نايجل بوند (بالإنجليزية: Nigel Bond) هو لاعب سنوكر بريطاني، ولد في 15 نوفمبر 1965 في Darley Dale في المملكة المتحدة.
الاثنين، 2 ديسمبر 2019
Nigel Bond
Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965 in Darley Dale, Derbyshire) is an English professional snooker player.
Bond has competed on the main tour since 1989, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996/1997 season. He reached the final of the World Championship in 1995, where he lost 9–18 to Stephen Hendry, and won the 1996 British Open, defeating John Higgins 9–8.
Having reached the final of three other ranking tournaments, Bond won the 2011 Snooker Shoot-Out and, in 2012, defeated Tony Chappel to win the World Seniors Championship. He retained his place in the top 64 until 2015.
Career
He was born in Darley Dale, Derbyshire.
After a strong amateur career,[1] Bond turned professional for the 1989–1990 season. He reached his first ranking semi-final in his first season, and his first final in his second season, but his career peaked in the mid-1990s. In the 1994 World Championships, Bond pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in the event's history, rallying from 9–2 to defeat Cliff Thorburn 10–9 in what would be Thorburn's final appearance at the Crucible. A year later, Bond reached the final after beating Stephen Lee, Alan McManus, Gary Wilkinson and Andy Hicks, but lost to Stephen Hendry 18–9. This was his only semi-final run of the season. As a consequence of reaching the final, he climbed to number 5 in the world rankings for 1996/97, and in that same season he acquired his only ranking tournament victory (after three previous losing finals), the British Open, beating John Higgins 9–8 after needing a snooker in the final frame,[2] winning the World Snooker Association Performance of the Year award for this achievement, although he has failed to maintain this level of performance. He reached at least the quarter finals at the Crucible Theatre every year from 1993 to 1996, losing to Stephen Hendry every time, which added extra spice to their first round match in 2006. After leading comfortably throughout the match Bond was pegged back to 7–7, and the match went to a final frame. With only the black remaining, and 7 points up, Bond clipped it into the left corner pocket, only for the cue ball to go in-off in the right middle pocket, resulting in a respotted black (the first one ever to decide the final frame of a World Championship match), which Bond potted to take frame and match. Final score 10–9, Bond's first win at the Crucible since 1999,[3] and his only last-16 run of that season.[4]
By the end of the 1990s, Bond was out of the top 16, and dropped out of the top 32 for the 2004–2005 season. However, he reclaimed his place a year later, and he has remained there ever since as of 2009. In the 2007 World Championship he lost in the first round, 10–7 to Peter Ebdon.
A run to the last 16 of the 2007 UK Championships,[5] in which he came from 5–7 to win 9–7 against Ken Doherty in the last 32 before losing 9–6 to Ding Junhui in the last 16, was a precursor to his first quarter-final run for 5 years, at the China Open. Victories over David Roe, Stephen Lee and Barry Pinches took him to a meeting with Stephen Maguire, which he lost 5–0.
He opened the 2008/09 season with first-round defeats in the first five tournaments, but victory over Ebdon in the first round of the World Championship ensured that he didn't lose his top 32 status.
On 30 January 2011, Bond won the Snooker Shoot-Out event. This involved the top 64 players in the world playing 10-minute matches decided on a single frame. He picked up the £32,000 prize money as well as the Snooker Shoot-Out trophy, beating Robert Milkins 58–24 in the final.[6]
Bond started the 2011/2012 season very well by qualifying for the first two ranking event tournaments, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters. He lost to Neil Robertson and Mark Selby respectively in the first round.[7] He also qualified for the World Open, but was defeated by amateur player Lu Ning in the wildcard round.[7] Bond finished the season ranked world number 45.[8]
Bond once again qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open in the 2012/2013 season, but lost to Neil Robertson 1–5 in the last 32.[9] In December, he reached the World Open in Haikou, China, with wins over Jimmy White and Jamie Burnett. At the venue he saw off Zhu Yinghui 5–3 in the wildcard round and received a bye through to the last 16 due to the withdrawal of Ali Carter.[9] There he lost 1–5 to Judd Trump.[10] Bond was also crowned World Seniors champion during the season without dropping a frame in a total of seven matches, concluding with a 2–0 victory against Tony Chappel in the final.[11] Bond's season ended when he was beaten 8–10 by Alan McManus in the third round of World Championship Qualifying.[12] He dropped a solitary place during the year to end it ranked world number 46.[13]
Bond reached the final of the World Seniors Championship for the second year in a row in the 2013/2014 season, losing 2–1 to Steve Davis.[14] He only won two matches at the main venue of ranking events all season, his best run coming in the China Open, where he beat Barry Pinches 5–2 before Mark Selby defeated Bond 5–1 in the last 32.[15] He fell 11 spots from the start of the season to end it as the world number 57.[16]
Bond produced a superb comeback in the second round of the 2014 UK Championship, as from 5–0 down against world number five Barry Hawkins he took six successive frames to advance.[17] However, in the third round Anthony McGill recovered from 4–1 down to eliminate Bond 6–5.[18] The furthest Bond could progress in a ranking event this season was at the Indian Open, where he beat Ryan Day 4–1 and Dechawat Poomjaeng 4–3, before losing 4–1 to Chris Wakelin in the last 16.[19] He just fell outside the top 64 at the end of the year as he was 65th, but Bond earned a two-year extension via the European Order of Merit.[20][21]
At the 2016 Indian Open Bond defeated Ricky Walden 4–1, Sam Baird 4–2, John Astley 4–2 and Peter Ebdon 4–3 to reach his first ranking event semi-final since 2002, where he lost 4–1 to Kyren Wilson.[22] Bond had started practicing at the Snooker Academy in Sheffield with young Chinese players and stated that this has contributed to him regaining the hunger and passion to play snooker.[23] He would have a losing run of 10 successive matches shortly afterwards, but at the Gibraltar Open he beat five players to reach his second semi-final of the season, where he failed to pick up a frame in a defeat to Shaun Murphy.[24] Bond kept his place on the tour through the one-year ranking list
Bond has competed on the main tour since 1989, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996/1997 season. He reached the final of the World Championship in 1995, where he lost 9–18 to Stephen Hendry, and won the 1996 British Open, defeating John Higgins 9–8.
Having reached the final of three other ranking tournaments, Bond won the 2011 Snooker Shoot-Out and, in 2012, defeated Tony Chappel to win the World Seniors Championship. He retained his place in the top 64 until 2015.
Career
He was born in Darley Dale, Derbyshire.
After a strong amateur career,[1] Bond turned professional for the 1989–1990 season. He reached his first ranking semi-final in his first season, and his first final in his second season, but his career peaked in the mid-1990s. In the 1994 World Championships, Bond pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in the event's history, rallying from 9–2 to defeat Cliff Thorburn 10–9 in what would be Thorburn's final appearance at the Crucible. A year later, Bond reached the final after beating Stephen Lee, Alan McManus, Gary Wilkinson and Andy Hicks, but lost to Stephen Hendry 18–9. This was his only semi-final run of the season. As a consequence of reaching the final, he climbed to number 5 in the world rankings for 1996/97, and in that same season he acquired his only ranking tournament victory (after three previous losing finals), the British Open, beating John Higgins 9–8 after needing a snooker in the final frame,[2] winning the World Snooker Association Performance of the Year award for this achievement, although he has failed to maintain this level of performance. He reached at least the quarter finals at the Crucible Theatre every year from 1993 to 1996, losing to Stephen Hendry every time, which added extra spice to their first round match in 2006. After leading comfortably throughout the match Bond was pegged back to 7–7, and the match went to a final frame. With only the black remaining, and 7 points up, Bond clipped it into the left corner pocket, only for the cue ball to go in-off in the right middle pocket, resulting in a respotted black (the first one ever to decide the final frame of a World Championship match), which Bond potted to take frame and match. Final score 10–9, Bond's first win at the Crucible since 1999,[3] and his only last-16 run of that season.[4]
By the end of the 1990s, Bond was out of the top 16, and dropped out of the top 32 for the 2004–2005 season. However, he reclaimed his place a year later, and he has remained there ever since as of 2009. In the 2007 World Championship he lost in the first round, 10–7 to Peter Ebdon.
A run to the last 16 of the 2007 UK Championships,[5] in which he came from 5–7 to win 9–7 against Ken Doherty in the last 32 before losing 9–6 to Ding Junhui in the last 16, was a precursor to his first quarter-final run for 5 years, at the China Open. Victories over David Roe, Stephen Lee and Barry Pinches took him to a meeting with Stephen Maguire, which he lost 5–0.
He opened the 2008/09 season with first-round defeats in the first five tournaments, but victory over Ebdon in the first round of the World Championship ensured that he didn't lose his top 32 status.
On 30 January 2011, Bond won the Snooker Shoot-Out event. This involved the top 64 players in the world playing 10-minute matches decided on a single frame. He picked up the £32,000 prize money as well as the Snooker Shoot-Out trophy, beating Robert Milkins 58–24 in the final.[6]
Bond started the 2011/2012 season very well by qualifying for the first two ranking event tournaments, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters. He lost to Neil Robertson and Mark Selby respectively in the first round.[7] He also qualified for the World Open, but was defeated by amateur player Lu Ning in the wildcard round.[7] Bond finished the season ranked world number 45.[8]
Bond once again qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open in the 2012/2013 season, but lost to Neil Robertson 1–5 in the last 32.[9] In December, he reached the World Open in Haikou, China, with wins over Jimmy White and Jamie Burnett. At the venue he saw off Zhu Yinghui 5–3 in the wildcard round and received a bye through to the last 16 due to the withdrawal of Ali Carter.[9] There he lost 1–5 to Judd Trump.[10] Bond was also crowned World Seniors champion during the season without dropping a frame in a total of seven matches, concluding with a 2–0 victory against Tony Chappel in the final.[11] Bond's season ended when he was beaten 8–10 by Alan McManus in the third round of World Championship Qualifying.[12] He dropped a solitary place during the year to end it ranked world number 46.[13]
Bond reached the final of the World Seniors Championship for the second year in a row in the 2013/2014 season, losing 2–1 to Steve Davis.[14] He only won two matches at the main venue of ranking events all season, his best run coming in the China Open, where he beat Barry Pinches 5–2 before Mark Selby defeated Bond 5–1 in the last 32.[15] He fell 11 spots from the start of the season to end it as the world number 57.[16]
Bond produced a superb comeback in the second round of the 2014 UK Championship, as from 5–0 down against world number five Barry Hawkins he took six successive frames to advance.[17] However, in the third round Anthony McGill recovered from 4–1 down to eliminate Bond 6–5.[18] The furthest Bond could progress in a ranking event this season was at the Indian Open, where he beat Ryan Day 4–1 and Dechawat Poomjaeng 4–3, before losing 4–1 to Chris Wakelin in the last 16.[19] He just fell outside the top 64 at the end of the year as he was 65th, but Bond earned a two-year extension via the European Order of Merit.[20][21]
At the 2016 Indian Open Bond defeated Ricky Walden 4–1, Sam Baird 4–2, John Astley 4–2 and Peter Ebdon 4–3 to reach his first ranking event semi-final since 2002, where he lost 4–1 to Kyren Wilson.[22] Bond had started practicing at the Snooker Academy in Sheffield with young Chinese players and stated that this has contributed to him regaining the hunger and passion to play snooker.[23] He would have a losing run of 10 successive matches shortly afterwards, but at the Gibraltar Open he beat five players to reach his second semi-final of the season, where he failed to pick up a frame in a defeat to Shaun Murphy.[24] Bond kept his place on the tour through the one-year ranking list
South Western Railway
South Western Railway[1] (SWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup (70%) and MTR Corporation (30%) that operates the South Western franchise. It operates commuter services from its Central London terminus at London Waterloo to South West London. SWR provides suburban and regional services in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, as well as regional services in Devon, Somerset, Berkshire and Wiltshire. Its subsidiary Island Line operates services on the Isle of Wight.
