The i 26 december 2016

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Part 2 of our Quiz of the Year

ARTS

Murder most fabulous A more gritty Christie

P28 SPORTS

Football previews P32

PLUS Klopp: Chelsea ‘lucky’ with injuries P46

The essential daily briefing MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016 Number 1,899

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GAMES

Bonus puzzles to brighten up your Boxing Day P30-31

Foreign aid spending ‘good for Britain’ » Helping those in need is right thing to do and in our best interests, insists Priti Patel » Minister will crack down on ‘profiteering’ by contractors » She speaks out after pledge to maintain aid spending comes under repeated attack

P4 ROYAL FAMILY

Queen has to miss church service

P11 RUSSIA

Army choir among the victims as Syria-bound plane is lost

P25 TECHNOLOGY

P6

How to keep children safe on the internet

P26 I PUZZLES INSIDE TVGUIDE I BAKE-OFFREVIEW I SPORTQUIZ PLUS DAILY CROSSWORD I DAILYP36 PUZZLE PAGE I TV&RADIO I GAMES

The News Matrix

CHILE

How did carol singers get a shock in Sri Lanka?

See p.19

The day at a glance

MONDAY

26 DECEMBER

Quote of the day

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength ERIC HOFFER

Tsunami fears over offshore earthquake A powerful earthquake shook southern Chile yesterday, prompting the evacuation of coastal areas to guard against a possible tsunami.

The 7.7 magnitude quake struck near Chiloe Island, about 25 miles south-west of Puerto Quello and at a depth of 20 miles.

UNITED STATES

SPAIN

CHINA

ISRAEL

The Obamas’ final Christmas message

Rick Parfitt of Status Quo dies aged 68

Blast at fireworks factory kills eight

Netanyahu hits back after settlement vote

Barack and Michelle Obama delivered their final Christmas message from the White House yesterday. “We made America more respected around the world, took on the mantle of leadership in the fight to protect this planet for our kids, and much, much more,” the President said.

Status Quo’s manager has paid tribute to the “ultimate rocker” Rick Parfitt, following the guitarist’s death aged 68 on Christmas Eve. The veteran musician suffered a severe infection while in a Spanish hospital, which he had visited due to complications with a pre-existing shoulder injury. PAGE 9

An explosion at a fireworks workshop in a rural area of northern China has killed or left missing eight people and injured 16. Xinhua state news agency says the explosion on Saturday afternoon destroyed the workshop and damaged about a dozen homes in Yanzihe village in Hebei province. AP

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has summoned the ambassadors of 12 of the 14 countries who voted for a UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements on Palestinian land as a “flagrant violation” of international law. They include the UK, France, Russia and China.

UNITED STATES

LONDON

ITALY

WEATHER

The turkey’s OK, but the water’s off

Skiers trapped in cable cars rescued

Storm Conor to bring Search abandoned gusts of 90mph for man overboard

Water outages and low pressure affected some homes and the preparation of Christmas dinners across parts of south-west London yesterday. Residents found their pipes empty after an issue with pumps at Thames Water’s Hampton site, the water company said. It apologised for the inconvenience.

More than 100 skiers have been rescued after being trapped on the slopes of Cervinia, Italy, when a cable car lift failed in high winds.

Adriano Favre, head of the rescue team in the Aosta Valley, said: “Luckily the wind wasn’t too cold... there are no cases of hypothermia, and everything is under control.”

The Met Office issued a yellow “be aware” wind alert for Christmas Day for the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. Storm Conor was on its way with 90mph gusts threatening severe disruption, it said. Storm-force winds, widespread rain and even blizzards were predicted for northern areas. PAGE 5

The Miami Coast Guard has suspended its search for a 22-year-old man who went overboard from the 12th deck of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Independence of the Seas, off the Florida Keys. Nathaniel Skokan fell from the ship on Friday evening and a 38-hour search was unsuccessful.

Birthdays Shane Meadows (below), screenwriter, 44; Dermot Murnaghan, newsreader, 59; Emma Forrest, writer, 40; Yohan Blake, athlete, 27; Aaron Ramsey, footballer, 26

CINEMA

The List You would like to donate a what?

A live ferret and a ventriloquist’s dummy are among the most unusual items donated to charity, according to a poll by the Charities Aid Foundation. These are the strangest donations left at charity shops or bequeathed as legacies.

Anniversaries Monday 26 December 1955 George Gershwin’s 1934 opera Porgy And Bess, featuring an AfricanAmerican cast, opens in Leningrad in one of the most publicised cultural exchanges of the Cold War. Performances were staged in Moscow the next year.

1 Sheep’s head 2 Prosthetic leg 3 Ventriloquist’s dummy 4 Victoria Cross Medal 5 Central London townhouse 6 Doulton Faience ceramic vase 7 Pair of canaries 8 Ferret 9 Wedding dress used in an episode of Coronation Street 10 1970s Kermit the Frog puppet

Finding Dory

£838m

Zootopia

£834m £83 m £788m £ 88

The Jungle Book

£532m 53 m

Doctor Strange Rogue One:: A Star Wars Story y

£263m £

Alice Through the Looking g Glasss

Pete’s Dragon n

Newspapers support recycling The recycled content of UK newspapers in 2015 was 71%

£939m

Captain America: Civil War

The BFG

index

SOURCE: STATISTA/BOX OFFICE MOJO

Worldwide box office revenue of Disney’s top 10 movie releases in 2016

£244m £231m £

Moana

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Crossword.............23 TV & Radio...........26 Arts..............................32 Business..................34 Puzzles.....................36 Weather...................38

Blockbuster year

Disney has become the first film studio to take $7bn (£5.7bn) in global ticket sales in a single year. Here are the studio's 10 biggest releases in 2016 and how much money they made at the box office.

£145m 5 £116m

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i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

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Letter from the Deputy Editor

ThePage3Profile

ENVIRONMENT

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, THE MOST REV JUSTIN WELBY

Scheme to recycle cards and paper

Andrew Webster

It’s a busy time of year when you’re the Archbishop of Canterbury...

The Most Rev Justin Welby has spoken of the importance of God against a backdrop of a year that has left the world “less predictable and certain... more awash with fear and division”.

People are being urged to recycle Christmas cards and wrapping paper to help plant trees. In a scheme run by the Woodland Trust 600 million cards have been recycled, and shops including Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s have set up similar projects. Recycling boxes will be in stores throughout January.

No turning back for international aid

What did he say?

Delivering his Christmas sermon, the leader of the Church of England and the global communion of 85 million Anglicans praised the power of God to chase away “the fear of terror” and the “economies of despair”.

It has been a difficult year, whatever your political leanings.

“The end of 2016 finds us all in a different kind of world, one less predictable and certain, which feels more awash with fear and division,” the Archbishop told the congregation during the service at Canterbury Cathedral.

“Uncertainty in the midst of much, but far from universal, prosperity is a sign of our trust being in the wrong things.” He continued: “It tells us that our values are in the wrong place... Economic progress, technological progress, communication progress hasn’t resulted in economic justice. It hasn’t delivered glory for us.”

Where should we be looking then?

“It is amongst those on the edge, those ignored, and amongst persecuted believers that I have most clearly seen the glory of God this year, a glory that chases away the fear of terror, the power of death, and the economies of despair,” the Archbishop said.

He explained that seeing people endure hardship in 2016 had underlined, not undermined, his faith in God. Not everybody appreciated the sentiment, though. The former Ukip leader Nigel Farage was unable to contain his irritation and hit out at the Archbishop on Twitter.

Katie Grant News, page 4

UNITED STATES

Trump and Tiger go clubbing together Tiger Woods prepared for Christmas with a round of golf with President-elect Donald Trump.

The golf star played 18 holes with Mr Trump. The two met on Friday morning at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Mr Trump typically spends the Christmas holidays. AP TRAVEL

6.5m book 2017 holiday this week More than a million people will book a holiday each day between today and New Year’s Eve, according to estimates. About 6.5 million people book a trip, with the average person spending 15 hours and six minutes researching their 2017 holiday, the poll found. The most popular destination is Spain. PAGE 8 FINLAND

New app helps to keep reindeer safe There’s good news for Rudolph and his friends – an app called Porokello (Finnish for reindeer bell) is helping to reduce the number of reindeer killed in road accidents in Finland.

About 300,000 reindeer wander the wilds of Lapland and an estimated 4,000 are killed every year in road accidents. AP

i@inews.co.uk

Make Poverty History. This was a flagship policy for the government a little over a decade ago, and being vigorously pursued by our then Chancellor Gordon Brown on the world stage. Debt relief was offered to the poorest nations while targets were set for aid expenditure.

What’s happened since? Well, there was the financial crash, the Coalition Government and austerity. Through turbulent times, David Cameron guaranteed to keep international aid spending at 0.7 per cent of GDP, reflecting, perhaps, the British public’s huge generosity when it comes to charitable giving.

But this honourable promise has come under repeated attack from detractors within his own party, especially since Brexit and his abrupt departure from No 10.

Why should Britain contribute so much, argue critics, when other developed nations contribute less?

And, when so many services at home desperately need money?

Recently, allegations about funds being squandered has put more pressure on Theresa May to ditch her predecessor’s pledge, which now costs the country £12bn a year.

Priti Patel’s latest intervention as International Aid Secretary should be applauded. She has promised to crack down on “profiteering” by foreign aid contractors and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Now she has insisted that tackling hunger and drought in Africa is firmly “in Britain’s interest”. Inaction can only lead to avoidable tragedy.

We should also take a long-term view. Since the campaign to Make Poverty History began, the number in absolute poverty has tumbled.

Depressing headlines aside, the world is genuinely a better place to live and international aid should be seen as a British success story.

Thank you Ms Patel for a timely reminder on the importance of giving.

4

NEWS

RELIGION

ROYAL FAMILY

Don’t listen to ‘negative’ Archbishop, says Farage

The Queen too ill to attend Christmas Day service

By Felicity Morse

By Katie Grant

Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, delivered a somewhat alternative festive message to his Twitter followers, telling them to “ignore the Archbishop of Canterbury”.

Mr Farage (inset) urged people not to listen to the Most Rev Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England, as he was too “negative” in his Christmas message. “Merry Christmas. Ignore all negative messages from the Archbishop of Canterbury and have a great day!” said the MEP. He later sad he disliked the message so much he had boycotted church this ye a r. “ I l i s tened… to the Archbishop of Canterbury telling what an awful year it’s been, how uncertain everybody is and isn’t it dreadful. I’ve got a feeling the Archbishop is as out of touch as David Cameron was.”

The Archbishop said during a service at Canterbury Cathedral: “The end of 2016 finds us all in a different kind of world, one less predictable and certain, which feels more awash with fear and division.”

The Queen missed the annual Christmas Day church service at Sandringham yesterday for the first time in almost 30 years. The monarch, who was still said to be suffering from a “heavy cold”, has attended the service at the church of St Mary Magdalene every year since 1988.

“The Queen continues to recover from a heavy cold and will stay indoors to assist with her recovery,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman said. “Her Majesty will participate in the Royal Family Christmas celebrations during the day.”

The cold from which the Queen is said to be suffering delayed the monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh’s journey from Buckingham Palace to Norfolk last week.

Hundreds of residents traditionally turn out to see the Queen and her family attend the annual Christmas Day service. It is thought the Queen has never missed a Christmas Day service at either Sandringham or Windsor Castle, the previous location for the monarch’s festive break.

Other members of the Royal Family attended the ceremony while the Queen rested.

The Duke of Edinburgh also came down with a cold a few days ago, but well-wishers who turned out see the royals make their way to and from church were pleased to see Prince

TRANSPORT

Unsung heroes and hopes for peace Christmas messages

Thousands to be hit hard by rail shutdown

By David Hughes

Travellers will face a “standstill” on the railways today due to a “lack of action” by the Government, Labour has said.

The shadow Transport Secretary, Andy McDonald, accused the Conservatives of “hypocrisy” for attacking Labour over the issue while in opposition but then not taking action in office.

Large parts of the country will be without a rail service today, while some operators will be running a limited number of trains.

Mr McDonald said: “Tory ministers’ handling of the Boxing Day rail standstill is making it much harder for families and friends to visit one another… In opposition the Tories attacked the Boxing Day rail shutdown. They’ve now had more than six years to do something about it, but haven’t.”

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: “Deciding the level of service on specific days is a matter for train operators. A large part of the railway will remain open over the Christmas/new year period.”

The Queen used her traditional Christmas Day speech to single out people who inspire others, praising Olympic and Paralympic athletes and ordinary members of the public who do extraordinary things. Looking back on the past 12 months, Her Majesty (pictured) said: “I often draw strength from meeting ordinary people doing extraordinary things: volunteers, carers, community organisers and good neighbours; unsung heroes whose quiet dedication makes them special. They are an inspiration to those who know them.”

The speech also gave the Queen an opportunity to congratulate British Olympic and Paralympic athletes; both teams came second in the medals tables at this year’s Rio Games. She said: “Having discovered abilities they scarcely knew they had, these athletes are now inspiring others.”

The 90-year-old monarch also reflected on the achievements of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, as well as The Prince’s Trust, which was founded 40 years ago.

The message, which was 10 minutes long, was filmed in Buckingham Palace’s regency

The Duke of Edinburgh arriving at church yesterday without the Queen PA

Philip, who was joined on the short walk between Sandringham House and the church by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and other members of the family.

Jane Nesbitt, 56, from Norfolk, said: “It’s a pity to miss the Queen, but if she’s not well she’s not well.

We thought the Duke of Edinburgh wasn’t coming, but he obviously did his best.”

Zara Tindall and her husband, Mike Tindall, were also absent from the service after they announced in a statement on Christmas Eve that they had lost their second child through miscarriage.

room, and the Queen appeared in a silk cloque dress by Angela Kelly, accessorising with a pearl and diamond brooch which had previously been worn by the late Queen Mother.

In his Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said 2016 had left the world “more awash with fear and division” but said the power of God can chase away “the fear of terror” and the “economies of despair”.

Pope Francis echoed his words, calling for peace in Syria – citing the “most awful battles” in Aleppo” – and warning that terrorism is sowing “fear and death” into the hearts of countries and communities. He said: “Today this message goes out to the ends of the Earth to reach all peoples, especially those scarred by war and harsh conflicts that seem stronger than the yearning for peace.”

The Pope, who recently turned 80, also criticised the “idolatry of money” in his address to the crowds in St Peter’s Square, saying: “Peace to the peoples who suffer because of the economic ambitions of the few, because of

The baby had been due around late spring and would have been the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s sixth great-grandchild.

The Queen, who turned 90 this year, has only missed a handful of official engagements in recent years due to illness, despite her age. In 2013, she was treated for the symptoms of gastroenteritis and cancelled an official trip to Rome.

And in June last year, Buckingham Palace took the unusual step of confirming the Queen’s visit to a private hospital for a routine medical check-up following speculation on social media about the state of her health.

the sheer greed and the idolatry of money, which leads to slavery.”

Turning to abortion, he urged Catholics from around the world to feel compassion for those “not allowed to be born”. The head of the Catholic Church asked worshippers to celebrate “the fragile simplicity of a small newborn”, saying: “Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by the children who are not allowed to be born, by those who cry because no one satiates their hunger, by those who do have not toys in their hands, but rather weapons.”

Theresa May used her first Christmas message as Prime Minister to call on British people to “come together” after a year of divisions over the Brexit referendum. Mrs May (above) said it is important to “unite our country” as Britain seeks a “bold” new role on the world stage outside the European Union, in the message released on Christmas Eve. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed homelessness and loneliness in Great Britain, reminding people to think of others less fortunate than themselves. “It’s a time of year where

The Prime Minister attended a Christmas Day church service with her husband, Philip, in Sonning, Berkshire. The daughter of a vicar, Mrs May has said the church is a central part of Christmas for her.

many of us get time off, where we spend time with our family and our loved ones. But for others, it’s a time of increased loneliness and despair.

On the streets of our cities and towns there has been a shocking rise in homelessness,” he said.

Brendan Cox (below), the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, provided Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message this year and reiterated the need for tolerance. Paying tribute to his late wife, who was shot and stabbed to death by Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency in June, he said: “Jo loved Christmas, the games, the traditions, the coming together of friends and family and above all the excitement of our kids.

“This year we’ll try to remember how lucky we were to have Jo in our lives for so long – and not how unlucky we were to have her taken from us. 2016 has been an awful year for our family, and it’s been a divisive one for the wider world.”

In his final Christmas message, US President Barack Obama said it had been an “honour to serve” as President. He also paid tribute to US troops serving around the world.

Chloë Hamilton

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WEATHER

A warm Christmas Day – but Storm Conor on the way

By Padraic Flanagan

Britain enjoyed one of the warmest Christmas Days on record as the Met Office warned that Storm Conor was on its way with 90mph gusts threatening severe disruption.

Travellers were being urged to check weather conditions before setting off as storm-force winds, widespread rain and even blizzards descend on northern parts of the country.

It came after the Met Office reported that Dyce in Aberdeenshire was the warmest place in Britain yesterday at 15.1°C – a fraction below the mildest 25 December temperature of Christmas service: the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their children at St Mark’s Church in Englefield, Berkshire PA

A gust of 85.5mph was recorded at Scalpay Bridge in the Outer Hebrides yesterday while at Castlebay in Barra speeds reached 74.9mph, the Western Isles Council said.

15.6°C, recorded at Killerton in Devon in 1920.

The mild temperatures were seen across the country, with Exeter airport at 14.7°C and Hull at 15°C, said the Met Office. The average for this time of year is 8°C to 9°C in England and 6°C to 7°C in Scotland, it added.

Forecasters predicted that parts of Scotland could even see a White Christmas with a cold front moving south and eastwards bringing showers that will turn to sleet and snow because of plunging temperatures overnight.

After a lull following Storm Barbara, fresh warnings of disruption were issued because of high winds and snow expected to sweep across northern Scotland, peaking today with gusts that could reach 90mph.

The Met Office issued yellow “be aware” and amber “be prepared” wind and snow alerts for large parts of Scotland, including the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.

6

NEWS

CRIME

Olympian bombarded by racist abuse

By Padraic Flanagan

Olympic long jumper Jazmin Sawyers’ fans came to her aid by reporting a racist Twitter user to police after she was bombarded with vile messages.

The Bristol University law graduate, who competed at the Rio Olympics and won Commonwealth Silver at Glasgow in 2014, was targeted by a man called

“Richie” using the Twitter name “ProudEnglishman”.

Ms Sawyers (inset), who has represented Britain and England at world, European, Olympic and Commonwealth Games, shared the abuse with her Twitter followers, writing: “Racism is alive and well.”

After urging her correspondent

to “do something else with your Friday night”, the athlete was met with offers of support from her fans.

She later added: “I’m proud that we’re a nation of immigrants… but I came straight outta Stoke.”

The ProudEnglishman profile later appeared to have been deleted from the site.

Priti Patel said that aid was needed to tackle drought and disease across the world

COVER STORY

Minister defends aid budget in face of Tory criticism

By Ian Johnston

The Government has defended Britain’s overseas aid programme, arguing that it is in Britain’s interests to tackle a growing crisis in Africa.

“Tackling the global challenges of our time such as drought and disease which fuel migration, insecurity and instability is the right thing to do and is firmly in Britain’s interest,” Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, said.

Campaigners want the scrapping of David Cameron’s flagship pledge to devote to aid 0.7 per cent of GDP, about £12.2bn a year. Last week Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North East Somerset, said that the aid department “has the highest cost but the lowest value” of any government department, after reports that it had increased its number of employees and the wage bill accounted for £23m.

In response to reports that 30 per cent of the aid budget is paid to corrupt regimes, the Conservative MP Peter Bone told the Daily Mail: “By showering these countries with money we are effectively propping up some of the most corrupt and unpleasant regimes.”

The Government is leading calls for the world to take effective action in Africa, however. During the drought

in the Horn of Africa in 2010 and 2011 260,000 people starved to death. Aid workers are concerned that 2017 could see a repeat, with droughts – and floods – meaning that parts of southern and East Africa have not had a significant harvest for three years.

“As we enter 2017, over 37 million people across Africa are without food,” said Ms Patel. She added: “Families face losing their homes and livelihoods as the effects of widespread drought worsen.

“That is why ‘Global Britain’ is leading the response to the escalating crisis by providing life-saving food, water and shelter.”

Warning the crisis could force many people in the region to become refugees, Ms Patel appealed to other countries to “step up to prevent people from going hungry”.

The problem has been caused by a particularly severe El Niño weather system. THE INDEPENDENT The Department for International Development has committed £362m in aid to Africa over this year and next, and is understood to be considering increasing its contribution.

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TRAVEL

Happy holidays? Bargain destinations are revealed

By Neil Lancefield

More than one million people each day will book their next holiday between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, according to new research.

The six-day period will see a total of 6.5 million people book a trip, according to a poll commissioned by the travel protection body Atol. Holiday planners will spend an average of 15 hours and six minutes researching their 2017 holiday, the study found.

Spain is set to be the most in-demand destination, with 28 per cent of people wanting to visit, followed

by Italy (19 per cent), the US (18 per cent) and Greece (13 per cent).

Andy Cohen, of Atol, said: “The period between Christmas and the Cancun in Mexico was the cheapest long-haul beach resort at £815. The Mexican peso is weaker against the pound than a year ago, giving UK tourists almost 1 per cent more cash to spend.

new year is one of the busiest times of the year for holiday bookings, with around 13 million of us looking to find a holiday deal during the break.

“While many people in the UK will spend hours trawling the internet for the best deals and social media for the best locations, it’s equally important that they put just a couple of minutes aside to check their holiday is Atol-protected.”

Some 2,000 UK adults who holiday abroad took part in the survey.

Meanwhile, holidaymakers planning a winter sun break in the new year are advised to head to Cyprus for the lowest prices. A survey of 12 resorts where sterling has rallied in recent weeks found that UK tourists will find the best bargains in Paphos.

Combining the cost of a one-week package holiday with evening meals and drinks, a trip to the joint 2017 European Capital of Culture is just £339 per person, according to research

by Post Office Travel Money. This is almost 19 per cent cheaper than Lanzarote (£416) and Tenerife (£417).

The pound increased by more than

York Minster bells stay silent The bells of York Minster fell silent yesterday for the first time in more than 600 years following the controversial break-up of their bell-ringing team. Worshippers had been warned to expect a silent Christmas after

the Minster’s Chapter disbanded its 30-strong ringing group because of safeguarding concerns. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu (above, centre), who supported the decision, attended the service. PA

EDUCATION

Apology to Italy over school census

By Rachael Pells

The Government has been forced to apologise over a question about pupils’ ethnicity in the controversial national school census.

The Italian ambassador, Pasquale Terracciano, criticised the data forms sent out by UK schools asking parents whether their child was “Italian”, “Italian-Sicilian” or “Italian-Neapolitan”, pointing out that Italy has been a unified country since 1861.

A number of families had filed

complaints to the embassy in London over the issue – one of several problems highlighted in the changes to school data collections brought into effect this year – prompting fresh calls for a boycott of the census.

Mr Terracciano said he believed the categories were listed with the intention of helping to identify “nonexistent special linguistic needs”.

In a letter sent to Mr Terracciano, officials from the Department for Education apologised for the unnecessary categorisation. THE INDEPENDENT

6 per cent against the euro between 2 November and last week, rising from ¤1.11 to ¤1.18. Orlando was the cheapest long-haul destination, with holidays there setting UK travellers back £752. The most expensive was Montego Bay, Jamaica, at £1,288.

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7 Ayia Napa in Cyprus.

The island is looking good for bargains AFP/GETTY

8

NEWS

Splashing out for Christmas These hardy festive swimmers braved the North Sea as dawn broke yesterday. The swimmers were taking part in the Christmas Day Dip in King Edward’s Bay, Tynemouth. They joined people all around Britain’s coast and in city lakes and ponds taking part in swimming events to support charity.

OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA

HEALTH

SOCIETY

Loss of IVF treatment funded on the NHS is ‘a national disgrace’

84% want ban on hunting with dogs to remain

By Paul Gallagher HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

The stark North-South divide for women seeking to access IVF treatment on the NHS will worsen next year, according to campaigners.

Fertility Fairness said the slow but steady erosion of NHS-funded IVF treatment in a country which pioneered the procedure almost 40 years ago was “a national disgrace”.

Its 2016 national audit of fertility treatment at England’s 209 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), published this month, showed a marked reduction in access to IVF, with potential further cuts ahead.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) guidance is that women under 40 should be offered three cycles of IVF, while some women aged 40 to 42 should be offered one cycle. The latest data shows that less than 16 per cent of CCGs offer three full cycles of NHSfunded IVF to eligible couples – a drop of 8 percentage points since 2013. At that rate no CCG in England will offer three cycles in six years.

Greater Manchester was found to be the best place to live in England for NHS fertility treatment.

Only 2 per cent of CCGs in the country follow the full Nice national guidance and offer access to three funded cycles of IVF for eligible women under 40, plus all viable frozen embryo transfers, and enable ac-

cess if one partner has a child from a previous relationship.

All of these CCGs are in the Greater Manchester area: Bury; Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale; Tameside and Glossop; and Oldham – where the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978.

There are 35 CCGs offering three NHS-funded IVF cycles, 28 of which are in the North or North West of England. However, provision at the six Cheshire CCG is under review.

The number of CCGs offering only one NHS-funded IVF cycle has leapt to 60 per cent, from 49 per cent in 2013. The situation is set to worsen with more than one in 10 CCGs (10.5 per cent) currently consulting on reducing or decommissioning NHS fertility treatment.

“What we are facing in 2017 is death by a thousand cuts. With so many CCGs currently considering reducing fertility services, further

reduction seems inevitable,” Sarah Norcross, the co-chair of Fertility Fairness, told i. “Fertility Fairness will be fighting this but others also need to hold CCGs accountable for their failure to treat infertility, which is a recognised medical condition.”

The audit, which has produced the most comprehensive data about fertility services to date, also revealed a huge disparity in the average cost that CCGs are paying for a cycle of IVF, ranging from as low as £2,098 at a CCG in the north of England to £6,500 at a CCG in the south.

Susan Seenan, the chief executive of the leading patient charity, Fertility Network UK, called for “major change” to reverse the current trend of disinvestment.

She said: “We need a national tariff for NHS fertility services or CCGs working to commission services more effectively. We will continue to do all in our power – working with

NHS Cancelled operations hit November high The number of urgent operations cancelled by the NHS hit record numbers in November.

Figures from NHS England show 446 urgent operations were cancelled during the month, almost double the level from the same period last year, after 357 urgent operations were called off in October.

Norman Lamb, a former Lib Dem

health minister, said it demonstrated a lack of funding for the NHS. “Patients are paying the price for the Government’s short-sightedness, with record levels of cancelled operations and hospitals being stretched to breaking point,” Mr Lamb said. “To be told your operation has been delayed heaps even more strain on patients.”

CCGs and others – to bring about these necessary changes.”

In Scotland, legislation is being introduced enabling all health boards to fund three cycles for women under 40 and couples with children from previous relationships. In Wales, women under 40 are entitled to two cycles while in Northern Ireland women under 40 are offered one cycle.

Private IVF treatment can cost anything up to £9,000.

Some CCGs have decided they should prioritise other health areas over fertility, and Nicola Blackwood, the Minister for Public Health, said it was “unacceptable” that some CCGs had stopped commissioning IVF completely.

“I would strongly encourage all CCGs to implement the Nice fertility guidelines in full, as many CCGs have successfully done,” she said.

“The Department of Health, NHS England and professional and stakeholder groups are working together to develop benchmark pricing to ensure CCGs can get best value for their local investment.”

Essex is the worst place in England to seek NHS fertility treatment, with three of the four worst CCGs. Mid Essex, North East Essex and Basildon and Brentwood have all cut their provision.

By Katie Grant

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather to support Boxing Day hunts, reigniting the row over whether fox hunting should be legal.

