Not just Oklahoma, but rather Oklahoma!, the exclamation mark tells you all you need to know about this production.
The producers of Oklahoma! have embraced this deep south musical for what it is: big, brash, colourful fun. One never loses the sense of a cast that is having a ball – and one’s toes instinctively start to tap.
The main romantic pairing, Curly (Jacob Lloyd) and Laurey (Nancy Cole) strike up a dynamic chemistry from the off, their scornful teasing hiding real emotional commitment beneath.
They spar with one another, full of fiery confidence (‘I ain’t said I was going!’/ ‘I ain’t asked ya!’), yet are also capable of moments of genuine tenderness – as Laurey’s beautiful head sinks onto Curley’s broad chest, the audience too thinks, ‘Maybe I got a dream worth a-keeping.’
Lloyd’s imposing stage presence makes a contrast to his counterpart, the sprightly young Will (Jon Head).
Head’s wiry figure seems one strong American gust of wind away from being blown off the stage, yet his wide-eyed boyishness epitomises the infectious energy of this production as he leaps around the stage like a wide-eyed puppy.
Not that this is all rootin’ tootin’ innocent fun. Charlie Mallinson’s turn as the embittered Jud Fry exudes danger, getting right under the skin of the volcanic farm-hand. Red-faced, eyes bulging, Mallinson growls his way through ‘Lonely Room’ like a trapped animal at bay.
His deep voice, occasionally expanding to boom out through the room, ultimately descends to a vicious, spitting snarl in a rare moment of darkness that anchors the laughter all around.
Yet such shadows are swept away as Oklahoma! flies into its final stages and the entire cast thumps out the last few songs.
One can’t help but smile as they bound into their greetings, or when their squabbles are solved by Aunt Eller (Zosia Kuczynska) enforcing happiness with a six-shooter (‘Now, sing!’).
Sam Aldred revels in his comic turn as the beleaguered Ali Hakim, at once awkward and charming – and enjoying a surprising late flourish of Cossack dancing and high kicks.
All in all, Oklahoma! does what it sets out to do. There is the occasional flaw – the dancing tends to lack ambition, the occasional accent misses ‘deep south’ and hits yokel, the odd dance-step is missed – but these are just nit-pickings.
Oklahoma! is good fun from start to finish, packed with great musical numbers and full of old-fashioned charm and wit. Yessir – this is darn fine entertainment.
The age of the children in Spring Awakening is one of the things that makes approaching their characters most difficult.
I remember very vividly being a thirteen year old and thinking of myself as an adult, angry when people treated me like a child. When I see a thirteen year old now it’s difficult to imagine ever having thought that way and it’s clear that a thirteen year old is not an adult, so you can’t approach the character as you would an adult one. Something must be done to suggest youth, but once you’ve identified that age is an issue and that something of that age should be suggested somehow, the danger then becomes putting in too much and playing the children too young.
Although thirteen year olds aren’t adults, they aren’t really children either. They have few of the attributes that make characterisation of very young children relatively straightforward. They don’t gurgle or drag their feet or struggle with their words or pick their noses as obviously as younger children do, for instance. They are in a kind of grey area in between childhood and adulthood. In Spring Awakening this problem is made more complex by both the time and the style in which the play was written. To what extent is Frank Wedekind’s writing supposed to be seen and read as realist and how much is supposed to be taken as poetic license?
The young people in Spring Awakening and in particular my character Moritz, frequently use language I know I’ve never heard a thirteen year old use and don’t remember using myself when I was that age. But how much of this is a result of the time in which the play was written? How clever are the young characters in Spring Awakening and how much are they trying to look and feel clever amongst themselves?
I certainly remember times when I would try and make myself feel more mature around people I liked or wanted to impress and we see that on more than a few occasions in Spring Awakening.