SWR was awarded the South Western franchise in March 2017,[2] and took over from South West Trains on 20 August 2017.
History
in July 2015, having failed to negotiate an extension with South West Trains (the operator at the time, owned by Stagecoach), the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the South Western franchise would be relet.[3][4][5]
In February 2016, the DfT announced FirstGroup and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the next South Western franchise.[6][7] In June 2016, MTR Corporation took a 30% shareholding in the FirstGroup bid.[8][9] In July 2016, the DfT issued the Invitation to Tender.[10][11]
In March 2017, the franchise was awarded to First/MTR, operating from 20 August 2017 to 18 August 2024, with an option for the DfT to extend for a further 48 weeks.[12][13][14]
In July 2017, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) sought undertakings from SWR that it would not abuse its monopoly on services to the West of England, Dorset and Somerset, as FirstGroup also operated the Greater Western franchise in those regions.[15][16] The CMA accepted a concession from FirstGroup and MTR that unregulated fares between London and Exeter would be capped.[17]
In April 2018, concerns began to grow over South Western Railway's performance over previous months after the number of delays and cancellations began to rise. The Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, announced an independent review into the performance of South Western Railway and Network Rail. This was welcomed by Winchester's MP, Steve Brine.[18]
In July 2018, it was reported that FirstGroup/MTR were renegotiating the SWR contract due to the operator's inability to deliver on many of its promised improvements, as well as its declining performance and history of industrial action.[19]
Services
South Western Railway is the main operator for western Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, and also serves London, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon.
Most SWR services run on electrified lines using the 750 V DC third-rail system. There is a diesel fleet for services on the West of England line to Salisbury, Exeter and Bristol, using the unelectrified track beyond Worting Junction just west of Basingstoke, and for Salisbury to Southampton via Romsey services which also serve Eastleigh. SWR operates almost 1,700 train services per day.
From London Waterloo, SWR's London terminus, long-distance trains run to southern England, including the major coastal population centres of Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. There are also trains to Reading, Exeter and Bristol, but these are not the principal fast services from London to those cities, which are operated from London Paddington by Great Western Railway. The majority of its passengers are on suburban commuter lines in inner and south-west London, Surrey, east Berkshire, and north-east Hampshire.
As with most rail companies, non-folding bicycles are banned from peak-time trains to and from London. However, these restrictions apply only to cyclists boarding or alighting in the area bounded by Hook, Alton, Guildford, Reading and Dorking, in order to maximise available passenger space on the most crowded trains.[20]
Mainline services
South Western Railway operates regular services on four mainline routes:[21][22]
The South Western Main Line (SWML) runs between London (Waterloo station) and the town of Weymouth; the route passes through several large towns and cities, including Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Dorchester. South Western Railway operates trains along the entire length of the line. Almost all trains operated by the company start from or terminate at London Waterloo; these include stopping services as far as Basingstoke, semi-fast services to/from Southampton and Poole, and express services to/from Weymouth. There are also trains to and from Portsmouth; these trains branch off the SWML at Eastleigh, then proceed via the Eastleigh to Fareham and West Coastway lines to Portsmouth Harbour station. In addition to the South Western Railway services, CrossCountry operates regular passenger services on the line between Basingstoke, Southampton and Bournemouth;[23] these usually run to and from Manchester or Newcastle.[24]
The Portsmouth Direct Line (PDL) branches off the SWML at Woking and runs to Portsmouth via Guildford, Haslemere, Petersfield and Havant. South Western Railway operates all passenger trains on this route; these include fast and semi-fast services between London and Portsmouth, and semi-fast services as far as Haslemere.
The West of England Main Line (WEML) is the only mainline route that is not fully electrified.[25] It leaves the SWML at Basingstoke and runs to Exeter via Andover, Salisbury, Gillingham and Yeovil. South Western Railway is the only operator on the line, with most services running between London and either Salisbury or Exeter St Davids. Some peak-time services terminate at various other destinations on the line, including Gillingham and Andover; other peak services branch off the line and run to Bristol Temple Meads station via the Wessex Main Line. On Summer Saturdays, there is also a daily return service to Weymouth, which leaves the WEML at Yeovil Junction and continues via the Heart of Wessex Line.
The Alton Line leaves the SWML at Brookwood (just after Woking) and runs to Alton via Aldershot and Farnham. It is the shortest of the four mainline routes and as such it is sometimes considered an outer suburban route instead (however for ticketing purposes, it is classed as a mainline route). Services usually run the full length of the line between London and Alton, though some services terminate at Farnham.
In total, there are 14 mainline trains per hour departing London Waterloo in the off-peak; this number increases in the peak hours.[22] The majority of mainline services are operated by Class 444 or Class 450 EMUs, except for the West of England Main Line which is always operated by Class 158 or Class 159 DMUs (because it is unelectrified) and the Alton Line which also sees the occasional use of Class 458 units.
Metro and Suburban services
South Western Railway also operates many suburban "Metro" services in an around London. These all run between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction, where they split into two separate routes: via Putney and via Wimbledon.[21] All services on the suburban part of the network are operated by Class 450, Class 455, Class 456, Class 458 and Class 707 electric multiple units.
Via Putney
The main route via Putney is known as the Waterloo to Reading Line. It runs between London and Reading and passes through towns such as Staines-upon-Thames, Ascot and Bracknell. Branch lines on this route include:[21][22]
The Hounslow Loop Line, which leaves the main line at Barnes, runs via Brentford and rejoins the line between Whitton and Feltham (with junctions in both directions). Most services on the branch run either between London and Weybridge (described below), or run in a loop from Waterloo to Waterloo via Brentford, Whitton and Richmond (these services run both clockwise and anticlockwise).
The Kingston Loop Line, which branches off at Twickenham, runs via Kingston and joins the South Western Main Line at New Malden. Most services on this line run in an anticlockwise loop, from Waterloo to Waterloo, via Putney, Strawberry Hill, Kingston and Wimbledon.
There is also a branch line to Shepperton, however, this is only served by Putney trains at peak times.
The Staines to Windsor Line, which branches off the main line at Staines-upon-Thames and runs to Windsor & Eton Riverside station. Most services run semi-fast between London and Windsor.
The Chertsey Branch Line, which leaves the main line at Virginia Water and runs to Weybridge. Most services on the line run between London and Weybridge via the Hounslow Loop Line; a few services are extended beyond Weybridge, to and from Woking.
The Ascot to Guildford Line, which is only served by through trains at peak times; these services run between London and Aldershot.
A total of 12 trains per hour run between London Waterloo and Putney in the off-peak; this number increases in peak hours.[22]
Via Wimbledon
The main route via Wimbledon uses the slow tracks of the quadruple-track South Western Main Line. Suburban trains run along the mainline between London and Woking. Branch lines on this route include:[21][22]
The Mole Valley Line, which branches off the main line at Raynes Park and runs via Epsom to Leatherhead, where the branch line itself splits into two lines: one to Guildford and one to Horsham via Dorking. SWR runs regular services to both Guildford and Dorking; the section between Dorking and Horsham is operated by Southern.[26]
The Chessington Branch Line branches off the Mole Valley Line at Motspur Park and runs to Chessington.
The Kingston Loop Line, which leaves the SWML at New Malden, runs via Kingston and joins the Waterloo to Reading line at Twickenham. Most services on this line run in a clockwise loop, from Waterloo to Waterloo, via Wimbledon, Kingston, Strawberry Hill and Putney.
The Shepperton Branch Line, which branches off the Kingston Loop Line at Teddington. Most services on the branch line run between Waterloo and Shepperton via Wimbledon.
The Hampton Court Branch Line, which leaves the main line at Surbiton and runs directly to Hampton Court.
The New Guildford Line, which also branches off at Surbiton, running to Guildford via Claygate. The line joins the Guildford branch of the Mole Valley Line at Effingham Junction.
A total of 16 trains per hour run between London Waterloo and Wimbledon in the off-peak; this number increases in peak hours.[22]
Other services
Routes that do not start or terminate at London Waterloo include:[21][22]
The Ascot to Guildford Line, which runs between Ascot and Guildford via Aldershot. Most services on the line run only between Ascot and Guildford, with no extension in either direction; however, some peak-time services do run between London and Farnham via Ascot. The shuttle services are usually operated by Class 450 units.
The western section of the West Coastway Line between Portsmouth and Southampton. Class 450 units are usually in operation on this route.
The Eastleigh to Romsey Line between Romsey and Eastleigh. Services on the line are extended beyond Eastleigh to and from Salisbury via Southampton Central and Romsey, in effect calling at Romsey twice. These services are operated using Class 158 units.
The Wessex Main Line between Salisbury and Southampton. Services are extended beyond Southampton via the Eastleigh to Romsey Line, as described above.
The Lymington Branch Line between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier runs every 30 minutes between these two stations. This is done entirely by Class 450 units on this line
The Island Line on the Isle of Wight, between Ryde Pier Head station and Shanklin. These services are operated using former London Underground Class 483 units: the oldest non-heritage trains in Britain.
SWR was awarded the South Western franchise in March 2017,[2] and took over from South West Trains on 20 August 2017.
History
in July 2015, having failed to negotiate an extension with South West Trains (the operator at the time, owned by Stagecoach), the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the South Western franchise would be relet.[3][4][5]
In February 2016, the DfT announced FirstGroup and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the next South Western franchise.[6][7] In June 2016, MTR Corporation took a 30% shareholding in the FirstGroup bid.[8][9] In July 2016, the DfT issued the Invitation to Tender.[10][11]
In March 2017, the franchise was awarded to First/MTR, operating from 20 August 2017 to 18 August 2024, with an option for the DfT to extend for a further 48 weeks.[12][13][14]
In July 2017, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) sought undertakings from SWR that it would not abuse its monopoly on services to the West of England, Dorset and Somerset, as FirstGroup also operated the Greater Western franchise in those regions.[15][16] The CMA accepted a concession from FirstGroup and MTR that unregulated fares between London and Exeter would be capped.[17]
In April 2018, concerns began to grow over South Western Railway's performance over previous months after the number of delays and cancellations began to rise. The Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, announced an independent review into the performance of South Western Railway and Network Rail. This was welcomed by Winchester's MP, Steve Brine.[18]
In July 2018, it was reported that FirstGroup/MTR were renegotiating the SWR contract due to the operator's inability to deliver on many of its promised improvements, as well as its declining performance and history of industrial action.[19]
Services
South Western Railway is the main operator for western Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, and also serves London, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon.
