zara phillips meets david walliams and theo walcott in strange, unearthly celebration of a nation’s sporting mediocrity
year, award officially declared joke
shoulda been calzaghe or hatton
Oddly enough “what a fucking disgrace” was the first thing I said when they announced it. I might have to hunt down every senile old bastard that voted for her and punch them in the face.
Biggest fix since Virginia Wade “won” Wimbledon?
Shoulda been Tweddle.
her winning is wrong on so many levels. firstly the fucking nepotism; she was born into showjumping, a sport practised by veritable tens across the uk, secondly the sport itself isn’t liked or supported by anybody with an extant pulse, thirdly wahey, she won a world championship, HOW FUCKING HARD MUST THAT BE, whoop-de-do, we might as well award it to the guy who can juggle in time to the second side of Abbey Road, actually, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Lastly, she only got voted for because she’s a fucking Royal. Any other claim is a bald-faced LIE.
either graeme dott, calzaghe or hatton would have been A-OK with me, but Zara fucking Phillips? awful.
david walliams and theo walcott = also quite, quite awful.
The “public” in “public vote” presumably means the same as it does in “public school”.
ROFL
lol that lasted about 2 minutes royalist wikis are on the ball.
Isn’t this shite every year?
last year’s was ‘our’ glorious ashes team getting their rightful due. this year’s i didn’t even watch and i’m shocked by how bad it is.
Darren Clarke was robbed. As was Walliams, but he was robbed by the adjudication panel.
you must be joking about walliams
what he did has no relation to sport whatsoever. plenty of people have swum the channel, plenty of these for charity. just because he happens to star in a gruesomely unfunny and outdated (yes, already) ‘sketch show’, does this add extra credence to his achievement? i think not.
No, I wasn’t joking. If it had been a straight public vote he would have walked it.
Calzaghe was robbed, obv.
last year’s was ‘our’ glorious ashes team getting their rightful due.
lol, cricket.
I really did assume this was a joke title until i saw it on the beeb. Good grief. I have given up all hope of Cameron not winning the next election.
You are of course all aware that this doesn’t actually matter, right?
You are of course aware that this is ILE, right?
Calzaghe was robbed, obv.
OTM—his destruction of Jeff Lacy best performance by a British boxer in years. World Champion for almost a decade with a 100% record since turning pro and he loses to some royal bint in a sport no-one watches.
(Moving the Sports Personality thing because it’s in the wrong place, and removing yet more fucking vandalism. yes, she cheated to win but just stop you faggots.)
OH NOES MEMBER OF ROYAL FAMILY PROVES TO BE GOOD AT SOMETHING QUICK PRETEND IT NEVER HAPPENED
you are all being rather idiotic here! all the criticisms levelled at phillips and her sport could equally be directed at any of the other candidates named in this thread, really, this is entirely kneejerk “all posh people must die!” reactionary nonsense. her claim to winning was equally as strong as tweddle’s or calzaghe’s, probably better than clarke’s (bear in mind that of those sports i have a mild-to-good interest in golf and gymnastics, and none in boxing or equestrianism).
firstly the fucking nepotism; she was born into showjumping
yes the abominable notion of sporting dynasties is entirely new to her case
secondly the sport itself isn’t liked or supported by anybody with an extant pulse
it’s better than bloody football
she won a world championship, HOW FUCKING HARD MUST THAT BE
isn’t this, like, the pinnacle of her sport outside the olympics?
Darren Clarke was robbed
pinnacle of golf = majors. in comparison to majors, davis cup in tennis and ryder cup in golf = so much hot air. well done darren and i’m sorry your wife is dead but...no. not robbed.
No, I wasn’t joking. If it had been a straight public vote he would have walked it.
in which case i’m bloody glad it’s not a public vote!
OTM—his destruction of Jeff Lacy best performance by a British boxer in years. World Champion for almost a decade with a 100% record since turning pro and he loses to some royal bint in a sport no-one watches.
like boxing (or indeed gymnastics or golf!) is any less of a niche sport! except its niche is for a working class audience so you MEN OF THE PEOPLE feel ok about getting behind it.
if anyone was robbed it was nicole cooke, actually. world no 1, women’s world champion, winner of the women’s equivalent of the tour de france etc.
at least roger federer got his due! apparently in america sports illustrated named some basketball dude as sportsman of the year over him :o
haha nicole cooke’s wikipedia entry is the only one which makes me think anyone was robbed! it really does look impressive
I voted for Beth Tweddle, but Zara’s OK with me. She’s actually won something, albeit in a sport that no-one gives a shit about, but you know...good for her. Joe C, Ricky Hatton, Nicole Cooke Beth and Zara are the only ones in the list who you could honestly say have achieved anything.