Approaching the youth of the characters in Spring Awakening then isn’t straightforward. Beyond the issue of age, the characters in the play are quite complex. The play is dealing with very potent issues, some of which remain taboo even in modern British society. That the banning of the play in this country lasted for such a long time is testament to that. I haven’t yet experienced and can only hope that I won’t experience some of the things that affect the young people in the play. Some of their issues at first seem quite alien to me, but I think that one of the most impressive things that the director Richard Jones has done with the cast is to ground those issues in experiences we ourselves have had, making them our own and feeling about them as we do about things which have affected us deeply in our pasts.
When you do that it’s difficult not to be pulled into the world of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening.
Aldate can’t face listening in chunks larger than a few minutes, so
here’s what’s happening at the points where tuning in seems like a
bearable prospect:
9:35 – The automated DJ is on (isn’t breakfast when everyone
listens to the radio?). MGMT’s "Time to Pretend" is played three times
in a row before Aldate tunes out. It looks like automated DJ = same
song on loop. Even Aldate’s nan can work shuffle.
10:41 – MGMT’s "Time to Pretend". They must be earning a lot of royalties.
11:19 – MGMT’s "Time to Pretend". Aldate used to like this song.
12:04 – Midday has been and gone, and programming should have started. MGMT’s "Time to Pretend" is still going strong.
13:51 – Potential – people are actually talking. Not very
clearly, not very funnily, not very interestingly, but at least it’s
not that song. The words of one DJ are indecipherable. The other
sounds really, really bored. “We were just talking about exchange
students. Yes we were. No we weren’t” [crashing noise, fuzzing] “My
colleague just assaulted a microphone.”
15:08 – Nice/fun song. Aldate could actually envisage listening to this.
15:14 – Oh, wait a sec. It’s the same song on repeat:
16:31 – This pair ("Paul to Paul") seem to fancy themselves as Mark and Lard . The links are semi-planned but not utterly terrible. There’s potential. They’re nominated, too (see previous post).
16:36 – Wow! Was that? Did they? Yes, they used a bumper (=
jingle, basically) between two songs, and it almost worked. I say
"almost", because the bumper said "Pimping the beats to the Oxford
massiv – this is Oxide". Technically near-perfect though. I’m
beginning to like this pair
16:39 – I’m beginning to dislike this pair. They stopped Franz
Ferdinand mid-flow to continue their vaguely amusing Call My Bluff
rip-off.
17:06 – Discussion about Oxide awards. Apparently if the nominee/winner doesn’t turn up, someone else gets the award.
17:07 – "Did your mum used to wash you in Dettol?" – medium-quality banter.
20:12 – Aldate gets back from the pub to find an angry comment
from an Oxider who LIKES to EMPHASISE his POINTS by CAPITALISING every
SECOND word:
DJ Oxide (which is server side) is down because
we’re currently changing servers to accomodate listener figures (two
is, shall we say, VERY under the total). The music therefore comes off
a playlist CD, and yes, SOMETIMES (god forbid), it skips. How about
instead of complaining in a blog barely anyone will real [sic], you e-mail the studio (or me, since you now have my e-mail address), and I can do something ABOUT it.
Aldate WAS hoping THAT one OF the
VERY-more-than-two-listeners would email the studio first. Come to
think of it, it’s strange that they didn’t. Would someone at Oxide
please furnish Aldate with a graph of the week’s listener counts then?
Oh, and website hit data, if we’re going to have a full-on cock size
comparison.
Some trippy D’n’B show is on at the moment. It’s not half bad – nobody’s talking.
20:25 – That sounded scarily like a remix of the Mastermind
theme tune. Still no talking = good. Here’s a real Mastermind theme
cover:
20:48 – A comment on Aldate’s post from yesterday:
As
the station’s ex-Head of Training, I can reasonably suggest that you
probably have no idea whatsoever how difficult it is to keep the
station sounding professional. At its heart, Oxide is a conglomeration
of volunteer DJs with little to no experience and almost no possible
method of reliable quality control. Keeping that lot sounding good all
the time is like herding cats, or perhaps nailing fog to the wall. Pick
your metaphor.
