfordshire's Tim Henman is confident he can end his Australian Open hoodoo after marching into the third round.   more...

Football: Soldier Davies is put in firing line!

GLS Hellenic League: Wantage Town manager Andy Lyne has completed the signing of Lee Davies.   more...

Football: Sinnott geared up for reunion

Oxford City manager Andy Sinnott is looking to do the double over his old club when Brackley Town visit Court Place Farm tomorrow.   more...

Speedway: Wagstaff set to unveil rider

Oxford Silver Machine promoter Nigel Wagstaff is set to unveil a rider at a fans forum at Oxford Stadium next week after confirming the team will race in the Elite League again next year.   more...

Oxfordshire Whats On

Stars keep their cool

The logistics are ridiculous -- a portable ice rink, four tonnes of crushed ice daily, 29 cities in 32 weeks, a 44-strong touring company, and 24 skaters crowded on a 12m by 12m ice rink.   more...

Fowl play

If you'd mentioned the name Rooster six months ago, chances are the only ones interested would be poultry farmers or followers of the Chinese horoscope.   more...

Review: Elektra (12A)

Almost two years after comic book adventure Daredevil disgraced the big screen, svelte and sexy heroine Elektra rises from the grave.   more...

Inside Out by Nick Mason

Forty years in Pink Floyd has done nothing to diminish the memory of Nick Mason. Gazing out on to Turl Street from an upstairs window in the QI Club, his mind drifts back to when Floyd and rock and roll were still young and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was riding high in the charts.   more...

Review: Absent Friends, the Mill at Sonning.

Alan Ayckbourn recalled a member of the first-night audience for Absent Friends saying: "If I'd known what I was laughing at while I was watching it, I wouldn't have laughed." What she (or possibly he) was laughing at was death -- in various ways but, in a specific instance, at a death by drowning. If the play seemed strong meat in 1974, how much stronger it appears in 2005 in the aftermath of a tragedy in which untold thousands have died in the same way.   more...

Don't fret, Adam's just a bit weird

If you are one of those blues fans who can be seen propped against the bar at The Bullingdon, stroking your chin to the soulful sounds of the Mississippi Delta, then think twice before heading to next week's Monday Blues.   more...

Cash from chaos

Some restaurants should carry a health warning -- beware all ye who enter here, may cause high blood pressure, depression and exhaustion.   more...