She wasn’t kidding when she said she hadn’t prepared a speech, because she hadn’t expected to win, was she?
At least she thought everything was “amazing”. Which is nice.
When Phillips became world champion she was plastered all over the papers (at last we have a world champion!—blahblahblah) but I don’t remember much mention of Cooke. It’s not that I hate the royal family or think that posh people should die it’s that i detest the way the press (and clearly many of the general public) still fawn over them to the exclusion of others.
For the record I hate boxing. It’s as tedious to watch as motor racing or golf.
Can we have some respect for the horse?
like boxing (or indeed gymnastics or golf!) is any less of a niche sport! except its niche is for a working class audience so you MEN OF THE PEOPLE feel ok about getting behind it.
Any sport is a niche sport. Boxing is a massive sport. I’m not getting behind boxing as a MAN OF THE PEOPLE but as a casual boxing fan who thinks Joe Calzaghe’s achievements in the sport are phenomenal.
When was the last time there was a pay-per-view showjumping competition? No-one except horsey people gives a flying fuck about showjumping and Philips getting the publicity she did is only down to the media being stuck up royal arses.
(I can’t believe I’m arguing about a personality competition that has been won by “personalities” such as Nigel Mansell)
well I was just going to say:
Sports and Personality does not always go hand in.
John Curry was a phenomenon in ice skating, and performed with plenty pers, but I don’t remember him ever giving interviews.
Steve Ovett was supposedly the bad boy, but he now seems like the good guy as opposed to SebCoe jumping into pol.
“How Flair is Punished” should be the title of this thread.
Nicole Cooke should have had this. Year on year she’s been getting better and better and is really up there with the best in her sport, not like fucking Buttons or someone. Come on you donkeys, if she were a man she would have walked this.
Yeah they’ve really kept the women down this year.
You’re right, women’s cycling get a ton of recognition.
I do hate the Royal Family and think posh people should die. Still, Calzaghe has been World Champion for 9 years. Whether you want to be sniffy about boxing or not, his achievement has been the greatest of those 10 candidates.
Calzaghe should’ve won. No doubt about that.
While it’s true that at least she has actually won something, she did only win this because she’s a royal.
Not to demean Calzaghe’s achievements, but the thing about boxing is there are all these weight sub-divisions, and various bodies awarding world titles, so that he’s “merely” a world champion—one of dozens, I imagine.
Anyway, comparing achievements across different sports with vastly different competitive setups, different constituencies/grassroots access/skill-sets is never going to lead to much of a consensus as to what constitutes the finest British performance of the year, so best to give it to the lass 11th in line to the throne, SEZ I.
has Calzaghe not been considered much in previous years?
i’m more annoyed by Walcott winning YSP. clutching at straws.
Zara for teh win!
I thought Murray and Rooney winning YSP in previous years was hopelessly premature and hypey (the former wasn’t even on the main ATP tour at that point, the latter had scored 1x spectacular goal vs Arsenal) but, y’know, they went on to prove themselves. I thought that award was reserved for junior world champs or something, not merely immense youthful promise yet to actually do anything (ok, Murray had some junior form).
Murray was the 1st Brit to win the Junior US Open.
Yes, you’re right—for some reason, I though Murray had actually won YSP before his US junior title.
if anyone was robbed it was nicole cooke, actually. world no 1, women’s world champion, winner of the women’s equivalent of the tour de france etc.
But this is the thing, it’s Sports Personality of The Year. It’s a combination of a) achievement and b) ability to capture some sort of public heart during the previous 12 months. We take, say, a hypothetical fight between Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins. Then we take Zara Philips versus (insert famous three day eventer or whatever this sport is) and Nicole Cooke going on on one with Oenone Wood or whoever.
Now, we put all three of those on Pay Per View. Clue: one of them will do roughly 200 times more business than the other two. This ain’t about “niche” sports. Phillips has been on top of her sport for six months, Cooke for three years, Calzaghe for nine. If Calzaghe had been English and not two types of foreigner, maybe he would have won.
It’s a combination of a) achievement and b) ability to capture some sort of public heart during the previous 12 months.
Call the cops! David Walliams has been robbed!
The only boxers to win this are Henry Cooper (twice!)—who never won a world title and lost no fewer than 14 times, and Barry McGuigan, who lost his title at his 3rd defence—and who remains the only non-Brit to win the award.