Most SWR services run on electrified lines using the 750 V DC third-rail system. There is a diesel fleet for services on the West of England line to Salisbury, Exeter and Bristol, using the unelectrified track beyond Worting Junction just west of Basingstoke, and for Salisbury to Southampton via Romsey services which also serve Eastleigh. SWR operates almost 1,700 train services per day.
From London Waterloo, SWR's London terminus, long-distance trains run to southern England, including the major coastal population centres of Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. There are also trains to Reading, Exeter and Bristol, but these are not the principal fast services from London to those cities, which are operated from London Paddington by Great Western Railway. The majority of its passengers are on suburban commuter lines in inner and south-west London, Surrey, east Berkshire, and north-east Hampshire.
As with most rail companies, non-folding bicycles are banned from peak-time trains to and from London. However, these restrictions apply only to cyclists boarding or alighting in the area bounded by Hook, Alton, Guildford, Reading and Dorking, in order to maximise available passenger space on the most crowded trains.[20]
Mainline services
South Western Railway operates regular services on four mainline routes:[21][22]
The South Western Main Line (SWML) runs between London (Waterloo station) and the town of Weymouth; the route passes through several large towns and cities, including Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Dorchester. South Western Railway operates trains along the entire length of the line. Almost all trains operated by the company start from or terminate at London Waterloo; these include stopping services as far as Basingstoke, semi-fast services to/from Southampton and Poole, and express services to/from Weymouth. There are also trains to and from Portsmouth; these trains branch off the SWML at Eastleigh, then proceed via the Eastleigh to Fareham and West Coastway lines to Portsmouth Harbour station. In addition to the South Western Railway services, CrossCountry operates regular passenger services on the line between Basingstoke, Southampton and Bournemouth;[23] these usually run to and from Manchester or Newcastle.[24]
The Portsmouth Direct Line (PDL) branches off the SWML at Woking and runs to Portsmouth via Guildford, Haslemere, Petersfield and Havant. South Western Railway operates all passenger trains on this route; these include fast and semi-fast services between London and Portsmouth, and semi-fast services as far as Haslemere.
The West of England Main Line (WEML) is the only mainline route that is not fully electrified.[25] It leaves the SWML at Basingstoke and runs to Exeter via Andover, Salisbury, Gillingham and Yeovil. South Western Railway is the only operator on the line, with most services running between London and either Salisbury or Exeter St Davids. Some peak-time services terminate at various other destinations on the line, including Gillingham and Andover; other peak services branch off the line and run to Bristol Temple Meads station via the Wessex Main Line. On Summer Saturdays, there is also a daily return service to Weymouth, which leaves the WEML at Yeovil Junction and continues via the Heart of Wessex Line.
The Alton Line leaves the SWML at Brookwood (just after Woking) and runs to Alton via Aldershot and Farnham. It is the shortest of the four mainline routes and as such it is sometimes considered an outer suburban route instead (however for ticketing purposes, it is classed as a mainline route). Services usually run the full length of the line between London and Alton, though some services terminate at Farnham.
In total, there are 14 mainline trains per hour departing London Waterloo in the off-peak; this number increases in the peak hours.[22] The majority of mainline services are operated by Class 444 or Class 450 EMUs, except for the West of England Main Line which is always operated by Class 158 or Class 159 DMUs (because it is unelectrified) and the Alton Line which also sees the occasional use of Class 458 units.
Metro and Suburban services
South Western Railway also operates many suburban "Metro" services in an around London. These all run between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction, where they split into two separate routes: via Putney and via Wimbledon.[21] All services on the suburban part of the network are operated by Class 450, Class 455, Class 456, Class 458 and Class 707 electric multiple units.
Via Putney
The main route via Putney is known as the Waterloo to Reading Line. It runs between London and Reading and passes through towns such as Staines-upon-Thames, Ascot and Bracknell. Branch lines on this route include:[21][22]
The Hounslow Loop Line, which leaves the main line at Barnes, runs via Brentford and rejoins the line between Whitton and Feltham (with junctions in both directions). Most services on the branch run either between London and Weybridge (described below), or run in a loop from Waterloo to Waterloo via Brentford, Whitton and Richmond (these services run both clockwise and anticlockwise).
The Kingston Loop Line, which branches off at Twickenham, runs via Kingston and joins the South Western Main Line at New Malden. Most services on this line run in an anticlockwise loop, from Waterloo to Waterloo, via Putney, Strawberry Hill, Kingston and Wimbledon.
There is also a branch line to Shepperton, however, this is only served by Putney trains at peak times.
The Staines to Windsor Line, which branches off the main line at Staines-upon-Thames and runs to Windsor & Eton Riverside station. Most services run semi-fast between London and Windsor.
The Chertsey Branch Line, which leaves the main line at Virginia Water and runs to Weybridge. Most services on the line run between London and Weybridge via the Hounslow Loop Line; a few services are extended beyond Weybridge, to and from Woking.
The Ascot to Guildford Line, which is only served by through trains at peak times; these services run between London and Aldershot.
A total of 12 trains per hour run between London Waterloo and Putney in the off-peak; this number increases in peak hours.[22]
Via Wimbledon
The main route via Wimbledon uses the slow tracks of the quadruple-track South Western Main Line. Suburban trains run along the mainline between London and Woking. Branch lines on this route include:[21][22]
The Mole Valley Line, which branches off the main line at Raynes Park and runs via Epsom to Leatherhead, where the branch line itself splits into two lines: one to Guildford and one to Horsham via Dorking. SWR runs regular services to both Guildford and Dorking; the section between Dorking and Horsham is operated by Southern.[26]
The Chessington Branch Line branches off the Mole Valley Line at Motspur Park and runs to Chessington.
The Kingston Loop Line, which leaves the SWML at New Malden, runs via Kingston and joins the Waterloo to Reading line at Twickenham. Most services on this line run in a clockwise loop, from Waterloo to Waterloo, via Wimbledon, Kingston, Strawberry Hill and Putney.
The Shepperton Branch Line, which branches off the Kingston Loop Line at Teddington. Most services on the branch line run between Waterloo and Shepperton via Wimbledon.
The Hampton Court Branch Line, which leaves the main line at Surbiton and runs directly to Hampton Court.
The New Guildford Line, which also branches off at Surbiton, running to Guildford via Claygate. The line joins the Guildford branch of the Mole Valley Line at Effingham Junction.
A total of 16 trains per hour run between London Waterloo and Wimbledon in the off-peak; this number increases in peak hours.[22]
Other services
Routes that do not start or terminate at London Waterloo include:[21][22]
The Ascot to Guildford Line, which runs between Ascot and Guildford via Aldershot. Most services on the line run only between Ascot and Guildford, with no extension in either direction; however, some peak-time services do run between London and Farnham via Ascot. The shuttle services are usually operated by Class 450 units.
The western section of the West Coastway Line between Portsmouth and Southampton. Class 450 units are usually in operation on this route.
The Eastleigh to Romsey Line between Romsey and Eastleigh. Services on the line are extended beyond Eastleigh to and from Salisbury via Southampton Central and Romsey, in effect calling at Romsey twice. These services are operated using Class 158 units.
The Wessex Main Line between Salisbury and Southampton. Services are extended beyond Southampton via the Eastleigh to Romsey Line, as described above.
The Lymington Branch Line between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier runs every 30 minutes between these two stations. This is done entirely by Class 450 units on this line
The Island Line on the Isle of Wight, between Ryde Pier Head station and Shanklin. These services are operated using former London Underground Class 483 units: the oldest non-heritage trains in Britain.
وست بروميتش ألبيون
نادي ويست بروميتش ألبيون لكرة القدم (بالإنجليزية: West Bromwich Albion F.C.) هو نادي كرة قدم إنجليزي محترف يقع في مدينة ويست بروميتش غرب وسط البلاد إنجلترا تأسس في العام 1878 تحت مسمى "West Bromwich Strollers". يعد نادي ويست بروميتش أحد الأندية المؤسسة لدوري كرة القدم في إنجلترا منذ عام 1888م حيث اعتاد اللعب في الدرجة الممتازة معظم سنوات وجوده إلا أنه لم يتوّج بطلاً لإنجلترا سوى مرة واحدة فقط في تاريخه كانت عام 1920م، في حين كانت أفضل إنجازاته عل صعيد كأس إنجلترا والتي فاز بها خمس مرات. بدأ مستوى النادي بالتراجع مع بداية الثمانينات حيث أمضى فترة طويلة للغاية بعيداً عن الدوري الممتاز منذ عام 1986 ولغاية 2002، وفي موسم 2008-09 عاد الفريق إلى الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز بعدما احتل المركز الأول في الدرجة الثانية موسم 2007-08.
الإنجازات
الدوري الإنجليزي الدرجة الأولى / الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز:
البطل (مره واحده): 1919–20
الوصيف (مرتين): 1924–25, 1953–54
الدوري الإنجليزي الدرجة الثانية:
البطل (3 مرات): 1901–02, 1910–11, 2007–08
الوصيف (4 مرات): 1930–31, 1948–49, 2001–02, 2003–04
كأس الاتحاد الإنجليزي لكرة القدم:
الفائز (5 مرات): 1888, 1892, 1931, 1954, 1968
الوصيف (5 مرات): 1886, 1887, 1895, 1912, 1935
كأس رابطة الأندية الإنجليزية المحترفة (كأس كارلنغ):
الفائز (مره واحده): 1966
الوصيف (مرتين): 1967, 1970
الدرع الخيرية
الفائز (مرتين): 1920, 1954
الوصيف (مرتين): 1931, 1968
الإنجازات
الدوري الإنجليزي الدرجة الأولى / الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز:
البطل (مره واحده): 1919–20
الوصيف (مرتين): 1924–25, 1953–54
الدوري الإنجليزي الدرجة الثانية:
البطل (3 مرات): 1901–02, 1910–11, 2007–08
الوصيف (4 مرات): 1930–31, 1948–49, 2001–02, 2003–04
كأس الاتحاد الإنجليزي لكرة القدم:
الفائز (5 مرات): 1888, 1892, 1931, 1954, 1968
الوصيف (5 مرات): 1886, 1887, 1895, 1912, 1935
كأس رابطة الأندية الإنجليزية المحترفة (كأس كارلنغ):
الفائز (مره واحده): 1966
الوصيف (مرتين): 1967, 1970
الدرع الخيرية
الفائز (مرتين): 1920, 1954
الوصيف (مرتين): 1931, 1968
West Brom
West Bromwich Albion Football Club (/ˈbrɒmɪdʒ, -ɪtʃ/) is a professional football club in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They currently play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has played at its home ground, The Hawthorns, since 1900. The club is commonly known as West Bromwich or just West Brom.
