Category Archives: sport

Bank Holiday Monday – Open Air Pool, Walks, Towel Day, and Wear the Lilac Day

Bank Holiday Monday
The Abbey Meadows Open Air Pool opened this Bank Holiday Monday morning at 9am. Early swimmers were impressed by the new management. The water was clean, with no algae on the walls, and as warm as could be expected.
Bank Holiday Monday
Meanwhile on the Market Place, The Friends of Abingdon were signing up people for Bank Holiday Walks around Abingdon. The event was co-ordinated by Pat Bryden (out of shot) and very successful.
Bank Holiday Monday
The Wilts and Berks Canal Walk was led by Martin Buckland.
Bank Holiday Monday
The Around St Helens Walk was led by Ian Jardine, with help from Jackie Smith.
Bank Holiday Monday
The 1556 Abingdon Boundary Walk was led by Martin Smith, and Town Crier – Penny Clover.
Bank Holiday Monday
The Ock Valley Nature Walk, with the Abingdon Green Gym, was led by Eleanor Dangerfield
Bank Holiday Monday
The Radley Lakes Walk, with the Friends of Radley Lakes, was led by David Guyoncourt.
Bank Holiday Monday
The St Nicolas Church and the Lost Abbey Tour, with the Friends of Abingdon, was led by Philip Kenrick in the morning
Bank Holiday Monday
and by by Hester Hand in the afternoon.

It was also Towel Day – celebrated every year on 25th May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams, who wrote Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy. The guide says “A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have …“.

Tabitha Griffiths, preaching at Trinity yesterday, wore a towel, and a lilac sprig. The lilac was in commemoration of Terry Pratchett who recently died. Some of his fans wore the lilac on 25th May. Members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, in the Pratchett novel Nightwatch, wore a sprig of lilac, for identification.

Tabitha’s real topic after removing the towel and lilac was Pentecost as described in Acts Chapter 2.

Open Air Pool Opens Today – Good Friday

Open Air Pool Opens
The Hinksey Outdoor Pool, off the Abingdon Road in Oxford, was open for the first time this morning from 8am. The water was lovely and warm and there were lots of swimmers taking advantage of this first chance for an open air swim in 2015. You would hardly notice it was raining.
Open Air Pool Opens
The Friends of The Outdoor Pool have run a good campaign and got lots of publicity. With just a few days left they are now in the final push to try to secure the future of the Abingdon Outdoor Pool. IF GLL, the new pool operator, can run the pool as well as Fusion run the Hinksey Outdoor Pool then it will have a great future.

But if you can’t wait until then, details of the Hinksey Outdoor Pool can be found on their facebook page.

Abingdon Marathon – The 33rd Running of this well organised event

Abingdon Marathon
The 33rd running of the Abingdon Marathon started at 9am from Tilsley Park this morning.
Abingdon Marathon
Many volunteers were there to help. Marshalls held back traffic at junctions to let competitors run free. They also cheered and guided runners round the course.
Abingdon Marathon
The event is organised by a committee of volunteers from clubs in Oxfordshire including Abingdon Amblers. The number of entrants is limited to 1100, and included a postman who was going for the posties marathon record carrying a heavy post bag. I have not heard yet whether he got round in time.
Abingdon Marathon
Many local Clubs and Societies helped. The Abingdon Air Cadets for example were at the turn by Abingdon Marina offering drinks.
Abingdon Marathon
There was even a feeding station offering Jelly Babies near Peep O Day Lane.
Abingdon Marathon
The course itself had some changes this year. What is a difficult road junction at the bottom of Preston Road was replaced by a ‘funny’ turn at Lambrick Way. Then near the end competitors were diverted along Farm Road.
Abingdon Marathon
It was another very well organised event. The winning men’s runner, Chris Jordon from Leicester Coritanian Athletic Club, is seen here with some of the See Saw volunteers who organised the catering at Tilsley Park.

636 runners completed the marathon within the time limit. There are pictures of the runners on the Abingdon Blog Facebook page.

North Berks Football League – Start of Season

North Berks League
The North Berks League Football Season kicked off this weekend. At the Caldecott Recreation Ground Saxton Rovers took on Dorchester. Against the run of play Dorchester won 2-0.
North Berks League
Abingdon Town are also now playing in the North Berks League. Their opening game was against Wallingford Town, and Abingdon won 4-2.
North Berks League
Abingdon Town asked to play in the North Berks League, after finishing the last couple of seasons at the foot of the Hellenic League Premier Division. They see it as chance to re-group and improve their finances. Last year the derby game was against Abingdon United in the Hellenic League, and this year it will be against Saxton Rovers.

Friday 19th September at 7:30pm Abingdon Town v Saxton Rovers.