Wednesday January 3 | 2018
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HOMELESSNESS IS ON THE RISE, SAYS WINTER SHELTER TEAM Pages 4-5
Abusive email sent to MP by man who gave his address
INSPIRING STORY OF COURAGEOUS SINGER
GET INTO SHAPE IN THE TOWN THAT’S PACKED WITH GYMS Page 2
Page 12 P
LONG HAUL: Chris Williams [left] and Max Thorpe before they left La Gomera at the start of the race
THE Metropolitan Police have launched an investigation after an abusive email was sent to MP Anna Soubry by a man from Tonbridge who left his name and address on the message. The Met received an allegation of malicious communication, which was reported to the police on December 14. The hate mail, which was sent to Ms Soubry’s constituency office in Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, ranted: “You deserve to be HUNG for your attack on our democracy yesterday. WE VOTED OUT! OUT! OUT! MAY YOU BURN IN HELL FOR ETERNITY.”
Rebels The message was sent in the wake of the government’s first defeat in the House of Commons the day before, when MPs insisted on having a final vote on any Brexit deal. Ms Soubry was one of 15 Conservative MPs who were branded as ‘rebels’ after they objected to plans to name the time and date of departure from the European Union. She was also one of 11 Tory MPs who voted against her own party. The MP for Tonbridge & Malling, Tom Tugendhat, who was among those named by the Daily Telegraph newspaper as Tory ‘mutineers’ alongside Ms Soubry, was not available to comment. Kent Police have said they have not been notified about the Met’s investigation.
THE MAN WHO CONQUERED THE WORLD OF DARTS Page 15
They were hit by a ‘rogue’ wave and the seven-metre long craft capsized. But this is a fate that many of the competitors suffer and it forms part of their training. They were thrown into the sea, but since they were always clipped on using four-point harnesses they were able to clamber back on board. However, then they noticed smoke coming from the small cabin space where they sleep and keep the satellite phone and auto-pilot. They opened up the cabin and found it was on fire. They managed to put the blaze out with their fire extinguisher, but discovered that they had lost all power. This was provided by the solar units to fuel the battery pack which made the water purifier and auto-pilot function. The cause of the fire is unknown.
‘This was all a massive shock for the boys and also ourselves. All we wanted to do was make sure they would be safe’
Dramatic rescue in mid-ocean as rowers’ boat catches fire in storm Exclusive by Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk TWO courageous friends are on board an oil tanker heading for Brazil after being forced to abandon their attempt to row across the Atlantic for charity. Chris Williams and Max Thorpe, who have been friends since they were ten years old, had to be rescued in dramatic fashion after their boat capsized and caught fire mid-ocean while being battered by 20ft waves. Their parents endured a harrowing night of uncertainty 48 hours before Christmas Day as they waited to hear if
their sons had reached safety. The Team Tenzing pair had been at sea for eight days when disaster struck their ambitious plan to row 3,000 miles across the ocean on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The 25 year olds are both former pupils of Judd in Tonbridge. Chris is the captain of Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club’s 1st XI, where Max, who also attended Sevenoaks School, used to play. As featured in the Times’ sports pages last week, they are trying to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young [CRY] after a university friend of Chris’s died of an undetected heart condition. They had covered more than 700 miles
of the course between La Gomera in the Canary Islands and Antigua when the catastrophe occurred. Chris’s father, Mark, said: “Everything was going so well, and they were making good ground and were loving the challenge. They had found the routine and all was going to plan. “They had overcome the normal hurdles that face the rowers in the first week, including severe seasickness, huge waves and swells and the massive change to sleep patterns.” Suddenly, just before 3pm on Friday December 22, a storm hit the crew, the waves began to climb to six metres in height and the wind changed.
The damage meant they were no longer able to continue because competitors are not allowed to benefit from outside assistance – they must be self-sufficient. So they admitted defeat and called the headquarters of race organisers Atlantic Campaigns, following the procedure they are taught. Once Chris and Max put out an emergency call, events moved rapidly. Chris’s father, Mark, who is Chairman of Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club and lives with his family in the town, takes up the story. “A rescue operation was put in place. This is when I got a call from Atlantic Campaigns HQ at 5.30pm to advise what had happened. “This was all a massive shock for the boys and also ourselves, and at that point all we wanted to do was make sure that in such perilous conditions they
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