Albion were one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, the first professional football league in the world, and have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of English football. They have been champions of England once, in 1919–20, and have been runners-up twice. Albion have reached ten FA Cup finals, winning the Cup on five occasions. The first win came in 1888, the year the league was founded, and the most recent in 1968, their last major trophy. They also won the Football League Cup at the first attempt in 1966. The club's longest continuous period in the top division spanned 24 years between 1949 and 1973, and from 1986 to 2002 they spent their longest ever spell out of the top division.
The team has played in navy blue and white stripes for most of the club's history; and the club badge features a throstle perched on a hawthorn branch. Albion have a number of long-standing rivalries with other West Midlands clubs; their traditional rivals being Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Albion contest the Black Country Derby with the latter.
Early years (1878–1950)
The club was founded as West Bromwich Strollers in 1878 by workers from George Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich, in Staffordshire.[A][2] They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in 1880, becoming the first team to adopt the Albion suffix; Albion was a district of West Bromwich where some of the players lived or worked, close to what is today Greets Green.[2] The club joined the Birmingham & District Football Association in 1881 and became eligible for their first competition, the Birmingham Cup. They reached the quarter-finals, beating several longer-established clubs on the way. In 1883, Albion won their first trophy, the Staffordshire Cup. Albion joined the Football Association in the same year; this enabled them to enter the FA Cup for the first time in the 1883–84 season.[3] In 1885 the club turned professional,[4] and in 1886 they reached the FA Cup final for the first time, losing 2–0 to Blackburn Rovers in a replay. They reached the final again in 1887, but lost 2–0 to Aston Villa. In 1888 the team won the trophy for the first time, beating strong favourites Preston North End 2–1 in the final.[5] As FA Cup winners, they qualified to play in a Football World Championship game against Scottish Cup winners Renton, which ended in a 4–1 defeat
In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the Football League started later that year, Albion became one of the twelve founder members.[7] Albion's second FA Cup success came in 1892, beating Aston Villa 3–0. They met Villa again in the 1895 final, but lost 1–0. The team suffered relegation to Division Two in 1900–01, their first season at The Hawthorns.[8] They were promoted as champions the following season but relegated again in 1903–04.[9] The club won the Division Two championship once more in 1910–11, and the following season reached another FA Cup Final, where they were defeated by Second Division Barnsley in a replay.[10]
Albion won the Football League title in 1919–20 for the only time in their history following the end of World War I, their totals of 104 goals and 60 points both breaking the previous league records.[11] The team finished as Division One runners-up in 1924–25, narrowly losing out to Huddersfield Town, but were relegated in 1926–27.[12] In 1930–31, they won promotion as well as the FA Cup, beating Birmingham 2–1 in the final.[13] The "Double" of winning the FA Cup and promotion has not been achieved before or since.[14] Albion reached the final again in 1935, losing to Sheffield Wednesday, but were relegated three years later.[15] They gained promotion in 1948–49,[16] and there followed the club's longest unbroken spell in the top flight of English football, a total of 24 years
Success and decline (1950–1992)
In 1953–54, Albion came close to being the first team in the 20th century to win the League and Cup double. They succeeded in winning the FA Cup, beating Preston North End 3–2, but injuries and a loss of form towards the end of the season meant that they finished as runners-up to fierce rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the league.[19] Nonetheless, Albion became known for their brand of fluent, attacking football, with the 1953–54 side being hailed as the "Team of the Century". One national newspaper went so far as to suggest that the team be chosen en masse to represent England at the 1954 FIFA World Cup finals.[20] They remained one of the top English sides for the remainder of the decade, reaching the semi-final of the 1957 FA Cup and achieving three consecutive top five finishes in Division One between 1957–58 and 1959–60.
Although their league form was less impressive during the 1960s, the second half of the decade saw West Brom establish a reputation as a successful cup side. Albion entered the Football League Cup for the first time in 1965–66 and, under manager Jimmy Hagan, won the final by defeating West Ham United 5–3 on aggregate. That was the last two-legged final and, the following year, Albion reached the final again, the first played at Wembley. They lost 3–2 to Third Division Queens Park Rangers after being 2–0 up at half-time.[21] Albion's cup form continued under Hagan's successor Alan Ashman. He guided the club to their last major trophy to date, the 1968 FA Cup, when they beat Everton in extra time thanks to a single goal from Jeff Astle.[22] Albion reached the FA Cup semi-final and European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final in 1969, and were defeated 2–1 by Manchester City in the 1970 League Cup Final
The club were less successful during the reign of Don Howe, and were relegated to Division Two at the end of 1972–73,[24] but gained promotion three years later under the guidance of player-manager Johnny Giles.[25] Under Ron Atkinson, Albion reached the 1978 FA Cup semi-final but lost to Ipswich Town.[26] In May of that year, Albion became the first English professional team to play in China, going unbeaten on their five-game trip.[27][28] In 1978–79, the team finished third in Division One, their highest placing for over 20 years, and also reached the UEFA Cup quarter-final, where they were defeated by Red Star Belgrade.[29] The team around this time was notable for simultaneously fielding three black players: Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson; and is considered to be an integral part of the acceptance of black footballers in the English leagues.[30] In his second spell as manager, Ronnie Allen guided the team to both domestic cup semi-finals in 1981–82.[31] The mid-1980s saw the start of Albion's longest and deepest decline. They were relegated in 1985–86 with the worst record in the club's history,[32] beginning a period of 16 years outside the top flight. Five years later, the club were relegated to the Third Division for the first and only time.[33]
Recent years (1992–present)
Albion had spent the majority of their history in the top-flight of English football, but when the Premier League was founded in 1992 the club found themselves in the third tier, which had been renamed Division Two. In 1992–93, Albion finished fourth and entered the playoffs for the first time, having just missed out the previous year. Albion's first appearance at Wembley for over 20 years – and their last ever at the original stadium – saw them beat Port Vale 3–0 to return to the second level – now renamed the First Division.[34] Manager Ossie Ardiles then joined Tottenham Hotspur, however, and a succession of managers over the next few seasons saw Albion consolidate their Division One status without ever mounting a serious promotion challenge.
The appointment of Gary Megson in March 2000 heralded an upturn in the club's fortunes. Megson guided Albion to Division One safety in 1999–2000, and to the play-offs a year later. He went on to lead the club to promotion to the Premier League in 2001–02.[35] After being relegated in their first Premier League season,[36] they made an immediate return to the top flight in 2003–04.[37] In 2004–05, Megson's successor, former Albion midfielder Bryan Robson, led the team to a last-day "Great Escape", when Albion became the first Premier League club to avoid relegation having been bottom of the table at Christmas.[G][38] West Brom also remain the only team to escape relegation having been bottom during the final day of the season. Despite this success, they failed to avoid the drop the following season,[39] and Robson was replaced by Tony Mowbray in October 2006.[40] The club competed in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium on 28 May 2007, but lost 1–0 to Derby County.[41] The following season, Mowbray led the Baggies to Wembley again, this time in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, where they lost 1–0 to Portsmouth.[42] One month later, Albion were promoted to the Premier League as winners of the Championship,[43] but were relegated at the end of the 2008–09 campaign.[44] Mowbray left the club to manage Celtic and was replaced by Roberto Di Matteo,[45] who led the club back to the Premier League at the first attempt,[46] but was dismissed in February 2011 and replaced by Roy Hodgson.[47]
Hodgson guided Albion to an 11th-place finish for the 2010–11 season.[48] Then followed an eight-season continuous run in the Premier League. It included an 8th-place finish in 2012–13 under Steve Clarke,[49] and 10th-place finishes under Roy Hodgson in 2011–12[50] and Tony Pulis in 2016–17.[51] On 5 August 2016, it was announced that long-term owner Jeremy Peace had sold the club to a Chinese investment group headed up by Lai Guochuan.[52] By this time, the club had already begun to fall into a state of torpor, and were relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2017–18 season, ending their eight-year Premier League stay.[53] Pulis,[54] and his replacement Alan Pardew were both sacked during the season. Albion finished 4th in their first season back in the Championship under the management of Darren Moore, and later, caretaker manager James Shan, qualifying for the Championship play-offs. However, the team lost in the playoff semi-final.[55] Slaven Bilic took over as boss on June 13, 2019.[56]
Colours and crest
West Brom have played in navy blue and white striped shirts for the majority of their existence, usually with white shorts and white socks. The team is occasionally referred to as the Stripes by supporters.[57] A number of different colours were trialled during the club's formative years however, including cardinal red and blue quarters in 1880–81, yellow and white quarters in 1881–82, chocolate and blue halves in 1881–82 and 1882–83, red and white hoops in 1882–83, chocolate and white in 1883–84 and cardinal red and blue halves in 1884–85.[58] The blue and white stripes made their first appearance in the 1885–86 season, although at that time they were of a lighter shade of blue; the navy blue stripes did not appear until after the First World War.[59] For the regional leagues played during the Second World War, Albion were forced to switch to all-blue shirts, as rationing meant that striped material was considered a luxury.[60]
Like all football clubs, Albion sport a secondary or "change" strip when playing away from home against a team whose colours clash with their own. As long ago as the 1890s, and throughout much of the club's early history, a change strip of white jerseys with black shorts was worn.[61] The away shirt additionally featured a large 'V' during the First World War.[62] In the 1935 FA Cup Final, however, when both of Albion and Sheffield Wednesday's kits clashed, a switch was made to plain navy blue shirts. An all-red strip was adopted at the end of the 1950s, but was dropped following defeat in the 1967 League Cup Final, to be replaced by the all-white design that was worn during the club's FA Cup run of 1967–68.[61] Since then the away strip has changed regularly, with yellow and green stripes the most common of a number of different designs used. In the 1990s and 2000s a third kit has occasionally been introduced.[63]
Albion players – along with those of other Football League teams – first wore numbers on the back of their shirts in the abandoned season of 1939–40,[64] and names on the back of their shirts from 1999–2000.[65] Red numbers were added to the side of Albion players' shorts in 1969.[61]
Kit sponsors
BSR Housewares became the club's first shirt sponsor during the 1981–82 season.[59] The club's shirts have been sponsored for the majority of the time since then, although there was no shirt sponsor at the end of the 1993–94 season, after local solicitors Coucher & Shaw were closed down by the Law Society of England and Wales.[66] Unusually for a Premier League club, Albion were again without a shirt sponsor for the start of the 2008–09 campaign, as negotiations with a new sponsor were still ongoing when the season began.[67] The longest-running shirt sponsorship deal agreed by the club ran for seven seasons between 1997 and 2004 with the West Bromwich Building Society.[59][68] Today the club's principal sponsor is Ideal Boilers.[69] Other sponsors have included T-Mobile (2004–08), Homeserve (2010–11), Bodog (2011–12), Zoopla (2012–14), Intuit Quickbooks (2014–15), Tlcbet (2015–16), K8 group (2016–2017), and Palm Eco-Town Development (2017–18).