Nailing cats to the wall? Aldate completely accepts these points, and
this liveblog is a way of illustrating that the system is faulty.
There is a potential solution. Stop the costly, counter-intuitive and
dated streaming method and move to a podcast model. That way,
democracy will out, you can focus resources on particular shows, etc.
etc. etc. The benefits are endless. Discuss.
21:02 – Clowns appear to have invaded the studio, singing "I
love cock, I love willy" over "God save the Queen". There is no future
in… these guys’ time on Oxide?
21:04 – High pitched scream over GSTQ.
21:06 – They’re fast-forwarding through and skipping between
songs. There’s "quality control" (above) and "twat control". Both
appear to have failed here.
21:10 – They’ve stopped skipping through songs. Unfortunately,
they stopped on Dario G. But hey, that’s a personal dislike. PS
thanks BAZIL for THE clarification ABOUT what EVERY second WORD
capitalized MEANS.
21:16 – Saint Aldate rarely takes the Lord’s name in vain, but
GOD how long does this song go on for? At least the jokers aren’t
talking.
21:17 – Same song starts playing for a second time. But again, at least the jokers aren’t talking.
21:20 – Aldate reaches for the Neurofen. A real listener would have tuned out by now, surely?
21:25 – So does this mean that there’s nobody in the studio?
Mr. Scott – you seemed somewhat vexed that nobody pointed out the same
song going round and round and round and round before. Well, here’s
your alert. You’re making Dario G rich; in the name of quality dance
music, stop it please.
21:33 – Aldate has long since tuned out. Shout when the next show starts.
The
problem is really that there are a lot of DJs on Oxide (I hear over
100?). 100 reporters to the OxWell might go through an editor or two,
but DJs broadcasting live can’t.
I think a little competition
wouldn’t harm things, though. Good suggestion. Maybe the Cherwell could
start its own station to complement Oxide?
Fair point, but maybe the problem is that they are broadcasting live?
Surely it would be more effective to supply an on-demand model, like
podcasts? That way quality could be assured, just as an editor
(theoretically) checks every page before it goes off to print.
That said, Cherwell considered podcasts as part of the website
relaunch, but it was basically decided that not many people would
listen to them unless they were really tightly produced. Podcasts suit
commuters mainly, after all. However, with a half-decent studio you
could make some impressive and relevant stuff – how about a show
discussing the plays of the week, for example? Or a documentary
strand, picking up where OxStu investigations leave off? Aldate won’t
elaborate lest he be accused of treason.
21:40
Since our last server restart (8th May), we have had 5920 unique connections (this is unique to each IP address)
As you can see, James Scott has kindly emailed Aldate some vague
listener figures (nothing specific, apparently, will be forthcoming
until he can get to the server). Mr Scott rightly mentions that
without knowing how colleges and OUCS run the show, we can’t interpret
this figure too closely.
However (and as howevers come this is pretty big), surely every
time somebody visits the Oxide home page and the automatic player kicks
in, that adds to the number of unique connections? So surely that
figure is just the number of people with Flash installed who have
visited the Oxide homepage in the last 11 days?
21:50 – Dave speaks out about Aldate’s Theory of Podcasting:
They’d open themselves up to potential legal action. Oxide walks a fine
line as it is, legally speaking since they don’t pay royalties. Making
music available for download as opposed to streaming is definitively
illegal – OUSU wouldn’t dare even risk it.
I’ve always advocated rebroadcasting some shows, as a "best of" Oxide’s
content. I’ve also lobbied for a reduced broadcast week, perhaps eight
hours/day, 6 days/week so we can cut out the dross. Of course, no-one
wants to be the guy who makes that change, since it’s bad press to
reduce hours (much like it’s bad press to reduce pages printed).
Do we really need a station playing music that can easily be found on
iTunes and other internet radio stations? Surely student
radio/podcasts should focus on celebrating upcoming talent? Aldate is
thinking of live performances and interviews, for example, neatly
packaged into manageable chunks – stuff that doesn’t present copyright
nightmares.