Supporters of fox hunting, who say they are expecting more than 250,000 people to turn out for Boxing Day events, called for the scrapping of the Hunting Act, which forbids the hunting of animals such as foxes with dogs.

Bu t th e L e ag u e Against Cruel Sports said polling showed the opposition to fox hunting remained high, with 84 per cent of the 1,986 people quizzed in an Ipsos Mori survey saying it should not be made legal again.

The anti-blood sports charity said polling over time showed opposition to repealing the ban had risen steadily, and had also increased to 82 per cent in rural areas, up from 69 per cent four years ago.

League Against Cruel Sports chief executive Eduardo Goncalves said: “The Boxing Day hunts are portrayed as a glorious pageant... in front of a huge number of people who support them, but the truth is very different.”

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MUSIC

UNITED STATES

Star tributes for Status Quo guitarist and ‘ultimate rocker’ Rick Parfitt

Fisher remains in hospital after heart attack

By Feliks Garcia

By Padraic Flanagan

The music world has paid tribute to “ultimate rocker” Rick Parfitt, following the Status Quo guitarist’s death at the age of 68.

Rock stars including Brian May, Midge Ure, Pete Frampton and The Who were joined by celebrity entertainers in posting personal memories of the father of four.

The musician suffered from a severe infection in a Spanish hospital, which he had visited due to complications with a pre-existing shoulder injury, his manager said. His death on Christmas Eve followed years of concern about his health – he had been stricken by multiple heart attacks and a cancer scare.

Manager Simon Porter, who was From 1967, Parfitt helped Status Quo become one of the British rock scene’s staple acts. Hits such as “Rockin’ All Over the World”saw them chosen to open the 1985 Live Aid concert – a performance broadcast globally.

with Parfitt in Malaga three days before his death, said: “I really think we all thought that Rick was invincible, given his numerous and astounding recoveries from situations which would certainly have killed the average human being.

“Sadly, as we now know, his luck had run out and his line that ‘it will take more than death to kill me’ has taken a hollow ring.”

Mr Porter added: “Rick was the ultimate rocker and lived the dream, plus a whole lot more. In perhaps the worst ever year for showbiz deaths, it is perhaps fitting that he topped the list right at the end of the year. He would have liked that.”

His son Rick Jnr also posted a tribute, saying: “I cannot describe the sadness I feel right now. To many he was a rockstar, to me he was simply ‘Dad’, and I loved him hugely.“ Fellow rocker Brian May wrote online: “Shocked and so sad to hear of the passing of Rick Parfitt. Hard to find words. You truly joyfully rocked our world. RIP dear buddy.”

The Who also took to Twitter to offer their “condolences to the family and friends” of the British guitarist.

IN NEW YORK

Rick Parfitt died in a Spanish hospital on Saturday PA

Fellow Star Wars cast members sent Carrie Fisher their well-wishes after she suffered a heart attack on board a flight to Los Angeles from London.

Ms Fisher, 60, was rushed to hospital on Friday afternoon by Los Angeles paramedics. The actress remained in intensive care yesterday.

“I’m shocked and saddened to hear the news about my dear friend,” Harrison Ford said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with Carrie, her family, and friends.”

Ford and Fisher worked alongside each other in the first three Star Wars films, playing Han Solo and Princess Leia. They later reprised those roles in Episode VII: The Force Awakens in 2015.

“As if 2016 couldn’t get any worse… sending all our love to Carrie Fisher,” said Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the movie.

“At last I know what I want for Christmas,” said Anthony Daniels, who played the android C-3PO. “The galaxy’s beloved Princess, fully functional once more. And soon.”

THE INDEPENDENT

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UNITED STATES

Trump vows to dissolve controversial foundation

By Vivian Salama IN WEST PALM BEACH

Tributes in Moscow to Russian TV journalists who were on the crashed military plane

RUSSIA

Army choir among 92 dead as plane bound for Syria crashes in Black Sea

By Vladmir Isachenkov IN MOSCOW

A Russian plane carrying 92 people to an airbase in Syria crashed into the Black Sea minutes after taking off from the city of Sochi.

Thousands of rescue workers were searching the undersea crash site soon after yesterday morning’s disaster but there appeared to be no survivors. Those on board included dozens of members of Russia’s world-famous army choir.

The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known. At least one expert cited a terror attack as a possible reason – a scenario rejected by Russian officials.

In all, 84 passengers and eight crew members were on the Tu-154 plane when it disappeared from radar two minutes after taking off in good weather. Emergency crews

found fragments of the aircraft less than a mile from shore and by yesterday afternoon, rescue teams had already recovered 10 bodies.

The defence ministry aircraft was taking the Alexandrov Ensemble to a new year concert at Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia. Those on board also included nine Russian journalists and a Russian doctor famous for her work in war zones.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, went on television to declare Monday a nationwide day of mourning. “We will conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons and will do everything to support the victims’ families,” he said.

More than 3,000 people – including dozens of divers – worked from 27 ships and several helicopters to search the crash site, according to the ministry. Drones were also

flown over the crash site to help spot bodies and debris. About 100 more divers were being flown in from naval facilities across Russia, and powerful spotlights were brought in so the search could continue around the clock.

Magomed Tolboyev, a Russian test pilot, said the circumstances of the crash indicated that all on board had died. “There is no chance to survive in such situation,” he told the Interfax news agency. “The plane gets instantly blown into pieces.”

The Tu-154 is a Soviet-built threeengine airliner designed in the late 1960s. More than 1,000 have been built, and they have been used extensively by carriers in Russia and worldwide. The plane that crashed was built in 1983, and underwent factory check-ups and maintenance in 2014 and earlier this year, according to the ministry. Viktor Ozerov,

head of the defence affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, said the crash could have been caused by a technical malfunction or a crew error. He said it could not have been a terror attack because the plane was operated by the Russian military.

“I totally exclude” the idea of an attack bringing down the plane, he told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. However, some experts said the crew’s failure to report a malfunction pointed at a possible terror attack. AP The Tu-154 airliner has been involved in 39 fatal accidents, although few were due to technical problems. Many of them were the result of poor air traffic control or testing weather conditions.

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will dissolve his charitable foundation before taking office to avoid conflicts of interest.

The New York attorney general’s office has been investigating the foundation following claims that its spending went to benefit Mr Trump’s campaign rather than worthy causes.

Mr Trump said on Saturday that he had told lawyers to dissolve the Donald J Trump Foundation, saying that it operated “at essentially no cost for decades, with 100 per cent of the money going to charity”.

“The foundation has done enormous good works over the years in contributing millions of dollars to countless worthy groups, including supporting veterans, law enforcement officers and children,” he said in a statement.

“I will be devoting so much time and energy to the presidency and solving the many problems facing our country and the world. I don’t want to allow good work to be associated with a possible conflict of interest,” he said.

Mr Trump (above) said he will pursue philanthropic efforts in other ways, but did not give details.

The Democratic National Committee called Mr Trump’s move “a wilted fig leaf to cover up his remaining conflicts of interest and his pitiful record of charitable giving”.

The statement from party spokesman Eric Walker also took a jab at the President-elect over his controversial business holdings: “Shuttering a charity is no substitute for divesting from his for-profit business and putting the assets in a blind trust – the only way to guarantee separation between the Trump administration and the Trump business.” AP

ITALY

GERMANY

Police investigate Amri terror links in Milan

54,000 flee after bomb is found

Across

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Reservations may be needed for such a conference! (6)

By Padraic Flanagan

3

Was a teacher tense on the radio? (6)

4

Pirate’s treasure, perhaps? (6)

By Colleen Barry IN MILAN

Italian police are continuing their investigations into whether the Tunisian suspect behind last week’s Berlin Christmas market outrage had terrorist connections in the Milan area.

Anis Amri, 24, whose fingerprints and wallet were found in a truck that ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin last Monday night, killing 12 people, fled to Italy, via France, before being shot on Friday in Milan

during in a routine police stop outside a deserted train station. Italy was his port of entry into Europe in 2011 and he spent more than three years in Italian jails on Sicily.

In Tunisia, the interior ministry announced the arrest on Friday of Amri’s nephew and two others suspected of belonging to the same extremist network.

The ministry said in a statement that Amri, through an alias, had sent his 18-year-old nephew Fedi some money through the post office to join him in Europe. AP

More than 54,000 people in the southern German city of Augsburg had to leave their homes yesterday while authorities defused a giant 1.8-tonne aerial bomb from the Second World War. The city’s medieval cathedral and city hall are in the area that was sealed off. Police said that no one would be allowed into the surrounding streets from 8am yesterday but didn’t know how long it would take to make the bomb safe.

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No 1899

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CHARITY Two charities have warned that LGBT teenagers are at risk of homelessness

‘We are seeing an increase in numbers of LGBT people made homeless’

ALEX LENTATI

By Adam Lusher and Matt Watts

Growing numbers of young gay people are being driven from their homes because their parents refuse to accept their sexuality, two leading charities have warned.

Despite the apparent progress suggested by equality legislation and gay marriage, the Albert Kennedy Trust and Stonewall Housing have reported a “dramatic increase” in young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people being forced into homelessness by parental hostility. Some are being “beaten out of their homes” by physically violent parents; others report being sent abroad in an attempt to “cure” them of their sexual orientation.

Some young LGBT people forced into homelessness by violent parents have told the Albert Kennedy Trust of having to sell themselves for sex to survive. Others are being driven into sleeping rough, not by the hostility of their parents, but by aggression from the wider community.

The Albert Kennedy Trust, a

Chr mas Ap al

LGBT youth homelessness charity, said it had seen a 20 per cent rise in numbers of young LGBT people seeking its help, from 622 in 2012-13 to 750 in 2015-16. The trust estimates that 4,800 young LGBT people – up to 24 per cent of the young homeless population – are sleeping rough or living in hostile environments. It says they are one of the most disenfranchised and marginalised groups in the UK. The trust’s chief executive, Tim Sigsworth, told i: “LGBT people in this country have seen the benefit of

many positive changes to legislation and protection in law in recent years, and to some it might appear that the big battles have been won. They haven’t been. At the Albert Kennedy Trust we are seeing increasing numbers of young LGBT people who are homeless or living in hostile conditions. In most cases, young people have been driven out of their family homes because of parental rejection, abuse from within the family, and aggression or violence.”

The trust’s findings were echoed

by Stonewall Housing, which specialises in providing LGBT housing advice and support. It receives more than 1,800 calls a year from

thought it was a phase. Mum thought it was a joke.”

But the following summer, her mother had no choice but to face the reality. She came home early to find Charlotte kissing another girl.

“Mum started sort of smacking me, saying ‘not in my house, not in my house’,” recalls Charlotte.

“I had to leave and spend the night with my aunt. When I came back home, it was tense. Mum wouldn’t speak to me.”

A couple of weeks later, she came home to find her key no longer worked: “My mum had changed the locks.”

Initially, Charlotte’s 14-year-old brother would let her in and she would go to her room. “But after a while, it became unbearable.

One night no one came to the door. My brother told me ‘I can’t do this any more’. He would get in trouble with mum if he let me in.”

Charlotte had been kicked out of the family home and made homeless aged 16, just because she was gay.

At first she sofa surfed at a friend’s house. Then she sought help from her local authority.

“Initially the council didn’t

want to take me on,” says Charlotte. “They just told me ‘Go back home’, not understanding that was no longer an option.”

It took the intervention of the gay rights charity Stonewall to stop Charlotte joining the one in three young people who are estimated to be turned away by English councils when they seek help with homelessness.

Even then the council only found her “temporary accommodation, a bedsit on a sink estate, with a shared toilet with faeces all over it”.

It reduced her to tears. She was taken in by a friend until, finally, the council referred her to a hostel run by Centrepoint.

And there, finally settled in safe, clean accommodation, Charlotte could reflect on what had happened to her.

Now, aged 24, she is out and proud. But back then, “I was grieving the loss of my family. I felt isolated, like the black sheep of the family, the cause of all problems. It was hurtful.”

Centrepoint has helped her achieve a reconciliation with her family. “Mum and I are OK,” Charlotte says.

people of all ages seeking help, and in the past year has noticed a 30 per cent increase in calls from 16- to 25-year-olds.

Michael Nastari, the advice team manager at Stonewall Housing, said: “We have seen a dramatic increase in young people coming to us for help.

It can be that they are victims of antisocial behaviour where they live.

It can be violence against them at home. Young people being excluded by their families is still a big issue.”

“The LGBT community has had recent wins, but we are now seeing a backlash against that from people who aren’t happy with it. We can legislate, but actually chang-

ing attitudes takes a long time.” Mr Nastari said austerity had further pushed some homophobic parents into kicking dependent children out of the home. “We have seen in difficult economic times that families that weren’t that tolerant anyway, under increasing financial pressure, excluding more.”

Fears of an increasingly intolerant undercurrent in UK society were echoed by ex-homeless LGBT people. “Charlotte Smith”, a 24-year-old helped by the charity Centrepoint, said she became homeless at 16 when her mother changed the locks at their home after discovering that her daughter was a lesbian (see below).

Case Study

CHARLOTTE SMITH, 24, (not her real name) says that, from the outside, her family was a “normal, average working-class family”. Inside their south London semi, however, things were more complex. “I knew from the age of eight or nine, there was something different about me,” says Charlotte. But admitting that was difficult in her family.

Her parents, she says, were conservative churchgoers from Nigeria.

“My extended family was even more conservative. Four out of five of my uncles were pastors, or training to be pastors.”

So when she found herself attracted to girls, she denied it, even to herself, until she realised the struggle was futile. “I needed to be who I am,” she explains.

Just before she turned 16, she came out to her parents. “Dad

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Email:_______________________________________________________________________________________ Telephone:__________________________________________________________________________________ ThankyoufordonatingtoCentrepointtoday.We’dlovetoshowyoutheimpactofyoursupportand sharehowyoungpeoplecontinuetoneedyourhelp.Pleaseletusknowhowyouwouldliketocontrol yourcommunicationsinthewaythtatsuitsyoubest: Pleasecontactmebyemail

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ForfullT&Cs,pleasevisitjustgiving.com/info/terms-of-service Wepromisenevertosellorswapyourdetails.Youcanoptoutofmarketingandchangehowwe communicatewithyouatanytime.Pleasecall0800232320 andspeaktooneofourfriendlyteamor emailsupportercare@centrepoint.orgtodothisandaskusanyquestions.

Increaseyourdonationby25pinevery£1youdonatewithGiftAid Bytickingthisbox,IconfirmIamaUKtaxpayerandwant CentrepointtoGiftAidalldonationsI’vemadeforthelastfouryears andanydonationsImakeinthefutureuntilInotifyyouotherwise.I understandthatifIpaylessIncomeTaxand/orCapitalGainsTaxinany taxyearthantheamountofGiftAidclaimedonallmy donations,itismyresponsibilitytopayanydifference.

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‘The council just told me to go back home. It wasn’t an option’

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TheOpinionMatrix COMMENT FROM HOME & ABROAD

LABOUR IN 2017

PRESS REGULATION

PRINCE’S MESSAGE

RUSSIAN HACKING

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

‘BEAR HUNT’ REVIEW

The next choice is crucial

Impress does not impress

Christianity’s purpose beyond belief

Huge threat to national security

Remember the good of 2016

A tale of fear, freedom and survival

Daily Mail

The Telegraph

TheTimes

Washington Post

The Guardian

Radio Times

Labour is at a crossroads. It can either allow itself to wither in the North of England in the same way it has in Scotland.

Or it can seize the moment and try to regain its position as the champion of Britain’s working classes.

Faced with such a stark choice, I am convinced that it will take the second path.

Central to this will be a change of direction, with Labour switching from being a party that supports mass immigration to one that backs sensible border controls. I predict that this will be the most important political story of 2017.

(Peter Oborne)

Most newspaper organisations, including The Telegraph, have declined to join Impress precisely because it is a stateapproved body.

Impress is also bankrolled by Max Mosley, who has waged war on the press ever since the now-defunct News of the World ran an exposé of his taste for orgies.

Politicians ought to consider what they are doing before they proceed with a pernicious attempt to blackmail newspapers to submit to a regulatory regime intended to stop newspapers prying into the lives of wealthy and powerful people. (Editorial)

Do I believe in the divinity of Jesus?

No. Do I believe in hereditary titles and privileges? No. Yet when I hear people pray, there feels something right about it. When I hear the Prince of Wales speak of the wrongs of intolerance, I not only agree but feel the appropriateness of this message coming from him, heir to the throne, on the BBC. And when I hear church bells, the very sound excites pleasure and satisfaction.

Though I am not a Christian and have no doubt the whole faith is based on a misapprehension, I love the Christian religion.

(Matthew Parris)

Some issues are so significant to our national security that they require a co-ordinated investigation and response. A hostile foreign power meddling in our political system is one of those issues.

We believe a joint inquiry by the House and Senate intelligence committees is the best option. A joint inquiry would demonstrate that this is not simply another oversight issue but an issue that goes to the core of our democracy. Will we tolerate the hacking of our elections by foreign powers if it is to the winner’s shortterm benefit? (Adam Schiff and Jane Harman)

When I was growing up, people remembered the war for its death and blackouts. But they recalled other things too: my parents spoke much more about that kind of thing than about El Alamein, Stalingrad and Hitler.

They spoke, in other words, about ordinary pleasures that had somehow been sustained so that as a child, my view of the war had a counterpoint in parental memories of It’s That Man Again’s strange catchphrases, cycling holidays to north Wales, and how fresh the teatime poached eggs were at the boarding house in Largs. (Ian Jack)

Both the book and the TV adaptation capture the story’s essentially profound subjects – it is a journey full of fear and ultimately survival.

It carries enough of the watercolour and pencil of Helen Oxenbury’s book, but it works as moving (in every sense) animation: simple and homespun, but effective. It is located in the real world, but also adds element of magical realism. This is a world where children are free to roam on their own, in a world without health and safety, where a summer’s day turns immediately into a snowstorm. I’d thoroughly recommend you watch it.

(Ben Dowell)

Quote of the day

LifeInBrief VALERIE GELL MEMBER OF THE LIVERBIRDS

The greatest gift we have received has been the honour of serving as your President and First Lady Barack Obama The President and his wife, Michelle, give their final White House Christmas message

Valerie Gell, part of the all-female Liverpool teenage beat group The Liverbirds, has died aged 71.

Valerie and her bandmates broke convention by becoming a successful female-only band in the Sixties. They proved John Lennon wrong after he told them that girls could not play guitars.

Gell was born in the Merseyside suburb of Seaforth in 1945 to Tom, a docker, and Joyce, a factory worker.

Valerie and her friend Sylvia Saunders spotted a feature in the Mersey Beat newspaper about a band called The Squaws, a beat group formed of three cousins and a friend, and decided to contact them. In 1963 they formed a new band, The Liverbirds.

Sheila McGlory and Irene Green soon left for another band and Irene became a club singer under the name Tiffany.

After Sheila and Irene’s split from the band, Valerie asked Pam Birch to join

them. The Liverbirds changed its tune and used a more rhythm and blues style than most of the bands in Liverpool. The Liverbirds supported artists like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Alexis Korner and German band The Rattles. In the early 1964, a year after being created, the band was offered a residency at the Star-Club in Hamburg.

The band were frequently talked down and criticised by the newspapers for being all-female. Nonetheless, they found their audience, most notably among the teenagers of Germany.

They also developed fanbases in Switzerland, Denmark, and Japan.

They hit the German Top 40 in May 1965 with “Diddley Daddy”, and followed it up with more hits including “Shop Around” and “Peanut Butter”.

In 1966, they appeared in the film Hurra! Die Rattles Kommen!, a German musical about the band The Rattles.

The band often performed songs by Chuck Berry, and even opened for him at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin – much to the dismay of Berry’s manager, who tried to get on stage to stop them from playing, before Valerie kicked him off. The band covered singles such as “Road Runner” and “Got My Mojo Workin’”. The Kinks singer and songwriter Ray Davies described Valerie as a “fantastic musician”.

Valerie had a German boyfriend, Stephane Hausner, who was paralysed from the waist down in a car accident on the night of one of the Liverbirds’ gigs. The pair married and settled down in Munich, and she spent the next 26 years looking after him, eventually quitting the band because she was unable to juggle all her responsibilities.

The band split up in 1968, and played a huge farewell concert to 12,000 fans in Japan, where they were also a hit.

Valerie Gell (left) on stage with The Liverbirds in Hamburg in 1964 Eventually she and Hausner separated, and Valerie moved to Hamburg with her partner, Susann Nilson, who survives her.

In 2010, Ace Records released a 29-track CD of the Liverbirds songs, From Merseyside to Hamburg, The Complete Star-Club Recordings.

Born 14 August 1945 Died 11 December 2016 Manuel Cavazza

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MyView AndyZaltzman

2017: A year in review The year Isis disbanded and Michael Gove was elected PM

W

hat a year 2017 has been. After the ructions, rabble-rousing and rancourous referenda of 2016, these past 12 months have been mercifully free of Armageddons. Nonetheless, the Annual i Awards have been typically hotly contested.

Trump was the first President to appoint an online commenter to a cabinet post

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

the Portuguese star out to stud following a preening injury.

Michael Gove. Undoubtedly, this has to go to the Prime Minister.

Now a two-time nominee for the Opportunist of the Year award in International Chancer magazine, Gove (pictured) defied expectations to romp to victory in the unexpected general election.

Strictly star Theresa May called the snap vote after failing to appease the Granite-Hard-Brexit lobby, whom she angered by failing to physically shunt Britain out into the mid-Atlantic to fulfil its true national destiny.

In a nation tired of the arduous torpor of voting, after having to pick up its pencil for major democratic decisions no fewer than two times in two years, there was a record low turnout of 0.0000065 per cent.

Only three people voted – Gove, Sarah Vine and Jeremy Corbyn.

Gove, running for the newly formed Gove Now party, enjoyed a landslide victory, by two votes to Theresa May’s one, despite Mrs May also calling a snap Olympics in the run-up to the snap election.

BAD YEAR FOR...

TV cookery shows, after scientists proved that all necessary recipes have already been developed.

FAREWELL OF THE YEAR

Isis. The world’s most tedious minority-interest pressure group finally disbanded, with its acting leader admitting that the franchise had “seriously misjudged the public mood”. At a tearful press conference, Abu Baddi al-Baddi said: “It turns out the vast majority of people are not really into murderous barbarity, which explains why we struggled to appeal to a broader domestic and international market. We became, if anything, too niche. We must accept our failure and move on.”

TECH OF THE YEAR

PLEASANT SURPRISE OF THE YEAR

President Trump. In a year in which he became the first president of the USA to measure the size of his penis with a ruler during an inauguration since William Henry Harrison in 1841, it must be said that Trump has not proved quite the global catastrophe that his opponents had feared and his supporters had hoped for.

Despite a series of high-intensity Twitter wars, Mr Trump focused his political attention on his scheme to help all Americans to build their own personal wall around themselves, while allowing Vladimir Putin (his co-star on the current Billboard Christmas No 1 non-charity novelty single “Suck It Up, World”) to, in Mr Trump’s words, “sort the s**t out” in the Middle East.

His cabinet appointments continued to provoke controversy, however. After he was frustrated in his attempt to appoint Hannibal

Loyal: Sarah Vine voted for her husband YUI MOK/PA

Lecter as Secretary of State for Veganism, despite being permitted similarly ill-suited candidates in other departments, he became the first President to select an anonymous online below-the-line commenter for a cabinet post.

He made 2Tru4UNumskullz14, a frequent and impassioned contributor to debates on numerous global news sites, the new Secretary of Truth Stating. Mr Numbskullz14, who is probably a male between

the ages of 25 and 45, provided a rasping commentary in absentia on the recent G20 summit, using the word “FACT” on 23 occasions.

SOCIAL MEDIA CRAZE OF THE YEAR

The selfie era, which began in earnest with 17th-century Dutch fan-of-his-own-face and brushwaggler extraordinaire Rembrandt rattling off painting after painting of his own wobbly mush, before

cranking into overdrive in the age of the smartphone, reached its logical conclusion with the new Autobioggle app, which enables social media users to automatically publish a 500-page autobiography every day.

BIG-MONEY TRANSFER OF THE YEAR

Chinese football club Quhxing United paid £150m for a vial of sperm extracted from Cristiano Ronaldo, after Real Madrid put

The long-awaited Apple iBall.

The trend-setting tech leviathan marketed the iBall as a “wireless 5G-enabled 6D-compatible multimediac spheroid to replace the human eyeball, and provide the ultimate immersive entertainment and gaming experience”.

The iBall, a fundamental step in the tech giant’s plans to “replace all bodily organs with Apple products by 2025”, is able to stream “100Gbps of vacuous rubbish directly into your optic nerve”.

It outsold by 15 to 1 BlackBerry’s glitch-plagued and ill-fitting CubeEye, but is set to be challenged in a competitive 2018 organ-tech market by the Nokia NokiNose X1, the Samsung Larync, which will be able to translate the wearer’s thoughts directly into sound, and the Motorola Tit. Andy is performing his review of the year, ‘2016: The Certifiable History’, at the Soho Theatre in London until 7 January, and will be touring with his new show ‘Plan Z’ from 2 February.

See andyzaltzman.co.uk for tickets. i@inews.co.uk

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TEXTS, TWEETS AND EMAILS

There is a time for laughter Mark Steel is a brilliant writer – his ruthless reduction of the pretences in the situations he ridicules is so humorous. Yet in the Jo Cox and her husband story (i, 23 December), there is barely a smile let alone a laugh; the pathos and compassion and utter disgust in his feelings show only too well – and well done, Mark, for that.

MERVYN BENFORD BANBURY

Sunshine Felicity I am sure that I am not alone in bemoaning the growing practice in Britain of giving a person’s name to adverse weather conditions, e.g. Storm Conor.

This practice is well established in the United States, where hurricanes are quite frequent, but there is no good reason for adopting this for a mere storm.

Perhaps we should start to give names to the more attractive weather conditions we enjoy, if only occasionally in the North, for example Sunshine Felicity or Anti-Cyclone Bernard.

Note that I have tried to select more benign names for these more pleasant conditions.

DAVID HOLME ACCRINGTON, LANCASHIRE

Not enough Northern walks Either Hanna Tavner (30 Winter Walks, 24 December) needs to get out more, or you’ve

sent us your Southern edition by mistake. I look forward to the paper with 23 walks north of the Humber, and four in the south.

JOHN BERRY HULL

Nurses deserve recognition for their tireless work from their trusts GETTY

Well timed and necessary I am tired of the media negatively labelling the Christmas rail engineering projects as “disruptive”, “inconvenient” and “badly timed”. Governments over the past five decades constantly failed to invest in railway infrastructure and the current work and future proposals will provide a rail network fit enough for the 21st century.

Network Rail published details of this year’s holiday engineering work many months ago, so it is not unreasonable to assume that passengers could have made alternative arrangements. There is no ideal time for such work, but the Christmas and new year break is the better option.

PAUL DAVIES NEWTON, SWANSEA

What nurses want In response to your correspondent whose wife received a box of Maltesers and a £10 voucher as a Christmas “bonus” (24 December), I would suggest that very few nurses expect a monetary bonus or gift at Christmas from the Trust they work for. This would have to come from the public purse and would take away valuable

funds for patient care.

What nurses would like is some form of acknowledgement and to feel valued, neither of which seems to happen now.

I was a nurse for 40 years, 36 years in the same Trust. Many years ago, one would get a letter of thanks from senior managers for the work you had undertaken and therefore feel recognised and valued.

I retired in March 2015 and did not receive a letter, card or visit from any senior manager in the department I had worked in for many years. Valued – by patients and colleagues yes; by the Trust, apparently not.

ANGELA RAWSTHORN GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Allardyce back again The news that Sam Allardyce has been appointed by Crystal Palace as their new

manager says everything about what is wrong at the highest level of football. After his exit from the international stage, I would have thought that he would want to keep his head down and the fact that any club would want to sign him I find incredible.