Since July 2018, West Brom's kit has been manufactured by Puma.[70] Previous manufacturers have included Diadora (2003–2006), Umbro (2006–11) and Adidas (2011–18).
Albion were one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, the first professional football league in the world, and have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of English football. They have been champions of England once, in 1919–20, and have been runners-up twice. Albion have reached ten FA Cup finals, winning the Cup on five occasions. The first win came in 1888, the year the league was founded, and the most recent in 1968, their last major trophy. They also won the Football League Cup at the first attempt in 1966. The club's longest continuous period in the top division spanned 24 years between 1949 and 1973, and from 1986 to 2002 they spent their longest ever spell out of the top division.
The team has played in navy blue and white stripes for most of the club's history; and the club badge features a throstle perched on a hawthorn branch. Albion have a number of long-standing rivalries with other West Midlands clubs; their traditional rivals being Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Albion contest the Black Country Derby with the latter.
Early years (1878–1950)
The club was founded as West Bromwich Strollers in 1878 by workers from George Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich, in Staffordshire.[A][2] They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in 1880, becoming the first team to adopt the Albion suffix; Albion was a district of West Bromwich where some of the players lived or worked, close to what is today Greets Green.[2] The club joined the Birmingham & District Football Association in 1881 and became eligible for their first competition, the Birmingham Cup. They reached the quarter-finals, beating several longer-established clubs on the way. In 1883, Albion won their first trophy, the Staffordshire Cup. Albion joined the Football Association in the same year; this enabled them to enter the FA Cup for the first time in the 1883–84 season.[3] In 1885 the club turned professional,[4] and in 1886 they reached the FA Cup final for the first time, losing 2–0 to Blackburn Rovers in a replay. They reached the final again in 1887, but lost 2–0 to Aston Villa. In 1888 the team won the trophy for the first time, beating strong favourites Preston North End 2–1 in the final.[5] As FA Cup winners, they qualified to play in a Football World Championship game against Scottish Cup winners Renton, which ended in a 4–1 defeat
In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the Football League started later that year, Albion became one of the twelve founder members.[7] Albion's second FA Cup success came in 1892, beating Aston Villa 3–0. They met Villa again in the 1895 final, but lost 1–0. The team suffered relegation to Division Two in 1900–01, their first season at The Hawthorns.[8] They were promoted as champions the following season but relegated again in 1903–04.[9] The club won the Division Two championship once more in 1910–11, and the following season reached another FA Cup Final, where they were defeated by Second Division Barnsley in a replay.[10]
Albion won the Football League title in 1919–20 for the only time in their history following the end of World War I, their totals of 104 goals and 60 points both breaking the previous league records.[11] The team finished as Division One runners-up in 1924–25, narrowly losing out to Huddersfield Town, but were relegated in 1926–27.[12] In 1930–31, they won promotion as well as the FA Cup, beating Birmingham 2–1 in the final.[13] The "Double" of winning the FA Cup and promotion has not been achieved before or since.[14] Albion reached the final again in 1935, losing to Sheffield Wednesday, but were relegated three years later.[15] They gained promotion in 1948–49,[16] and there followed the club's longest unbroken spell in the top flight of English football, a total of 24 years
Success and decline (1950–1992)
In 1953–54, Albion came close to being the first team in the 20th century to win the League and Cup double. They succeeded in winning the FA Cup, beating Preston North End 3–2, but injuries and a loss of form towards the end of the season meant that they finished as runners-up to fierce rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the league.[19] Nonetheless, Albion became known for their brand of fluent, attacking football, with the 1953–54 side being hailed as the "Team of the Century". One national newspaper went so far as to suggest that the team be chosen en masse to represent England at the 1954 FIFA World Cup finals.[20] They remained one of the top English sides for the remainder of the decade, reaching the semi-final of the 1957 FA Cup and achieving three consecutive top five finishes in Division One between 1957–58 and 1959–60.
Although their league form was less impressive during the 1960s, the second half of the decade saw West Brom establish a reputation as a successful cup side. Albion entered the Football League Cup for the first time in 1965–66 and, under manager Jimmy Hagan, won the final by defeating West Ham United 5–3 on aggregate. That was the last two-legged final and, the following year, Albion reached the final again, the first played at Wembley. They lost 3–2 to Third Division Queens Park Rangers after being 2–0 up at half-time.[21] Albion's cup form continued under Hagan's successor Alan Ashman. He guided the club to their last major trophy to date, the 1968 FA Cup, when they beat Everton in extra time thanks to a single goal from Jeff Astle.[22] Albion reached the FA Cup semi-final and European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final in 1969, and were defeated 2–1 by Manchester City in the 1970 League Cup Final
The club were less successful during the reign of Don Howe, and were relegated to Division Two at the end of 1972–73,[24] but gained promotion three years later under the guidance of player-manager Johnny Giles.[25] Under Ron Atkinson, Albion reached the 1978 FA Cup semi-final but lost to Ipswich Town.[26] In May of that year, Albion became the first English professional team to play in China, going unbeaten on their five-game trip.[27][28] In 1978–79, the team finished third in Division One, their highest placing for over 20 years, and also reached the UEFA Cup quarter-final, where they were defeated by Red Star Belgrade.[29] The team around this time was notable for simultaneously fielding three black players: Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson; and is considered to be an integral part of the acceptance of black footballers in the English leagues.[30] In his second spell as manager, Ronnie Allen guided the team to both domestic cup semi-finals in 1981–82.[31] The mid-1980s saw the start of Albion's longest and deepest decline. They were relegated in 1985–86 with the worst record in the club's history,[32] beginning a period of 16 years outside the top flight. Five years later, the club were relegated to the Third Division for the first and only time.[33]
Recent years (1992–present)
Albion had spent the majority of their history in the top-flight of English football, but when the Premier League was founded in 1992 the club found themselves in the third tier, which had been renamed Division Two. In 1992–93, Albion finished fourth and entered the playoffs for the first time, having just missed out the previous year. Albion's first appearance at Wembley for over 20 years – and their last ever at the original stadium – saw them beat Port Vale 3–0 to return to the second level – now renamed the First Division.[34] Manager Ossie Ardiles then joined Tottenham Hotspur, however, and a succession of managers over the next few seasons saw Albion consolidate their Division One status without ever mounting a serious promotion challenge.
The appointment of Gary Megson in March 2000 heralded an upturn in the club's fortunes. Megson guided Albion to Division One safety in 1999–2000, and to the play-offs a year later. He went on to lead the club to promotion to the Premier League in 2001–02.[35] After being relegated in their first Premier League season,[36] they made an immediate return to the top flight in 2003–04.[37] In 2004–05, Megson's successor, former Albion midfielder Bryan Robson, led the team to a last-day "Great Escape", when Albion became the first Premier League club to avoid relegation having been bottom of the table at Christmas.[G][38] West Brom also remain the only team to escape relegation having been bottom during the final day of the season. Despite this success, they failed to avoid the drop the following season,[39] and Robson was replaced by Tony Mowbray in October 2006.[40] The club competed in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium on 28 May 2007, but lost 1–0 to Derby County.[41] The following season, Mowbray led the Baggies to Wembley again, this time in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, where they lost 1–0 to Portsmouth.[42] One month later, Albion were promoted to the Premier League as winners of the Championship,[43] but were relegated at the end of the 2008–09 campaign.[44] Mowbray left the club to manage Celtic and was replaced by Roberto Di Matteo,[45] who led the club back to the Premier League at the first attempt,[46] but was dismissed in February 2011 and replaced by Roy Hodgson.[47]
Hodgson guided Albion to an 11th-place finish for the 2010–11 season.[48] Then followed an eight-season continuous run in the Premier League. It included an 8th-place finish in 2012–13 under Steve Clarke,[49] and 10th-place finishes under Roy Hodgson in 2011–12[50] and Tony Pulis in 2016–17.[51] On 5 August 2016, it was announced that long-term owner Jeremy Peace had sold the club to a Chinese investment group headed up by Lai Guochuan.[52] By this time, the club had already begun to fall into a state of torpor, and were relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2017–18 season, ending their eight-year Premier League stay.[53] Pulis,[54] and his replacement Alan Pardew were both sacked during the season. Albion finished 4th in their first season back in the Championship under the management of Darren Moore, and later, caretaker manager James Shan, qualifying for the Championship play-offs. However, the team lost in the playoff semi-final.[55] Slaven Bilic took over as boss on June 13, 2019.[56]
Colours and crest
West Brom have played in navy blue and white striped shirts for the majority of their existence, usually with white shorts and white socks. The team is occasionally referred to as the Stripes by supporters.[57] A number of different colours were trialled during the club's formative years however, including cardinal red and blue quarters in 1880–81, yellow and white quarters in 1881–82, chocolate and blue halves in 1881–82 and 1882–83, red and white hoops in 1882–83, chocolate and white in 1883–84 and cardinal red and blue halves in 1884–85.[58] The blue and white stripes made their first appearance in the 1885–86 season, although at that time they were of a lighter shade of blue; the navy blue stripes did not appear until after the First World War.[59] For the regional leagues played during the Second World War, Albion were forced to switch to all-blue shirts, as rationing meant that striped material was considered a luxury.[60]
Like all football clubs, Albion sport a secondary or "change" strip when playing away from home against a team whose colours clash with their own. As long ago as the 1890s, and throughout much of the club's early history, a change strip of white jerseys with black shorts was worn.[61] The away shirt additionally featured a large 'V' during the First World War.[62] In the 1935 FA Cup Final, however, when both of Albion and Sheffield Wednesday's kits clashed, a switch was made to plain navy blue shirts. An all-red strip was adopted at the end of the 1950s, but was dropped following defeat in the 1967 League Cup Final, to be replaced by the all-white design that was worn during the club's FA Cup run of 1967–68.[61] Since then the away strip has changed regularly, with yellow and green stripes the most common of a number of different designs used. In the 1990s and 2000s a third kit has occasionally been introduced.[63]
Albion players – along with those of other Football League teams – first wore numbers on the back of their shirts in the abandoned season of 1939–40,[64] and names on the back of their shirts from 1999–2000.[65] Red numbers were added to the side of Albion players' shorts in 1969.[61]
Kit sponsors
BSR Housewares became the club's first shirt sponsor during the 1981–82 season.[59] The club's shirts have been sponsored for the majority of the time since then, although there was no shirt sponsor at the end of the 1993–94 season, after local solicitors Coucher & Shaw were closed down by the Law Society of England and Wales.[66] Unusually for a Premier League club, Albion were again without a shirt sponsor for the start of the 2008–09 campaign, as negotiations with a new sponsor were still ongoing when the season began.[67] The longest-running shirt sponsorship deal agreed by the club ran for seven seasons between 1997 and 2004 with the West Bromwich Building Society.[59][68] Today the club's principal sponsor is Ideal Boilers.[69] Other sponsors have included T-Mobile (2004–08), Homeserve (2010–11), Bodog (2011–12), Zoopla (2012–14), Intuit Quickbooks (2014–15), Tlcbet (2015–16), K8 group (2016–2017), and Palm Eco-Town Development (2017–18).