Apparently Walliams’ swim was the 23rd fastest out of 1,200 successful crossings, which is fairly impressive.
don’t forget Lennox Lewis—the thoroughly British, thoroughly black, thoroughly heterosexual former heavyweight champion of the world in ’99.
recommended zings: ’1 out of 3 ain’t bad’
Outside darts
Phil is a family man and has four children—Lisa, Chris, Kelly and Natalie—to wife Yvonne. His popularity among darts fans has led to increasing business opportunities—such as writing his autobiography (with Sky TV darts commentator Sid Waddell), and appearances on TV such as “The Frank Skinner Show” where he dressed up in drag and sung alongside former Hear’Say singer Myleene Klass, and “Heads Up with Richard Herring” where he discussed his love of poker. Taylor also appeared on BBC’s spelling competition, Hard Spell and has participated in televised celebrity poker.
In 2004, he recorded a song with Sharon Kelly, “Better Than the Best,” which was written in his honor and featured a “rap” by Taylor. However, the song was never officially released. He also appeared in British Whale’s video for “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us” in 2005, which featured a mock darts game against Justin Hawkins of The Darkness.
The one blemish on Taylor’s career is an incident after a 1999 exhibition match in Scotland. Two young women, aged 23 and 25, accompanied Taylor back to his motorhome after the competition and later accused him of sexual assault. Taylor denied the charges but he was found guilty of a minor offense and fined £2000. As a result, an anticipated award of the MBE was never offered. [4]
He is also a huge fan of the football club Port Vale.
He is perhaps most infamous for his refusal to shake Phil Taylor’s hand after losing 7–0 to him in the 2002 World Championship Final. This led to fans booing him on stage for many years, however this changed in 2005 when he took up the song “Is This the Way to Amarillo” (By Tony Christie)
xpost to the pic: Woha, what an unflattering outfit.
I forgot about Lennox!
i’m suspicious of all “how many people would want to watch this” arguments. firstly because that way lies david walliams, secondly because in terms of public exposure it’s hardly a level playing field between all sports.
american tennis fans are currently wringing their hands over the fact that all present and future slam threats are foreign. it’s perceived—not least by us tv networks—that foreign players can’t sell the sport, that the casual american sports fan won’t be interested in them; thus, their coverage of tennis tournaments revolves almost exclusively around andy roddick, the williams sisters when they bother to show up, andy roddick reruns, and andy roddick reruns. and you have to think: OF COURSE american fans won’t turn in for foreign elite players because they don’t know who they are BECAUSE THE TV NETWORKS REFUSE TO SHOW THEM OUT OF COWARDICE.
so—sure, calzaghe might pull in more viewers than cooke or phillips, but how will cooke’s or phillips’ sport ever have a hope of reaching the popularity of calzaghe’s if every publicity-related decision is made on that basis? the reason that ‘no one cares’ is because no one KNOWS about them, and this is the fault of a relentlessly 2/3-note sports media in this country which vastly underestimates people’s capacity to take an interest in people excelling in sporting fields other than the big three. this largely meaningless award is as good a place as any to raise awareness of equestrianism or women’s cycling.
“capturing the heart” also a false trail as if anyone did, it was phillips (yes because of who she is but as has just been outlined the arbitrary nature of “who gets publicity” is hardly one which is much influenced by the concept of “who deserves publicity”).
(nb: i don’t believe boxing is a particularly ‘massive’ sport anyway; it’s less obscure than women’s cycling or equestrianism, but not to the extent that it can really brag about how many more people care about it. it’s hardly football. it’s not even tennis or golf.)
(nnbb: botherd about nine-year accomplishments, this is the sports personality OF THE YEAR award, ie THIS YEAR)
Come on you donkeys, if she were a man she would have walked this.
No, she’s a cyclist.
i’m suspicious of all “how many people would want to watch this” arguments
something to do with the thrill of two topless men grappling with each other and sweating profusely. i can’t see the appeal myself.
this is the sports personality OF THE YEAR award, ie THIS YEAR
As I said earlier
his destruction of Jeff Lacy best performance by a British boxer in years
That fight was this year, and is possibly one of the greatest displays of boxing skill I’ve ever seen—and represents IMO the pinnacle of Calzaghe’s career. If he was ever to win this award then this year was his best shot (given that next year he’s chasing the dollar by fighting a reality TV show winner—not Matt from Busted, sadly).
(remove “possibly”)
This far into the thread and no one has commented on Dom’s screenshot—“OKCupid! creamed_p” tab?
But this is the thing, it’s Sports Personality of The Year. It’s a combination of a) achievement and b) ability to capture some sort of public heart during the previous 12 months.
Totally OTM. I do wish it wasn’t called Sports personality of the Year, though, just to avoid my father’s inevitable remarks about the winner’s lack thereof, which I’ve had to suffer since Nigel Mansell won it.
Zara’s winning speech was even worse than Michael Owen’s!