It seems that the difference between fair play and greed is that fair play has its limits.

DAVID YOUNG DURHAM

Untangle the sector Further to your recent correspondence, I hope you might be willing to give in-depth and clear details about how the

charity sector operates, and is supervised.

There are obviously many misconceptions regarding this very important and extensive business, which I am sure would be dismissed if your readers were fully aware of the work involved in helping those less fortunate than ourselves. Every charity is required to publish their annual accounts which are then available to the public.

GILLIAN MOORE FROME, SOMERSET

How can we help in Syria?

Patrick Cockburn (i, 24 December) correctly identified the part of

America and the West in helping to create Isis and other sister organisations.

However, he did not say that Isis has one other crucial advantage over the leaders of nations. It does not have to justify its actions which by their nature gives them an extra arsenal of evil.

Cockburn also had little to say on what practical steps can be taken other than focusing on the likes of Syria and Iraq.

Western governments are hamstrung by parties and electorates that are opposed to intervention after the likes of Vietnam and the disastrous Bush and Blair 2003 invasion of Iraq.

DAVID RIMMER HERTFORD HEATH, HERTFORDSHIRE

Hope not Hate Michael Rosenthal (Your View, 24 December) could not have been more erudite in his summing-up of Farage and co.

I took up with Hope not Hate when they campaigned against the threat of the BNP. Their views on the rise of that lot hardly puts them in the extremist class.

Perhaps a closer look nearer home is required by grassroots Ukippers.

TONY TREVOR LINCOLNSHIRE

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By Jessica Barrett

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i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

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i@inews.co.uk Twitter: @jess_barrett

2016’s celebrity pearls of wisdom As if 2016 needed any more low points, celebrities gave them to us in spades January Kylie Jenner “I feel like every year has a new energy. And I feel like this year is really about like, the year of realising stuff. Everyone around me, we’re all just realising things. 2016, looking good.” I guess in a way Kylie Jenner was right, we did realise that 2016 was rubbish.

February Justin Bieber “People are always like, ‘Why did you get a monkey?’ If you could get a monkey, well, you would get a monkey, too! Monkeys are awesome.”

Was Bieber aware he was following in Michael Jackson’s footsteps?

May Taylor Swift “I got it in my head that I couldn’t do a *

Y 7 PA 201

W R NO BE

Y M BU TE

never done that... none of this would have happened.”

An understatement by the American swimmer Ryan Lochte after faking a robbery in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics.

split, and I was really upset about it.

And so I stretched every single day until I could do a split.

Somehow I feel better knowing that I can.” Taylor Swift (pictured right) nailed 2016.

June Kim Kardashian “Even though I’m an ass girl, Kanye always says my boobs don’t get as much credit as they deserve,” Kim Kardashian (above centre, with Kanye) was a vital essence of the year, dropping this pearl before retiring from public life following an armed robbery in Paris.

September Noel Edmonds “Nobody’s doing a radio station for pets. We’d do one for plants” Noel Edmonds (above left) set up a channel to give “positive words of appreciation and motivation” to glum pets this year.

August Ryan Lochte “I over-exaggerated that story. And if I had

October Justin Bieber (again) “I just want to honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus, I don’t want that to come across weird.” Living like him is a bit weird too, Justin (pictured right).

October Gwyneth Paltrow “If you haven’t taken all of life’s incredible knocks and disappointments and used them to become a fully integrated, self-expressing person by the time you’re 40, then what can I tell you?” Gwyneth Paltrow (above right) was as self-aware as ever in October.

November Kanye West “More people need to know that they’re not f*****g cool. In today’s world, having money has allowed people who are extremely uncool to think that they’re cool and carry it like that.” Kanye West.

November Jamie Redknapp “I’m not going to sit on the fence, I’m going to go for a

draw here today” A clear prediction from Jamie Redknapp prior to the Manchester United v Arsenal match (though he was right, it was a draw).

December Tilda Swinton “The entire planet is a grave.

We walk on – and with – the dead. But we also live forward, in a continually renewable birthplace.” Give it a rest, Tilda.

December Mike Skinner “Robots are going to take over, right? They’ll probably kill us. Forget climate change. It’s robots. Robots are going to wipe us out.” Mike Skinner probably needs a digital detox.

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The changing face of the place where Nick used to live IN SICKNESS & IN HEALTH

Rebecca Armstrong

In 2014, Rebecca’s husband Nick was hit by a car and seriously injured.

Here, in one of a series of columns, she writes about the aftermath of his accident

B

efore I left London for a country Christmas, I popped into a coffee shop down the road. It’s a few hundred yards away from the spot

that Nick was squashed, but I try not to be weird about about where the accident happened. What’s the point? I have to pass it every day, as it’s practically outside my front door.

It’s been nearly three years since Nick and I bought our cappuccinos there. When we used to go of a morning, the staff had come up with a sweet alternative to loyalty cards.

Behind the counter, on the green,

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tiled wall, they would write the names of regulars in black marker pen and stick a little star – the ones you’d get at primary school for a really good piece of work – underneath.

Since then, the cafe’s layout has changed about four times, and it now has proper loyalty cards. But up on the wall, the starred tiles remain.

My name and Nick’s are still there, as if nothing is different – when all around, things have changed.

Nick hasn’t been back to our area. I’ve been trying to put him off, because I can’t bear him getting upset that he can’t get into our flat.

But I wonder what he’d make of the changes that have crept in while he’s been out of action. He’d like the new doctor’s surgery, which is much brighter and more spacious than the old one. I think he’d also like the self-conciously trendy restaurant that’s opened, with its menu full of whacking great chunks of meat.

He would probably get fed up with me dragging him round the Lidl that opened last year. I have inherited my dad’s love of the place, and will happily put up with the queues if it means I can buy interesting yoghurts and oddly branded toiletries.

There are a couple of bars that I have yet to go to, sticking as I do to the pubs I know, where there’s usually someone at the bar that I’m on nodding acquaintance with. Still,

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hristmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it brings good a excuse to post selfies of your wonderful life on Facebook. Christmas Day saw an outpouring of people grinning on social media, champers in hand, with the dog dressed in a Santa hat.

For some, it seems the Christmas card has been scrapped in favour of a Facebook photo post.

But while sending a Christmas card (or worse, newsletter) of you and your family has typically been considered a cheesy Americanism, Brits are embracing narcissistic Noel like never before – and Facebook is largely to blame. Changes to the site’s algorithm mean writing on friends’ walls has become a thing of the past, in favour of mass broadcasting of photo updates.

I reckon that Nick would like those bars – I’d bet the farm on it.

He’d be sad that the time-warp ladies’ outfitters shop has closed, even if he did used to snigger at the displays with their heart-breakingly jaunty handwritten signs – “Smart Dress”; “A Great Present!”; “Special Embroidery”. The thermal vests and pictures of the Royal Family are gone, and its beautiful listed frontage awaits a 21st-century makeover.

The old DSS building, empty and growing gradually more derelict over the years, is no more, a towering block of executive flats now in its stead. I don’t have the chutzpah to book a viewing. If Nick were still by my side, I know we’d have to go and have a nose about.

I’d like to believe that one day he’ll be back, if only for the odd visit. But I don’t know. It’s not just the buildings that have changed. So many of our friends have left the area – either because they’ve been priced out, or they need to upsize because of their growing families. Would a return to somewhere that we once enjoyed together make him happy? Or would the differences around him reiterate how our lives will never be the same?

I just hope that the coffee shop doesn’t go changing its decor anytime soon. As long as our tile is there, one thing hasn’t changed.

Twitter: @rebeccaj

It has become the place to show off – among many other things – bikini bodies, engagement rings, work achievements, gourmet meals, sunny holidays and new homes.

Bragging on social media has become such the norm that it goes unquestioned.

As a sceptical member of the social media generation, I am saddened to live in an age where flagrant attention-seeking is so rewarded. But on Christmas Day, my Scrooge-like cynicism for selfies melted away. Pouty, braggy self-portraits were replaced with wholesome pictures of family togetherness. Instead of the usual inane posts, people used their statuses to write genuine messages of goodwill to one another.

It was one of the rare moments when Mark Zuckerberg’s (inset) creation was used for the purpose it was first intended: to communicate with people in writing.

News feeds were full of festive messages.

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook, but on Christmas Day it was a reminder of how extraordinary social media can be. Friends and family from thousands of miles away were able to wish each other well through photos they would otherwise never see.

Bringing people together is what Facebook does best. If that means putting up with smug selfies for the rest of the year, perhaps that is a price worth paying.

NEWS

NEWS 2-25

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i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

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SOCIETY

Last Night

A light and fluffy farewell to ‘Bake Off’ and not a soggy bottom in sight Bake Off Christmas Special

Replaying arguments helps to get over them

BBC1 CHRISTMAS DAY 4.45PM

By Katie Grant

One of the more awkward Christmas social situations is where the couple on the brink of a divorce has to fulfil a seasonal obligation to visit the in-laws, ensuring several uncomfortable days of gritted teeth and barbed comments.

So I was wondering if the first part of the BBC’s farewell to one of its most popular (and lucrative) franchises would have a similar frisson, as Mary asked Paul why the money was really that important while Mel and Sue attempted to keep up a cheery façade and the bakers cast embarrassed glances at the ceiling.

Of course they were all far too professional for any of that, and it was probably filmed long before any of this Channel 4 sale unpleasantness. So the mood – from the Christmas Carol-esque opening onwards – was as warm as a freshly risen cream horn (sorry, but when in Rome...).

It was back in the Bake Off tent for four previous contestants (four more line up tonight, when the overall winner will be announced), who were set a trio of tricky challenges and given two hours to provide culinary masterpieces – and great telly, of course.

But the researchers had done their job well and brought the gift of four television naturals: Mary-Ann from 2011 (jolly and heart-onsleeve); Cathryn from 2012 (tendency to make a drama out of a crisis); Ali from 2013 (earnest, ambitious, engaging); and Norman (inset) from 2014 (Scottish, ex-Navy, usual solution to any setbacks; add more alcohol).

Told to create edible tree

Family tensions often flare up at this time of year – and when arguments erupt it can be tempting to sweep them under the carpet and never speak of them again. But scientists believe that instead of attempting to forget about an uncomfortable altercation, the best way to cope with such an event could be to replay the details over in your mind.

Recalling the details of shouting matches and disagreements could be therapeutic and help people keep things in perspective. This in turn could help stave off feelings of self-doubt and even depression, according to psychologists at the University of Exeter. Dwelling on why events happened, what an incident means and its potential consequences can lead people to overgeneralise and trigger feelings of worthlessness and depression.

But reviewing precisely the co n t ex t o f t h e row, how it unfolded and thinking how things could have been dealt with in another way could be the best way to deal with an argument and prevent a minor fracas from developing into deep rifts with damaging psychological consequences, they said.

Professor Ed Watkins observed significant improvements in the mental health of people who learned to run through upsetting events in this fashion.

“We have found in the lab that when people train themselves to think about the specific sensory details, context and sequence of an emotional event, including how it unfolded, they were more emotionally resilient to an unexpected stressor than those who thought about the meaning and implications of emotional events,” Professor Watkins said.

HHHHH

Paul Hollywood, Sue Perkins, Mary Berry and Mel Giedroyc stuck to their magical formula for Bake Off’s send-off BBC

decorations, a choux bun wreath for the “technical” and a “showstopper” Christmas cake for the finale they produced (somewhat overly) ambitious ideas – Cathryn wanted to replicate every aspect of her family’s Christmas Eve, while All plumped for scenes from the life of Jesus, using only ingredients available in biblical times –and priceless quotes when things

NATURE

Beavers’ Scottish comeback to get official recognition

By Ilona Amos

Beavers are set for official recognition as a native species in Scotland, 400 years after they were hunted to extinction.

Scottish ministers granted the designation on the back of a successful five-year reintroduction trial, carried out in Knapdale forest in Argyll.

It gives the animals protected status and allows them to spread “naturally”.

But conservationists believe this is not enough to secure beavers as an integrated part of Scotland’s natural

landscape. They will need help if they are to colonise suitable habitats the length and breadth of the country.

“If we’re going to keep beavers as a native species in Scotland then we will need to do more to help them get properly established,” said Steve Micklewright, of the conservation charity Trees For Life. “Beavers are a keystone species because they have an impact on the whole habitat. Their actions shape the landscape, and the general health of a river system improves as it becomes richer in all kinds of life.”

The results were, as always, the kind of concoctions I couldn’t even attempt in a million years threatened to go pear-shaped (“there’s serious ploppage going on; “this is where I need a glass of Christmas spirit”).

But the results were, as always, the kind of concoctions I couldn’t even attempt in a million years.

The judges cast a critical eye over it in their usual personas (Mary the ever-encouraging

head teacher; Paul the toughtalking cop with the heart of gold) and, while a little short on the innuendos this time, Mel and Sue generally made presenting look ludicrously easy.

In short, the hard-to-define but unmistakable formula that’s made it such a hot property – an anti-Apprentice approach to reality television based around likeable people doing something they love really well. Follow that, Channel 4 – and good luck.

Jeff Robson

One-minute Wijuko

SRI LANKA

How to play Place 1 – 9 once in the grid, obeying the sums between pairs of squares

Carol singers given a shock by Tupac

By Felicity Morse

15 17 12

10 11

13 7

Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

More puzzles Pages 36-37

A Christmas Carol service in Sri Lanka has gained notoriety after accidentally printing the lyrics of rapper Tupac Shakur’s “Hail Mary” instead of the words to the Catholic prayer.

Sometimes called Ave Maria (the Latin translation), the original verse asks Mary, Mother of God to pray for “us sinners”. The Tupac version talks about battling violence and negativity in explicit language.

Andrew Choksy, 30, who was at the

concert at the Nelum Pokuna concert hall in Colombo, told i: “It truly was quite something reading Tupac’s (inset) version of ‘Hail Mary’ in the book. A lot of people around us were in shock as to whether it was a joke or someone would actually rap the song! A few of the older ladies in front of us could not stop looking at the printed booklet. The people that realised were shocked at first but then took it in good humour around me. It was true copy/paste error from whoever was in charge of the event booklet.”

NEWS

Another View Jane Merrick

Charles will make a very ‘human’ king

“W

e are half people, ripped from the pages of some bizarre mythology, those two sides within us, human and crown, engaged in a fearful civil war which never ends, which blights our every human transaction as brother, husband, sister, wife, mother. I understand the agony you feel and I am here to tell you it will never leave you.” These are the imagined – but believable – words of the Duke of Windsor to the young Queen Elizabeth, in the finale of the Netflix series The Crown, as she agonises over whether she should allow her sister Margaret to marry the divorcee Peter Townsend.

What makes this series so watchable is that it breathes vivid, colourful life into our deliberately

NEWS 2-25

dull monarch. In real life, the Queen has embodied this “half person”, a monarch as described by the 19th-century constitutionalist Walter Bagehot: “intelligible” yet “dignified” – a neutral figurehead who stands above the excitement of politics and the taking of sides.

This neutrality, this art of saying nothing, has been key to her reign: there has been a solidly reliable, unexciting ordinariness to those 64 years. Her Christmas Day speech is her annual study in bland platitudes, and this year the raciest thing she said could have been one of those “daily inspiration” quotes you see on Facebook: “It’s understandable that we sometimes think the world’s problems are so big that we can do little to help. On our own, we cannot end wars or wipe out injustice, but the cumulative impact of thousands of small acts of goodness can be bigger than we imagine.”

There has been a comfort in the boredom of her monarchy. In her own internal war, the crown has conquered the human.

Contrast this with her heir, Prince Charles. The Queen’s “heavy cold”, which caused her to miss the Christmas Day service at Sandringham, is a reminder of her mortality; her stepping back from some public duties an acknowledgement that the 90-year-old monarch is actively preparing the way for a future King Charles III, even if she has another decade on the throne.

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

21

Charles has had his whole life to prepare for his reign

Charles shows no sign of swapping his opinionated style for regal neutrality

If Charles is on the verge of becoming king, he is not showing any signs of toning down his strident views into a more regal neutrality.

If anything, his Thought for the Day message condemning the rise of populist, anti-minority groups

was the heir to the throne at his most outspoken.

Is this a sign of how King Charles intends to strike out from his mother’s reign and define himself as a political monarch? Given that he can never match the length

of her reign, there must be an urgency in wanting to make his mark on history. Or is this Charles getting it all out while he has the chance, before he has to submit himself to the prison of monarchy, become that half-person, engage in that never-ending internal civil war between human and crown?

The Queen, as The Crown reminds us, had very little time to prepare for her reign – initially she is dismissed as a girlish ingénue by courtiers, the Duke of Windsor and Winston Churchill – yet has made a success out of saying nothing.

Prince Charles has had his whole life to prepare for his, so should he really expect to adopt his mother’s studied neutrality?

The constitutional weight of the crown would say he should. Yet in his private life, we have seen the fallibility and fragility of his human half – his affair with Camilla while still married to Diana, his public divorce, the grief of his ex-wife’s death. In his own struggle between human and crown, Charles, as heir, has allowed the human side to win.

How refreshing it would be if this continued when he is king.

THE INDEPENDENT

NEWS

NEWS 2-25

Nationwide Tales from around the UK

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

SCOTLAND

Middle Ages ‘bestseller’ on display 100 involved in street fight A rare 15th-century prayer book, valuable addition” to its cultural and often called the greatest bestseller of the Middle Ages, has been acquired by a university.

The University of St Andrews said the valuable text, known as a Book of Hours, will be a “very

literary resources.

The book was owned by a wealthy member of the French nobility and is full of hand-painted illuminations in gilt and colours which still sparkle with vibrancy.

Four people have been arrested after a fight broke out early on Christmas Day involving as many as 100 people.

Coins were thrown at police officers and a number of taxi drivers were intimidated during the trouble in Woking, Surrey, which lasted around an hour.

Police and dog units were sent to the scene at around 3am, and four people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences.

Superintendent Clinton Blackburn said: “This unpleasant event involved a large group of people fighting in the street.”

The Book of Hours contains many hand‑painted images

Brighton bars swimmers from sea Brighton and Hove council said unusually mild weather had drawn more people to the beaches, with “many getting close to the crashing waves”.

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD No 1835 BY QUIXOTE

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SURREY

SUSSEX

Christmas Day swimmers condemned Brighton Council for preventing them from taking a traditional dip by closing off beaches.

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

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Panorama

Around the world in 10 stories TUNISIA

NIGERIA

Boko Haram ‘driven out’ of last stronghold

By Padraic Flanagan

The Boko Haram extremist group has been driven from its last forest stronghold and its fighters are on the run with nowhere to hide, Nigeria’s President has claimed.

Muhammadu Buhari said

Pope accused of interfering in affairs of Order of Malta

By Nicole Winfield IN VATICAN CITY

UNITED STATES

Protest over Sinkhole threat return of jihadis to dozen homes About 200 people have protested in the Tunisian capital against the return of Tunisian jihadis who have fought abroad.

The demonstration on Saturday was prompted by the deadly lorry attack in a Berlin Christmas market by a Tunisian, Anis Amri, who had pledged allegiance to Isis. He was killed in a police shootout on Friday. Banners at the protest at the Parliament building in Tunis read “Close the doors to terrorism” and “No tolerance, no return”. AP

VATICAN CITY

More than a dozen homes near Detroit in Michigan have been evacuated after a sinkhole opened in the ground nearby.

A resident of the Fraser area called police early on Saturday to tell them that his house was sinking.

The Public Safety director, George Rouhib, told The Macomb Daily newspaper that the home’s basement walls could be heard cracking, bricks were falling from the exterior and the pavement outside was rising.

In 2004, a sewer collapse caused a nearby section of road to cave in.

It created a sinkhole 160ft long, 60ft wide and 30ft deep. AP

troops had driven the insurgents out of their “Camp Zero” deep in the Sambisa Forest. The huge area in north-east Nigeria is also believed to hold more than 200 girls kidnapped in April 2014 by Boko Haram from a school in the town of Chibok.

Mr Buhari urged troops to intensify efforts “to locate and free our remaining Chibok girls still in captivity”.

But despite his victorious announcement on Saturday, Nigeria is unlikely to see an end soon to the activities of the home-grown extremist group.

The Order of Malta, the ancient Roman Catholic aristocratic lay order, has told Pope Francis that his decision to launch an investigation into the removal of a top official over an old scandal is “unacceptable”.

In an extraordinary rebuke of the pontiff, the group has said the replacement of its grand chancellor was an “act of internal governmental administration of the Sovereign Order of Malta and consequently falls solely within its competence”.

On Thursday, Pope Francis appointed a five-member

Postcard From...

Erigavo In a tradition dating to biblical times, men rise at dawn in the rugged Cal Madow mountains of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa to scale rocky outcrops in search of the prized sap of wild frankincense trees.

Braced against the high winds, Musse Ismail Hassan climbs with his feet wrapped in cloth as protection against the sticky resin. With a metal scraper he chips off bark, and the tree’s white sap bleeds into the salty air. “My father and grandfather were both doing this job,” said Hassan, who like all around here is Muslim. “We heard that it was with Jesus.”

Jason Patinkin

commission to investigate the recent expulsion of Albrecht von Boeselager amid suggestions that the pontiff’s own envoy to the group, conservative

O holy light Worshippers celebrate a Christmas Mass in the Alexander Nevsky Patriarch’s Cathedral in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia yesterday. The Balkan state, unlike some other fellow Orthodox countries, celebrates Christmas on 25 December.

NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV / AFP/ GETTY IMAGES

TURKEY

Regime has arrested 1,600 ‘terrorists’ in six months The Turkish regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sent a grim Christmas message to its opponents and critics. Authorities announced on Saturday that they have

formally arrested 1,656 people in the past six months for allegedly supporting terrorist organisations or insulting officials on social media, and are investigating at least 10,000 others.

It said legal action had been taken against 3,710 people, with 1,203 peo-

ple released on probation, 767 released and 84 others still being held in detention.

Charges include provoking hatred among the people, praising terrorist organisations, and disseminating terrorist propaganda.

UNITED STATES

SOUTH KOREA

CHINA

‘Safe haven’ law saves babies

Presidential office raided

Aircraft carrier in open-sea debut

Nearly 3,300 babies across the US who otherwise might have been abandoned and perhaps died have found homes in the past 17 years, thanks in part to the efforts of Tim Jaccard, 66, a retired New York police ambulance medic.

He spearheaded a movement to enact “safe haven” laws that give mothers in crisis the option of leaving their newborns at police stations, hospitals or fire stations without fear of prosecution. AP

The special prosecutor investigating the corruption scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye said yesterday he had no choice but to raid the presidential offices as part of the investigation, Yonhap News reported.

Special prosecutors are investigating allegations that Ms Park colluded with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, and aides to pressure big companies to contribute to foundations set up to back her policy initiatives. REUTERS

China’s first aircraft carrier has set off for the Western Pacific for an open-sea training exercise.

State media said it is the first time that the Liaoning, which was commissioned by the Chinese navy in 2012, has headed to “distant sea waters” in the Western Pacific. China’s military recently carried out its first livefire exercise using the Liaoning and troops in the Bohai Sea in eastern China. AP

By Padraic Flanagan

When dried and burned, the sap produces a fragrant smoke which perfumes churches and mosques around the world.

Frankincense, along with gold and myrrh, was brought by the Three Kings as gifts in the Gospel account of the birth of Jesus. Now the last intact wild frankincense forests on Earth are under threat as prices have shot up with the global appetite for essential oils.

Overharvesting has led to trees dying off faster than they can replenish themselves, putting the ancient resin trade at risk.

Harvesting frankincense is risky, too. The trees can grow high on cliff edges, their shallow roots gripping bare rock slithering with venomous snakes. Harvesters often slip and tumble down canyon walls. AP

The pontiff’s representative at the order is also one of his leading critics

Cardinal Raymond Burke, helped engineer it without his blessing.

Cardinal Burke has emerged as one of the Pope’s leading critics.

One charge used against Mr von Boeselager concerned an aid programme several years ago involving the order’s Malteser International aid group, which assisted sex slaves in Burma, including giving them condoms to protect them from HIV infection.

Church teaching bars the use of artificial contraception.

The Order of Malta has many trappings of a sovereign state. It issues its own passports and has diplomatic relations with 106 states. AP

NEWS 2-25

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

25

TECHNOLOGY

Making sure your children are safe surfers can be as easy as logging on Help is at hand for parents worried about online risks. By Lisa Salmon

T

oday’s tech-savvy kids are more likely to have put an internet-enabled gadget on top of their Christmas wishlist than a traditional toy, and many will now have new pieces of tech to go online with after unwrapping their presents. But while such gadgets might keep children entertained for longer than ordinary toys, the downside is they come with risks parents need to be prepared for.

However, parents often just leave their kids to go online without any guidance or control, and that can be dangerous – particularly when you bear in mind that a recent Ofcom report found children’s internet use had reached record highs, with youngsters aged between five and 15 spending about 15 hours a week online – overtaking time spent watching TV for the first time.

Even pre-schoolers aged three and four are spending more than eight hours a week online, up an hour and a half from 2015.

With so much time spent online, keeping children safe while they surf is paramount, experts say. “Many children will receive internet-enabled devices, including tablets, games consoles and smartphones this Christmas, so it’s important parents are proactive about taking steps to keep them safe online,” says Julia Fossi, head of child online safety at the NSPCC. But with a resource as vast and complex as the internet, how

do parents who may have only a limited idea about how to handle technology tackle online safety?

Parental controls are a great starting point, says Ms Fossi, who explains that such controls can be used to block upsetting or harmful content, control in-app purchases or even limit how long children can spend online. “It may feel daunting, but you don’t need to be a technical expert,” she promises. “Parental controls are easy to set up and help is available to get started.”

Parents who have no idea where to start can ring the NSPCC and O2 helpline for advice (0808 800 5002).

It sounds simple, but just talking to your child about what they do online and how they can stay safe is another crucial part of keeping them from harm.

“Alongside setting parental controls, the best way to keep your child safe online is to talk to them about online safety and give them the tools and support they need to stay safe,” says Ms Fossi.

Having a family discussion to set boundaries and agree what’s appropriate is the best way to start, and Ms Fossi advises: “Explore the internet together and have open and regular chats with your children about their digital lives to help you understand the risks they face.”

When talking to children about online safety, it’s important to stress the need to keep personal information safe, warn Douglas and Estelle Lloyd, co-founders of Azoomee, a digital entertainment

Children are spending an average of 15 hours a week online, which is more than time spent watching television GETTY

app that allows children to watch, play and learn safely online. “Kids love to take photos and share them with their friends, and while we know as adults how to adjust privacy settings and monitor what we share online, children don’t always understand the consequences,” says Douglas.

“To tackle this problem, explain to your child how quickly content can be shared across the web and how sometimes it can be accessed by individuals other than the intended recipients.

“The key message should be that you should be very careful about what you share online.”

Estelle warns that tackling cyber bullying is complicated because it can potentially be seen and shared

by everyone. “A useful way of tackling this is to explain to children the power of the written word and that it’s harder to take it back, particularly if you can’t delete it,” she says.

“By teaching children to think very carefully about what they write, they’ll be more likely to report online bullying.”

Some of the information found online is at best uncorroborated and, at worst, pure fiction, and children often are unable to make a judgement. It’s important that parents make sure their children understand that just because something is on the internet doesn’t necessarily make it true: everything from supposed “facts” to people’s claimed identities.

“Broaching this subject with a child isn’t easy,” says Douglas, “but I find the best way is to encourage them to question where the information or an image has come from and the likelihood that it’s real.”

Social media is particularly popular with children, and Estelle advises parents to look for a platform where children have a sense of independence, but which also has an element of control through tools such as approved invites, co-viewing rights or parental locks.

“Taking small steps with this will help children learn how to navigate chatrooms safely and understand how online communications should reflect friendships offline,” she says.