Other programmes can be documentary-style, or discussion panels on
anything from world news to Oxford news to Oxford drama. The whole
streaming/live thing should go, much as the print editions of the
student newspapers should probably go eventually.
22:18 – Aldate is on the phone but this sounds like a good show for music fans.
22:29 – Good music banter. The music thing is a stumbling block
for the podcast plan. In his paper days, Aldate would phone up
photographers etc. for permission to print a picture. Surely a band
would jump at the opportunity to have their song featured in a
(popular) student new music podcast? It just takes a little more
effort, which isn’t necessarily a Bad Thing.
22:40 – It’s been great fun, but Aldate has pagans to fight in the morning ,
so is calling it a day. A lot of useful points have been made and
there’s a lot to work with here and in the comments box – if you have
anything to add, put it below or email it to [email protected].
Night!
Students face another bout of electioneering after Lib Dem councillor for Holywell ward, Richard Huzzey, stood down just days after the local elections.
Coming to the end of his History doctorate at St Catz, Mr Huzzey has been offered a post-doctoral research fellowship at Yale University, Connecticut, an offer he described as “too good to miss”.
Mr Huzzey was elected in 2006, and was not up for re-election in 2008 as Oxford City Council is elected in halves, with one of the two seats for each ward elected every two years.
Mr Huzzey said: “It’s been fantastic to work with Holywell residents over the past two years, and I’d have liked to continue for the rest of my four-year term. Yet an academic job at Yale is just too good to miss.”
Lib Dem hopes
The Lib Dems will be keen for success in the by-election, after losing ground to Labour in the elections earlier this month.
The by-election will be held on 12 June, which is likely to benefit the Lib Dems as many students will still be eligible to vote.
In the local elections recently held, the Lib Dems performed well in the two main student wards, Carfax and Holywell, but fared poorly elsewhere.
Lib Dem candidate Nathan Pyle won his Holywell ward seat with more than twice the votes of the second place Conservative candidate, Alex Stafford.
Candidates
By-election candidates have been announced, with several faces returning from the previous local elections.
Two losing candidates from the Carfax election, Sarah Hutchinson for Labour, and Paul Sargent for the Conservatives, are hoping for better luck in Holywell.
Paul Sargent defected to the Conservatives from the Lib Dems during his term, and subsequently lost his council seat to Lib Dem Stephen Brown at the start of this month.
Green candidate Chip Sherwood is also having a second attempt, having come third in the race for the other Holywell seat earlier this month.
The Lib Dems are fielding a fresh face, in the form of Mark Mills, a student at Teddy Hall. Mr Huzzey described his potential successor as “a hard-working and committed campaigner.”
Check back to Cherwell on 12 June for the results as they are announced.
Best Male Presenter
Carl Culliane – Like Hearts Swelling
Gui Wright – Indie Asphyxiation
Nick Maxfield – Wednesdays in the Womb
Paul Arrick – Drum and/ or Bass Featuring Consistent Special Guest aka Sam Greenbury
Ross Cole – Oxide Unsigned
Best Female Presenter
Cat Miller – Artspace
Alexia Kapranos – Oxide Overdrive
Hafsa Hassan – Breakfast with Hafsa
Cat Smith – Old and New with Cat and Su
Su Webb – Old and New with Cat and Su
Best Newcomers
Hang the Djs
The Bottleneck
Saturday Night ‘60s Show
The Love Tape Show
The Real Stinker
Best Specialist Show
WMDs
Two Poor Salesman
Key Notes with Hilary and Ewan
Filter UK
The Acoustic Hour
Best Duo Team
Hatty and Hugo’s Half Hour
Three Hours of Static
Key Notes with Hilary and Ewan
Schwein and Steiger
Sunday Lunch with Katie and Spence
Best Interview
Alexia Kapranos and Fi Murphy – Oxide Overdrive
Paul Flemming – The Manifesto
Claire and Seline – Cake Thursday
Florence and Laith – Free Speech Special
Paul Cadetz – Zeitgeist
Best Playlist Show
Wake Up With Wood
Dex’s Midday Runners
Three Hours of Static
The Lawrence and Sam Show
The Lewis Goodall Show
Best Show Feature
Maiden Over – Cameron-oke
