The Times - UK (2020-11-26)

the times | Thursday November 26 2020 2GM 5

News

For 175 years, Hammersmith Bridge
has held the key to the Boat Race. A
crew that passes under it in front —
aiming ideally for the second lamppost
from the left — will win four times out
of five. One Canadian who led Oxford
to victory against Cambridge in 2006
felt so indebted to the move his crew
made there that he called his son Ham-
mersmith.
Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s green iron
landmark, almost halfway into the race,
has been closed for 18 months because
of structural problems. Now fears for
the safety of boats passing under it, as
well as uncertainty about whether
spectators will be allowed, means that
next year’s Boat Race on April 3 could
be moved off the Thames for only the
second time in its history.
A three-mile stretch of the Great
River Ouse between Ely and Littleport
in Cambridgeshire is the preferred
venue for the 2021 men’s and women’s
races. It would be a mile shorter than
the Putney to Mortlake course that was

first used in 1846 and has none of the

bends that make coxing an art, and en-

courage the clashing of blades, but it

would be an endurance race, two and a

half times the length of an Olympic

rowing regatta.

The Ouse is well known to the Cam-

bridge crews, who have trained there

for decades and opened a new £5 mil-

lion boathouse at Ely in 2016, but on the

one occasion when the Boat Race has

left the Thames, to a shorter stretch of

the Ouse in 1944, Oxford won by three

quarters of a length.

Another advantage of moving the

race is that it will not draw the crowds,

with 250,000 said to throng the

Thames riverbanks. “We don’t want to

become a super-spreader event,” a

source said. This year’s race was can-

celled on March 16, 13 days before it was

to be held, because of the coronavirus.

The BBC will televise next year’s

races but spectators will not be encour-

aged to come to the Ouse, which was

described by Andrew Probert, a former

Cambridge cox, as “bloody cold, bloody

straight and bloody boring”.

Other options on the Thames have

been considered, especially a stretch

from near St Paul’s school in Barnes to

the University of London boathouse in

Chiswick. Between 1839 and 1842 the

Johnny Depp has been refused permis-
sion to appeal against the findings of a
judge who ruled that he was a wife
beater.
The actor has also been ordered to
pay an initial £628,000 in legal costs to
The Sun for his failed libel action
against the newspaper.
Depp sued the newspaper over an
article that questioned why JK Rowling
was allowing him to appear in the Fan-
tastic Beasts franchise after he was
accused of assaulting Amber Heard
when they were married. On Novem-

Depp must pay £628,000 legal costs after failed libel action

ber 2, after a three-week trial, Mr Jus-

tice Nicol ruled that Depp had violently

abused Heard, a star of the Aquaman

film, 12 times during their relationship.

Depp’s lawyers had announced that he

would appeal against the judgment,

which he said was as “perverse as it is

bewildering”.

Mr Justice Nicol has now dismissed

Depp’s appeal application, saying he did

not believe that the challenge had a

“reasonable prospect of success”. In his

ruling the judge wrote: “The findings of

fact by a first instance tribunal (particu-

larly one, such as myself, who has heard

oral evidence) are rarely open to chal-

lenge on appeal. In any event, I do not

consider that the proposed grounds of

appeal have a reasonable prospect of

success and there is not some other

compelling reason why permission to

appeal should be granted.”

The judge has ordered Depp, 57, to

pay The Sun £520,000 towards its

defence bill by December 7 and a

further £108,235 by January 22. The

remainder of the legal bill will be paid

after a detailed assessment of the costs.

The actor can still take the case

directly to the Court of Appeal. Depp

had sued The Sun’s publisher, News

Group Newspapers, and its executive

editor, Dan Wootton, over the article in

2018, which ran below the headline:

“How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely

happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny

Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”

A week after the judgment Depp was

forced to resign from the third instal-

ment of the Harry Potter spin-off. The

move was regarded as a signal that

Depp could struggle to win roles in

mainstream films.

Depp is best known for playing Cap-

tain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Car-

ibbean. He won critical acclaim for his

portrayals of Edward Scissorhands,

Sweeney Todd and Willy Wonka and

his films are estimated to have earned

more than $10 billion at the box office.

In the US Depp is suing Heard for

$50 million in a defamation case over

an article she wrote in The Washington

Post. Heard, 34, is countersuing for

$100 million, claiming that he tried to

destroy her career.

On Sunday Depp accepted an award

from Camerimage, a film festival in

Poland, for his latest film, Minamata, in

which he plays the war photographer

W Eugene Smith — by sending a

photograph of himself standing behind

metal bars on what appeared to be his

private island in the Bahamas.

David Brown Chief News Correspondent

Continued from page 1

electrifying turn of pace

and a powerful shot. Yet

his game was frequently

marred by his temper

and gamesmanship. The

two sides of Maradona

were perfectly

illustrated when he

scored twice to break

English hearts in the

quarter final of the 1986

World Cup in Mexico.

The first goal was the

infamous “hand of God”,

when he rose in the

penalty area to punch

the ball over Peter

Shilton, the England

goalkeeper, and into the

net. The referee missed

the blatant handball and

the goal stood.

Four minutes later the

Argentina captain

produced what was later

voted the goal of the

century when he weaved

past five flailing England

players and slotted the

ball into the net. He

went on to lead his team

to victory in the final

against West Germany.

Eight years later his

fourth and final World

Cup ended with him

being sent home in

disgrace after he tested

positive for the

stimulant ephedrine.

The story of his rise

and fall was documented

in the 2019 film

Maradona, directed by

the British film-maker

Asif Kapadia, who said

that his death was “hard

to process”. He tweeted:

“He always seemed

indestructible. I had ten

hours with the man! I

touched his left foot. We

did our best to show the

world the man, the

myth, the fighter he was.

The greatest.”

Gary Lineker, who

played in the 1986 match

against Argentina,

tweeted that Maradona

was “by some distance

the best player of my

generation and arguably

the greatest of all time”.

Pelé, who shared the

Fifa Player of the 20th

Century award with the

Argentinian, said that

the death was “sad

news”. “I lost a great

friend and the world lost

a legend,” he wrote.

Maradona hailed as

the greatest of all

AFP /GETTY IMAGES

Diego Maradona with his

doctor after surgery for a

brain clot this month. Fans

paid their respects in

Buenos Aires yesterday

Bridge saga forces Boat Race off course

crews raced from Westminster to Put-

ney and there were wartime races at

Henley and Sandford-on-Thames.

“There has been a lot of head-

scratching about where to take it,” a

source said. “There is no way the bridge

will be fixed in four months.”

All river traffic under Hammersmith

Bridge was banned in August after

larger cracks were discovered. The Port

of London Authority has imposed an

exclusion zone for all boats, save the oc-

casional emergency convoy, within 15

metres of either side. This means that

traffic between the upper Thames and

the sea has been blocked for the first

time since the Great Freeze of 1814.

The Boat Race requires a flotilla of a

dozen vessels, including the umpire’s

launch, safety boats and ones for the

media and university guests. The

bridge was opened in 1887 and built on

the foundations of a Georgian bridge

that had to be replaced after structural

problems caused in part by the huge

crowds that gathered on it to watch

early races. It is estimated that the

bridge requires £120 million of repairs.

Patrick Kidd

START

Putney

Bridge

SURREY

Hammersmith

Bridge

FINISH

Chiswick

Bridge

One mile

Original course

4 miles, 374 yards

River

Thames

START

Near Ely

FINISH

Near Littleport

One mile

Revised course

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

Three-mile

race taking

place along

River Great

Ouse

Rowers may have to compete in the

2021 Boat Race in Cambridgeshire