TRANSPORT

Charities seek nationwide roll-out of priority badges London trial a big success for those with hidden illness.

By Katie Grant

P

eople living with invisible health conditions such as multiple sclerosis and epilepsy have welcomed the introduction of a badge that asks fellow transport users to offer the wearer a seat.

The blue badges, which read “Please offer me a seat”, were trialled in London earlier this year.

Now charities are urging transport bodies across the UK to introduce their own version of the badges, which are currently only available for use in the capital.

Transport for London (TfL) launched the six-week trial in response to research, which showed that people with hidden disabilities and conditions and those undergoing treatments such as chemotherapy often find it difficult to get a seat when they need one.

More than 1,200 people tested the new badges, which are similar to the ones offered under the popular Baby on Board scheme that helps pregnant women communicate to

fellow transport users that they may need a seat. Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of journeys were easier as a result of the badge and almost every participant (98 per cent) said they would recommend the badge to somebody else, TfL said.

When the badge is formally launched in spring next year, TfL will become the first European transport provider to officially recognise invisible impairments and conditions in such a way.

Charities have welcomed TfL’s plans to roll out the badge across public transport in the capital on a permanent basis and urged other transport authorities in the UK to

follow suit. A spokeswoman for the Epilepsy Society said: “This badge will help to make other travellers aware that someone may need to sit down, even if they appear fit and well.

“I hope that other transport companies will follow their example and adopt similar practices.”

The MS Society agreed that the badge would make a “big difference”. A spokeswoman for the charity said: “Conditions like MS are often invisible and can make travelling really difficult.

We’re excited to hear that TfL will be making their new travel badges permanently available to anyone with a disability.”

Television Monday 26 December CRITIC’S CHOICE GERARD GILBERT

PICK OF THE DAY

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The Witness For The Prosecution

West Side Stories – The Making Of A Classic

9pm, BBC1 Anyone looking for a warm hug from an Agatha Christie adaptation should search elsewhere (there’s a Miss Marple on ITV3), because this is another of the BBC’s hard-hitting Christies, again written by Sarah Phelps, who did And Then There Were None. Based on a 1925 short story, and set in the aftermath of the First World War, Kim Cattrall (left) plays a rich woman paying for the company of younger men – here ex-soldier Leonard Vole (Billy Howle), who is accused of murdering her. A top cast also includes Toby Jones as the defence solicitor and Andrea Riseborough as Vole’s chorus-girl lover – the witness of the title.

5.20pm, BBC2 Next year will see the 60th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s relocation of Romeo And Juliet to the ethnic gang rivalries of 1950s New York City. Suzy Klein and Strictly’s Bruno Tonioli meet members of the original production – Tonioli concentrating on the dancers, while Klein visits Sondheim, producer Hal Prince and Bernstein’s daughter, Jamie. ===

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2016 8pm, BBC4 “Supercharged – Fuelling The Future” is the title of this year’s

===

===

Gordon Buchanan: Elephant Family & Me

The Entire Universe

8.30pm, BBC2 “Elephants are one of my favourite animals,” says wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan. “They’re emotional and intelligent.” Elephants are also very dangerous, killing hundreds of people in Africa every year (humans, of course, return the favour tenfold), and Buchanan has his work cut out if he wants to become accepted as part of the furniture. The particular herd he shadows is led by a first-time mother, Wendi, a mischievous beast

BBC2

ITV

CHANNEL 4

CHANNEL 5

6.00 Breakfast (S). 9.00 FILM: Tinker Bell And The Pirate Fairy (Peggy Holmes 2014) Premiere.

Animation (S). 10.10 FILM: Planes (Klay Hall 2013) Premiere. Animated adventure (S). 11.30 The Great Christmas Bake Off (R) (S). 12.30 BBC News; Weather (S). 12.45 BBC Regional News; Weather (S). 12.50 Countryfile (S). 1.50 The Moonstone (R) (S). 2.40 FILM: Brave (Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell 2012) Animated fantasy (S). 4.05 The Gruffalo (R) (S). 4.30 FILM: How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois 2014) Premiere.

Animated adventure (S).

6.15 Natural World: Honey Badgers – Masters Of Mayhem (R) (S). 7.15 Sign Zone: Nature’s Weirdest Events (R) (S). 8.15 FILM: Around The World In 80 Days (Michael Anderson 1956) Period adventure (S). 11.00 FILM: The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (Steven Spielberg 2011) Animated adventure, with the voice of Jamie Bell (S).

12.40 FILM: Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner 1990) Oscar-winning Western, starring Kevin Costner (S). 3.30 Victorian Bakers At Christmas (R) (S).

4.30 Final Score (S). 5.20 West Side Stories – The Making Of A Classic (S).

6.00 CITV 9.25 FILM: The Flintstones (Brian Levant 1994) Live-action version of the cartoon comedy, with John Goodman (S).

11.05 FILM: Liar Liar (Tom Shadyac 1997) Comedy, starring Jim Carrey (S).

12.40 Hilda Ogden’s Last Ta-ra – A Tribute To Jean Alexander (R) (S). 1.40 The Nation’s Favourite Disney Song (R) (S). 2.40 FILM: Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi 1959) Disney animated fantasy, with the voice of Mary Costa (S).

4.10 FILM: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuaron 2004) Fantasy adventure, starring Daniel Radcliffe (S).

6.25 FILM: Planet 51 (Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad, Marcos Martinez 2009) (S).

8.00 The Morning Line (S).

9.00 FILM: Aliens In The Attic (John Schultz 2009) Children’s sci-fi comedy (S). 10.40 The Simpsons (R) (S). 11.05 The Simpsons (R) (S). 11.35 FILM: Spy Kids 4: All The Time In The World (Robert Rodriguez 2011) Family adventure (S). 1.15 Channel 4 Racing Including the King George VI Chase at 3.15 (S). 3.45 The Simpsons (R) (S). 4.10 FILM: The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Andrew Adamson 2005) Fantasy adventure, starring Tilda Swinton (S).

6.00 Milkshake! 7.45 Big Bash Cricket Hobart Hurricanes vs Melbourne Stars (S). 11.20 World’s Strongest Man 2016 (R) (S). 12.20 FILM: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen 1954) Musical Western, starring Howard Keel (S). 2.20 FILM: West Side Story (Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins 1961) Romantic musical, starring Natalie Wood (S). 5.20 FILM: The Love Punch (Joel Hopkins 2013) Premiere.

Crime comedy, starring Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson (S).

6pm

6.05 BBC News (S).

6.20 BBC Regional News; Weather (S).

6.30 Revolting Rhymes (S).

6.20 Christmas University Challenge (S).

6.50 Dad’s Army (R) (S).

6.45 ITV News; Weather (S).

6.50 Channel 4 News (S).

7pm

7.00 The Great Christmas Bake Off Part two of two. Chetna, Howard, James M and Janet compete (S).

7.30 Nature’s Weirdest Events A frog whose dinner is fighting back (S).

7.00 Emmerdale Joanie decides to take charge of her life (S).

7.30 Coronation Street (S).

7.00 The World’s Most Expensive Toys People making gifts for Britain’s billionaires (R) (S).

8pm

8.00 EastEnders (S).

8.30 Still Open All Hours New series.

Granville acts as a marriage counsellor (S).

8.30 Gordon Buchanan: Elephant Family & Me Part one of two (S).

8.00 You’ve Been Framed! Harry’s Naughty List (R) (S).

8.30 Coronation Street (S).

9.00 The Witness For The Prosecution Part one of two.

Agatha Christie mystery, starring Toby Jones (S).

9.30 The Entire Universe Comedy musical, starring Professor Brian Cox (S).

9.00 FILM: Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass 2013) Premiere.

Fact-based thriller, starring Tom Hanks (S).

10.00Outnumbered (S).

10.40 BBC News; Weather (S).

10.55 Match Of The Day Highlights (S).

10.30 FILM: Pride (Matthew Warchus 2014) Premiere. Factbased drama, starring Ben Schnetzer (S).

Daytime

BBC1

9pm

10pm

11pm

Late

12.25 Fleabag (R) (S).

12.55 Fleabag (R) (S). 1.25 Walliams & Friend (R) (S).

2.00 BBC News (S).

12.25 Gospel Christmas (R) (S). 1.25 FILM: Tommy (Ken Russell 1975) Rock opera (S). 3.10 Sign Zone (R) (S). 4.10 This Is BBC Two (S). 5.50 Jungle Animal Hospital: Natural World (R) (S).

who makes her presence known immediately by walking straight up to the cameraman’s jeep and having a good root around with her trunk.

lectures, with chemist Professor Saiful Islam investigating how to generate energy without destroying the planet.

BBC4

9.30pm, BBC2 If you find the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (see left) a tad dry for your tastes, then try this musical – produced by Eric Idle and his resurrected Rutland Weekend Television – in which Professor Brian Cox attempts to deliver a lecture on the history of the universe against a backdrop of song and dance, and contributions from Warwick Davis (as the Big Bang), Noel Fielding (as Einstein) and Tim Peake and Stephen Hawking as themselves. I don’t see it catching on in academia.

FILM4

Saiful Islam delivers a Christmas lecture 8pm, BBC4

Dad Pete (Hugh Dennis) and the family have a testing festive period in ‘Outnumbered’ 10pm, BBC1

Brian Cox and Eric Idle in ‘The Entire Universe‘ 9.30pm, BBC2

7.00 World’s Strongest Man 2016 Europe’s Strongest Man (S).

7.00 Britain’s Pompeii: A Village Lost In Time The team excavates a 3,000 year-old village (R) (S).

6.50 FILM: The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller 2013) Comedy drama, starring Ben Stiller (S).

8.00 A Big Lego Christmas The run-up to the opening of the world’s biggest Lego store in London (S).

8.00 Building The Ice Hotel The construction of an establishment built in Sweden (R) (S).

8.00 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2016: Supercharged – Fuelling The Future (S).

9.00 The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year 2016 Jimmy Carr hosts the annual end-ofyear quiz (S).

9.00 Football On 5: The Championship Action from the Boxing Day fixtures (S).

9.00 Bob Monkhouse: The Last Stand A stand-up performance recorded in 2003 (S).

10.00Football On 5: Goal Rush (S).

10.30 Britain’s Favourite Abba Songs (R) (S).

10.00The Good Old Days Featuring Morecambe And Wise Christmas edition from 1959 (R) (S).

11.35 ITV News; Weather (S).

11.55 Through The Keyhole Christmas special of the show (R) (S).

11.10 FILM: Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore 2012) Comedy, starring Anna Kendrick (S).

12.50 Jackpot247 3.00 The Jeremy Kyle Show (R) (S).

3.55 ITV Nightscreen 5.05 The Jeremy Kyle Show (R) (S).

1.20 Travel Man: 48 Hours In Florence (R) (S). 2.20 Celebrity First Dates (R) (S). 3.15 Hollyoaks (S). 5.20 FILM: Paws (Karl Zwicky 1997) Family adventure, with the voice of Billy Connolly (S).

12.05 FILM: Muriel’s Wedding (PJ Hogan 1994) (S). 1.55 SuperCasino 3.10 Penguins Make You Laugh Out Loud (R) (S). 4.00 Tattoo Disasters UK (R) (S).

4.25 Criminals: Caught On Camera (R) (S). To 4.45am.

ITV2 6.00 The Hot Desk: Vicky Pattison (R) (S). 6.10 I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Coming Out (R) (S).

7.00 You’ve Been Framed: The Next Generation (R) (S). 7.50 Emmerdale (R) (S).

8.55 Coronation Street (R) (S). 9.55 FILM: Yogi Bear (Eric Brevig 2010) Comedy, with the voice of Dan Aykroyd (S). 11.35 FILM: The Smurfs (Raja Gosnell 2011) Fantasy comedy, starring Neil Patrick Harris (S). 1.40 Emmerdale (R) (S). 2.40 Coronation Street (R) (S).

3.45 Celebrity Catchphrase (R) (S). 4.50 FILM: Uncle Buck (John Hughes 1989) Family comedy, starring John Candy (S).

6.50 Minion Madness Animated spin-off from Despicable Me (R) (S).

7.05 FILM: Despicable Me (Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud 2010) Animated comedy (S).

8.05 FYI Daily 8.10 FILM: Despicable Me (Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud 2010) Concluded (S).

9.00 FILM: Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston 2011) Superhero adventure, with Chris Evans (S).

9.00 FILM: Love Actually (Richard Curtis 2003) Romantic comedy, with Hugh Grant (S).

10.00FYI Daily 10.05 FILM: Love Actually (Richard Curtis 2003) Concluded (S).

11.00 Norman Wisdom: His Story The life and career of the comedy actor (R) (S).

11.25 FILM: Solomon Kane (Michael J Bassett 2010) Period fantasy thriller, starring James Purefoy (S).

11.40 Family Guy Mayor West raises the drinking age to 50 (R) (S).

12.00 Doris Day: Virgin Territory (R) (S). 1.00 Darcey Bussell (R) (S).

2.00 Darcey Bussell’s Looking For Audrey (R) (S). 3.00 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2016 (R) (S). 4.00 Close

1.30 FILM: The Duke Of Burgundy (Peter Strickland 2014) Drama, starring Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna (S). 3.40 Close

12.15 Family Guy (S). 1.45 American Dad! (S). (S). 2.40 FILM: The Nutty Professor (Tom Shadyac 1996).

4.15 Almost Impossible Gameshow (R) (S). 5.05 Planet’s Funniest Animals (R). 5.50 Nightscreen

NEWS 2-25

===

Outnumbered 10pm, BBC1 “We’re not going to spend Boxing Day in a ditch in Hampshire,” declares Pete (Hugh Dennis), as Ben (Daniel Roche) causes a minor road accident – and, yes, he’s driving now.

Well, they don’t, spending it instead in a local pub run by Mark Benton, along with the disabled woman who was driving the other car, and who, as far as Karen (Ramona Marquez) is concerned, is feigning a whiplash injury. Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton’s sitcom last aired in March 2014, and once you got over how grown-up the former child actors look now, it’s an amusing one-off that also involves scattering Sue’s father’s ashes, and Miles Jupp in a Nazi uniform.

ITV3

FILM CHOICE LAURENCE PHELAN

E4

MORE4

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

===

The Duke Of Burgundy

The Searchers

1.30am, Film4 (Peter Strickland, 2014) This eccentric British movie is set in a soft-focus, out-of-time world that will seem familiar to fans of 1970s Euro arthouse-sexpoitation movies, but has peculiarities all of its own. In between lectures at an entomology institute, lepidopterist Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen, left) and her lover Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) enact S&M role-playing games in which Cynthia is the decadent mistress of their opulent mansion and Evelyn the servant. But the power dynamics in their relationship are unstable, what passes for reality in this film keeps on impinging on their fantasies, and their carefully choreographed scenarios topple into absurdism.

5pm, ITV4 (John Ford, 1956) John Wayne is a very ambiguous hero in this Western; a former Confederate soldier who fully dedicates himself to the idea of revenge during the grim five years he spends in search of the Comanches who kidnapped his niece.

Filmed in VistaVision in Monument Valley, it looks fantastic, though it’s the characters’ complexities which account for the cinematic richness.

SKY 1

SKY ATLANTIC 6.00 Richard E Grant’s Hotel Secrets (R) (S). 8.00 Richard E Grant’s Hotel Secrets (R) (S). 10.00 Micro Monsters With David Attenborough (R) (S). 10.30 Micro Monsters With David Attenborough (R) (S). 11.00 Micro Monsters With David Attenborough (R) (S). 11.30 Micro Monsters With David Attenborough (R) (S). 12.30 FILM: Dinosaur 13 (Todd Douglas Miller 2014) (R) (S). 2.30 Making David Attenborough’s Flying Monsters (R) (S). 3.30 David Attenborough’s Flying Monsters (R) (S). 5.00 Making Attenborough’s Galapagos (R) (S).

6.00 FILM: The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation (Michael Feifer 2012) (S). 7.40 FILM: The Dog Who Saved The Holidays (Michael Feifer 2012) (S).

9.25 Father Christmas (R) (S). 10.00 Baby Daddy (R) (S). 10.30 The Goldbergs (R) (S). 11.00 The Big Bang Theory (R) (S). 11.55 FILM: Big (Penny Marshall 1988) (S). 2.00 The Snowman (R) (S). 2.30 The Snowman And The Snowdog (R) (S).

3.00 The Big Bang Theory: Festive Guests (R) (S). 4.00 The Big Bang Theory: Festive Guests (R) (S). 4.30 The Big Bang Theory: Festive Guests (R) (S).

5.00 The Goldbergs (R) (S).

5.30 The Goldbergs (R) (S).

8.55 Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas (S). 9.25 Food Unwrapped (R) (S). 9.50 FILM: Great Expectations (David Lean 1946) Drama, starring John Mills (S).

12.15 FILM: Runaway Bride (Garry Marshall 1999) Romantic comedy, with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere (S). 2.35 George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces At Christmas (R) (S). 3.40 Come Dine With Me Christmas (R) (S). 4.15 Come Dine With Me Christmas (R) (S).

4.45 Come Dine With Me Christmas (R) (S). 5.20 Come Dine With Me Christmas (R) (S). 5.50 Come Dine With Me Christmas (R) (S).

6.00 Sinbad (R) (S). 7.00 The Flash (R) (S). 8.00 The Flash (R) (S). 9.00 Sky Comedy Christmas Shorts 9.15 Modern Family (R) (S).

9.45 Modern Family (R) (S).

10.15 Modern Family (R) (S). 10.45 Modern Family (R) (S). 11.15 Futurama (R) (S). 11.45 Yonderland Christmas (R). 12.45 The Last Dragonslayer (R) (S). 3.00 Gillette Soccer Special 5.00 Modern Family (R) (S). 5.30 Modern Family (R) (S).

6.00 Long Lost Family Two siblings hoping to fulfil their mother’s dying wish (R) (S).

6.00 The Big Bang Theory (R) (S).

6.30 The Big Bang Theory (R) (S).

6.20 Paul O’Grady’s 100 Years Of Movie Musicals The history of the genre (R) (S).

6.00 Modern Family (R) (S).

6.30 The Simpsons Lisa accepts an invitation to join a Wiccan coven (R) (S).

6.00 David Attenborough’s Galapagos The Pacific archipelago (R) (S).

7.00 Agatha Christie’s Marple A Ouija board predicts a murder (R) (S).

7.00 Rude(ish) Tube Shorts (R) (S).

7.15 FILM: Jingle All The Way (Brian Levant 1996) Comedy (S).

7.00 The Simpsons (R) (S).

7.30 The Simpsons Romance blossoms for Krusty and his co-star (R) (S).

7.00 David Attenborough’s Galapagos The unique species that live in the isolated habitat (R) (S).

8.00 A League Of Their Own Christmas Special Festive edition, with Gary Barlow (R).

8.00 David Attenborough’s Galapagos The differences between the 19 islands (R) (S).

9.00 FILM: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (Michael Bay 2009) Sci-fi adventure sequel.

9.00 Game Of Thrones Roose Bolton decides what to do with Jaime (R) (S).

9.00 An Audience With Victoria Wood The comedienne entertains a celebrity audience (R) (S).

9.00 Made In Chelsea Christmas Party Rick Edwards chats to the cast. Last in the series (S).

10.10 Housewife, 49 Bafta-winning drama, starring Victoria Wood (R) (S).

10.00In Bed With Jamie At Christmas (S).

10.35 Tattoo Fixers At Christmas (R) (S).

12.10 FILM: Something’s Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers 2003) Romantic comedy, starring Jack Nicholson (S).

2.35 Sherlock Holmes: The Master Blackmailer (R) (S).

4.25 A Christmas Carol (R) (S). 5.45 ITV3 Nightscreen

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

FILM OF THE DAY

6.00 Wycliffe (R) (S).

6.50 FILM: Anne Of Green Gables (John Kent Harrison 2015) Family drama, starring Ella Ballentine (S). 8.35 FILM: On The Buses (Harry Booth 1971) Comedy, starring Reg Varney (S).

10.20 FILM: Holiday On The Buses (Bryan Izzard 1973) Comedy, starring Reg Varney (S). 12.10 FILM: Mutiny On The Buses (Harry Booth 1972) Comedy, starring Reg Varney (S). 2.00 Agatha Christie’s Marple (R) (S).

4.05 FILM: Carry On Jack (Gerald Thomas 1963) Comedy, with Bernard Cribbins (S).

8.00 FILM: Les Miserables (Tom Hooper 2012) Musical, starring Hugh Jackman (S).

IQ 28-33

10.10 Game Of Thrones Melisandre reveals a secret to Gendry (R) (S).

11.40 Gogglebox The households’ opinions on recent television (R) (S).

11.05 8 Out Of 10 Cats Christmas Special (R) (S).

11.55 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown (R) (S).

11.50 A League Of Their Own With Daniel Ricciardo, Rob Beckett and Judy Murray (R) (S).

11.25 Game Of Thrones Davos demands to see proof of Melisandre’s power (R) (S).

12.50 Naked Attraction (R) (S). 1.55 The Big Bang Theory (R) (S). 2.25 Made In Chelsea Christmas Party (R) (S). 3.20 In Bed With Jamie At Christmas (R) (S).

3.45 The Goldbergs (R) (S).

T0 4.05am.

1.00 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown (R) (S). 2.00 Man Down (R) (S). 2.35 Man Down (R) (S). 3.10 Food Unwrapped (R) (S). 3.45 Close

12.40 Duck Quacks Don’t Echo (R) (S). 1.40 Harry Hill’s Tea-Time (R) (S). 2.10 Most Shocking (R) (S). 3.00 Agatha Raisin (R) (S). 4.00 Monkey Life (R) (S). 5.00 David Attenborough’s Galapagos (R) (S).

12.40 True Detective (R) (S). 1.55 True Detective (R) (S). 3.10 Blue Bloods (R) (S).

4.05 The Petrol Age (R) (S).

5.00 Networks Of Power With Sir Christopher Meyer (R) (S).

===

Captain Phillips 9pm, ITV (Paul Greengrass, 2013) Tom Hanks ably captains this nail-biting docu-drama about a

Radio BBC Radio 1 6.30am The Radio 1 Breakfast Show With Dev 10.00 The Best Of The Nixtape – Part 1 1pm The Best Of The Nixtape – Part 2 4.00 Radio 1’s Movies That Made Me 7.00 Radio 1 At The Roundhouse 10.00 Sophie Little 1am Friction 4.00 Nick Bright

BBC Radio 1Xtra 7am 1Xtra’s Morning Mix 9.00 A.Dot’s Best Bits 10.00 Ace 1pm Mim Shaikh 4.00 Sian Anderson 7.00 Seani B 10.00 Monki 1am Friction 4.00 Friction

BBC Radio 2 6.30am Sara Cox 9.30 The World’s 100 Best Selling Artists 12noon Bryan Adams Rocks! 2.00 Craig Charles 5.00 Johnnie Walker Meets Carly Simon 7.00 Paul Jones 8.00 Leo Green Remembers...Dean Martin 10.00 Tommy Steele At 80 11.00 The Art Of Artists 12mdn’t After Midnight 3.00 Martha Reeves’ Soul Christmas 5.00 Penny Smith

BBC Radio 3 6.30am Breakfast 9.00 Essential Classics 12noon Composer Of The Week: Ivor Novello 1.00 News 1.02 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert 2.00 Afternoon On 3. Catriona Young presents concert highlights from a selection of European Festivals. 4.30 Words And Music. Poetry and prose about hands. 5.45 New Generation Artists. Clemency Burton-Hill celebrates the music-making of the BBC New Generation Artists. 7.00 BBC Proms 2016. An all-Mozart programme, including the Requiem and the Clarinet Concerto. 8.45 BBC Proms 2016. The Metropole Orkest celebrate the career of Quincy Jones. 11.00 Jazz Now. Julian Arguelles and the Frankfurt Radio Band in concert.

12.30am Through The Night.

Pianist Maria Joâo Pires plays Chopin with the Swedish Radio SO.

BBC Radio 4 6am The Listening Project On The Road 7.00 Today 9.00 Start The Week 9.45 Book Of The Week: Snow 10.00 Woman’s Hour 11.00 The Untold 11.30 Dave Podmore Cleans Up For Christmas 12noon News 12.04 Home Front 12.15 You And Yours 12.57 Weather 1.00 The World At One 1.45 Travels With Bob 2.00 The Archers 2.15 Drama: Unmade Movies: Hitchcock’s The Blind Man 3.45 A Point Of View 4.00 With Great Pleasure At Christmas 5.00 PM 5.57 Weather 6.00 Six O’Clock News 6.15 Some Hay In A Manger. Part one of two. Festive comedy, starring Tamsin Greig. 6.30 The Tim Vine Christmas Chat Show 7.00 The Archers. Lilian’s plans are ruined. 7.15 Front Row. Arts programme. 7.45 Northanger Abbey. By Jane

27

real-life merchant mariner whose ship was boarded by Somali pirates in 2009. Phillips displays enormous courage. But crucially, the film tells the pirates’ side of the story, too, so that it’s about wider globalised forces as well as individual heroics and villainy. ===

Pride 10.30pm, BBC2 (Matthew Warchus, 2014) This comedy is about the forming of an unlikely alliance between members of two oppressed groups in Thatcher’s Britain: striking miners and gay activists. It celebrates things such as political idealism and sympathetic trade unionists. It is full of one-liners, and rounded, loveable characters.

Austen, dramatised by Hattie Naylor. 8.00 Beyond Belief.

Ernie Rea and guests discuss religion in relation to austerity and abundance. 8.30 Crossing Continents. Street art, punk and protest in Malaysia. 9.00 Almost Human Rights. Volker Sommer investigates the possibility that great apes will be accorded human rights.

9.30 Start The Week. With Christopher de Hamel, Lucie Skeaping and Edward BrookeHitching. 10.00 The World Tonight. News round-up. 10.45 Book At Bedtime: Persuasion.

By Jane Austen. 11.00 Mastertapes. Paul McCartney discusses his career in the years immediately after the Beatles split. 12mdn’t News And Weather 12.15 Shakespeare: Love Across The Racial Divide 12.30 Book Of The Week: Snow 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.00 As BBC World Service 5.20 Shipping Forecast 5.30 News Briefing 5.43 Prayer For The Day 5.45 Farming Today 5.58 Tweet Of The Day

BBC Radio 4 LW 9.45am Daily Service 12.01pm Shipping 5.54 Shipping

8.00 The Magic Faraway Tree 8.30 Beatles Christmas 9.00 Murals 9.15 National Velvet 10.00 Comedy Club: I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue 10.30 Comedy Club: The Lee Mack Show 11.00 Comedy Club: Dead Ringers 11.30 Comedy Club: Will Smith Presents The Tao Of Bergerac 12mdn’t Doctor Who: Demon Quest 12.30 A Good Read 1.00 The Magic Faraway Tree 1.30 Beatles Christmas 2.00 Nightmare Town 2.15 The Good Samaritan 2.30 Snobs 2.45 Dear Lupin 3.00 Mystery Theater 3.30 Soul Music 4.00 Just A Minute 4.30 The Change 5.00 A Whole ’Nother Story 5.30 I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue

BBC 5 Live 7am 5 Live Breakfast 10.00 Rio Remembered 12noon 5 Live Sport 12.30 5 Live Sport: Premier League Football 2016-17 2.30 5 Live Sport 3.00 5 Live Sport 5.15 5 Live Sport: Premier League Football 2016-17 7.10 6-0-6 8.30 Our Summer: The Story Of Wales At Euro 2016 9.30 Hillsborough – Trevor And Jenni’s Journey 10.30 Adrian Goldberg 1am Up All Night 5.00 Wake Up To Money Sports Edition

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC 6 Music

6am The Magic Faraway Tree 6.30 Beatles Christmas 7.00 A Whole ’Nother Story 7.30 I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue 8.00 Thank You, Mrs Fothergill 8.30 It Sticks Out Half A Mile 9.00 Just A Minute 9.30 The Change 10.00 Mystery Theater 10.30 Soul Music 11.00 Murals 11.15 National Velvet 12noon Thank You, Mrs Fothergill 12.30 It Sticks Out Half A Mile 1.00 The Magic Faraway Tree 1.30 Beatles Christmas 2.00 Nightmare Town 2.15 The Good Samaritan 2.30 Snobs 2.45 Dear Lupin 3.00 Mystery Theater 3.30 Soul Music 4.00 Just A Minute 4.30 The Change 5.00 A Whole ’Nother Story 5.30 I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue 6.00 Doctor Who: Demon Quest 6.30 A Good Read 7.00 Thank You, Mrs Fothergill 7.30 It Sticks Out Half A Mile

7am Shaun Keaveny 10.00 Lauren Laverne 1pm Mark Radcliffe And Stuart Maconie 4.00 Tom Ravenscroft 6.00 Wise Women 7.00 The First Time With Josh Homme 8.00 Wise Women 9.00 Round Table 10.00 Iggy Pop 12mdn’t Annie Nightingale With George Harrison 1.00 Wise Women 2.00 Golden Years – The David Bowie Story 2.30 6 Music Live Hour 3.30 6 Music’s Jukebox 5.00 Jon Hillcock

Pick ofthe day

Bryan Adams Rocks!