I think lex is wrong about the Ryder Cup...it is different to the majors for sure...but it maybe carries even more gravitas, do others agree here? the only sense in which i’d deny Clarke is that it was a team event...
I don’t think the Ryder Cup is totally irrelevant, but golfers are judged by their Majors titles, not by Ryder Cup wins.
Beating America at The Ryder Cup is one of the most important things in sport for me.
Woosnam was the team captain, Sergio Garcia was the best player, Clarke was only nominated because of sympathy over his wife’s death.
Yes, and that’s why he shouldn’t win it. He even said so himself.
Anyway, the real issue is why was Jensing Buttong on the list?
He won one whole race!
The Great British Public sure do love their posh car drivers.
Hondas aren’t posh!
:-P
Feels like the worst year for British sport in a very long time.
The whole Jenson Button win in Hungary felt like losing your virginity at fourty to an Hungarian prostitute to be told. And all done in two minutes.
nobody else approves of graeme dott? c’mon, at least that’s a sport where a Brit is almost guaranteed to win! (Until Ding Junhui gets moving, that is...)
That only dogs can hear his interviews probably puts off the GBP.
Maybe he will win the BBC Scotland Sports Personality Of The Year Award
Ahead of the World Elephant Polo Champions?
Apparently the winners were an unofficial breakaway Scottish team. This schism in the ranks could mark the end of Scotland’s domination of this huge sport.
xxpost: hmm, perhaps. it was a great display, though! the only ‘what if’ i can muster after such a dismal sporting year is ‘what if fletcher had picked monty for the first two Ashes tests and he’d performed well’. that aside, i suspect i’ll stop caring about this very quickly indeed.
those elephant polo guys win every year, it’s scotland’s ‘banker’, isn’t it?
Does anyone else think Clarke came second because he was probably winning until the Sunday papers came out with “oh noes, his wife’s not cold in her grave and he’s got a new bird shockah!” stories on Sunday, and the kind of people who would tut at that probably are the people who like Zara and her family and therefore vote for her to not let Darren Clarke win.
Also his suit was horrendous. Really really awful. Did he not have a mirror in his dressing room?
Graeme Dott will not win Scottish Sports Personality of the year. Snooker players get a really bad rap at this sort of thing unless they are completely dominant in their sport. I don’t think Dott’s achieved that much—he’s won ONE tournament in his life, OK it was the World Championship, but it’s still just one tournament. I also kind of think Steven Pressley is going to be in with a shout this year for standing up to Mad Vlad and his resultant ascension into working-class-revolutionary-hero, though I fully expect it’ll be Andy Murray.
I vote for Ireland’s Aiden McGeady.
(and, yes, I was at ATP and still managed to watch some of the Sports Personality of the Year, a loser is me, oh yes)
What’s happening with Pressley? Has he been kicked out of Hearts?
He was sacked by Romanov.
I think lex is wrong about the Ryder Cup...it is different to the majors for sure...but it maybe carries even more gravitas, do others agree here? the only sense in which i’d deny Clarke is that it was a team event...
hmm i’m not entirely au fait with how the ryder cup is perceived in golf but i’m using davis cup/fed cup/olympics as a parallel in tennis, where success in those events is generally seen in a cherry-on-top sense, an impressive achievement but not quite the level of winning a major. partly this is the team factor—tennis and golf are fundamentally individual sports, to crowbar a team aspect on to them seems rather contrived. plus of course there’s the shared glory thing—there are players who have ‘won’ the davis cup without even bring called on to play a match.
there’s no question that for some players, winning for one’s country is dearer to their hearts—elena dementieva has said that her olympic silver medal will always be her proudest accomplishment in the sport, even if she were to win a slam in the future—but others couldn’t be less bothered (pete sampras and martina hingis spring to mind). everyone agrees on the importance of the majors though.
Yes, on Saturday. (xxpost)
Funny how the two younger, more talented guys whose value to Hearts is greater in terms of future transfer fees who stood alongside him when he started his revolution didn’t get booted out as well...
What a mess. I was wondering if Gordon and Hartley got ditched too, but as you say, they’re cash in the bank. What do the supporters think?
I don’t know any and due to the colossal mess that the once-excellent BBC message boards have become recently, I can’t be bothered wading through other boards to find out. I think they are by and large backing Pressley though and also trying to stick by the team/management. Not a lot of support for Romanov himself, AFAIK.
Supporters of other teams find it all tremendously funny though, as evidenced by the roffles all over the Scottish football thread. Though there’s a large “there but for the grace of God...” element about the roffling.
My dad is a Hearts fan. He’s not happy. I would imagine the supporters who go to the games are turning against Romanov. Lets be honest though, we’ve all known this sort of thing was going to happen since they sacked Burley.
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