Let’s Get Physical – Physics Theme
Plucked from Obscurity – Presenter War
The Wednesday/Monday Drop – Use of Decks
The Love Tape Show – Special Guests
Best Speech Show
Paul to Paul
The Manifesto
Art Class
Play With Me
Saturday Sport with Paul Hinds
Best Newsreader
Olivia Mackintosh
Pippa Girling
Edison Hunh (pronounced Hune)
Clare Kane
So, it only took five weeks for the two papers to come out with the same front page story. The Friars/governing-body/license talk may have made the story impenetrable for many beyond the first two paragraphs. Aldate reckons that Cherwell’s timeline and standfirsts represent a better effort to open the article up to the casual reader. But then maybe I’m biased… {nomultithumb}
Nonetheless, both here and generally speaking, there’s a lot more that both papers should be doing to make stories more enjoyable: infoboxes, definitions, graphs, diagrams, infographics, whatever. The fact is that the traditional combination of picture, copy, headline, standfirst and pullquote is immensely unimaginative and unhelpful in telling the news.
Another good piece by Mr Holehouse on Stu p3 – goes to show that reading dry reports can go a long way.
Gratuitous use of a pretty girl in Cherwell’s rent protest coverage. Anything to do with one editor’s aspirations to the Telegraph, whose A-Level result day front page is invariably illustrated by some nubile lass?
The new integrated structure came into its own at Cherwell with this story: pictures were up within 15 minutes of the event, a full story mid-afternoon and video that evening. Where’s the long-promised Stu website? Will they have any multimedia plans?
Aldate reckons that the Top Chumps will have pissed off a lot of people – and not just those in the spread (who mostly love the attention anyway). The casual reader probably saw it as a reflection of the introverted hackdom of Oxford journalism, while the professional hack will have been upset by their omission / the presence of nobodies.
That said, it is a very good-looking spread. Are the Stu still planning to do their bumper hack pullout? If they do, Aldate suggests that they get one of their five subs to actually stop mistakes before they go to print (you know, things like calling Summer Eights "Torpids", Exeter "Exter", repeating OxFood, etc.)
Excellent Lolbrarian this week. Epic fail indeed. Too much cock’n’nipple in Party People for this saint’s liking, though.
Aldate actually has a social life to attend to, so as ever the rest of the review is up to you.
A strike which would have disrupted rail services through Oxford on Sunday has been called off.
Depot staff at First Great Western (FGW), which run the majority of trains from Oxford station, had voted by a three-to-one margin to strike over pay and working hours.
However, the action was called off after a deal was struck with FGW’s management.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, explained the reasons for the dispute and congratulated his members on their unity.
"The vast majority of FGW engineering and cleaning staff were still being paid the flat hourly rate for their overtime, rather than the time-and-a-quarter enjoyed by other FGW staff, including train-crew and station staff," he said.
"Due to the steadfastness of members at FGW, these inequalities have been removed."
Leading Catholic figures including the Pope’s UK representative have entered the last minute fight to save Greyfriars Permanent Private Hall.
Papal Nuncio Archbishop, Faustino Sainz Muñoz, and the Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham have backed efforts to keep the PPH open with just weeks left before the 800-year-old friary is due to close to students.
A group of fellows, led by Penny Cookson, Greyfriars’ Academic Administrator, circulated a document on Tuesday called ‘An urgent plea for Greyfriars Hall’ to members of the Capuchin Order and leading Catholic newspapers.
It calls upon the Capuchin friars who own the Hall not to surrender the PPH’s licence at the end of June.
The Capuchin Governing Body of Greyfriars is accused of consistently refusing to respond to questions about alternatives to closure not just from fellows and lecturers but also from “the Holy See, the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, and the Archbishop of Birmingham.”