12noon, BBC Radio 2 The musician presents some of his favourite tracks, including David Bowie, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, The Who and AC/DC.

Classic FM 6am More Music Breakfast 9.00 Bill Turnbull 1pm Jane Jones 5.00 John Brunning 7.00 Smooth Classics At Seven 9.00 Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Classical Music.

Catherine Bott explores the world of binaural recording.

10.00 Smooth Classics 1am Sam Pittis

Absolute Radio 6am Ben Burrell 10.00 Martyn Lee 2pm Rock ’n’ Roll Football With Chris Martin 6.00 David Bowie – The Day That Changed The World 7.00 Kings Of Leon – Live At The 229 Club 8.00 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Live At The O2 9.00 Noel Gallagher 11.00 U2@40 1am George Godfrey

Heart 6am Matt Mackay 10.00 Margherita Taylor 2pm Matt Wilkinson 6.00 Heart Live with Robbie Williams 7.00 Kat Shoob 10.00 Anna Johnson 1am James Merritt

TalkSPORT 6am My Sporting Life 8.00 The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast With Max Rushden And Ray Parlour 12noon Match Day 5.00 Full Time Phone-in 7.00 Kick-off 10.00 Sports Bar 1am Extra Time With Geoff Peters

Quiz of the year For nearly 150 years, ‘Whitaker’s Almanack’ has been the most comprehensive compendium of facts, trivia and ephemera in the English language. So who better than its team of expert compilers to test your knowledge of 2016? Part one was published on Saturday

Puzzles Mind benders Including a word search, a knight’s tour, a yajilin and a jumbo crossword Page 30

Arts Femme fatale A new Agatha Christie adaptation stars Kim Cattrall Page 32

WINNERS AND LOSERS 1. Diane James won the Ukip leadership contest in September, but how many days later did she stand down from the role?

2. David Cameron (right) was under scrutiny in April after the leaking of the Panama Papers. However, which country’s prime minister resigned as a result of the leaks?

3. Which television show, first broadcast in 2005, was axed from its studio format, after giving away £40m over 3,000 episodes?

4. Who did Jeremy Corbyn comfortably defeat in a Labour leadership contest in September?

5. England achieved a Grand Slam in the Six Nations but in which year did the team last achieve the success?

6. Which high-street stores, a constant presence in the UK for 88 years, closed in August?

7. After winning five gold and one silver medal in Rio, which sportsperson retired as the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals?

8. Who was banned from their political party in April for claiming Adolf Hitler had been a Zionist “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”?

9. Major Tim Peake made a triumphant return to Earth in June having spent 186 days on board the Inter national Space Station. What event did the astronaut undertake in space? a) He set a world record for most custard creams eaten in one minute; b) He sang the national anthem for the FA Cup Final; c) He ran the London Marathon.

10. With earnings of $88m, who was named as the year’s highest-paid sports star?

ART & THEATRE 1. Who won the London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her role as Yerma?

2. The eighth story in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, written as a two-part stage play, premiered at the Palace Theatre, London on 30 July 2016: who played the part of a middleaged Harry Potter?

3. Which American artist, known for her paintings of magnified flowers, had a major retrospective at the Tate Modern this year?

4. April 2016 marked the quatercentenary of Shakespeare’s death. Who portrayed Richard III in an award-winning performance at the Almeida Theatre?

5. It was announced in September that Sir Nicholas Serota is to step down as the Director of which arts organisation in 2017? a) Tate b) The National Gallery c) Royal Academy of Arts 5. Sheridan Smith played Fanny Brice to critical acclaim in this year’s

production of the musical Funny Girl; who played the role in the original 1964 Broadway production?

7. In March what did contemporary artist Tracey Emin announce she had married?

8. Which role did Glenn Close reprise, after a 23-year hiatus, in the musical Sunset Boulevard?

9. Which London art gallery director and co-founder stepped down in July after 25-years at the helm?

10. Around 3,000 blue-painted naked people gathered at dawn in Hull in July for a photograph by American artist Spencer Tunick. What was the title of the piece?

‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’

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Spencer Tunick’s ‘Sea of Hull’; Major Tim Peake (far left) AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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HATCHED, MATCHED & DISPATCHED 1. Who was the world’s longest reigning monarch at the time of his death in October?

2. Lord Frederick Windsor and his wife Sophie had their second child, Isabella Alexandra May Windsor in January. What is her place in the order of succession? a) 50th b) 48th c) 46th 3. Who was officially declared dead in February, despite having disappeared in 1974?

4. Which veteran broadcaster, who presented his eponymous programme on BBC Radio 2 from 1973 to 2002, died in November?

5. MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace married for the fourth time in August. Where was the wedding held? a) Hever Castle (childhood home of Anne Boleyn) b) Hatfield House (childhood home of Elizabeth I) c) Eltham Palace (childhood home of Henry VIII) 6. Comedian Victoria Wood died in April. One of her characters was always looking for her friend, ‘Have you seen ‘er?’ What was the name of the fictional friend she was seeking? a) Kristina b) Kelly c) Kimberley 7. What is the title of David Bowie’s final album released

American shared their life lessons in No Dream Is Too High?

6. First published in 2012 and adapted into a film in November, which animal features in the story of busker James Bowen and his companion Bob? 7. Ali Smith released a new ‘post-Brexit’ novel, the first in a four-part series named ‘Seasonal’. What was the novel called?

8. The Glorious Heresies was the Baileys Women’s Prize winning debut novel by which Irish author?

9. Published in October, My Turn is the autobiography of which celebrated sportsman, who died in March?

10. As part of the Hogarth Margaret Atwood Shakespeare project, Marand her take on garet Atwood’s Hag-Seed Shakespeare reinterpreted which of the Bard’s comedies?

WINNERS AND LOSERS 1. 18 days 2. Iceland (Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson) 3. Deal Or No Deal 4. Owen Smith 5. 2003 6. BHS (British Home Stores) 7. Michael Phelps 8. Ken Livingstone 9. c) He ran the London Marathon 10. Cristiano Ronaldo HATCHED, MATCHED & DISPATCHED 1. King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand (Rama IX) – he reigned for 70 years having ascended the

ANSWERS

throne on 9 June 1946.

2. b) 48th 3. John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan) 4. Sir Jimmy Young, CBE 5. a) Hever Castle (childhood home of Anne Boleyn) 6. c) Kimberley 7. Blackstar 8. Alice Through the Looking Glass 9. c) River Rocket Oliver 10. Pippa Middleton ART & THEATRE 1. Billie Piper 2. Jamie Parker 3. Georgia O’Keeffe 4. Ralph Fiennes 5. a) Tate 6. Barbra Streisand

BOOKS 1. What was unique about Paul Beatty winning the Man Booker Prize for his racial satire The Sellout? a) The book was written anonymously b) Beatty was the first US author to win the award c) The novel was written by Beatty aboard the International Space Station 2. Whose autobiography, released in October, was entitled Not Dead Yet, the name also given to his 2017 comeback tour?

3. Which award-winning author’s novel, Swing Time, her first novel since 2012, tells the story of two tap dancing girls?

4. With a missed publication date of 2016, The Winds of Winter is the long-awaited sixth book by which fantasy author?

5. Which history-making

VOICES 14-18

i

fas

Dearly departed: Victoria Wood; David Bowie

just two days before his death in January?

8. What is the title of the film, released posthumously, in which Alan Rickman voiced the character of Absolem?

9. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools gave birth to their fifth child in August. What did they name their new son? a) Buddy Bear Oliver b) Charlie Coleslaw Oliver c) River Rocket Oliver 10. Who announced their engagement in July to James Matthews, a hedge fund manager and eldest son of the Laird of Glen Affric?

‘Whitaker’s 2017 is published by Bloomsbury, £85

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7. A stone in the garden in her house in France 8. Norma Desmond 9. Dame Julia Peyton-Jones 10. Sea of Hull BOOKS 1. b) Beatty was the first US author to win the award 2. Phil Collins 3. Zadie Smith 4. George R R Martin 5. Buzz Aldrin 6. Cat (A Street Cat Named Bob) 7. Autumn 8. Lisa McInerney 9. Johan Cruyff 10. The Tempest

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The i Christmas Jumbo General Knowledge Crossword 2016 1

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OUT NOW! The i Book of Puzzles 20 puzzle types, including idokus, codewords, crosswords, word fits, word squares, knight’s tours and calcudokus, with more than 100 puzzles.

Available on Amazon for £4.99. inews.co.uk/puzzle

Arts

Murder most fabulous The team behind ‘And Then There Were None’ is back with a new Agatha Christie. Expect lots of ‘sordid moments’, the cast tells Gerard Gilbert

I

If you’re staying in...

BOOKS

Under A Pole Star

BY STEF PENNEY

A novel about the Arctic, love, dominion, ambition and fulfilment from the Costa Prize winner.

Its heroine is Flora, an explorer who returns to the North Pole in her eighties.

DVD/BLU-RAY

Café Society CERTIFICATE 12, 96 MINS

Woody Allen’s latest is set in Hollywood’s golden age and stars Jesse Eisenberg, who moves to LA to live with his talent agent uncle, and Kristen Stewart as his uncle’s gorgeous assistant. Another return to form, of sorts, for the director.

t’s fast becoming a new Christmas tradition. First the BBC, who have acquired the TV rights to the Agatha Christie canon, produce one of their new, bleaker Christie-noir adaptations of Dame Agatha’s stories (last year it was And Then There Were None; this Christmas it’s The Witness for the Prosecution), and then, about a fortnight before transmission, some newspapers gleefully warn readers that the BBC have trashed the sacred memory of the “Queen of Crime”.

However, the 10 million viewers who watched and enjoyed Sarah Phelps’s adaptation of And Then There Were None last year mostly appreciated the BBC’s bold and decisive move away from the cosiness of ITV’s Miss Marple and Poirot adaptations.

Phelps herself is mocking about the logic of the outrage. “What have you done?”, she mimics. “Why have you taken this story of murder and death that we love so much, and made it a story of murder and death?”

Phelps has gone back to Christie’s original short story from 1925 for her adaptation of The Witness for the Prosecution, rather than the later stage play that formed the basis of the Billy Wilder’s 1957 movie starring Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich.

In the film, Tyrone’s character, L eonard Vole, is accused of murdering a rich older woman, Emily French, who had become so enamoured of him that she had named Vole as the sole beneficiary of her will. Laughton is the barrister who becomes the dupe in a fiendish plot in which Vole’s wife (played by Dietrich) agrees to appear for the prosecution Wilder’s movie made a film noir out of Christie’s play – it was very much of its time in other words, and, in its dingy fug, the tone and look of Phelps’s adaptation of Christie’s 1925 short story – much of it shot like a bad dream – feels very well suited to the political and moral uncertainties of the post-Brexit, post-Trump world.

Indeed a fog machine is artfully diffusing the light in the basement of the disused and dilapidated E d wa rd i a n f i re s t at i o n a n d courtroom over the road from Manchester’s Piccadilly station where the drama is being filmed.

I’m watching a scene in which young Leonard Vole (played here by the up-and-coming Billy Howle) is being interviewed by his defence solicitor, Mayhew (Toby Jones), the older man gradually starting to

identify with Vole, a fellow First World War veteran. Visibly distracted by the Manchester trams thundering overhead, Jones’s cough is not because of the vapour being pumped out across the set on the orders of director Julian Jarrold (A Royal Night Out, Brideshead Revisited), but because Jones’s character, Mayhew, had survived a gas attack on the Western Front.

“While remaining true to the story, Sarah [Phelps] is also examining the damage that was done by the First World War to a whole society”, says Jones. “The interest of this story hinges on how mad everyone has become – not just by this case, but by the war that’s just ended.”

“When we think of the 1920s we always think of shingled hair, Champagne and dancing on tables to the Charleston”, says Phelps. “The

Sh hot like a bad dream, it is well suited to the uncertainty of the post-Brexit world flipside of that is that there was a terrible recession in the 1920s and people had come back from the war into absolute poverty – men sold their medals so they could eat.”

In a murder mystery without a detective, Jones’s solicitor is the nearest character that we have to a sleuth in The Witness for the Prosecution. The in-demand actor was filming a Michael Haneke film with Isabelle Huppert, Happy End, when he received the script. “My agent said ‘I’m sending you an Agatha Christie’ and I sort of went: ‘Right...’ only because I figure I know what Agatha Christie’s going to be like. I’m either killed or I’m going to kill.”

Jones knows because he has already been murdered in an Agatha Christie film, playing the victim in ITV’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express. “That was memorable to me because I was stabbed by most of Equity”, he says. “Eileen Atkins, David Morrissey, Hugh Bonneville... they all plunged a knife in”.

The victim in The Witness for the Prosecution, Emily French, is played

by Kim Cattrall – forever (despite a strong body of work since putting distance between Cattrall and the character Samantha in Sex and the City). “I had to spend a lot of time sprawled on a rug at one point, face down, with candy-sweet fake blood coming from my head”, says Cattrall,

who has a history with the story – having tried and failed to bring the play to Broadway and the West End five years ago.

“The script came in and it was drastically different from the stage adaptation I knew, but I thought it was terrific”, says Cattrall, the added attraction being that many of her scenes were filmed in Liverpool, the city where the Anglo-Canadian actress was born and spent large parts of her childhood, and where she still has family.

“And to be there for my 60th birthday was just the cream on the top”, she says. “Everybody sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and they gave me a magnum of Champagne... what a wonderful send-off for a new decade.”

Cattrall was determined to make French more than just a rich older woman preying impoverished young men. “I wanted to give her a past and since it was 1923 and the Suffragette movement was really in full swing, then she could be that kind of a rebel.”

Cattrall’s original intention in staging the play on Broadway had been to take the role of chorus girl Romaine, Leonard Vole’s Austrianborn wife who turns out to be his mistress and therefore able to give evidence against Vole. Romaine is played by Andrea Riseborough, Robbie Coltrane’s daughter in Channel 4’s National Treasure and here giving another wonderfully highly-strung performance.

“Romaine is broken and it was her brokenness that drew me in”, says Riseborough. “I believe that her wounds are so all-consuming that she’s lost any sense of perspective in order to become completely selfsufficient. Survival is her only aim.”

Billy Howle, who plays her boyfriend, Leonard Vole, is going to be everywhere next year, including in two big new literary adaptations, of Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach and of Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending. Inevitably he’s already being talked about as a future James Bond, although he says that his friends think of him more as a future Doctor Who – and in person he does has something of Matt Smith about him.

“Leonard is very much a product of his time in the sense that there is a swathe of disillusioned young people post First World War”, says Howle.

“In my eyes Leonard, whatever he has done or not done, will always be innocent. That’s not to say I advocate bumping off your mistress...”

Howle says that he and Cattrall clicked immeditely, and that she is a “generous and giving actress”.

Rebellious: Kim Cattrall as Emily French in ‘The Witness for the Prosecution’ ROBERT VIGLASKY/ BBC

“Socially we got on big time... had a lot of fun and laughs, we never took anything too seriously. That’s important when you’re doing a job like this, which is quite full on.

There are lots of sordid moments and it touches on the raunchy. But those kind of things are more widely accepted now.”

Except by certain newspaper readers, it would seem, although the disapproval of a mid-market tabloid,

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Arts

agenda

THE CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS YOU HAVE TO SEE

FILM

Sully

12A, CLINT EASTWOOD, 96 MINS

WARNER BROS

Tom Hanks stars as Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who crash-landed his stricken plane on the Hudson river on a freezing January day in 2009 – and he surely deserves another Oscar nomination for his performance. He convinces us of his character’s quick thinking and bravery, but also shows us his vulnerability. The film is one of Clint Eastwood’s finest and most unshowy features.

Nationwide release

THEATRE Strictly Ballroom

WEST YORKSHIRE PLAYHOUSE, LEEDS

Audiences have been responding to this glittering stage reprisal of Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 film with the nightly ritual of a teary-eyed standing ovation. The film’s original score and its roll call of standards, pop hits and originals are brought up to date by a live orchestra. (0113 213 7700) to 21 Jan

Cinderella

KING’S THEATRE, GLASGOW

A good-looking and joyful version, directed with memorable warmth

by Morag Fullarton and presented with real sparkle on the King’s big stage. Gillian Ford’s Cinderella is a delight, while Gregor Fisher and Tony Roper win roars of recognition as a pair of memorably grumpy Ugly Sisters. (atgtickets.com) to 8 Jan

Aladdin

LYRIC HAMMERSMITH, LONDON W6

FILM The Birth of a Nation 15, NATE PARKER, 120 MINS

The director stars as Nat Turner, the slave who started a rebellion in Virginia in 1831, in a movie that hinges on bloodshed and violence.

For most of its running length, the black slaves are brutalised by the white slave owners, and while in Hollywood movies about even the grimmest subjects, there is usually some symbolic final-reel reconciliation, what makes his film so provocative and troubling is its refusal to provide its audience with any such thing. Nationwide release

Moana

A trademark high-energy and enthusiasm-stuffed home-grown show. Karl Queensborough makes for a genial hero who falls in love above his lowly social station and it’s always a pleasure to see performers from the Lyric’s lively Young Ensemble offering such peppy supporting work.

(020 8741 6850) to 7 Jan

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

ROYAL LYCEUM, EDINBURGH

The Lyceum auditorium has been turned into a gorgeous Victorian box of delights for Anthony Neilson’s memorable new version, which captures the strange, ambiguous English absurdism of Lewis Carroll.

(0131 248 4848) to Sat

PG, RON CLEMENTS AND JOHN MUSKER, 113 MINS

The heroine of Disney’s 56th animated feature is a rebellious young Polynesian girl, destined to revive her tribe’s seafaring tradition. What impresses most is the way the film-makers combine the traditional Disney elements with a storyline rooted in South Sea islands myth and culture.

Nationwide release

a perennial critic of the BBC and all its works, has not discouraged the broadcaster from pursuing its more hard-boiled take on Agatha Christie.

In fact the BBC recently announced a new deal with the Christie estate to produce seven new adaptations over the next four years, starting next Christmas with Ordeal by Innocence. “A story about a seriously dysfunctional family”, says Hilary Strong, CEO of Agatha Christie

Ltd. “So again a very modern story.”

In the meantime the company is working with Kenneth Branagh on his re-make of Murder on the Orient Express, in which the Wallander star will direct and play Poirot, and with Ben Affleck on his planned re-make of The Witness for the Prosecution, in which Affleck will direct himself as Vole. “That will be quite a few years”, says Strong. “Him being Batman in the meantime.” The BBC’s Ordeal by

Innocence will again be scripted by Phelps. “It wasn’t always the plan that we would work with Sarah, but she’s just found this incredible way of reading the books”, says Strong. “And as long as Sarah is excited by them – long may it continue.”

‘The Witness for the Prosecution’, BBC1 tonight 9pm and again on 27 December

DANCE The Little Match Girl

LILIAN BAYLIS STUDIO, SADLER’S WELLS, LONDON EC1

Arthur Pita’s inventive retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale has quirky live music, hissable villains and a bright sense of fantasy. It doesn’t shy away from the story’s darker side, but adds its own warm fantasy element.

(020 7863 8000) to Fri

JAZZ

Liane Carroll’s Cold Turkey!

RONNIE SCOTT’S, LONDON W1

The charismatic vocalist and pianist performs Christmas numbers alongside tracks from her recent album, Seaside, and reworkings of classic jazz standards.

(020 7439 0747) tonight and Tue

Business

Business Editor: Elizabeth Anderson +4420 7361 5718

business@inews.co.uk FINANCE

Flotations are down by £5bn after Brexit bashes sterling

By Elizabeth Anderson BUSINESS EDITOR

Brexit unease and the shock of the the US election result took its toll on the IPO market this year, according to data from accountancy firm EY. The organisation said a total of 63 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange this year. But while the figure was up from the 60 floated in London last year, the money they were able to raise was just half the amount of 2015.

The 63 firms – which included 26 listings on the main market and 37 on the LSE’s junior AIM market – raised Metro Bank raised £400m when it £5.5bn. This compared to £10.5bn floated in London this year that was raised last year when 33 “We saw smaller listings this year floated on either the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250, and 27 listed on AIM. In with Aim being the most active market. This is mainly due 2014, 93 companies joined the to the number of private Exchange, raising £13bn. equity backed businesses EY said companies coming to market being had been hit by the much smaller than fall in the value of usual and currency the pound since the Total of new firms instability”, said Scott Brexit vote on 23 joining the London McCubbin of EY. June, which meant Stock Exchange’s Medical products many had to price main market manufacturer themselves at the in 2016 ConvaTec Group, which lower end of their price listed on 31 October, was range in order to attract the biggest IPO of 2016. investors. EY said a number The Reading-based company, of IPOs were simply withdrawn from which makes specialist medical the market as a result.

26

products, including a unique gelbased wound dressing, raised £1.47bn, valuing the company at more than £4bn. ConvaTec employs around 9,000 people and has a major R&D base in North Wales. Since listing on the FTSE 100 at 225p a share, its stock is now worth 233p.

Other major IPOs this year included the £1.6bn flotation of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank (CYBG) in February. The 157-yearold lender floated at 180p a share, raising £396m, and its shares jumped seven per cent on the day, despite being forced to delay the float for 24 hours following a request for more information from an unspecified ratings agency.

In the past 11 months, CYBG’s shares have jumped 55 per cent to around 279p.

Other companies coming to the market this year included Metro Bank, which raised £400m, and Hollywood Bowl, which raised £240m.

Among companies that abandoned their stock market listings this year were software giant Misys, which had hoped to raise £500m, and Pure Gym, which had hoped for £190m.

INVESTMENTS

Brexit shockwaves and falling pound dominated the market fluctuations The miners cashed in, while EU referendum result hit some shares hard. By Laith Khalaf

I

t’s been been a great year to be a stock market investor, and yet another poor year to be a cash saver, as interest rates fell to a record low in August.

Stock market investors are quids in as a result of the fall in the pound, which has helped to boost the price of UK shares.

Larger stocks have benefited from non-sterling revenues and international exposure at a time when there is doubt about the near-term prospects for the domestic economy. As ever, dividends prove to be an important component of returns, equating to around £1 in every £4 returned to FTSE 100 investors in 2016.

However the spoils of 2016 have

not been evenly shared and, as always, some stocks have performed brilliantly, but others poorly.

Biggest FTSE movers

BEST-PERFORMING SHARES

Anglo American

301.6%

Glencore

209.0%

% price change

TOP 10

Despite a dreadful start, 2016 has been the year of the mining giants, which have benefited from the dual tail winds of rising commodity prices and a falling pound.

However, although the share price of Anglo American has quadrupled this year, this has still only repaired the damage done over the course of 2015, and the company is still trading at roughly a third of the value it reached at its peak in 2008, amply demonstrating why the sector falls firmly in the camp of cyclical stocks.

Morrisons has also seen a turnaround in fortunes, as has Tesco, which has seen its share price rise by 38 per cent this year, although food price deflation is still chipping away at profitability.

Looking forward into 2017, the sector faces a new challenge from the rising cost of imported food, thanks to the fall in sterling, which will probably apply pressure to margins against such a competitive backdrop.’

WORST-PERFORMING SHARES

31 Dec 2015 to 14 Dec 2016

Fresnillo

78.4% 66.7%

Rio Tinto

60.0%

Wm Morrison

53.8%

Antofagasta

53.6% 50.2%

BHP Billiton

Smiths Group Royal Dutch Shell

45.1%

Ashtead Group

43.8%

BOTTOM 10 Barratt Developments

-27.4%

Travis Perkins

-27.9%

RBS

-28.0%

Intl Consolidated Airlines

-28.9% -29.5%

ITV Dixons Carphone

-31.5%

Mediclinic International

-32.8% -33.2%

Next easyJet

-43.6%

Capita

-60.5% SOURCE: HARGREAVES LANDSDOWN

The bottom of the FTSE has a distinctly Brexit flavour to it, as economic concerns have damaged expectations for airlines, retailers and the construction industry.

The worst performer, Capita, issued a profit warning in September when it transpired its customers were putting off business decisions, probably a result of the Brexit vote. This was compounded by rising debt levels, operational delays on the IT systems for London’s congestion charge, and a contract dispute with Co-op bank.

It’s been another annus horribilis for Royal Bank of Scotland, following a failed stress test, delays in offloading Williams & Glyn and yet more litigation costs. The bank has lost a third of its value since the start of the year and in July, RBS shares traded at their lowest price since 2009. While the stock has since recovered a bit of its poise, the share price still needs to more than double from here before the taxpayer breaks even on the bailout.

2017 has its fair share of challenges in store for RBS too, with the continuing struggle to

NEWS 2-25

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BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

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RETAIL

London flagship store set to make 2016 Lego’s best year

By Elizabeth Anderson BUSINESS EDITOR

Lego is expecting 2016 to have been another record year, with sales boosted by the release of the new Star Wars film, as well as the opening of its new flagship store in London’s Leicester Square.

The Danish toy company had its “best year ever” in 2015, with sales up 25 per cent to 35.8 billion kroner (£4.06bn) and profits of 12.2 billion kroner. But Glenn Abell, Lego’s European vice-president, expects 2016 to top that. “We think we’re on track for another record year. We’ve had doubledigit growth for the past 12 years and we’re really pleased with the results of the company”, he told i.

Lego opened its Leicester Square store last month. Spanning almost 1,000 square metres over two floors, it is the biggest Lego store in the world and features 1.7 million bricks that

spin off Williams & Glyn, further restructuring costs and the prospect of a multi-billion dollar fine in the US hanging over the bank, and keeping a return to private ownership in the long grass.

BEST-PERFORMING FUNDS.

This year has seen resources funds rise to the top of the performance table, particularly those with gold exposure. Low interest rates and political upheaval continue to be supportive of the yellow metal.

Resource-heavy countries like Russia and Brazil have also prospered in 2016.

The top 3 performing funds are: 1. WAY Charteris Gold & Precious Metals, which has achieved a total return of 123.5 per cent this year.

2. Junior Gold. Total returns: 119.6 per cent.

3. HSBC GIF Russia Equity.

Total returns: 85.6 per cent.

WORST-PERFORMING FUNDS.

The bottom of the fund performance table in 2016 does nothing to assuage concerns that absolute return funds may not live up to their billing.

While all three funds at the bottom of the table have better long-term performance, the numbers show the journey to absolute returns can be anything but a smooth ride. While all absolute return funds target a positive return over at most

three years, they go about their business in very different ways and with varying levels of risk, so it’s particularly important not to judge a book by its cover when picking funds from this sector.

