Hoy snaffles the prize!

So the astonishing dominance of Team GB's cycling team carried on from the Olympics to take the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards by storm. I, and many of the people I interviewed for my vox pop, thought Lewis Hamilton had the award sewn up because of the sheer number of F1 fans. How wrong we were, and how little we knew of the countrywide army of cycling enthusiasts locked in a voting frenzy yesterday. That and the obvious regard the people of Britain hold for their Olympic heroes. Not only was Chris Hoy victorious, but the Olympic cycling team snaffled two of the other gala baubles as well.

The staging of the awards in Liverpool has been decreed a triumphant success by the local papers and a return to the Echo Arena is apparently guaranteed. However, unless through some late flowering of sporting prowess I secure a ringside seat for next time, I’ll be watching from the safety of my sofa once more.

I have to confess some disappointment at the absence of any real clangers by the presenting team. They managed a slick show even if the TV visuals were so busy that I started to feel nauseous and had to look away from the screen. Although this was an upset Hoy deserved to win the award. His achievement of winning three gold medals was incredible and the highlight of an unusually successful sporting year for Britain. Judging by his acceptance speech he is also a decent, amusing guy, and shock horror, a personality!

Image by Nick J Webb @ www.flickr.com

Out on the town!

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year takes place at Liverpool's Echo Arena on Sunday 14th December, so I asked people in the city who they thought would be successful at the awards. Videos of their responses are posted onto the attached Google map below (click on the placement flags, then the names to watch the video footage).


View Larger Map

Although Rebecca Adlington received a few votes, Lewis Hamilton must have the main event sewn up as he was picked by the majority of people I asked. That is, everyone who knew what I was talking about! Less certain was the Overseas Personality with a split in the vote between Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. I asked who would win that award at ask500people.com:


NICE ONE, LA!

Scouse winners of the awards have been almost non-existent. Only Michael Owen is a possible candidate, but technically he's not a Scouser and won because of his England endeavours.

There have been Scouse bridesmaids: John Conteh was runner-up in 1974 and Steven Gerrard came third in 2005, his incredible heroics with Liverpool being thwarted by Andrew Flintoff (rightly) in first and Ellen MacArthur (dubiously) in second.

And, in a scene typical of some of the bizarre features on the Sports Personality of the Year, Red Rum, the horse famous for his Liverpool wins in the Grand National, was 'interviewed' on stage in 1977. It looks to me like the horsewhisperer holding Red Rum's reins in the clip has got his work cut out stopping the poor creature running amok amongst the crowd.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMS FROM MERSEYSIDE

Liverpool FC has been recognised on three occasions for the team award - in 1977 (winning the European Cup and League), 1986 (winning the Double) and 2001 (winning the FA, UEFA and League Cups).

St Helens RLFC had an annus mirabilis in 2006, winning the team award (ahead of the strongly fancied Ryder Cup team) and with Daniel Anderson winning Coach of the Year.

FUTURE PROSPECTS

The show is growing by the year, moving around the country and being held in front of huge live audiences (9,000-strong this year). Although the popularity of particular sports may rise and fall (is figure skating on its way back?) you can guarantee that the BBC will be handing out its gongs for years to come.

A potted history of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year award has been a fixture of Christmas television since 1954. I've created a timeline (below) of significant moments in the award's history, investigating the development of the show and featuring some previous winners. Links to other source materials are available by clicking on the images featured on the timeline.




The award has been won twice by three different sportsmen - Sir Henry Cooper, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill. The double-winning racing drivers indicate the voting public's affection for the thrilling world of Grand Prix racing, which bodes well for Lewis Hamilton this year.

MY FAVOURITE WINNERS

• Paul Gascoigne
• Michael Owen
• Kelly Holmes
• Andrew Flintoff

PERSONALITY QUIRKS

• The dominance of athletics (17 winners) over the national sport of football (4)
• George Best never winning
• The disproportionate amount of success for figure skaters (4 wins)
• No recognition for Stephen Roche winning the Tour De France in 1987 (even in the Overseas category – Roche was from EIRE)
• Victory for non-British sportsmen – Greg Rudsedski, Barry McGuigan
• Oldest winner – Dai Rees – 44. There’s hope for me, yet
• Youngest winner – Michael Owen – 18
• No award for show host Sue Barker, despite her victory in the French Open in 1976

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

• 41 male victories versus 12 female victories

My next post will feature a vox pop about the BBC Sports Personality of the Year canvassing opinions from people in and around this year's host city, Liverpool.

