Unsung Sporting Heroes

I erroneously thought that last week was Sports Personality of the Year and you can imagine my disappointment when I sat down, with a pint of Ale, to enjoy a catch-up of the year’s top action, to shed a tear for the sporting greats that have departed and to see whether my prediction of Rebecca Adlington to win would have come true.

It has given me a week’s grace to think about who should be given the nod as the as the best representative of 2008 from this sporting isle. I still think it should be Rebecca, not just because she low fived me as I crossed the start line at the Great North Run, but because I personally think her achievements are the most remarkable of an impressive bunch.

But in Britain we have a world champion golfer, who, after dominating the sport in the early to mid naughties, made a comeback to rival that of Ali. I am of course talking of Tim “Ace Man” Davies and I am, of course, talking about October’s Mini-Golf World Championships in Hastings.

Tim has now won 5 (five) world titles and has just brought out a book called “Nutters With Putters”, which I can’t wait to read. It isn’t often that we can claim to have 5 time world champion and it is scandalous that he is not on the BBC’s radar.

Sporting Print

Talking of sporting books and biographies, I haven’t been compelled to spend the hard earned on any sports books this year so I am going to throw open suggestions on the best sporting books ever. For the record, my top 5, in no particular order are:

The Fight by Norman Mailer (1975)
This Sporting Life by David Storey (1960)
It's not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong (2000)
Addicted by Tony Adams with Ian Ridley (1998)
A Lot of Hard Yakka by Simon Hughes (1997)

Be interested to see if you agree but also I want to create the worst 5 as well.

Sporting Perspective

I think that the England cricket team’s return to India is a great example of where sport is secondary and yet it is vital. Had England not gone ahead with the games, and there are many sensible and rational reasons why they shouldn’t, then terror would have won. It reminds me of when England rugby continued to play in Dublin in the late 70s and early 80s, despite threats from IRA. Bodies such as the RFU, the ECB are pretty much on a par when it comes to (lack of) foresight. But in these cases, being bloody minded and making sure that the games continue are the right things to do.

Saturday Predictions

Fulham to win away for the first and possibly last time this season, Chris Hoy to take the BBC prize and England to go 1-0 up in the first test.