The wost three performing funds: 1. FP Argonaut Absolute Return, which is down 26.2 per cent.

2. CF Odey Absolute Return.

Down 18.0 per cent.

3. City Financial Absolute Equity.

Down 14.6 per cent.

Even good managers have bad years and that’s certainly the case for Steve Davies of Jupiter UK Growth. His top 10 holdings reads like a roll call of Brexit losers, including Lloyds, Dixons Carphone and IAG. However, 12 months is a short time in fund management and, despite a rocky 2016, over five years the fund is still more than 20 per cent ahead of the UK stock market.

Heading into 2017, income will remain hard to come by, with cash and bonds still yielding very little.

This problem is likely to become even more acute in 2017 as inflation returns to the fray, thanks to a lower pound and higher commodity prices, which can be expected to push the real rate of return on cash into negative territory. This should be supportive of the stock market, which remains one of the few places investors can go to get a decent income, particularly with millions of baby boomers beginning

to hit retirement and searching for a yield on their pension pot. Picking investments based on unfolding political events is therefore akin to relinquishing decisions to not one, but two coin flips. Those who took their money out of the stock market because of the EU referendum have missed out on substantial returns, despite the fact they may have correctly guessed we were headed for Brexit.

Investors should focus on the levers they can control which will increase their wealth, namely saving as much as they can each month, investing in tried and tested fund managers, and making their portfolio as tax-efficient as possible by using SIPPs and ISAs. Laith Khalaf is a senior analyst at investment management service Hargreaves Lansdown

Make Money

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have been put together to form replicas of Big Ben, a Tube carriage and a red telephone box. The secrets behind the opening of the store have also been revealed in a documentary that airs on Channel 4 tonight.

Lego completed construction work on the store in just three months, although it took six months to build the 6.5 metre-high model of Big Ben. The structure was built at Lego’s Prague factory using 344,020 bricks. The programme reveals that builders knocked down part of a wall when lifting Lego’s new Mosaic Maker, a machine that creates personal portraits in Lego in just five minutes, on to the second floor.

The programme said the company took a “huge gamble” by opening a major new outlet in a year of economic turmoil. Lego revealed that prices in the UK will increase by 5 per cent next year in response to the fall in the value of the pound over the past six months, which has pushed up the prices of imports.

Games&Puzzles

TheDaily Recipe

Herby mustard fillet of beef

Kakuro

Bridges

How to play Fill the white squares so that the total in each across or down run of cells matches the total at the start of that run. You must use the numbers from 1-9 only and cannot repeat a number in a run. Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

How to play Connect all the circles (which represent islands) into a single interconnected group. The number in a circle represents the number of bridges that connect that island to other islands. Bridges can be created horizontally and vertically, with no more than two bridges between any pair of islands. Bridges cannot cross the path of any other bridges. Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

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Jigsawdoku

How to play Place the letters A, B and C exactly once in each row and column. Each row and column has two blank cells.

The letters at the edge of a row/ column indicate which of the letters is the first/last to appear in that row/column.

Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

How to play Place the numbers from 1-5 exactly once in each row and column. The greater than and less than signs (‘>’ and ‘<’) indicate where one cell is greater/less than the adjacent cell indicated. Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

How to play Place the numbers 1-9 once in each row, column and bold-lined jigsaw region.

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Killer Sudoku No 857

Minesweeper

How to play Each row, column and 3 by 3 box must contain each number (1 to 9) only once. The sum of all numbers contained in a dotted area must match the number printed in its top-left corner. No number can appear more than once in a dotted area. Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

How to play Find all the mines in the grid. Numbers in certain squares indicate how many mines there are in the neighbouring squares, including diagonally touching squares. Mines cannot be placed in squares with numbers. Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

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ABC Logic

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From ‘Dinner Ladies: Fill your Fridge and Freezer’ by Sophie Gilliatt and Katherine Westwood (Murdoch Books, £14.99).

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Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Rub the beef fillet with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan or barbecue hotplate and sear the beef for 8–10 minutes, turning regularly until browned all over. Transfer to a baking tray or roasting tin.

Mix the garlic, mustard and herbs with salt, pepper and the remaining olive oil in a bowl. Rub the garlic mixture evenly over the beef.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes for medium–rare. Test by cutting into the centre of the fillet with a knife: it should still be quite pink, but not raw. Take it out of the oven a little underdone, as it continues to cook while resting.

Rest the beef on a warm place, covered with foil, for 8–10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Serve with a dollop of creamed horseradish and mustard or delicious with a simple side, such as baked veggies with garlic or green beans, broccolini and pancetta.

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INGREDIENTS Serves 6-8 1.5kg (3lb 5oz) fillet of beef, trimmed of fat and sinew 100ml (3½ fl oz) olive oil 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary 2 tablespoons finely chopped thyme Creamed horseradish and dijon mustard, for serving

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When I want to cook something quick and fancy for a dinner party, I often buy a whole fillet of beef. If you are unsure how to prepare the fillet, have your butcher trim it for you, removing the side strap and sinew, then fold the thinner tail end under and secure it with some kitchen string. This will give the fillet a consistent shape and ensure even, perfect cooking.

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NEWS 2-25

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

Maths Puzzle

Codeword No 1577

How to play Fill the empty squares with numbers that will make the across and down calculations produce the results shown in the grey squares. Each numeral from 1 to 9 must only appear once. The calculations should be performed from left to right and top to bottom, rather than in strict mathematical order.

How to play The numbers in the grid correspond to the letters of the alphabet.

Solve the puzzle and fill in the letters in the key as you discover them.

Three letters are provided to give you a start. The solution will be printed in tomorrow’s paper, the solution to Saturday’s codeword is on page 41.

Easier

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Word Ladder How to play Convert the word at the top of the ladder into the word at the bottom of it, using only the four rungs in between. On each rung, you must put a valid four-letter word that is identical to the word above it, apart from a one-letter change.

There may be more than one way of achieving this.

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BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

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CUTS WINS

FETE

DOWN 1 Smartened (7) 2 Communion table (5) 3 Train’s dining area (10,3) 4 Tot (4) 5 Trinket (6) 6 Shiny decoration (6) 7 Short form of Christmas (4) 13 Single-celled organism (6) 14 Scaredy-cat (6) 15 Christmas cake (4,3) 16 Young female (4) 18 Once more (5) 19 Chew (4)

Stuck on the concise crossword?

For today’s solutions, call 0905 789 3590. Calls cost 80p per minute plus your network access charge. If you are having trouble accessing this number, please call our helpdesk on 0333 202 3390.

3 5 1 9 8 6

9 4 9 1 3 8 7 9 2 5 3 6 2 3 8 6

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Maths Puzzle, Word Ladder, Word Wheel, Kakuro, Bridges, Minesweeper, ABC Logic, Killer Sudoku, Futoshiki, Codeword, Jigsawduko and Wijuko created by Clarity Media.

For more puzzles, see clarity-media. co.uk

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Terms & Conditions

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16 Stuck on a word?

Use your mobile phone to find possible solutions. Just replace unknown letters with a full stop, start the message with THEI SOLVE and send it to 85100. E.g. THEI SOLVE pu..le. Texts cost 50p plus your standard network charge. If no suggestions are found, you won’t be charged. For multi-word answers, leave a space between the words. If you are having trouble using this service, please call our helpdesk on 020 3615 0014.

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Concise Crossword No 1899 ACROSS 1 Kill (4) 3 Isle of Wight resort (4) 8 Ceremonials (7) 9 Maxim (5) 10 Of the brain (8) 11 Enquires (4) 12 Utterly (13) 16 Like King Wenceslas (4) 17 Advocaat and lemonade drink (8) 20 Redbreast (5) 21 Panacea (4-3) 22 Large jug (4) 23 Hitch (4)

3 2 1 8

1 5

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Need a little help getting started? Then call for up to four extra clue letters on 0901 292 5204. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. Or text THEI CLUE to 85100 to receive your clues. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. Clues change each day at midnight. Phoneline and Text Help: 020 3615 0014.

12

How to play Each numeral from 1 to 9 must appear (once only) in the squares forming the red letter i. Solution: minurl.co.uk/i

Easier

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Sudoku

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i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

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Solution to Saturday’s Concise Crossword ACROSS 1 Mint, 3 Spies (Mince pies), 7 Jolly, 8 Osmium, 9 Frankincense, 10 Aimlessness, 14 Chiropractor, 17 Gentle, 18 Myrrh, 19 Penne, 20 Gold.

DOWN 1 Majorca, 2 Nylon, 3 Stoic, 4 Immense, 5 Sauce, 6 By-line, 11 Moisten, 12 Shrimp, 13 Sloshed, 14 Creep, 15 Obese, 16 Cargo.

Today’s other puzzles Bumper Boxing Day puzzles, pages 30 31; Cryptic Crossword, page 23; Five-Clue Cryptic, page 13; One-Minute Wijuko, page 19 Puzzle solutions See page 41 and minurl.co.uk/i OUT NOW! The i Book of Puzzles 20 puzzle types with more than 100 puzzles. Available on Amazon inews.co.uk/puzzle

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by Advanced Telecom Services, EC1M 4BH. Helpline: 0330 333 6946.

Word Wheel This is an open-ended puzzle. How many words of three or more letters, each including the letter at centre of the wheel, can you make from this diagram? We’ve found 31, including one nine-letter word.

Can you do better?

U A C

London’s Leading Independent Hotel Group: www.grangehotels.com; @grangehotels

R T

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NEWS 2-25

Sport Up

Agoodyearfor...

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

39

2016 Quiz of the Year Question master James Mariner tests your sporting knowledge JANUARY

1 With which body part did Melbourne Stars’ Adam Zampa run out Peter Nevill in the Big Bash cricket league?

2 Why was Chris Gayle fined £4,900 during the same tournament?

3What did Naomi Broady accuse the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko of doing during a tennis match in Australia?

4 Whose 258 proved England’s highest Test score of the year?

49

FEBRUARY

5 What animal attacked Shane Warne live on television?

6 Against whom did England begin Eddie Jones’ reign with a win?

7 Which side won a third SuperBowl – but first since 1998-99?

8 Whose three penalty saves helped his side win the League Cup? MARCH

ANDY MURRAY Won Wimbledon, Olympic gold, the ATP World Tour Finals and finished the year as world No 1 EDDIE JONES Rugby coach saw his team equal England’s record winning run of 14 Tests set in 2003

9 Which driver won the opening race of the Formula One season?

10 How many Tottenham players were in the starting line-up as England won in Germany?

11 Who scored Arsenal’s only goal in their Champions League defeat

by Barcelona?

12 Who scored the most tries in the Six Nations Championship?

APRIL

13 Danny Willett became England’s first Masters winner since who in 1996?

14 How many runs did Carlos Brathwaite score from the final four balls of the World T20 final?

15 Which jockey ruled the world at the Grand National?

16 Who did Manchester City beat in the Champions League quarter-finals?

MAY

SAM ALLARDYCE Sacked as England football team manager after just one game MARIA SHARAPOVA Banned from tennis after failing a drugs test RYAN LOCHTE American swimmer suspended for 10 months after inventing story about being robbed at gun point in Rio

Down ...A bad year for

17 Who scored the final goal at Upton Park?

18 Who scored Liverpool’s goal in the Europa League final?

19 At what age did Chris Swailes become the oldest final scorer at Wembley?

20 What was delayed in the capital for the second time in a month?

JUNE

21 Who upset Serena Williams in the French Open final?

22 Who did the Cleveland Cavaliers beat to win the NBA finals?

23 Whose centuries helped England to a 10-wicket ODI win over Sri Lanka?

24 How many minutes did England lead for at Euro 2016?

JULY

25 After how many stages did Chris Froome take the yellow jersey at the Tour de France?

26 The winning goal of Euro 2016 came from which former Swansea City player?

27 Who was the top Premier League scorer at Euro 2016?

28 Venus Williams’ Wimbledon

semi-final was her best Grand Slam showing in how many years?

AUGUST

29 Who became the first side to beat West Ham at their new stadium?

30 How many of the year’s four golf major winners were first-timers?

31 Who did Andy Murray beat in the Olympic tennis final?

32 Who won Britain’s first gold medal of the Olympic Games?

SEPTEMBER

33 Whose hat-trick earned a title for Middlesex?

34 Who scored England’s only goal under Sam Allardyce?

35 Which football side won the

50

Women’s Super League with an unbeaten season?

36 Who handed Andy Murray his earliest Slam exit of the year?

OCTOBER

37 Who was top points-scorer at the Ryder Cup? 38 Gareth Southgate began his England managerial reign against which opponents?

39 What did Svetlana Kuznetsova lose during a victory over Agnieszka Radwanska?

40 Who did Alastair Cook surpass as England’s most-capped Test cricketer?

NOVEMBER

41 Chicago Cubs won a first World

Series in how many years?

42 How many singles titles did Andy Murray end the year with?

43 Which country succeeded Great Britain as Davis Cup winners?

44 Which driver ended the Formula One season with most race wins?

DECEMBER

45 Who came third behind Ronaldo and Messi in the Ballon d’Or voting?

46 Who scored more Test runs in the year for England – Joe Root or Jonny Bairstow?

47 Which side did Real Madrid beat to win the Club World Cup? 48 England ended the calendar year with how many Test defeats?

PICTURE ROUND

49 Name the British Olympic gold medallists on their way back from Rio in August and the sports they competed in (above).

50 Name the two Premier League footballers (below left) in Christmas fancy dress.

Answers

1 His nose. 2 For making inappropriate comments toward a female TV reporter. 3 Throwing her racket at a ball boy. 4 Ben Stokes. 5 A snake. 6 Scotland. 7 Denver Broncos. 8 Willy Caballero. 9 Nico Rosberg. 10 Four.

11 Mohamed Elneny. 12 George North. 13 Nick Faldo.

14 24. 15 David Mullins. 16 PSG. 17 Winston Reid. 18 Daniel Sturridge. 19 45. 20 The Manchester United team coach. 21 Garbine Muguruza. 22 Golden State Warriors. 23 Jason Roy and Alex Hales. 24 23. 25 Eight.

26 Eder. 27 Olivier Giroud and Dimitri Payet. 28 Six. 29 Astra Giurgiu. 30 All four. 31 Juan Martin del Potro.

32 Swimmer Adam Peaty. 33 Toby Roland-Jones. 34 Adam Lallana. 35 Manchester City. 36 Kei Nishikori.

37 Thomas Pieters. 38 Malta. 39 Her hair, which she cut. 40 Alec Stewart. 41 108. 42 Nine. 43 Argentina. 44 Lewis Hamilton. 45 Antoine Griezmann. 46 Joe Root, by seven. 47 Kashima Antlers. 48 Eight. 49 From left: Helen Glover (rowing), Pete Reed (rowing), Max Whitlock (gymnastics), Nicola Adams (boxing). 50 Tottenham’s Dele Alli (left) and Kyle Walker

LAURA KENNY British cyclist was double gold winner again at the Rio Olympics

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SPORT

RACING

PARALYMPICS

Cue Card on course to beat fancied stablemate

After 25 years at the top, Storey’s fairy tale is a long way from its ending

By Andy Stephens

Cue Card can beat stablemate Thistlecrack in what promises to be a compelling renewal of the King George VI Chase at Kempton today.

The £200,000 contest (3.15pm), run over three miles, is the high- Colin Tizzard trains both Cue Card light of a busy Christmas racing and stablemate Thistlecrack programme and rarely disappoints.

This year’s showpiece sees two him the highest-rated steepleoutstanding stayers at the peak of chaser in training. their powers from the same yard Thistlecrack, who is two years meeting head on. his junior, carried all before him Trainers routinely avoid running as a staying hurdler last season. their best horses against each other This term, he has been switched to but Cue Card and Thistlecrack are fences and easy wins in three novin different ownership. ice chases have followed. There is Trainer Colin Tizzard no telling how good he will watch with a mixture might be but lowering Trainer of pride and trepidation the colours of Cue Card because one of his head- Colin Tizzard two months after his first line acts is going to return will watch outing over the bigger obhome vanquished. with pride and stacles is a massive test.

Splitting the pair is not The Christmas Hurdle easy but Cue Card makes trepidation (2.40) is the chief supbecause one marginally more appeal. porting race on the card The 10-year-old has of his headline and also looks like being a been there, done that acts is going to cracker. Many have writand got the T-shirt when be vanquished ten off My Tent Or Yours it comes to the top races after two below-par runs over fences, while his this term but the dual younger stablemate is still learning. Champion Hurdle runner-up will Cue Card’s popularity has been have his optimum conditions and on the up and up ever since he won is overpriced, each-way at 11-1 with at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010 Coral, to bounce back. and he remains a force, chalking up Nicky Henderson, his trainer, his eighth Grade One success in the may also be on the mark with Betfair Chase last month. He won a the exciting Might Bite in the memorable King George last year Kauto Star Novices’ Chase (2.05). and his official rating of 176 makes EVENING STANDARD

PICK OF THE DAY’S RACING KEMPTON 12.55

32RED CASINO NOVICES’ HURDLE (CLASS 2) £18,000 added 2m

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Britain’s legendary medal winner tells Richard Edwards that even at 39 she is already planning for Tokyo 2020

F

ew British athletes, if any, pursuit final to cement her name in have witnessed the rise the record books. With only Kenny of British sport at such now above her, Storey maintains close quarters but with the steely determination that has 2017 marking the 25th seen her switch from being one anniversary of her first Paralympic of the country’s best Paralympic medal, Dame Sarah Storey could swimmers to its pre-eminent cyclist be forgiven for taking her foot off at an indecent haste. the gas.

It’s easy to forget that she Like Team GB, though, only swapped the pool she’s determined to for the velodrome as plough on and already recently as 2005 but has her sights set if that was seen as firmly on Tokyo a risk at the time, it Number of 2020 and an eighth has been made to Paralympic gold Paralympics. Storey look like one of the medals Dame Sarah will be 42 when the most straightforward Storey has won next Games rolls career moves in around but such was sporting history. her dominance in South “I’ve put my name in the America that it would take a hat to continue, I’ve just started brave punter to bet against her adding planning next year to see what sort to her golden tally of 14 and challenging of shape that will take,” says Storey.

Mike Kenny’s current all-time British “I’m confident that a quieter year next Paralympic record total of 16. year will be good, I’m not going to be It took Storey a single race in doing quite so much running around Rio to surpass the haul of Dame the world chasing events. From 2018, Tanni Grey-Thompson, claiming when the points scoring starts again gold in the C5 3,000m individual I’ll start to ramp it up towards Tokyo.”

32RED KAUTO STAR NOVICES’ CHASE (GRADE 1) (CLASS 1) £70,000 added 3m

U249-1 46-112 P2/3-F 144-21

AMORE ALATO (C)(D) J Farrelly 7 11 7...........................R Johnson ANIBALE FLY A J Martin (IRE) 6 11 7.................. B J Geraghty T CARACCI APACHE (D) N Henderson 6 11 7 ....................N Fehily CHURCHTOWN CHAMP (D) D Skelton 6 11 7....................................... ............................................................................................................................T Scudamore T 5 517-21 MIGHT BITE (C) N Henderson 7 11 7......................................... D Jacob 6 -22112 MINELLA DADDY (D)(BF) P Bowen 6 11 7...... Sean Bowen B 7 -21U11 PRESENT MAN (D) P Nicholls 6 11 7 ....................... J Sherwood T 8 0-2213 ROYAL VACATION (D) C Tizzard 6 11 7.............P Brennan B,T 9 5-11P2 VIRGILIO D Skelton 7 11 7.......................................................... H Skelton T 10 -11101 FRODON P Nicholls 4 11 0.......................................S Twiston-Davies - 10 declared BETTING: 5-2 Anibale Fly, 4-1 Frodon, 5-1 Might Bite, 6-1 Present Man, 8-1 Minella Daddy, 10-1 Amore Alato, 12-1 Virgilio, Churchtown Champ, 33-1 others.

-71144 BALLYHILL (D) N Twiston-Davies 5 11 8................................................... ....................................................................................................................S Twiston-Davies 1-21 JENKINS (D) N Henderson 4 11 8 ....................................................D Bass 51-21 ELGIN (D) A King 4 11 5.........................................................W Hutchinson 1 GLARING (D) Mrs A Perrett 5 11 5.......................................R Johnson BAZOOKA D Flood 5 11 0........................................................... Lizzie Kelly 17/6 MAXIMUS MARIDIUS S Drinkwater 5 11 0...................................... ...................................................................................................................... Sean Bowen H 7 MOHAAYED D Skelton 4 11 0................................................ H Skelton T 8 57 PORT J Fox 4 11 0 ............................................................................... J Sherwood - 8 declared FORM VERDICT BETTING: 4-7 Jenkins, 7-2 Elgin, 8-1 Ballyhill, 10-1 Glaring, 12-1 FRODON was never far from the pace when landing the Caspian Mohaayed, 100-1 Maximus Maridius, Bazooka, 150-1 Port.

Caviar Gold Cup 16 days ago and must have outstanding claims here if those exertions haven’t taken their toll. Paul Nicholls won this in FORM VERDICT A race all about JENKINS, a high-class bumper performer who made 2008 and his four-year-old must go close after four wins from five a winning start over timber at Newbury and currently heads the starts over the larger obstacles in the UK. This is Might Bite’s first test betting market for this season’s Supreme Novices Hurdle. His jumping of Graded company and he will likely be popular in the betting after was a little clumsy at times that day, so there is certainly room for his demolition job at Doncaster earlier this month, while Present Man improvement, and the forecast better ground will be much more arrives in excellent form and should appreciate the return to a rightto his liking. The main danger looks to be Elgin, who has a similar handed circuit. Churchtown Champ is an improver but the suspicion is profile to the favourite and won comfortably on his hurdling debut at that he will find at least a couple too good.

Newcastle, while Ballyhill and Mohaayed are others to keep an eye on 32RED.COM CHRISTMAS HURDLE (GRADE 1) (CLASS 1) going forward.

2 3 4 5 6

2.40

1.30 1

32RED.COM CHASE (NOVICES’ LIMITED HANDICAP) (CLASS 3) £20,000 added 2m 4f 110yds

1 2 3

3.15 1 2 3 4 5

32RED KING GEORGE VI CHASE (GRADE 1) (CLASS 1) £209,000 added 3m

CUE CARD (CD) C Tizzard 10 11 10...............................P Brennan T JOSSES HILL (C) N Henderson 8 11 10................................... D Jacob SILVINIACO CONTI (CD) P Nicholls 10 11 10...........N Fehily B TEA FOR TWO (CD) N Williams 7 11 10..................... Lizzie Kelly THISTLECRACK (D) C Tizzard 8 11 10.....................T Scudamore - 5 declared BETTING: 6-5 Cue Card, 5-4 Thistlecrack, 10-1 Josses Hill, 14-1 Tea For Two, 20-1 Silviniaco Conti.

F1-431 F18-11 P1P-24 113-52 11-111

FORM VERDICT The late addition of THISTLECRACK to the party has turned the complexion of the race on its head and Colin Tizzard’s charge is narrowly fancied to come out on top of what will be the toughest test of his career so far. His scope for improvement against the legendary Cue Card can help him to victory and cause an even bigger stir to the antepost markets for the major spring festivals. The current World Hurdle champion has cruised through his three chasing assignments so far and connections are understandably keen to test their charge against the best opposition before a potential tilt at the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in March. 21 of the last 22 winners of this prize had at least eight runs over fences beforehand but none have had the talent of the selection and he is fancied to defy that statistic. Tea For Two is expected to improve for 3m and a return to this venue, which could see him reverse form with Josses Hill, while Silviniaco Conti landed this prize in 2013 and 2014 but could be past his best now.

1.50 1 2 3 4 5

188BET ROWLAND MEYRICK HANDICAP CHASE (GRADE 3) (CLASS 1) £40,000 added 3m

113-45 P40-24 1P5-31 1PP-75 112U-0

BLAKLION (CD) N Twiston-Davies 7 11 12.......... J Bargary (3) SEVENTH SKY C Mann 9 11 8......................................... J Greenall C,T YALA ENKI Miss V Williams 6 11 8............................ C Deutsch (3) WAKANDA (C)(D) Mrs S Smith 7 11 8 .......................................D Cook HENRI PARRY MORGAN (D) P Bowen 8 11 7........................................ .................................................................................................................D G Noonan (3) C,T 6 2F1-13 DEFINITLY RED (D)(BF) B Ellison 7 11 0.........................H Brooke 7 B5-223 OUR KAEMPFER C Longsdon 7 10 11...................R McLernon T 8 51F1P- BALLYCULLA (CD) W Greatrex 9 10 9.......................G Sheehan C 9 223-56 SILVER TASSIE M Hammond 8 10 5..........................F O’Toole (5) 10 82-U61 ACTINPIECES (CD) Mrs P Sly 5 10 4...... Miss G Andrews (3) - 10 declared BETTING: 3-1 Yala Enki, 7-2 Blaklion, 5-1 Definitly Red, 6-1 Henri Parry Morgan, 8-1 Our Kaempfer, 10-1 Actinpieces, 14-1 Wakanda, Ballyculla, 16-1 others.

FORM VERDICT A competitive renewal of this valuable contest, in which BLAKLION gets the nod. Nigel Twiston-Davies’ charge won a novice chase over C&D last season before he won the RSA and produced a solid performance to finish fifth in the Hennessy last time out. This assignment doesn’t look quite as taxing so he shades the vote ahead of Henri Parry Morgan, a smart novice who is yet to come into himself this season, impressive recent Haydock scorer Yala Enki, the consistent Definitly Red and Wakanda, who has slipped 2lb lower than his last winning rating.

When Storey began her Paralympic career at the age of just 14 in Barcelona 24 years ago, Great Britain were little more than a middle-ranking sporting nation.

When Chris Boardman delivered in the velodrome in the track pursuit in Spain, it was his country’s first cycling gold since Harry Ryan and Thomas Lance won the tandem event – unsurprisingly discontinued – in Antwerp in 1920.

WINCANTON 2.15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

PERTEMPS NETWORK HANDICAP HURDLE (CLASS 2) £18,500 added 2m 5f

30-437 P11-86 312F-5 134-21 /211P00-465 3328-P 120-2P 225-12 31F-45 F-3460 -31223 1PP2P/

BUYWISE (D) E Williams 9 11 12.............................................C Ring (3) THE EAGLEHASLANDED P Nicholls 6 11 12 ....A Thornton B,T MR MIX (BF) P Nicholls 5 11 11........................................ H Cobden (3) ONEFITZALL (D) P Hobbs 6 11 9.......................................... T J O’Brien HIT THE HIGHWAY (D) G Smyly 7 11 7......................N P Madden RUACANA T Vaughan 7 11 7.......................................................A Johns (3) MASTERS HILL (BF) C Tizzard 10 11 5.....Paul O’Brien (5) B WESTERN CAPE J W Mullins 5 11 5................... Kevin Jones (5) BLUE RAMBLER (BF) I Williams 6 11 3.......................James Best THREE WAYS J Snowden 5 11 2........................................M G Nolan T THEATRICAL STAR C Tizzard 10 10 8............................B J Powell ROBERT’S STAR (BF) M Bradstock 6 10 1 .. C Hammond (7) KNOCKGRAFFON KING D Steele 11 10 0 .................................................. ..........................................................................................................Mr Sean Houlihan (7) - 13 declared BETTING: 7-2 Onefitzall, 5-1 Blue Rambler, Mr Mix, 8-1 Robert’s Star, 10-1 Buywise, 12-1 The Eaglehaslanded, Three Ways, 14-1 Western Cape, Theatrical Star, 16-1 others.