BBC Sports Personality of the Year

As traditional as Christmas lunch and the Queen's seasonal broadcast, each year in December we are bombarded with adverts to remind us that the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the shindig to end all shindigs, is upon us. This is an awards show with a difference. A triumph of addictive naffness, with a roll call of previous winners which reads like a who's who of sport. The event even has a slightly bizarre royal pedigree with both Princess Anne and her daughter Zara Phillips prevailing as a result of their equestrian skills.

This year, the Olympics, the Paralympics, the Ryder Cup and football's European Championships (embarrassingly an England-free zone) were all vying for the armchair fan's attention, so the calendar was jam-packed with more tales of sporting glory and despair than usual. Unusually, Britain had its fair share of the former, and here is my video rundown of some of the year's outstanding achievers (and some who were pipped to the post):

MY PREDICTIONS
• Sports Personality of the Year – Lewis Hamilton succeeding Welsh pugilist Joe Calzaghe (right). The bookmakers agree.
• Overseas Personality of the Year – Usain Bolt (just ahead of Michael Phelps/Ronaldo)
• Team of the Year – GB Olympics
• Coach of the Year – Sir Alex Ferguson

I won't ruin the show by predicting the winner of the remaining four prizes (the Young Sports Personality of the year, the Helen Rollason award, the Lifetime Achievement award and the Unsung Hero Award), but I do think, with all these presentations, it's amazing they manage to fit in any sporting highlights at all.

For many, including me, the show is less about the awards or the round up of the year's sporting highs and lows, and more about the close-up voyeurism afforded by TV of the toe-curling, stilted banter between co-hosts Sue Barker and Gary Lineker - unintentional comedy at its finest. There's always a chuckle to be had as Gary launches into a link facing the wrong camera or after yet another excruciatingly embarrassing segue between features.

In the coming days I'm going to look at the history of the award and hit the streets of this year's host city, Liverpool, to see who the public think the winners will be...

Image from www.joecalzaghe.com

Testing, testing...

...one, two, three.

Media twerpery, ahoy!

The screams of the London-centric football press could be heard way up here in t'north last night after the defeat of their beloved Chelsea denied the media a chance to properly lay into Liverpool FC. Surely any pretence at a balanced sports section required the focus to be on a home defeat for the most expensively assembled squad in the history of football by a team from the lower leagues? Add in a star striker aimlessly hurling coins into the ranks of the opposing fans and it's a guarantee, isn't it?

In short, no. Some papers found the home win for resurgent Spurs against Liverpool's reserves was the story of the day. Even watching the Liverpool debacle on tv I could tell the knives were out. Gerry Francis, sporting the worst haircut I've ever seen, was cock-a-hoop after the game and I could sense the press were ready, dusting down their favourite soundbites: Kop that, Rafa the rotator, Arise Sir Harry etc.

Perhaps after investing so much energy, glee and insight into their articles about Spurs' victory (and their inevitable march into the Champions League berths) the papers concerned didn't have time to adjust the backpage with the news of their darling's shocking defeat. More likely the decision to stick with the lesser story of the night was just further evidence of a lack of balance within the national press and an inappropriate bias for all things London...

Hogwash

'These aren't the games that will define our season.' So said Tony Mowbray after West Brom's defeat at Liverpool yesterday. His opinion, and that of his fellow relegation-battling managers, is that they can't expect anything against the big boys and it's all down to how they perform in the tussles with their fellow stragglers.

Nonsense. Any points picked up in games against the superior leviathans of the Premiership are unlikely to be matched by your nearest rivals so a crucial advantage is obtained, not only in the league table, but also through the confidence boost that floods through your team as a result of their achivement.

Just look at Hull FC - beat Arsenal away (!) and suddenly games against West Ham, Blackburn et al, start to look less daunting. And I think the approach of managers like Hull's Phil Brown is far more refreshing. Have a go, who knows what will happen? As Neil Young said: 'Better to burn out than to fade away.'