The fellows claim that the Nuncio and Archbishop, along with Cardinal Walter Kasper, “expressed their strong disapproval at the possibility of Greyfriars closing and are totally supportive of the action we are taking to try to retain the licence and keep the Hall going” at a reception in Oxford on May 5.
The Governing Body, which has ultimate control over Greyfriars, is also accused of going back on a promise made in March 2007 to “cooperate with the fellows during the transition should they wish to carry on the Hall outside the Friary.”
Cookson and two other fellows set out plans in the letter to take in a new cohort of students in October 2009, with lecturers and fellows running the PPH. The Capuchins would retain the license for the Hall, but the document states that the fellows “would assume total financial responsibility for Greyfriars Hall.
This would thus release the Capuchin Province so that they could devote their time and resources exclusively to their ministry.”
A former Warden of Greyfriars, Revd Dr Tom Weinandy, who trebled student numbers during the 1990s, has agreed to head a new Governing Body that would oversee a revived Greyfriars.
The battle over the future of Greyfriars has been ongoing since the Capuchins publically announced they were to close the Hall last October, citing a lack of money and a shortage of friars. Arrangements were made to move current students to Regent’s Park, another PPH, and for the Hall to continue as a friary.
Since then, a number of plans to keep Greyfriars open to students have been drafted by Cookson and the group of fellows, but the Governing Body has continued with its plans to close at the end of June.
Barry Hudd, Communications Officer for the Capuchin Order, said that the original decision of the Order stood, and that the plans to continue Greyfriars were infeasible.
“We wanted to close Greyfriars and we are at liberty to do so,” he said. Referring to the plans for the fellows to completely take over running of the Hall, he stated that “we would not be allowed to enter into trusteeship of something we didn’t have total control over.”
He recognised that the fellows were able to approach the University with plans to obtain a license for a new college, but said that the current licence “is in termination and beyond the point of no return.”
Hudd said that when closure was being discussed in March 2007, the University had ruled out the possibility of a staggered closure over 3-4 years because the Hall would be left with unacceptably few students.
They had also said that ‘mothballing’ the licence so that plans could be made to resume teaching was also not possible.
He added, “I can assure you that the University wanted it closed as quickly as possible.”
He sought to downplay the significance of the closure, saying, “We’re not talking about the closure of Oxford University. It’s 20 students.”
The Apostolic Nuncio declined to comment, but the Archbishop of Birmingham has publically backed the plans to retain Greyfriars’ licence and secure a future for the PPH. In a statement, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols said, “I am anxious that every avenue be explored for continuing the use of Greyfriars’ licence, granted by Oxford University in 1957. I hope this can be done in a thorough manner before the date on which the licence is to be surrendered.”
The Archbishop has also written to Greyfriars’ Governing Body several times to arrange meetings with fellows to discuss the continuation of the PPH.
When asked why he thought the Governing Body was surrendering the licence, Peter Jennings, the Archbishop’s spokesman, said, “I wish we knew.”
Hudd responded to the Archbishop by saying, “whilst we understand their sentiments, they have not been privy to the wider picture which has been the subject of months of discussion and negotiation between the Capuchins and the University.”
Several leaders of the student body have also backed the final effort to keep Greyfriars open. Ellaine Gelman, JCR President from 2006-2007, wrote an open letter to the UK newspaper The Catholic Herald, saying that “my college of choice is closing and I am not going to watch it happen in silence.
“Papal Nuncio was quoted as saying ‘it was madness to close Greyfriars’, and I agree,” Gelman continued.
“Despite all of the given explanations, I simply can not understand why somebody would want to close an Oxford college that has provided a home and a place of study to so many students.”
The current President, Jonathan Hamal, said he was looking forward to moving to Regent’s Park and was thankful for their cooperation, but also agreed that “there’s a definite support for continuing Greyfriars in some shape or form, and for finding out why the Hall closed in the first place, the reasons for which remain slightly ambiguous.”