WOLVERHAMPTON 3.45

WETHERBY

£100,000 added 2m

31-351 CH’TIBELLO (D) D Skelton 5 11 7............................................ H Skelton 22-332 MY TENT OR YOURS (CD) N Henderson 9 11 7.....N Fehily H 214F-1 THE NEW ONE (CD) N Twiston-Davies 8 11 7 ..................................... ....................................................................................................................S Twiston-Davies 4 1112-1 YANWORTH (D) A King 6 11 7 ............................................ B J Geraghty 5 568969 GRAY WOLF RIVER R Harper 5 11 0....................................D Hiskett - 5 declared BETTING: 11-10 Yanworth, 2-1 The New One, 5-1 My Tent Or Yours, 7-1 Ch’tibello, 500-1 Gray Wolf River.

11423U SAN BENEDETO (D) P Nicholls 5 11 8........................................................... ......................................................................................................... S Twiston-Davies C,T 1F0-23 SIZING TENNESSEE C Tizzard 8 11 7............................ A Coleman 341-17 TWO TAFFS (D) D Skelton 6 11 6 ........................................... H Skelton /P60-1 GOLD PRESENT N Henderson 6 11 5.....................................N Fehily 212/13 MAX WARD T R George 7 11 4 ...............................................A P Heskin -96141 POKER SCHOOL (CD) I Williams 6 10 7.........................R Johnson FORM VERDICT 92/313 REMILUC C Gordon 7 10 6 .....................................................Sean Bowen Not the strongest renewal of this contest but it is certainly a competitive - 7 declared BETTING: 3-1 Gold Present, 7-2 Poker School, 5-1 Two Taffs, 6-1 Sizing heat. Yanworth only found Yorkhill too good in the Neptune but he has to prove that he is quick enough for this race, as he look like a step Tennessee, Max Ward, 8-1 San Benedeto, Remiluc. up to 3m would suit when all-out to win at Ascot last time. In fact, FORM VERDICT connections were thinking of the World Hurdle for the six-year-old Two Taffs is expected to find this test more favourable after a laboured prior to the emergence of Unowwhatimeanharry as a leading hope for display on heavy ground in the Fixed Brush last month, while San that event. My Tent Or Yours and The New One lock horns once again Benedeto should appreciate a return to a flatter track. Poker School is and the former can reverse their recent Cheltenham form, despite being a progressive type and must be going well at home for Ian Williams to 8lb worse off today, with this track unlikely to play to the strengths be running him again after a win nine days ago. Nicky Henderson has of the latter. That said, the preference is for CH’TIBELLO, who had landed this prize five times in the last 10 years and GOLD PRESENT too much speed for My Tent Or Yours when the pair met at Haydock looked like a chaser to follow when winning with ease at Doncaster last month. This track and likely decent ground should suit the son of recently. That was his first appearance in seven months and a repeat Sageburg extremely well and it would be no surprise to see him sprint would make the son of Presenting tough to beat. clear of these up the final straight.

2 3 4 5 6 7

14

1 2 3 4

BETWAY HANDICAP (CLASS 2) £20,000 added 1m 1f 103yds

311700 800764 848657 32-121

OUR CHANNEL J Osborne 5 9 10.......................................W Carson 5 SOLAR DEITY (CD) J Chapple-Hyam 7 9 7.......S Donohoe C 8 WINTERLUDE (CD) Jennie Candlish 6 9 5.......T J Murphy 11 MYTHICAL MADNESS (CD) D O’Meara 5 9 4 ........................................ ..........................................................................................................................D Tudhope C 10 5 039742 JOHN REEL (C) P Evans 7 9 4 ...........Katherine Glenister (7) 4 6 021003 EXAMINER S C Williams 5 9 0........................................P Cosgrave 9 7 807614 FORCEFUL APPEAL (C) S Dow 8 8 12....................T Marquand 1 8 213475 PERFECT CRACKER (CD) C Cox 8 8 11................................. R Tate 6 9 454340 CASTILO DEL DIABLO D M Simcock 7 8 11.............T Eaves C 2 10 012260 READY (CD) Clare Ellam 6 8 10..................................... S Drowne C 3 11 212-74 HIGH BAROQUE R Fahey 4 8 6 ...........................................B McHugh 7 - 11 declared BETTING: 7-2 Mythical Madness, 5-1 Solar Deity, Examiner, 6-1 Our Channel, 7-1 John Reel, 10-1 Forceful Appeal, High Baroque, 12-1 Perfect Cracker, 14-1 others.

4.15 1

BETWAY SPRINT CONDITIONS STAKES (CLASS 2) £20,000 added 6f

418252 LIGHTSCAMERACTION (BF) Miss G Kelleway 4 9 7 ................... ............................................................................................................................P Cosgrave B 4 2 714413 DOUGAN (CD)(BF) P Evans 4 9 4........................................E J Walsh 5 3 114124 FINAL VENTURE (D) P Midgley 4 9 4.................P Mulrennan 1 4 474832 GENTLEMEN (CD) P McEntee 5 9 4 .Josephine Gordon H 3 5 207102 MYTHMAKER (D) B Smart 4 9 4.........................................C Beasley 6 6 700602 SPRING LOADED (CD) P D’Arcy 4 9 4........................... S W Kelly 2 - 6 declared BETTING: 9-4 Lightscameraction, 3-1 Mythmaker, 7-2 Final Venture, 5-1 Dougan, 8-1 Spring Loaded, 12-1 Gentlemen.

NEWS 2-25

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

41

Dame Sarah Storey and (right) after winning the C5 3000m individual pursuit at the Rio Paralympics GETTY IMAGES

huge inspiration to younger athletes be nice to have a slightly slower year and start to make some really or potential athletes. It says that great plans for the future. We’ve sport’s an incredible thing, even if obviously have the Yorkshire Road you’re not winning gold medals, it’s World Champs in 2019, I would the way to go for health and welllove to be part of that if I could get being and generally happiness.” selection for that so there’s lots to Storey will kick back this look forward to.”

Christmas with every reason to be In a week that has seen Sir content with life. A record Dave Brailsford on the front number of medals tucked and back pages following safely away and a young his questioning by daughter to share the the Commons select magic of the festive committee, British season with. She Years since Dame Cycling, unlike admits she’ll even Sarah Storey Storey, faces a more enjoy a glass of swapped the pool uncertain future. The champagne and the for the velodrome 39-year-old insists, odd glass of wine. though, that perhaps the Then, as 2017 most successful team in pedals into view, she the history of British sport can contemplate a quieter remains focused despite the furore year in the saddle after another manic 12 months of competition and surrounding the use of therapeutic use exemptions. travelling for her and her family.

“From an athlete perspective “I’ve got a new distraction with we’re all focusing on the next event Louisa being nearly three and a and the next world championships, half,” she says. “I think within the all those things behind the scenes space of a few weeks we had been are things that are being sorted out to China and out to California via through investigation and we tend Dubai and various parts of Europe. not to focus on them, we focus on “While that’s really great fun and she’s an incredible traveller it would our own events.”

11

Back then, Boardman’s triumph was viewed as a one off, with Britain’s cyclists still lagging far behind the likes of Australia on two wheels. And while Britain’s Paralympians finished third in the Barcelona medal table, Team GB’s Olympians were way off the pace in 13th place. In Atlanta, four years on, Team GB returned with a just a single gold – a measly haul which led to a great deal of soul-searching.

“From ’92 to now there has been a huge change in the success of British sport,” says Storey. “In ’96 the Olympic team only brought back one gold medal, with Sir Steve

Mosaic

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and Matt in the rowing. After that we said, ‘Right, we’ve got to sort this out. We can’t just have another Games with just one Olympic gold.’

And since Sydney it has just been incredible, it has just ramped up and up and each Games has been better and better.

“We thought that had culminated in the home Games in London but then everyone went one better in Rio. It is a golden age and it gives

Sport’s an incredible thing – it’s the way to go for health and well-being and happiness

A D A C A N C I E C A R I C L E S

V E N T C D L E S A A N G E D S T B A U B

C A R O L M E L S H L E P C W R E A T H O E M Y R R H C R I B E O D E G I F T S E L V E S L L L C H I M N E Y F R O S

S L E I G H N A T I V I T T Y

Across: 11 Sadiq Khan, 13 Manuel, 14 Avicenna, 16 Johan Cruyff, 17 Fidel Castro, 18 Leonardo DiCaprio, 21 Rossiter, 24 Leicester City, 26 Ghana, 29 Cabriolet, 30 Brad, 31 Umberto Eco, 33 The Great British Bake-off, 39 Central African Republic, 43 Theresa May, 45 Gene (Wilder), 46 Post-truth, 50 MCMLI, 51 Jessie Wallace, 55 Ed Dunlop, 56 Alistair Brownlee, 58 Mr Bojangles, 62 Muhammad Ali, 64 Greg Lake, 65 Prince, 66 Gladstone.

Down: 1 Pal Joey, 2 Tim Hunt, 3 Parr, 4 Raffia, 5 Duff, 6 Gladioli, 7 Earl Grey, 8 Zika, 9 Next, 10 Intolerance, 12 King Rollo, 15 Pyrites, 19 Olive, 20 Reredos, 22 Sugar soap, 23 Idaho, 25 Tarot, 27 Basho, 28 Tragic, 31 Umbra, 32 Baker, 34 Ennis-Hill, 35 Terim, 36 Riley, 37 Fabbri, 38 Misty, 40 Fognini, 41 I Know, 42 Champ de Mars, 44 Romeu, 47 Oral-B, 48 The Donald, 49 Alright, 51 J C Penney, 52 Scallops, 53 Andante, 54 Benigni, 57 Tomich, 59 Bega, 60 Joab, 61 Shia, 63 Mali.

For today’s puzzles See pages 30-31 and 36-37

42

SPORT

RUGBY UNION

Tainton’s cool head is Bristol’s best hope of avoiding drop

Bristol’s acting head coach Mark Tainton will make way for Pat Lam in the summer GETTY IMAGES

Coach’s panic-free approach to be tested today against Worcester. By Hugh Godwin

B

ristol are in capable hands Tainton was a bustling No 10 who as they prepare for the knew how to pick off a dropped goal big-match atmosphere when the situation demanded. In that surrounds their his subsequent coaching career, relegation battle with spent mainly as a kicking specialist, Worcester today, with a fervent he was an active participant in crowd of around 18,000 spectators Ireland’s Grand Slam of 2009 and expected at Ashton Gate, and the European Cup finals with Munster. two teams well aware the season’s “It’s nothing new for me, playing destiny may turn on the result. The these one-off big games,” he says. meeting of the bottom two “It’s just a matter of keeping sides in the Premiership, the players focused and with the visitors a not getting over-excited perilous six points about the actual game. ahead of the hosts, The past week has invites a “been been kept exactly the Points between there, done that” same as normal, apart bottom side Bristol feeling in Mark from them having and Worcester who Tainton, Bristol’s Christmas Day off to sit one place above acting head coach. be with their families.” in the Premiership “I remember a Tainton also happens table win-at-all-costs game to be a Bristol man, born against a very good in Downend and a product Saracens side at the old of Cleve RFC – each about Memorial Ground,” 10 miles from Ashton says Tainton, thinking Gate. He knows the back 20 years to need to hang on to the last days of Premiership status Miles between his long career as after seven years Bristol’s ground Bristol’s fly-half, away. Bristol lost their at Ashton Gate and the relegation first nine matches and Tainton’s shakedown in April of the season after birthplace of 1996. “We went out promotion last summer Downend with passion, intent and fired director of and clarity and we won rugby Andy Robinson at the comfortably – which is to say it start of November. Since then, was over with 10 minutes to go.” with Tainton in temporary charge, As it happens, the Rugby Football they have beaten Pau twice in the Union abandoned relegation at the European Challenge Cup, and nicked 11th hour that season, so both Bristol losing bonus points from Bath and and Saracens stayed up. No such Leicester in the Premiership. reprieve will be offered this year.

It feels like an upturn, so is it

6

10

all Tainton’s work? “There was a realisation of what we needed to do in the Premiership; the style of rugby we needed to play,” he says.

“We’re improving our accuracy week by week. We’ve got a good structure and on top of that I asked the players to play with more expression, with no fear and to give the ball a bit more width. We won’t go into our shells against Worcester.

There will be mistakes but I’ve told the players it’s how we react that will define us – not to panic.”

Today’s Bristol fly-half, Billy Searle, was born one month before the 1996 match that pops so easily into Tainton’s memory. And so the rugby world turns. It would be fruitless to ask Tainton what he would give now for a full-back like Ralph Knibbs or a scrum-half like

Kyran Bracken or a pack of forwards October, while scrum-half Michael Dowsett and second-row Christian including England internationals Scotland-Williamson make their Mark Regan, Garath Archer and first Premiership starts.

Martin Corry.

Tainton is keeping the Bristol In this afternoon’s team, the head coach’s seat warm for Pat playmaking Samoa inside centre Lam, who will join from Tusi Pisi will be making Connacht next summer. his first appearance in W e won’t 11 weeks after a groin “We’ve had a conversation go into our injury, and the Bristolon the telephone but born former Ireland lock shells. There obviously he’s limited Dan Tuohy makes his will be errors in what he can do,” says debut after a mid-season but I’ve told Tainton. “Winning transfer from Ulster. becomes a habit. We have the players Back-rowers Jon Fisher two wins from Europe, and and captain Jordan Crane it’s how we if we can get one against react that were injured in Pau last Worcester today, and then week, and they miss out will define us we go away to Sale on New along with Wales lock Ian Year’s Day, we can start Evans. For Worcester, the to feed more and more recent England centre debutant Ben confidence into the players, and Te’o is back for the first time since they’ll become harder to beat.”

BOXING

British fighters look to light up 2017 after stunning year

By Kevin Garside

The absence of Belfast boy Carl Frampton from the shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year was seen as a slight in Northern Ireland, an oversight that demonstrates how little attention is paid to that constituency by London’s metropolitan elite.

As well as insulting the boxer and the province, Frampton’s exclusion was a commentary on the BBC’s failure to give boxing its due.

Until Andy Murray claimed his unprecedented hat-trick of BBC awards, boxing, through the aegis of Henry Cooper, was one of only three

sports to produce double winners of the prize. The other, besides tennis, was Formula One in the shape of Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell.

Boxing has been a founding plank of British sporting culture since John Chambers drew up the Queensberry Rules in London in 1867, as Britannic as football, cricket or rugby. And 2016 delivered our most successful year ever with 13 world champions.

As the alpha performer on this epic stage, Frampton’s BBC omission was even more perplexing. Back-to-back victories over previously unbeaten world champions – Scott Quigg at super bantamweight and Leo Santa

Cruz for the WBA featherweight strap in July – made him Ireland’s first two-weight world champion.

The latter performance at the Barclays Center in New York, supported by 2,000 travelling fans, also earned him fighter of the year gongs from the British Boxing Board of Control and the Association of American ex-Fighters.

He is also on the shortlist for the American Boxing Writers’ fighter of the year prize. “Who needs the BBC?” I hear you ask.

Frampton (above) is back out

at the end of January in a rematch with Santa Cruz in Las Vegas, where his name is already lighting up the strip. That bout comes a fortnight after James DeGale meets Badou Jack in New York in a showdown that unifies the IBF and WBC super middleweight titles.

Boxing continues to set the agenda in April when Anthony Joshua bids to add the WBA belt to his IBF crown against Wladimir Klitschko.

Should Joshua prevail and take care of his subsequent mandatory

defence, he will have his pick of David Haye, – who goes after Tony Bellew in March – and Tyson Fury in time to rattle a cage or two at the BBC at the end of the year.

Or maybe Joshua would have to take on Frampton with one hand behind his back to capture Aunty’s imagination.

A personal wish list for 2017 sees DeGale back in the ring with George Groves; Amir Khan against Kell Brook; Joshua versus one of Haye, Fury or WBC champion Deontay Wilder; and best of all Gennady Golovkin against Saul Canelo Alvarez.

Even the BBC could not miss that one.

NEWS 2-25

Arsenal

Watford

Burnley Cech

Gomes Britos

Kaboul

Amrabat Behrami

Kabas e

Capoue

Holebas

Koscielny

Coquelin

Xhaka

De

nreal

Keane

ey R

Boyd

A

don

Luiz

ilicueta

Moses

Fabregas

Pedro

C

N redo e Roon

Brunt

elly

Dann

Nyo

Yaco

tcher

Evans

ennessey

Phillips

D wson

McAuley

Downing Forsh

Cahill

Matic

Alonso

Batshuayi Hazard

ilson shere

Frien

Ramirez

Pugh

Ba ragan

Dani s

yton

Gibson Chambers

Foster

Arter

osling

Francis

S Cook

King

Smith

Boruc

Valdes

Crystal Palace

West Bromwich

Middlesbrough

Bournemouth

Odds: Home 6-4 Draw 9-4 Away 2-1 Kick-off Today, 12.30pm (Sky Sports 1; highlights BBC 1, 10.55pm) Team news Watford pair Sebastian Prodl (leg) and Stefano Okaka (hamstring) may have to settle for places on the bench and Craig Cathcart hopes to start. Crystal Palace will make checks on Mathieu Flamini (groin) but James Tomkins is not ready to return as Sam Allardyce begins his reign with the Eagles.

Odds: Home 1-3 Draw 17-4 Away 8-1 Kick-offToday,3pm(HighlightsBBC1,10.55pm) Team news Arsenal will give late fitness tests to Aaron Ramsey (hamstring) but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (hamstring) misses out and Danny Welbeck is short of fitness. West Bromwich have doubts over midfielder James Morrison (illness) but Jonny Evans (calf) may return at the back.

Striker Saido Berahino (fitness) is unlikely to be considered.

Odds: Home 9-5 Draw 11-5 Away 13-8 Kick-offToday,3pm(HighlightsBBC1,10.55pm) Team news Burnley welcome back Johann Berg Gudmundsson (hamstring) but Matt Lowton is suspended for the Clarets after picking up five bookings. Middlesbrough travel without Viktor Fischer (knee) but could be boosted by the return of Cristhian Stuani (foot) and are hopeful over Gaston Ramirez. Burnley have won just one of the last six visits of the Teesiders.

Odds: Home 4-11 Draw 4-1 Away 15-2 Kick-offToday,3pm(HighlightsBBC1,10.55pm) Team news League leaders Chelsea are without suspended pair N’Golo Kante and Diego Costa, with midfielder Cesc Fabregas and forward Michy Batshuayi set to come in. Bournemouth await updates on Junior Stanislas (ankle) and Andrew Surman (hamstring), while defender Lewis Cook (ankle) is out and Nathan Ake ineligible against his parent side.

Leicester

Manchester United

Premier League chart-toppers

De Gea

Schmeichel

Simp on

Mahrez

Morgan Hernandez

King

Vale

Ch lwell

Jones

Rojo

Herrer

arrick

ia

Pogba

aki Slima

Barr

eye

Bain s Funes Mori Williams

efoe n chebe Van Denay Aanholt

Valencia

C leman

tekelenburg

Everton Odds: Home 6-4 Draw 12-5 Away 2-1 Kick-offToday,3pm(HighlightsBBC1,10.55pm) Team news Jamie Vardy begins a threematch suspension for Leicester City after losing his appeal against a red card at Stoke nine days ago. Roberth Huth and Christian Fuchs are also banned after picking up five bookings apiece but Danny Drinkwater (knee) may return. Everton have doubts over Maarten Stekelenburg (leg) and James McCarthy (hamstring) remains at home.

Swansea

Most PL goals on Boxing Day 1 R Fowler (above; Liv, Lee, MC) 2 R Keane (Cov, Tott, Liv) A Shearer (Bla, New) 4 T Henry (Arsenal) 5 J Defoe (WH, Tottenham) 6 D Berbatov (MU, Fulham) A Cole (MU, Bla, MC) S Gerrard (Liverpool) F Lampard (WH, Chelsea)

Barrow

Van der o n

Britton

Fulton Routledge

ylor

Mag

Liverpool

Davies

rtson

Livermore Huddlestone Clucas Elmohamady

Kouyat

Randolph

r

Sane

Lovren

Cly

Wijnaldum

ove

Kone

Pickford

Sunderland Odds: Home 2-9 Draw 11-2 Away 12-1 Kick-offToday,3pm(HighlightsBBC1,10.55pm) Team news Henrikh Mkhitaryan (ankle) and Eric Bailly (knee) could return for Manchester United, although Luke Shaw (groin) remains out. Sunderland are without the ineligible Adnan Januzaj, along with Jan Kirchhoff (knee). Billy Jones (hip), Javier Manquillo (hamstring) and Steven Pienaar (calf) are back in training but are unlikely to feature.

Southampton Forster

Klavan

lner

Soar

Van Dijk

Fonte

trand

Henderson

Lallana

Hojbjerg

Romeu

Davis

Mane

Sturridge

Firmino

Redmond

odriguez

Boufal

Kane

lters Allen

Sterling

Son Silva

Fernandes Antonio

Reid

Dawson

Djilobodji

Mignolet

Mboka i

Payet

gbonna

56 41 41 40 38 29 27 25 24 19

O’Sh

Borini

dong

Sno

oll

o e

1 Man Utd (22 games) 2 Arsenal (19) Liverpool (21) 4 Tottenham (21) 5 Chelsea (22) 6 Manchester City (16) 7 Everton (22) 8 Blackburn (17) 9 West Ham (16) 10 Sunderland (13)

Marshall

Mawson

Lanzini

9 8 8 7 6 5 5 5 5

Hull

Sigur son Llorent

Cresswell

Most PL points on Boxing Day

12 players on four goals

Fabianski

Naug

Rooney

Ibrahimovic

kaku arkley Lennon

Da mian

Amartey Albrighton n Lingard

O

Tour Clich

Fern

Shaqiri dinho

Kolarov Otamendi

bula

Whela

S gna

Pieter

Martins Indi Shawcross

Bravo

Eriksen

Alli

Diouf D Jo nson

ran

Ros

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

43

Festive football fixtures

Zaha

Puncheon

Delaney

ard

Gray

adli

War

Mee

B nes

Sanchez

Bentek Townsend

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

Courtois

Marney Hendrick

Iwobi

IQ 28-33

Chelsea

Flana Arfield

Ozil Walcott Ig lo

TV 26-27

Heaton

Gabriel

Belle

VOICES 14-18

l

W n m

Vertonghen Alderweireld

alker

Lloris

West Ham

Manchester City

Stoke

Tottenham

Odds: Home 13-8 Draw 11-5 Away 9-5 Kick-offToday,3pm (HighlightsBBC1,10.55pm) Team news Federico Fernandez and Ki Sung-yeung (both toe) return to contention for Swansea with manager Bob Bradley likely to make changes. Diafra Sakho (back) may be out for a couple of months for West Ham and joins Gokhan Tore ( knee) and the suspended Pedro Obiang in missing the trip to Wales. James Collins is doubtful for Slaven Bilic’s side.

Odds: Home 9-1 Draw 9-2 Away 3-10 Kick-off Today, 5.15pm (Sky Sports 1; highlights BBC 1, 10.55pm) Team news Ryan Mason is expected to be fit for Hull but Abel Hernandez (groin) remains out for the hosts, who have no further worries. Manchester City have doubts over Pablo Zabaleta (knee) but midfielder Fernandinho returns from suspension. Striker Sergio Aguero serves the final match of his four-game ban.

Odds: Home 2-7 Draw 9-2 Away 9-1 Kick-off Tomorrow, 5.15pm (Sky Sports 1; highlights Sky Sports 2, 10.30pm) Team news Joel Matip (ankle) is a doubt for Liverpool and Philippe Coutinho (ankle) is not ready to return but Daniel Sturridge hopes for a rare start up front. Ibrahim Afellay (knee) returns to the Stoke squad after eight months out but Marko Arnautovic is suspended and Phil Bardsley and Geoff Cameron (both knee) remain out.

Odds: Home 9-5 Draw 9-4 Away 8-5 Kick-off Wednesday, 7.45pm (Sky Sports 1; highlights Sky Sports 1, midnight Thursday) Team news Southampton welcome back Oriol Romeu from suspension but Jordy Clasie (groin) is a doubt for the south coast side. Tottenham are boosted by the returns of midfielder Mousa Dembele (foot), striker Vincent Janssen (ankle) and former Saint Toby Alderweireld (back) but midfielder Erik Lamela remains at home.

TODAY 3pm unless stated BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE 25 Arsenal v West Brom.........................................

26 Burnley v Middlesbrough..............................

27 Chelsea v AFC Bournemouth .....................

28 Hull v Man City (5.15)..........................................

29 Leicester v Everton..............................................

30 Man Utd v Sunderland......................................

31 Swansea v West Ham.........................................

32 Watford v Crystal Palace (12.30) ..............

P W D L F A Pts Chelsea 17 14 1 2 35 11 43 Liverpool 17 11 4 2 41 20 37 Man City 17 11 3 3 36 20 36 Arsenal 17 10 4 3 38 19 34 Tottenham 17 9 6 2 29 12 33 Man Utd 17 8 6 3 24 17 30 Southampton 17 6 6 5 17 16 24 West Brom 17 6 5 6 23 21 23 Everton 17 6 5 6 21 21 23 Bournemouth 17 6 3 8 23 28 21 Stoke 17 5 6 6 19 24 21 Watford 17 6 3 8 21 29 21 West Ham 17 5 4 8 19 31 19 Middlesbrough 17 4 6 7 16 19 18 Leicester 17 4 5 8 23 29 17 Burnley 17 5 2 10 16 28 17 Crystal Palace 17 4 3 10 28 32 15 Sunderland 17 4 2 11 15 28 14 Swansea 17 3 3 11 20 37 12 Hull 17 3 3 11 14 36 12 SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP 33 Aston Villa v Burton Albion..........................

34 Barnsley v Blackburn.........................................

35 Brentford v Cardiff (1)........................................

36 Huddersfield v Nottingham Forest.......

37 Ipswich v Fulham...................................................

38 Newcastle v Sheffield Wed (7.45).............

39 Preston v Leeds .......................................................

40 Reading v Norwich ...............................................

41 Rotherham v Wigan.............................................

42 Wolves v Bristol City .........................................

P W D L F A Pts Newcastle 22 16 1 5 45 17 49 Brighton 22 14 6 2 35 14 48 Reading 22 12 4 6 30 29 40 Huddersfield 22 12 3 7 26 26 39 Leeds 22 12 2 8 26 22 38 Sheff Wed 22 11 4 7 26 23 37 Derby 22 10 6 6 23 15 36 Birmingham 22 9 7 6 27 29 34 Fulham 22 8 9 5 38 28 33 Norwich 22 10 3 9 37 34 33 Preston 22 9 5 8 30 27 32 Barnsley 22 9 4 9 38 35 31 Aston Villa 22 7 10 5 23 21 31 Brentford 22 8 4 10 27 28 28 Ipswich 22 7 7 8 22 24 28 Bristol City 22 8 3 11 28 27 27 Nottm Forest 22 7 5 10 35 39 26 Wolves 22 6 7 9 28 30 25 QPR 22 6 5 11 20 31 23 Cardiff 22 6 5 11 24 36 23 Burton Albion 22 5 7 10 23 30 22 Blackburn 22 5 5 12 27 37 20 Wigan 22 4 6 12 18 27 18 Rotherham 22 2 4 16 21 48 10 SKY BET LEAGUE ONE 43 Bolton v Shrewsbury .........................................

44 Bradford v Scunthorpe ....................................

45 Bristol Rovers v Coventry.............................

46 Fleetwood v Bury..................................................

47 Millwall v Swindon..............................................

48 MK Dons v Charlton ............................................

49 Oxford Utd v Northampton..........................

- Peterborough v Gillingham..........................

- Port Vale v Walsall ...............................................

- Rochdale v Chesterfield...................................

- Sheffield Utd v Oldham....................................

- Southend v AFC Wimb’don (1) ...................