Since July 2018, West Brom's kit has been manufactured by Puma.[70] Previous manufacturers have included Diadora (2003–2006), Umbro (2006–11) and Adidas (2011–18).
Ghislaine Maxwell
Ghislaine Maxwell (/ˌɡiːˈleɪn, -ˈlɛn/ ghee-LAYN, -LEN; born 25 December 1961)[1] is a British socialite and the youngest child of publishing tycoon and fraudster Robert Maxwell. She moved to the United States after her father's death in 1991 and became a close associate of financier and subsequently convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell has faced allegations of procuring and sexually trafficking underage girls for Epstein and others, charges she emphatically denies.[2]
Maxwell founded the ocean-advocacy group The TerraMar Project in 2012. The organisation announced closure on 12 July 2019, a week after the sex trafficking charges brought by New York federal prosecutors against Epstein became public.[2]
Early life
Ghislaine Maxwell was born in 1961, in Maisons-Laffitte, France,[3] the ninth and youngest child of Elisabeth (née Meynard), a French-born scholar, and Robert Maxwell, a Czech-born British media proprietor. Her father was from a Jewish family and her mother was of Huguenot descent. Maxwell was born two days before a car accident left her older brother Michael in a prolonged coma at age 15, unresponsive until his death in 1967.[4] Her mother reflected that the accident had an effect on the entire family, with Ghislaine becoming anorexic while still a toddler.[4] Throughout childhood, Ghislaine resided with her family in Oxford at Headington Hill Hall, a 53-room mansion, where the offices of Pergamon Press, a publishing company run by Robert Maxwell, were also located.[3][5][2] Her mother stated that all of her children were brought up Anglican.[6] Maxwell attended Headington School, Marlborough College, and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]
Maxwell had an unusually close relationship with her father and was widely credited with being her father's favourite child.[2][7][8] The Times reported that Robert Maxwell did not permit Ghislaine to bring her boyfriends home or to be seen with them publicly, after she started attending the University of Oxford.[9]
Career
Maxwell was a prominent member of the London social scene in the 1980s.[10] She founded a women's club named after the original Kit-Cat Club[11][8] and was a director of Oxford United Football Club, during her father's ownership.[12][13] She also worked at The European, a publication Robert Maxwell had started.[14] According to Tom Bower of The Times, in 1986 Ghislaine's father invited her to visit his new yacht in a shipyard in Holland to celebrate its christening in her honour as the Lady Ghislaine.[15] Maxwell was reported to have spent a large amount of time in the late 1980s aboard her father's yacht which was equipped with a jacuzzi, a sauna, a gym and private disco.[16] The Scotsman stated that Robert Maxwell had also "tailor made a New York company for her".[17] The company, which focused on corporate gifts, was not profitable.[9][15][18]
The Times reported that Maxwell flew to New York on 5 November 1990 to deliver an envelope on her father's behalf that, unknown to her, was part of "a plot initiated by her father to steal $200m" from Berlitz shareholders.[15]
After her father purchased the New York Daily News in January 1991, he sent her to New York City to act as his emissary.[19][9] In May 1991, Maxwell and her father took Concorde on business to New York, where he quickly departed for Moscow and left her to represent his interests at an event honouring Simon Wiesenthal.[20] In November 1991, Robert Maxwell's body was found floating in the sea near the Canary Islands and his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine.[21] Immediately following his death, Ghislaine flew to Tenerife, where the yacht was stationed, to attend to his business paperwork.[9] Though a verdict of death by accidental drowning was recorded, Maxwell has since stated that she believes her father was murdered,[22] commenting in 1997 that "He did not commit suicide. That was just not consistent with his character. I think he was murdered."[23] After his death, Robert Maxwell was found to have fraudulently appropriated the pension assets of Mirror Group Newspapers, a company that he ran and in which he held a large share of ownership, to support its share price.[24] There were reportedly over £440m in pension funds missing, which left the surviving Maxwell family members and the British government in a bind to repay the 32,000 people affected.[25]
Ghislaine Maxwell moved to the United States in 1991, just after her father's death. Maxwell was photographed boarding a Concorde to cross the Atlantic, causing outrage amidst the pension scandal due to the high cost of flights on that aircraft.[7][8] She reportedly receives "an £80,000 annual legacy from a trust set up by her father."[26] In 1992, she had moved to an apartment of an Iranian friend overlooking Central Park. At the time, Maxwell worked at a real estate office on Madison Avenue and was reported to be socializing with a group that included Ivana Trump and Adnan Khashoggi's son.[27] Maxwell quickly rose to wider prominence as a New York City socialite.[8][28]
Association with Jeffrey Epstein
Maxwell first met American financier Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s at a New York party following "a difficult break-up with Count Gianfranco Cicogna" of the Ciga Hotels clan.[29]
Maxwell had a romantic relationship with Epstein for several years in the early 1990s and remained closely associated with him for decades afterwards.[8][28][30] The nature of their relationship remains unclear. In a 2009 deposition, several of Epstein's household employees testified that Maxwell had a central role in both his public and private life, referring to her as his "main girlfriend" who also handled the hiring, supervising, and firing of staff starting around 1992.[31] She has also been referred to as the "Lady of the House" by Epstein's staff and as his "aggressive assistant".[32] In a 2003 Vanity Fair profile on Epstein, author Vicky Ward stated that Epstein referred to Maxwell as "my best friend".[33] Ward also observed that Maxwell seemed "to organize much of his life".[33]
Maxwell has attracted press coverage for her friendship with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who attended social functions with her in New York.[34] Maxwell introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew, and the three often socialized together.[35] In 2000, Maxwell and Epstein attended a party thrown by Prince Andrew at the queen's estate in Norfolk, England, for Maxwell's 39th birthday.[36] Maxwell has also been associated and photographed with Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.[28]
In 1995, Epstein renamed one of his companies the Ghislaine Corporation; the Palm Beach, Florida company was later dissolved, in 1998.[31]
In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence. Following Epstein's release from jail, although Maxwell continued to attend prominent social functions, she and Epstein were no longer seen together publicly.[2]
By late 2015, Maxwell had largely retreated from attending social functions.[2]
Civil cases and accusations
Virginia Roberts v. Maxwell (2015)
Details of a civil lawsuit, made public in January 2015, contained a deposition from a woman, identified as "Jane Doe 3", that accused Ghislaine Maxwell of having recruited her in 1999, when she was a minor, to have sex with Epstein.[8] A 2018 exposé by Julie K. Brown in the Miami Herald revealed Jane Doe 3 to be Virginia Giuffre, who in 1999 was known as Virginia Roberts. Giuffre met Maxwell at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Giuffre was working at the time.[8] She asserted that Maxwell had introduced her to Epstein, after which she was "groomed by the two [of them] for his pleasure, including lessons in Epstein's preferences during oral sex".[37][8]
Maxwell has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes.[30] In a 2015 statement, Maxwell rejected allegations that she has acted as a procurer for Epstein and denied that she had "facilitated Prince Andrew's acts of sexual abuse". Maxwell's spokesperson said that "the allegations made against Ghislaine Maxwell are untrue" and that she "strongly denies allegations of an unsavory nature, which have appeared in the British press and elsewhere, and reserves her right to seek redress at the repetition of such old defamatory claims".[35][38]
Giuffre sued Maxwell in federal court in the Southern District of New York in 2015. She asserted that Maxwell and Epstein had trafficked her and other underage girls, often at sex parties hosted by Epstein at his homes in New York, New Mexico, Palm Beach, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Maxwell called her a liar. Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation. While details of the settlement have not been made public, in May 2017 the case was settled in Giuffre's favour,[39] with Maxwell paying Giuffre "millions".[40]
The New York Times said that, by 2016, Maxwell was no longer being photographed at events. In April 2016, the New York town house where she had lived was sold for $15 million. By 2017, her lawyers claimed before a judge that they did not know her address; they further said that she was in London but that they did not believe she had a permanent residence.[2]
Sarah Ransome v. Epstein and Maxwell (2017)
In 2017, Sarah Ransome filed a suit against Epstein and Maxwell, alleging that Maxwell hired her to give massages to Epstein and later threatened to physically harm her or destroy her career prospects if she did not comply with their sexual demands at his mansion in New York and on his private Caribbean island, Little Saint James. The suit was settled in 2018 under undisclosed terms.[41][2][28][42]
Affidavit filed by Maria Farmer (2019)
On 16 April 2019, a new accuser, Maria Farmer, went public and filed a sworn affidavit in federal court in New York, alleging that she and her 15-year-old sister had been sexually assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell in separate locations in 1996. According to the affidavit, Farmer had met Maxwell and Epstein at a New York art gallery reception in 1995. The affidavit says that in the summer of the following year, they hired her to work on an art project in billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner's Ohio mansion, where she was then sexually assaulted.[43] Farmer reported the incident to the New York Police Department and the FBI.[31]
Farmer's affidavit also stated that during the same summer, Epstein flew her then-15-year-old sister to his New Mexico property where he and Maxwell molested her on a massage table.[44] Farmer was interviewed for CBS This Morning in November 2019 accusing Maxwell of a phone call threatening her life following a Central Park assault by the two individuals in 1996.[45]
Jennifer Araoz vs. the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jane Does 1–3 (2019)
On 14 August 2019, Jennifer Araoz filed a lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court against Epstein's estate, Maxwell, and three unnamed members of his staff; the lawsuit was made possible under New York state's new Child Victims Act, which took effect on the same date.[46]
Priscilla Doe vs. the estate of Jeffrey Epstein (2019)
Ghislaine Maxwell was named in one of three lawsuits filed in New York on 20 August 2019 against the estate of Jeffery Epstein.[47] The woman filing the suit, identified as "Priscilla Doe", claimed that she was recruited in 2006 and trained by Maxwell with step-by-step instructions on how to provide services for Epstein.[48][49]
Dispute over release of court documents
On 2 July 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the unsealing of documents from the earlier civil suit against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre.[50] Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on 6 July 2019 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy.[51]
Maxwell requested a rehearing in a federal appeals court on 17 July 2019, in an effort to keep documents sealed that were part of a suit by Virginia Giuffre.[52]
On 9 August 2019 the first batch of documents were unsealed and released from the earlier defamation suit by Giuffre against Maxwell.[53] Epstein was found dead on 10 August 2019, after reportedly hanging himself in his Manhattan prison cell.[54][55]
Later in August 2019, the Rolling Stone magazine and The Times of Israel online newspaper reported that the surroundings of the Epstein case and Gislaine Maxwell are continuously followed by investigators.[56][57]
TerraMar Project