Sheridan Taylor, the current MCR President, said that the transition would be difficult. “It think lots of the students are pleased they are staying together, but moving from Greyfriars is a tremendous loss. Greyfriars is a special place. Losing the relationship with the friars will be hard,” she concluded.
Oxford University Press have said that they have no current plans to produce new print editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Juliet Evans, press representative of the OED, confirmed that work has begun on the next edition. This massive undertaking will be the first-ever revision of the entire work and is likely to take at least a decade.
A combination of the large amount of time required to revise the dictionary and the popularity of its online form have contributed to the University Press’s decision not to publish a new printed version in the near future.
Dr. Charlotte Brewer, a fellow of Hertford College, and expert on the OED, confirmed: “They started in 2000 in the middle of the alphabet with ‘M’, and after eight years they have reached part-way through the letter ‘Q’ – so it would be a bit premature to print just this slice of the alphabet.”
Extensive investment in OED online means that new additions and re-writings of the text are published immediately on the internet. Dr. Brewer argued that the OED’s expansion on the web “has immeasurably enriched the variety of data it deals with, especially since many historical texts are now available in this form.”
However the online updates have come under some criticism. Evans said, “This vast quantity of material has made life more complicated for OED, since it has enormously expanded their work-load – and new resources keep on coming online.”
Evans commented that, “A new print edition is hardly feasible until we have finished revising the text, which will take at least ten more years. However, we will consider any form of publication, including print, which will meet readers’ needs at the time.”
Dr. Brewer added, “There are lots of advantages to consulting OED online, since it is much quicker to look up a series of words, to cross-refer between words, and to interrogate the contents of the dictionary analytically.”
Since March 2000 there have been 33 quartely releases of new and revised material.
OUP also publishes the full OED on CD-ROM, and offers many other dictionaries of English in print and electronic forms, including the Shorter and Concise OEDs, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the New Oxford American Dictionary.
The dictionary has been in print continuously since its first publication in 1888. The current edition (first published in 20 volumes in 1989) continues to sell well.
Anton Oliver, who is a former captain of the New Zealand All Black squad will be studying for a Masters degree in Biodiversity, Environment and Management.
Oliver, 32, retired from international rugby last year. He told the New Zealand Herald, “I feel very privileged to have been accepted into Oxford University. I see my time at Oxford as a clear demarcation in my life, leaving behind a life as professional sportsperson for one of academic rigour and thought.
“The chance to play in the Varsity match – which is clearly a unique event in rugby union – is also very exciting and I see it as a natural way for me to finish my playing career” he added.
Christopher Dix, ex-Secretary for the Blues Committe said, “It is absolutely fantastic to see such a renowned rugby player being accepted into Oxford and I honestly cannot think of a more fitting end to such an impressive career than playing for the Dark blues”.
The University’s Director of Sport, Steve Hill, said, “OURFC is delighted Anton Oliver has decided to study and play rugby at Oxford next season.
“Anton is known as a hard nosed, no nonsense type of player who very much leads by example on and off the field. Having played at the highest level for more than a decade his knowledge, especially of front row play, will be invaluable to the Blues squad and in particular to the younger members of our club,” he said.
“Oxford is determined to win the Varsity Match this coming December and having someone of Anton’s calibre in the pack will be of significant assistance in this cause,” he added.
Oliver studied as an undergraduate at Otago University in New Zealand from 1994 and in 1997 made his All Blacks debut in a match against Fiji. During his career, Oliver has amassed a total of 55 caps and published a book, Anton Oliver, Inside in which he expressed concerns at the drinking culture of the All Blacks team.
In the book, Oliver describes how a letter from a fan urged him to alter his behaviour off the pitch – which had on occasion been referred to as loutish.
So, it only took five weeks for the two papers to come out with the same front page story. The Friars/governing-body/license talk may have made the story impenetrable for many beyond the first two paragraphs. Aldate reckons that Cherwell’s timeline and standfirsts represent a better effort to open the article up to the casual reader. But then maybe I’m biased… {nomultithumb}