P W D L F A Pts Scunthorpe 22 14 5 3 46 20 47 Sheff Utd 22 13 5 4 40 23 44 Bolton 22 13 4 5 28 13 43 Bradford 22 9 10 3 28 19 37 Rochdale 22 11 3 8 33 29 36 Peterborough 21 10 5 6 35 23 35 Southend 22 9 7 6 31 28 34 Fleetwood Tn 22 9 6 7 34 28 33 Wimbledon 22 8 8 6 34 25 32 Millwall 22 9 4 9 35 36 31 Oxford Utd 22 8 6 8 28 27 30 Bristol Rovers 22 8 6 8 33 39 30 Gillingham 22 8 5 9 30 36 29 Charlton 22 6 10 6 27 24 28 Northampton 22 7 6 9 33 33 27 Walsall 22 6 9 7 25 31 27 Port Vale 22 7 6 9 26 36 27 MK Dons 22 6 6 10 26 31 24 Swindon 22 6 6 10 22 33 24 Chesterfield 22 6 3 13 27 39 21 Shrewsbury 22 5 6 11 22 34 21 Bury 22 6 2 14 32 45 20 Coventry 22 4 7 11 19 30 19 Oldham 21 3 9 9 12 24 18 SKY BET LEAGUE TWO - Cheltenham v Barnet .........................................

- Crewe v Carlisle......................................................

- Grimsby v Accrington .......................................

- Hartlepool v Blackpool.....................................

- Leyton Orient v Crawley Tn (1)..................

- Luton v Colchester ...............................................

- Mansfield v Morecambe..................................

- Newport County v Portsmouth................

- Notts County v Doncaster.............................

- Plymouth v Wycombe.......................................

- Stevenage v Cambridge Utd.........................

- Yeovil v Exeter .........................................................

P W D L F A Pts Plymouth 21 14 2 5 32 21 44 Carlisle 21 11 9 1 40 25 42 Doncaster 21 13 3 5 43 30 42 Portsmouth 21 10 5 6 33 20 35 Luton 21 9 8 4 31 19 35 Wycombe 21 10 4 7 26 22 34 Cambridge Utd 21 9 4 8 28 24 31 Blackpool 21 8 6 7 35 24 30 Stevenage 21 9 3 9 32 32 30 Barnet 21 7 9 5 29 29 30 Crawley Town 21 8 5 8 26 33 29 Yeovil 21 8 4 9 25 26 28 Colchester 21 7 6 8 29 27 27 Grimsby 21 7 5 9 27 27 26 Exeter 21 8 2 11 25 26 26 Crewe 21 6 8 7 23 29 26 Mansfield 21 6 8 7 21 27 26 Hartlepool 21 5 8 8 28 37 23 Morecambe 20 7 2 11 24 38 23 Notts County 21 6 4 11 25 36 22 Leyton Orient 21 6 3 12 22 27 21 Accrington 21 5 6 10 20 27 21 Cheltenham 21 4 9 8 23 32 21 Newport 20 4 5 11 23 32 17

LADBROKES SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP - Dunfermline v Falkirk .......................................

P W D L F A Pts Dundee Utd 18 11 5 2 27 13 38 Hibernian 17 10 6 2 30 10 36 Morton 17 7 6 4 24 18 27 Falkirk 17 7 5 5 24 20 26 Raith 17 6 7 4 20 16 25 Queen of South 18 5 5 8 22 29 20 Dumbarton 18 4 6 8 20 28 18 Ayr 18 4 6 8 18 28 18 Dunfermline 17 4 5 8 21 28 17 St Mirren 18 2 5 11 17 33 11 LADBROKES SCOTTISH LEAGUE ONE - Peterhead v Stenhousemuir .......................

P W D L F A Pts Livingston 18 13 0 5 42 20 39 Airdrieonians 18 10 2 6 30 30 32 Brechin 18 10 1 7 24 20 31 Alloa 18 7 6 5 35 25 27 Queen’s Park 18 8 3 7 18 23 27 East Fife 17 6 4 7 22 19 22 Albion 17 6 3 8 23 24 21 Peterhead 17 5 4 8 20 28 19 Stranraer 18 5 2 11 24 33 17 Stenhousemuir17 4 3 10 22 38 15 LADBROKES SCOTTISH LEAGUE TWO - Forfar v Clyde ...........................................................

P W D L F A Pts Forfar 16 11 2 3 36 22 35 Arbroath 17 8 7 2 31 19 31 Elgin 17 9 0 8 39 22 27 Clyde 16 7 4 5 24 23 25 Annan Athletic 17 6 4 7 26 29 22 Montrose 17 5 5 7 20 29 20 Edinburgh City 17 4 6 7 16 21 18 Stirling 17 4 6 7 25 34 18 Berwick 17 4 6 7 20 29 18 Cowdenbeath 17 4 4 9 21 30 16 VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE Aldershot v Woking (12.15), Barrow v Gateshead, Braintree Tn v Dagenham & Redbridge, Bromley v Sutton Utd, Dover v Maidstone Utd, Guiseley v Lincoln City, North Ferriby Utd v York (12.30), Solihull Moors v Chester FC, Torquay v Forest Green, Tranmere v Macclesfield, Wrexham v Southport.

P W D L F A Pts Lincoln City 24 16 4 4 51 23 52 Tranmere 25 15 5 5 35 18 50 Forest Green 24 14 6 4 43 22 48 Dag & Red 25 14 4 7 38 28 46 Barrow 23 12 9 2 40 20 45 Dover 24 14 2 8 50 37 44 Chester FC 25 10 9 6 40 27 39 Macclesfield 23 11 4 8 32 23 37 Boreham Wd 25 10 7 8 27 22 37 Aldershot 25 10 6 9 28 26 36 Gateshead 25 9 8 8 39 28 35 Eastleigh 24 9 8 7 37 31 35 Bromley 25 10 5 10 33 34 35 Sutton Utd 24 9 5 10 28 33 32 Wrexham 25 7 8 10 21 32 29 Solihull Moors 24 7 6 11 32 41 27 Torquay 24 7 5 12 21 29 26 Maidstone Utd 25 7 4 14 28 46 25 Woking 24 6 6 12 36 44 24 Braintree Tn 24 6 6 12 26 41 24 Southport 24 6 6 12 29 51 24 North Ferriby 25 6 3 16 13 37 21 Guiseley 25 4 7 14 27 40 19 York 25 3 9 13 22 43 18 VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH Bath City v Hungerford Tn, Chelmsford v Bishop’s Stortford, Concord v East Thurrock, Dartford v Ebbsfleet, Eastbourne v Whitehawk, Gosport v Poole Tn (1.0), Hemel Hempstead v Hampton & Rich, Margate v Welling, St Albans v Oxford City (1.0), Truro City v Weston-S-Mare, Wealdstone v Maidenhead (1.30).

VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH AFC Fylde v Chorley, AFC Telford v Alfreton Tn, Altrincham v FC United, Boston Utd v Gainsborough, Brackley v Gloucester, Darlington 1883 v FC Halifax, Harrogate Tn v Stockport, Salford City v Bradford P A, Stalybridge v Curzon Ashton, Tamworth v Nuneaton (1.0), Worcester v Kidderminster.

TOMORROW 3pm unless stated BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - Liverpool v Stoke (5.15) .....................................

SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP - Brighton v QPR (12.30).......................................

- Derby v Birmingham (7.45)............................

LADBROKES SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP - Aberdeen v Hamilton.........................................

- Hearts v Kilmarnock ...........................................

VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE Eastleigh v Boreham Wood.

WEDNESDAY 7.45 unless stated BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - Southampton v Tottenham..........................

LADBROKES SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP - Celtic v Ross County...........................................

- Inverness CT v Motherwell...........................

- Partick v Dundee ....................................................

- St Johnstone v Rangers....................................

P W D L F A Pts Celtic 18 17 1 0 50 13 52 Rangers 19 11 5 3 26 18 38 Aberdeen 18 9 4 5 32 18 31 Hearts 19 7 7 5 34 25 28 St Johnstone 18 7 6 5 24 20 27 Ross County 19 4 8 7 20 32 20 Dundee 19 5 4 10 18 26 19 Kilmarnock 19 4 7 8 16 31 19 Partick 19 4 6 9 22 29 18 Motherwell 18 4 5 9 22 31 17 Hamilton 19 2 10 7 19 28 16 Inverness CT 19 3 7 9 23 35 16 *Please note pools numbers 1-24 were played on Saturday 24th December as follows. 1 Hamilton v Celtic, 2 Rangers v Inverness CT, 3 Ayr v Dumbarton, 4 Dundee Utd v St Mirren, 5 Hibernian v Raith, 6 Morton v Queen of South, 7 Albion v East Fife, 8 Alloa v Brechin, 9 Livingston v Queen’s Pk, 10 Stranraer v Airdrieonians, 11 Annan Athletic v Berwick, 12 Cowdenbeath v Arbroath, 13 Montrose v Stirling, 14 Ascoli v Bari, 15 Avellino v Salernitana, 16 Brescia v Pro Vercelli, 17 Carpi v Verona, 18 Cesena v Trapani, 19 Virtus Entella v Novara, 20 Frosinone v Benevento, 21 Perugia v Latina, 22 Pisa v Spezia, 23 SPAL v Ternana, 24 Vicenza v Cittadella.

44

SPORT

FOOTBALL

GRASS ROOTS

Wallace Hermitt oversees practice at Ferndale Community Sports Centre in Brixton.

Left: With Michael Bennett, head of player welfare at the PFA and elite coach Annie Zaidi TERI PENGILLEY

The unsung heroes who are making kids all right In Brixton and Birmingham, children of inner cities are being shown a better path in life thanks to two inspirational men. They spoke to Kevin Garside

U

nder lights a posse of young boys and girls, the majority from Brixton’s ethnic brew, chase balls and dreams around the astroturf, a safe space in which children for whom positive affirmation is in short supply are encouraged to express themselves within a mannered framework.

Step out of line here, show dissent to another player or a coach and it’s goodnight, don’t come back. It was on this same Ferndale Community Centre turf tucked away a goal kick from Brixton Tube, that Liverpool’s Nathaniel Clyne and Jason Puncheon of Crystal Palace first engaged in the beautiful game, their progress overseen by the great Wallace Hermitt, coach, counsellor, visionary, sage and founder of the Black and Asian Coaches Association.

“Nathaniel was just so quick, no one could get anywhere near him,” Hermitt said. “As for Jason, he wasn’t allowed to kick with his left

foot. That left foot was one of the best I have seen. It wasn’t fair.”

If ever a man deserved recognition in the New Year’s honours list it is Hermitt. Don’t worry Ma’am, he wouldn’t accept it were it offered. Hermitt neither seeks nor needs establishment approval. He’s out there with his whistle and boots for the love of the game and a genuine desire, via football’s inclusive portal, to make a difference.

“When I started at Ferndale, no-one was doing anything for the children. We have an open door policy. And we don’t just do football.

We are building people here, people who might go on to play football but if they don’t they can have a positive impact on their environment, be positive role models.”

Hermitt connects Brixton youth with possibility. He developed his Ferndale oasis via links to Crystal Palace and is on first name terms with the great and good of London football. On the day we met, he was

joined by Michael Bennett, the PFA welfare officer leading the response to the historical abuse crisis that has so shocked the football community, and Annie Zaidi, the football pioneer on the FA’s BAME (Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic) elite coaching programme.

Both are frequent visitors to Ferndale, always ready to tap into Hermitt’s wisdom as well as dispense expertise in the direction of eager, young ears. And all three are locked into the same value system, sharing the powerful social ideas behind community provision of this sort for ethnic and disadvantaged minorities.

“We are polishing little diamonds. If you give the child the environment that child will thrive.

Discipline is central. If the kids misbehave in school then they can’t come here. Importantly it’s a place that they value and a real counter balance to some of the negative stuff that is still a reality for them, be that at home or in school or in

Nathaniel Clyne was just so quick, no one could get anywhere near him the street. People think it’s not like it used to be for black people any more but it is. Black people are made to feel their ethnicity every day. Some of these kids who come here never leave their estate. It’s crazy. We are trying to show them there is life outside of Brixton.”

A little over 100 miles to the north in the parallel universe of Perry Barr, Birmingham, Lincoln Moses MBE is busy fighting the same good fight at the Sports Hub, a £2.4m community centre that he built on grounds that once housed football pitches without goal posts.

Moses describes himself as a former professional hooligan steering kids away from the life he knew. As many as 600 kids in winter

and 800 in summer pass each week through the facility, which is also home to Aston Amateur Boxing Club. Cricket, darts and table tennis also share the space.

The most prominent player presently earning a professional living to have passed through the hands of Moses is Brentford’s talented midfielder Romaine Sawyers, though there are a dozen internationals with St Kitts and Nevis who owe their rise to this pristine parcel of green next to the cop shop on Holford Road in old gangland Brum.

Moses counts Prince William among his acquaintances and is ex-bad boy royalty in the streets fanning out from Villa Park less than a mile away. “There are still severe problems in our inner cities, gun and knife crime. This area, Perry Barr, Aston, Handsworth and Lozells, is predominantly Afro Caribbean, Asian, migrants, refugees, and is the fourth highest in the country for deprivation.

NEWS 2-25

VOICES 14-18

TV 26-27

IQ 28-33

BUSINESS SPORT 34-35 39-47

i MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016

45

NON-LEAGUE

‘Straight away people are getting involved. We’re back where we belong...’

Five years ago Darlington looked doomed. Today they go home

By Michael Walker

“We are doing our bit to turn lives around. Like Wallace in Brixton we have an open door policy. If you come from the inner city and need help, you will get it here.”

Moses lives in the same house that he called home when he arrived as a seven-year-old from the eastern Caribbean. In those days of ancient prejudice he learned that the quickest way to gain respect was with his fists. “When I was young I

Lincoln Moses has been helping players discarded by their clubs

was a bit of a rebel, and good with these,” he says holding aloft his lethal mitts.

“First day at school I knocked out a prefect. I was 11. Left school joined the army, the Royal Fusiliers. That’s where I learned about racism. First day Sergeant Graham is calling me ‘Moses you black wog’. In those days it was wog and sambo. It was character building they said.”

Moses tired of being a local face after the deaths of two close friends and through his unique connectivity learned to use his influence positively to connect community football talent first to Birmingham City and now to West Bromwich and to help kids discarded by clubs to make their way.

“I see my role as keeping kids out of the criminal justice system. They can’t all be famous footballers but that does not mean they can’t do something with their lives.”

Arise Sir Wallace. Arise Sir Lincoln. Never say never. They don’t.

The last yards of fresh tarmac are down, the new advertising hoardings are up and, best of all, the old Tin Shed from Feethams stands once again: Darlington FC are back, back in Darlington.

Six years after their third administration, almost five years since they were compulsorily relegated four divisions by the Football Association, and the same time since they were forced to leave their stadium and play 14 miles away in Bishop Auckland, the reformed Darlington 1883 will play Halifax today within the town boundary. The natives have returned.

Blackwell Meadows is the name of the ground, shared with the local rugby club. “We’re very, very proud to be back,” says John Tempest, a director. “It’s been a long time away.”

Darlington return as a member of the National League North.

It is tier six, but status is not the issue, location is. The game against Halifax is a sell-out. Darlington are a club regrouped, supporter-owned and living within its means.

“It’s a very family-run club at the moment,” adds Tempest, “no one gets paid, everyone volunteers, we’ve achieved a lot.”

They have indeed. It is necessary for the neutral to revisit Darlington’s downfall, which began in 2003 under the chairmanship of curious local businessman George Reynolds. He insisted on building a new stadium, the 25,000 Reynolds Arena, when Darlington could not fill their home of 85 years, Feethams – capacity 8,500.

It was the same year administration first hit and yet three years later, under Dave Penney, Darlington finished sixth in League Two and lost in the play-offs to Rochdale.

But the Arena was a hard sell to locals and its costs overwhelmed the club – 2009 brought another administration. Ownership

changed, but “Darlo” were clinging on. In December 2011, now in the Conference, another crisis brought a stay of execution until the end of the season. Then the FA acted, abruptly relegating Darlington to the ninth tier – the Northern League.

The club looked doomed but by then – in January 2012 – supporters had taken over. “Darlington 1883” were on their way back. But they had no home, the “Quakers” had not much at all.

“We had two players and two weeks to pre-season,” recalls assistant manager Brian Atkinson,

It’s a very family-run club at the moment. No one gets paid, everyone volunteers, we’ve achieved a lot once of Sunderland and England U-21s.

“We’d a lock-up garage – one of the supporters put some training kit and old balls in storage. We trained at a school in Newton Aycliffe.”

But Atkinson and manager Martin Gray – also once of Sunderland, and the original Darlington – persevered. They have overseen three promotions with part-time players in a stadium in another town.

“We’ve tried to bring professionalism,” adds Atkinson.

“Martin is quite strict and we’ve had success from that.”

Gray and Atkinson are full-time but none of the players are. Another promotion would probably change that – they would be one step away from League Two. With the white elephant Arena still standing – occupied by a different rugby club – the issue of stadia is sensitive. But Blackwell Meadows, where the club have signed a 21-year lease, offers stability and a real home. Director Tempest also offers gratitude to landlords past and present.

Capacity is 3,200 but that can be raised easily to 5,200 if promotion comes.

“This is the step-change, this can only help,” says Atkinson, pitch-side. “A lot of the businesses on those boards over there are Darlington businesses. They’ve been waiting. Straightaway people are getting involved. We’re back where the club belongs.”

As he speaks, a man with a new hoarding and spirit level walks by.

It was more than a metaphor. He was heading for the Tin Shed, the old cast-iron stand from Feethams that had also been in storage all these years.

“It really is the same one,” stresses Tempest. “It’s been blasted and painted. When people walk through the gates it will be quite nostalgic for them. They’ll have a tear in their eye.”

The Darlington Arena (then called the Reynolds Arena after the club’s former owner) back in February 2004 while (above) Heritage Park in Bishop Auckland, where the club have been playing since 2012 GETTY

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FOOTBALL

MANCHESTER UNITED

Sport 26.12.16 Football Meetthecoaches bringingthrough thenextwaveof starplayers Pages 44-45

RugbyUnion Thecool-headed coachtaskedwith keepingBristolin thePremiership Page 42

Paralympics Storeytargets Japan2020and recordmedalhaul Interview, Pages 40-41

LIVERPOOL

Jose: I’d have been happy with Moyes’ United squad

Jürgen Klopp (left) shares a joke with coach Peter Krawietz at a Liverpool training session over Christmas GETTY

referees after his side’s defeat by Manchester City last week. Wenger Manchester United manager Jose said officials were over-protected Mourinho has said ahead of David like “lions in a zoo,” though he did not Moyes’s first return to the club since break any rules in doing so. he was sacked in April 2014 that he “I’m not surprised,” said Mourinwishes he had enjoyed the galaxy of ho, who has faced two FA charges this players who were at the Scotsman’s season. “When I read his quotes I felt disposal. there would be no problem … for him.

Mourinho (right), whose sixth“It doesn’t irritate me because I’m placed side are struggling to not happy with the problems scale the Premier League others have. Some people, it heights, just as Moyes’s looks like they are happy, United did, offered no not with the things they kind word when asked get but happy with bad if he felt the task of sucthings others get. I’m ceeding Sir Alex Fernot like that. I’m not guson had been even happy other people are greater than his own. in trouble or have prob“I wouldn’t mind to be lems. I’m just unhappy at a club with great expecwhen I have them.” tations but to have Ryan Giggs The United manager, who and Chicharito [Javier Hernandez],” has implied that Chelsea have been he said. “I think [Nemanja] Vidic given an unfair advantage with three [was] still in the team. [Patrice] Evra. Christmas and New Year games in 10 I wouldn’t mind.” days, as against his own club’s three Moyes, whose Sunderin eight, did offer some supland side visit Old Trafford port for Moyes.

I wouldn’t today in 18th place, has “I think a manager that’s called managing United mind to be at a not sacked is not a manager, “the impossible job” – but club with great or at least is not a good manMourinho rejected that no- expectations ager,” he declared. “We have tion too. to be sacked! It was just a but to have “I don’t feel it as a burbad moment in David’s caden,” he said. “I feel the Ryan Giggs reer and he has to do what I great history of the club as and Chicharito, did, what we all do, move on. only a positive thing. The Vidic, Evra. I “After Manchester Unitproblem is, if you have the wouldn’t mind ed he went to Spain, also conditions to follow that a different experience for success of history. And him, then back to the Prethen that’s a different story.” mier League. He moved on and this is Mourinho threw his latest grenade what [Alan] Pardew has to do. They at Arsène Wenger during his discus- could have sacked him a couple of sion of the Boxing Day afternoon fix- days later on Christmas Day, which ture, implying it was scandalous that would have been even nicer! He has the Arsenal manager had escaped to move on, and a new job will arrive.

FA censure for his comments about It’s part of football.” THE INDEPENDENT

By Ian Herbert

SUNDERLAND

Defoe is priceless, says Moyes

By Michael Walker

David Moyes has described Jermain Defoe as “priceless” amid rumours of West Ham bidding for the Sunderland striker next month.

West Ham are said to be willing to spend £6m on the 34-year-old Defoe, though as Moyes said: “He trains like he’s much younger, he’s in good condition.”

With eight goals in a Sunderland team that has only managed 15 in the Premier League this season, teetotal Defoe is 34 going on 24 and Moyes said of any bid in January: “No, it wouldn’t be considered. I don’t think there’s

any price because we know that Jermain’s goals are so valuable to us. He’s priceless.I wouldn’t even think about it. He needs managing because he’s a senior professional and needs treating right, which we do.”

A worrying statistic for Moyes is that Defoe is one of only three Sunderland players to have scored in the league this season – Patrick van Aanholt and Victor Anichebe are the others.

“It’s sad, that’s not good,” Moyes added, “but at least we’ve got Victor who has scored a couple alongside Jermain. If we hadn’t got that we’d be really struggling.”

Klopp: Chelsea have had all the injury luck

By Timothy Abraham

Jürgen Klopp reckons Liverpool’s Premier League rivals Chelsea have been lucky so far with injuries.

The Blues, who entertain Bournemouth this afternoon, could be nine points clear at the top by the time Klopp’s Liverpool face Stoke City tomorrow. Antonio Conte’s side have won 11 consecutive league matches and Klopp said: “Of course they are

the team to beat because they are very experienced, maybe the most experienced team in the top flight at the moment. If they go on like this they are the deserved champions; nobody could have a doubt about this.”

But he added: “I am pretty sure that until now Chelsea are maybe the team that have had the most luck with injuries. We lost Phil [Coutinho] and Daniel [Sturridge] and Danny Ings in difficult moments when you

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CHELSEA

MANCHESTER CITY

Batshuayi must learn from Costa, explains Conte

Guardiola denies he has lost faith in £50m Stones

By Ian Winrow

Pep Guardiola has refuted the suggestion he no longer trusts £50million centre-half John Stones.

The man who became the Premier League’s most expensive defender when he arrived from Everton in the summer has watched Manchester City’s last two games from the bench. The fact that City won them both and restricted Watford and Arsenal to very limited goalscoring opportunities would have done little for his chances of an early recall.

“I know the theory that if a player does not play it is because the coach does not trust him any more,” said Guardiola before today’s game at Hull.

“This is not the truth. Our job is uncomfortable. It is unfair in most of the cases of many, many players because they deserve to play but

Antonio Conte admits Michy Batshuayi is still coming to terms with the demands of the Premier League and has urged the forward to learn from Diego Costa.

Batshuayi (below) has yet to make his first league start since his £33million move from Marseille last summer and while his involvement has been restricted by Costa’s outstanding form, Conte acknowledges the 23-year-old is currently on a steep learning curve.

A one-match suspension means Costa will be absent when Chelsea play Bournemouth today and Conte has not confirmed whether Batshuayi will be in his starting line-up.

The head coach, though, believes that Batshuayi’s transition can only be helped by studying the work of Costa.

“I think every single player, every forward, has different characteristics, because the players are different,” said Conte. “Michy is different to Diego. And because, he’s a younger player, he can improve a lot.

For sure, if you stay close to Diego, you can learn a lot to improve your experience and improve your skills.”

ARSENAL

Dressing room to fuel our recovery, claims Wenger

By Tim Rich

The Sport Matrix The stories you need to know

47

I cannot find a solution for these kinds of things.

“All of them have to be prepared to play because the season is so long and now we start a tough moment. Then there is the FA Cup and then there is the Champions League.”

Like his fellow Englishman, Raheem Sterling, Stones (left) adapted impressively to Guardiola’s tactics before falling away.

But while Sterling kept his place and scored the winner against Arsenal, Stones has been the victim of Guardiola’s decision to switch to a flat back four after successive defeats by Chelsea and Leicester.

Guardiola ridiculed suggestions Manchester City might buy the Southampton centre-half Virgil van Dijk to shore up their defence, although he did concede the club could do with cover at full back. THE INDEPENDENT

FOOTBALL

Ranieri upset over Vardy suspension Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri believes “all the world” feels Jamie Vardy’s three-game suspension is unfair. The England striker was sent off at Stoke last weekend and lost an appeal against the decision. “All in England, all the world, watched the foul,” the Italian said. “All the world said it’s not a a foul. We are very disappointed. I and all our club are surprised.” Vardy’s ban starts with today’s visit of Everton.

By Darren Witcoop

really could use them. If it’s Eden each other much better. We have Hazard and Diego Costa at Chelsea, a big bunch of wonderful experiis it the same afterwards? It’s a long ences together and that makes us all season.” stronger.”

Klopp is better prepared C h e l s e a h ave t h re e Would I for a frantic festive fixture games in 10 days, while Livlist than he was last season, like to change erpool face three in seven when he had his first taste the fixture days. But Klopp refused to of English football’s hectic schedule? Yes. complain about the vagarChristmas schedule. And ies of the fixture computer. he believes the bond be- Can I? No. So “Would I like to change?

Yes. Can I? No. So why tween his players will carry why should I them through a notorious- think about it? should I think about it?” he said. “You have to go out ly demanding part of the We have and play two games within campaign. to accept it 44 hours. That is a chal“We are better equipped than last year,” he said. “We lenge. We have to accept it.” were only together three months and THE INDEPENDENT of course it was my first time with a Sky Sports is the home of Festive game on Boxing Day. Now we know Football with over 60 matches

Arsène Wenger wants his Arsenal players to look to the dressing room and the unity they find there as a way to responding to recent set-backs which have seen them slip nine points behind leaders Chelsea.

“I believe what is important is the strength you find inside and you respond inside the club to be united in the dressing room,” said Wenger (below). “We have just lost two games. Of course it’s tough, but Man City didn’t win for six, Tottenham for four or five, Manchester United as well.

“There’s a special thing happening for a player in the dressing room. I spoke with David Beckham about that recently. I asked him, do you miss it? He said, ‘Football I can play every day and I’m invited to all the charity games. But I miss the dressing room, that kind of being together for something special, fighting together, that’s what you miss.’” THE INDEPENDENT

FOOTBALL

Allardyce back and ‘better than before’ Sam Allardyce is confident he is “a better man” after his short-lived spell as England manager. The 62-year-old is back in management with Crystal Palace and begins the challenge of keeping them in the Premier League at Watford today. “I’m probably a better man for the experience,” said Allardyce of his one-game stint as national-team coach. “In adversity you’ve got to become stronger, and you’ve got to make sure you don’t make those sorts of mistakes again. You learn from it.”

FOOTBALL

Bilic: We will not hold Carroll back Slaven Bilic admitted a cautious approach with Andy Carroll may have contributed to his injury troubles at West Ham. “We are monitoring him but why hold him back?” Bilic said of the forward’s return from three months out with a knee injury. “You are more likely to get injured if you don’t train. Of course you are cautious but if he is feeling good, let’s build on that.”

Sport on tv Cricket: South Africa v Sri Lanka Sky Sports 2, 7.55am Football: Watford v Crystal Palace Sky Sports 1, midday Rugby Union: Bristol v Worcester BT Sport 2, 2.30pm Football: Hull v Manchester City Sky Sports 1, 5pm Racing: King George VI Chase Channel 4, 1.15pm Newcastle v Sheffield Wed Sky Sports 1, 7.30pm

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