In 2012, Maxwell founded The TerraMar Project,[58] a nonprofit organization that advocated the protection of oceans. She gave a lecture for TerraMar at the University of Texas at Dallas and a TED talk, at TEDx Charlottesville in 2014.[59] Maxwell accompanied Stuart Beck, a 2013 TerraMar board member, to two United Nations meetings to discuss the project.[18]
The TerraMar Project announced closure on 12 July 2019, less than a week after charges of sex trafficking brought by New York federal prosecutors against Epstein became public.[60][2] An associated, UK-based company, Terramar (UK), continues to exist, with Maxwell listed as a director.[61] An application for the UK organisation to be officially closed was made on 4 September 2019, with the first notice in The London Gazette made on 17 September 2019.[62] The second notice will follow in November 2019.[62]
Personal life
Since at least 1997, Maxwell has maintained a residence in Belgravia, London.[63][64] In 2000, Maxwell moved into a 7,000-square-foot townhouse on East 65th Street less than 10 blocks from her friend Epstein's New York mansion. The house was purchased for $4.95 million by an anonymous limited liability company, with an address that matches the office of J. Epstein & Co. Representing the buyer was Darren Indyke, Epstein's longtime lawyer.[2]
Following her personal and professional involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell was romantically linked for several years to Ted Waitt, founder of Gateway computers.[18][65] She attended the wedding of Chelsea Clinton in 2010 as Waitt's guest.[18] Maxwell helped Waitt obtain and renovate a luxury yacht, the Plan B, and used it for travel to France and Croatia before their relationship ended, sometime around late 2010[16] or early 2011.[18][8] In August 2019, reports surfaced that Maxwell had been living in Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts in the home of Scott Borgerson.[66] Maxwell and Borgerson were described as having been in a romantic relationship for several years.[16][66] Locals in the town of Manchester by the Sea stated that Maxwell had kept a low profile, went by "G" instead of her full first name, and had been seen on several occasions walking a Visla dog along the beach.[67][68] A neighbouring property manager relayed that Maxwell and Borgerson were a couple and had been seen repeatedly running together in the mornings.[69] Borgerson stated in August 2019 that Maxwell was not currently living at the home and that he did not know where she was.[66]
The last time Maxwell was seen in public was at a fast-food restaurant in Los Angeles in August 2019 reading The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives by Ted Gup.[70][71] However, doubts were raised about the validity of the sighting
Maxwell founded the ocean-advocacy group The TerraMar Project in 2012. The organisation announced closure on 12 July 2019, a week after the sex trafficking charges brought by New York federal prosecutors against Epstein became public.[2]
Early life
Ghislaine Maxwell was born in 1961, in Maisons-Laffitte, France,[3] the ninth and youngest child of Elisabeth (née Meynard), a French-born scholar, and Robert Maxwell, a Czech-born British media proprietor. Her father was from a Jewish family and her mother was of Huguenot descent. Maxwell was born two days before a car accident left her older brother Michael in a prolonged coma at age 15, unresponsive until his death in 1967.[4] Her mother reflected that the accident had an effect on the entire family, with Ghislaine becoming anorexic while still a toddler.[4] Throughout childhood, Ghislaine resided with her family in Oxford at Headington Hill Hall, a 53-room mansion, where the offices of Pergamon Press, a publishing company run by Robert Maxwell, were also located.[3][5][2] Her mother stated that all of her children were brought up Anglican.[6] Maxwell attended Headington School, Marlborough College, and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]
Maxwell had an unusually close relationship with her father and was widely credited with being her father's favourite child.[2][7][8] The Times reported that Robert Maxwell did not permit Ghislaine to bring her boyfriends home or to be seen with them publicly, after she started attending the University of Oxford.[9]
Career
Maxwell was a prominent member of the London social scene in the 1980s.[10] She founded a women's club named after the original Kit-Cat Club[11][8] and was a director of Oxford United Football Club, during her father's ownership.[12][13] She also worked at The European, a publication Robert Maxwell had started.[14] According to Tom Bower of The Times, in 1986 Ghislaine's father invited her to visit his new yacht in a shipyard in Holland to celebrate its christening in her honour as the Lady Ghislaine.[15] Maxwell was reported to have spent a large amount of time in the late 1980s aboard her father's yacht which was equipped with a jacuzzi, a sauna, a gym and private disco.[16] The Scotsman stated that Robert Maxwell had also "tailor made a New York company for her".[17] The company, which focused on corporate gifts, was not profitable.[9][15][18]
The Times reported that Maxwell flew to New York on 5 November 1990 to deliver an envelope on her father's behalf that, unknown to her, was part of "a plot initiated by her father to steal $200m" from Berlitz shareholders.[15]
After her father purchased the New York Daily News in January 1991, he sent her to New York City to act as his emissary.[19][9] In May 1991, Maxwell and her father took Concorde on business to New York, where he quickly departed for Moscow and left her to represent his interests at an event honouring Simon Wiesenthal.[20] In November 1991, Robert Maxwell's body was found floating in the sea near the Canary Islands and his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine.[21] Immediately following his death, Ghislaine flew to Tenerife, where the yacht was stationed, to attend to his business paperwork.[9] Though a verdict of death by accidental drowning was recorded, Maxwell has since stated that she believes her father was murdered,[22] commenting in 1997 that "He did not commit suicide. That was just not consistent with his character. I think he was murdered."[23] After his death, Robert Maxwell was found to have fraudulently appropriated the pension assets of Mirror Group Newspapers, a company that he ran and in which he held a large share of ownership, to support its share price.[24] There were reportedly over £440m in pension funds missing, which left the surviving Maxwell family members and the British government in a bind to repay the 32,000 people affected.[25]
Ghislaine Maxwell moved to the United States in 1991, just after her father's death. Maxwell was photographed boarding a Concorde to cross the Atlantic, causing outrage amidst the pension scandal due to the high cost of flights on that aircraft.[7][8] She reportedly receives "an £80,000 annual legacy from a trust set up by her father."[26] In 1992, she had moved to an apartment of an Iranian friend overlooking Central Park. At the time, Maxwell worked at a real estate office on Madison Avenue and was reported to be socializing with a group that included Ivana Trump and Adnan Khashoggi's son.[27] Maxwell quickly rose to wider prominence as a New York City socialite.[8][28]
Association with Jeffrey Epstein
Maxwell first met American financier Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s at a New York party following "a difficult break-up with Count Gianfranco Cicogna" of the Ciga Hotels clan.[29]
Maxwell had a romantic relationship with Epstein for several years in the early 1990s and remained closely associated with him for decades afterwards.[8][28][30] The nature of their relationship remains unclear. In a 2009 deposition, several of Epstein's household employees testified that Maxwell had a central role in both his public and private life, referring to her as his "main girlfriend" who also handled the hiring, supervising, and firing of staff starting around 1992.[31] She has also been referred to as the "Lady of the House" by Epstein's staff and as his "aggressive assistant".[32] In a 2003 Vanity Fair profile on Epstein, author Vicky Ward stated that Epstein referred to Maxwell as "my best friend".[33] Ward also observed that Maxwell seemed "to organize much of his life".[33]
Maxwell has attracted press coverage for her friendship with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who attended social functions with her in New York.[34] Maxwell introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew, and the three often socialized together.[35] In 2000, Maxwell and Epstein attended a party thrown by Prince Andrew at the queen's estate in Norfolk, England, for Maxwell's 39th birthday.[36] Maxwell has also been associated and photographed with Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.[28]
In 1995, Epstein renamed one of his companies the Ghislaine Corporation; the Palm Beach, Florida company was later dissolved, in 1998.[31]
In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence. Following Epstein's release from jail, although Maxwell continued to attend prominent social functions, she and Epstein were no longer seen together publicly.[2]
By late 2015, Maxwell had largely retreated from attending social functions.[2]
Civil cases and accusations
Virginia Roberts v. Maxwell (2015)
Details of a civil lawsuit, made public in January 2015, contained a deposition from a woman, identified as "Jane Doe 3", that accused Ghislaine Maxwell of having recruited her in 1999, when she was a minor, to have sex with Epstein.[8] A 2018 exposé by Julie K. Brown in the Miami Herald revealed Jane Doe 3 to be Virginia Giuffre, who in 1999 was known as Virginia Roberts. Giuffre met Maxwell at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Giuffre was working at the time.[8] She asserted that Maxwell had introduced her to Epstein, after which she was "groomed by the two [of them] for his pleasure, including lessons in Epstein's preferences during oral sex".[37][8]
Maxwell has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes.[30] In a 2015 statement, Maxwell rejected allegations that she has acted as a procurer for Epstein and denied that she had "facilitated Prince Andrew's acts of sexual abuse". Maxwell's spokesperson said that "the allegations made against Ghislaine Maxwell are untrue" and that she "strongly denies allegations of an unsavory nature, which have appeared in the British press and elsewhere, and reserves her right to seek redress at the repetition of such old defamatory claims".[35][38]
Giuffre sued Maxwell in federal court in the Southern District of New York in 2015. She asserted that Maxwell and Epstein had trafficked her and other underage girls, often at sex parties hosted by Epstein at his homes in New York, New Mexico, Palm Beach, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Maxwell called her a liar. Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation. While details of the settlement have not been made public, in May 2017 the case was settled in Giuffre's favour,[39] with Maxwell paying Giuffre "millions".[40]
The New York Times said that, by 2016, Maxwell was no longer being photographed at events. In April 2016, the New York town house where she had lived was sold for $15 million. By 2017, her lawyers claimed before a judge that they did not know her address; they further said that she was in London but that they did not believe she had a permanent residence.[2]
Sarah Ransome v. Epstein and Maxwell (2017)
In 2017, Sarah Ransome filed a suit against Epstein and Maxwell, alleging that Maxwell hired her to give massages to Epstein and later threatened to physically harm her or destroy her career prospects if she did not comply with their sexual demands at his mansion in New York and on his private Caribbean island, Little Saint James. The suit was settled in 2018 under undisclosed terms.[41][2][28][42]
Affidavit filed by Maria Farmer (2019)
On 16 April 2019, a new accuser, Maria Farmer, went public and filed a sworn affidavit in federal court in New York, alleging that she and her 15-year-old sister had been sexually assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell in separate locations in 1996. According to the affidavit, Farmer had met Maxwell and Epstein at a New York art gallery reception in 1995. The affidavit says that in the summer of the following year, they hired her to work on an art project in billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner's Ohio mansion, where she was then sexually assaulted.[43] Farmer reported the incident to the New York Police Department and the FBI.[31]
Farmer's affidavit also stated that during the same summer, Epstein flew her then-15-year-old sister to his New Mexico property where he and Maxwell molested her on a massage table.[44] Farmer was interviewed for CBS This Morning in November 2019 accusing Maxwell of a phone call threatening her life following a Central Park assault by the two individuals in 1996.[45]
Jennifer Araoz vs. the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jane Does 1–3 (2019)
On 14 August 2019, Jennifer Araoz filed a lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court against Epstein's estate, Maxwell, and three unnamed members of his staff; the lawsuit was made possible under New York state's new Child Victims Act, which took effect on the same date.[46]
Priscilla Doe vs. the estate of Jeffrey Epstein (2019)
Ghislaine Maxwell was named in one of three lawsuits filed in New York on 20 August 2019 against the estate of Jeffery Epstein.[47] The woman filing the suit, identified as "Priscilla Doe", claimed that she was recruited in 2006 and trained by Maxwell with step-by-step instructions on how to provide services for Epstein.[48][49]
Dispute over release of court documents
On 2 July 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the unsealing of documents from the earlier civil suit against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre.[50] Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on 6 July 2019 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy.[51]
Maxwell requested a rehearing in a federal appeals court on 17 July 2019, in an effort to keep documents sealed that were part of a suit by Virginia Giuffre.[52]
On 9 August 2019 the first batch of documents were unsealed and released from the earlier defamation suit by Giuffre against Maxwell.[53] Epstein was found dead on 10 August 2019, after reportedly hanging himself in his Manhattan prison cell.[54][55]
Later in August 2019, the Rolling Stone magazine and The Times of Israel online newspaper reported that the surroundings of the Epstein case and Gislaine Maxwell are continuously followed by investigators.[56][57]
TerraMar Project
In 2012, Maxwell founded The TerraMar Project,[58] a nonprofit organization that advocated the protection of oceans. She gave a lecture for TerraMar at the University of Texas at Dallas and a TED talk, at TEDx Charlottesville in 2014.[59] Maxwell accompanied Stuart Beck, a 2013 TerraMar board member, to two United Nations meetings to discuss the project.[18]
The TerraMar Project announced closure on 12 July 2019, less than a week after charges of sex trafficking brought by New York federal prosecutors against Epstein became public.[60][2] An associated, UK-based company, Terramar (UK), continues to exist, with Maxwell listed as a director.[61] An application for the UK organisation to be officially closed was made on 4 September 2019, with the first notice in The London Gazette made on 17 September 2019.[62] The second notice will follow in November 2019.[62]
Personal life
Since at least 1997, Maxwell has maintained a residence in Belgravia, London.[63][64] In 2000, Maxwell moved into a 7,000-square-foot townhouse on East 65th Street less than 10 blocks from her friend Epstein's New York mansion. The house was purchased for $4.95 million by an anonymous limited liability company, with an address that matches the office of J. Epstein & Co. Representing the buyer was Darren Indyke, Epstein's longtime lawyer.[2]
Following her personal and professional involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell was romantically linked for several years to Ted Waitt, founder of Gateway computers.[18][65] She attended the wedding of Chelsea Clinton in 2010 as Waitt's guest.[18] Maxwell helped Waitt obtain and renovate a luxury yacht, the Plan B, and used it for travel to France and Croatia before their relationship ended, sometime around late 2010[16] or early 2011.[18][8] In August 2019, reports surfaced that Maxwell had been living in Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts in the home of Scott Borgerson.[66] Maxwell and Borgerson were described as having been in a romantic relationship for several years.[16][66] Locals in the town of Manchester by the Sea stated that Maxwell had kept a low profile, went by "G" instead of her full first name, and had been seen on several occasions walking a Visla dog along the beach.[67][68] A neighbouring property manager relayed that Maxwell and Borgerson were a couple and had been seen repeatedly running together in the mornings.[69] Borgerson stated in August 2019 that Maxwell was not currently living at the home and that he did not know where she was.[66]
The last time Maxwell was seen in public was at a fast-food restaurant in Los Angeles in August 2019 reading The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives by Ted Gup.[70][71] However, doubts were raised about the validity of the sighting
Cliff Parisi
Cliff Parisi (born 24 May 1960) is an English actor, known for his roles as Minty Peterson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Fred Buckle in the BBC period drama Call the Midwife. He was the 3rd contestant to leave the nineteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here
Early life
Parisi was born in London, to George and Irene, then aged 17 and 18, and has a sister who is one year older. Following his birth the family were made homeless and he and his sister were taken into care in Reading, Berkshire. Parisi was only told of his early years, by his mother, in 2012. He grew up in Hornsey, north London. He left school at age 13 after his dyslexia led to a mistaken diagnosis of being slow.[1]
Career
Parisi began his career in 1982 when he started touring the United Kingdom as a stand-up comedian. He continued working as a stand-up comedian for the next seven years before being offered a bit part in the film Queen of Hearts in 1989.
Interested in taking up acting, Parisi changed his vocation and after a series of bit parts landed his first noticeable character: Lunchbox in the TV series Chancer. Parisi was then given bigger parts on television, most noticeably on the series Kavanagh QC, Bramwell and A Prince Among Men.
After finishing the former TV series, Parisi auditioned for what would be his most famous role: Minty Peterson in EastEnders. He was recommended for the part by close friend and EastEnders actor Steve McFadden. Since his inception into the soap opera in 2002 the public have seen his character Minty form a close friendship with Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves) and evolve from a cold-hearted landlord to a hapless unlucky-in-love mechanic and then to finding love with established characters Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) and Manda Best (Josie Lawrence). He made his final appearance on 21 September 2010, ending eight years on the show.
In 2012, Parisi filmed a guest role with Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, playing the character of Walt.[2] He also starred as a guest in the BBC drama Hustle, playing the character of Arnie.
Since 2012, Parisi has starred in the BBC period drama Call the Midwife, appearing as Fred.[citation needed]
Parisi appeared in the 5th and final series of the British sitcom Outnumbered, as concerned parent Ed Poll.[citation needed]
He 2019 he participated in the nineteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here![3]
Personal life
Parisi has four children, one with his partner, BBC producer Tara Wyer, and three from previous relationships.[citation needed] He is President of Saffron Walden Town Football Club.[citation needed]
Filmography
Queen of Hearts (1989) - Manager
A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1990)
Can You Hear Me Thinking? (1990) - Biker
KYTV (1990, 1993)
Chancer (1990) - Lunchbox
The Pleasure Principle (1991) - Police Officer
Boon (1991) - John Preston
The Guilty (1992) - Cliff
Gone to Seed (1992) - Robin
Sean's Show (1992) - Police Officer
The Darling Buds of May (1993) - Bill Jackson
The Upper Hand (1993) - Gary
Bermuda Grace (1994) - Gary Foster
London's Burning (1994) - Mickey Wright
Drop the Dead Donkey (1994) - Paramedic
Under the Moon (1995) - Clifford
N7 (1995) - Alvin
Kavanagh QC (1995–2001) - Tom Buckley
Bramwell & Bramwell II (1995–96) - Daniel Bentley
Glam Metal Detectives (1995) - Security Guard
Pie in the Sky (1996) - Inspector Dave Smith
A Prince Among Men (1997) - Dave Perry
The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) - Uri
Our Boy (1997) - Jeff
The Saint (1997) - Pub Waiter
Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's... (1997) - Sprott
Kiss Me Kate (1998) - Tony
From Hell (2001) - Bartender
Hot Money (2001) - Bob Hoodless
Casualty (2000) - Paul Farrell
Sunburn (2000) - Reggie Roach
EastEnders (2002–2010) - Minty Peterson
Helen West (2002)
Bedtime (2002)
Waking the Dead (2003) - Tony King
The Bill (2003) - Anthony Spall
Hustle (2012) - Arnie
Call the Midwife (2012–present) - Fred
Hollyoaks (2012) - Walt
Outnumbered (2014) - Ed Poll
Plebs (2014) - Fulvio
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2019) – Himself
Early life
Parisi was born in London, to George and Irene, then aged 17 and 18, and has a sister who is one year older. Following his birth the family were made homeless and he and his sister were taken into care in Reading, Berkshire. Parisi was only told of his early years, by his mother, in 2012. He grew up in Hornsey, north London. He left school at age 13 after his dyslexia led to a mistaken diagnosis of being slow.[1]
Career
Parisi began his career in 1982 when he started touring the United Kingdom as a stand-up comedian. He continued working as a stand-up comedian for the next seven years before being offered a bit part in the film Queen of Hearts in 1989.
Interested in taking up acting, Parisi changed his vocation and after a series of bit parts landed his first noticeable character: Lunchbox in the TV series Chancer. Parisi was then given bigger parts on television, most noticeably on the series Kavanagh QC, Bramwell and A Prince Among Men.
After finishing the former TV series, Parisi auditioned for what would be his most famous role: Minty Peterson in EastEnders. He was recommended for the part by close friend and EastEnders actor Steve McFadden. Since his inception into the soap opera in 2002 the public have seen his character Minty form a close friendship with Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves) and evolve from a cold-hearted landlord to a hapless unlucky-in-love mechanic and then to finding love with established characters Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) and Manda Best (Josie Lawrence). He made his final appearance on 21 September 2010, ending eight years on the show.
In 2012, Parisi filmed a guest role with Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, playing the character of Walt.[2] He also starred as a guest in the BBC drama Hustle, playing the character of Arnie.
Since 2012, Parisi has starred in the BBC period drama Call the Midwife, appearing as Fred.[citation needed]
Parisi appeared in the 5th and final series of the British sitcom Outnumbered, as concerned parent Ed Poll.[citation needed]
He 2019 he participated in the nineteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here![3]
Personal life
Parisi has four children, one with his partner, BBC producer Tara Wyer, and three from previous relationships.[citation needed] He is President of Saffron Walden Town Football Club.[citation needed]
Filmography
Queen of Hearts (1989) - Manager
A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1990)
Can You Hear Me Thinking? (1990) - Biker
KYTV (1990, 1993)
Chancer (1990) - Lunchbox
The Pleasure Principle (1991) - Police Officer
Boon (1991) - John Preston
The Guilty (1992) - Cliff
Gone to Seed (1992) - Robin
Sean's Show (1992) - Police Officer
The Darling Buds of May (1993) - Bill Jackson
The Upper Hand (1993) - Gary
Bermuda Grace (1994) - Gary Foster
London's Burning (1994) - Mickey Wright
Drop the Dead Donkey (1994) - Paramedic
Under the Moon (1995) - Clifford
N7 (1995) - Alvin
Kavanagh QC (1995–2001) - Tom Buckley
Bramwell & Bramwell II (1995–96) - Daniel Bentley
Glam Metal Detectives (1995) - Security Guard
Pie in the Sky (1996) - Inspector Dave Smith
A Prince Among Men (1997) - Dave Perry
The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) - Uri
Our Boy (1997) - Jeff
The Saint (1997) - Pub Waiter
Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's... (1997) - Sprott
Kiss Me Kate (1998) - Tony
From Hell (2001) - Bartender
Hot Money (2001) - Bob Hoodless
Casualty (2000) - Paul Farrell
Sunburn (2000) - Reggie Roach
EastEnders (2002–2010) - Minty Peterson
Helen West (2002)
Bedtime (2002)
Waking the Dead (2003) - Tony King
The Bill (2003) - Anthony Spall
Hustle (2012) - Arnie
Call the Midwife (2012–present) - Fred
Hollyoaks (2012) - Walt
Outnumbered (2014) - Ed Poll
Plebs (2014) - Fulvio
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2019) – Himself
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