Flintoff for Sports personality of the year

[Oliver]

I don't think Henman is on the list is he?

And I only said that Paula Radcliffe was a failed Olympian. The World Championships are unrelated, and professional. (Well so are the Olympics, of course, but they're not meant to be.)

Ah the Olympic ideal, the cash doesn't mean anything to him, he only wants the gold medal... B0110ck5

[Mongoose]

I think Rob Key should be Sports Personality:

1. He looks a lot like Shaun 'little buddy' Murphy, who won the snooker world championship in the most entertaining style I've seen - even better than Ronnie
2. He's actually got a personality - he's a cheeky chunky chappie who's always having fun
3. The evidence is in the avatar - look at his face ... just look at his face!!

[Oliver]

No, I can't remember Mongoose... who was Barry Davies talking about?

[greg]

Francis Lee was the Barry Davies commentary i think.

[Mongoose]

Originally Posted by greg

Francis Lee was the Barry Davies commentary i think.

Correct, I think. It was featured on '100 great goals' - when the cub scouts had a paper collection, we used go back to the house of the cubs football manger to watch the video. Lots of great commentary too. Besides the Lee comment, there was a Bobby Charlton goal - 'hit like an arrow' said in delightfully gruff and forceful commentator-voice.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Mongoose

there was a Bobby Charlton goal - 'hit like an arrow'

Of course, you can't hit a football straight as an arrow, anymore. They're too damned light.

I'm looking forward to the opening match of the World Cup in 2018 when, after thousands more law suits for damages from former international centre halves with Parkinson's, the referee blows for kick-off, the centre-forward gingerly touches the ball and it sails upwards and out of the stadium never to be seen again by human eyes.

It's not like it were, when I were a lad.

[Mongoose]

Originally Posted by Oliver

Of course, you can't hit a football straight as an arrow, anymore. They're too damned light ...
It's not like it were, when I were a lad.

The aforementioned cubs football manager used to have these black and white balls that were like a rock. You'd almost get knocked out trying to head them, and I often ended up with a headache after just one header.

Light footballs? I remember 'gone-with-the-wind' plastic 99p balls we had a primary school.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by Oliver

And I only said that Paula Radcliffe was a failed Olympian. The World Championships are unrelated, and professional. (Well so are the Olympics, of course, but they're not meant to be.)

The World Championships are rather more than a 'money race' though Oliver - behind the Olympic's it is the most important atheltic event in the world. I think someone who won a gold medal deserves due consideration for SPOTY even if she did fail at the Olympic games, which were held over a year ago, and therfore are completly unrelated to this years show. Pretty much all top quality athletes, Olympic or otherwise, are professionals now. It is necessary to compte.

The fact remians that Radcliffe is quite possibly the greatest female marathon runner of all time, and I also think she may well get the gold at the next Olympic games. I have alot of respect for her. As I saidearlier, I don't rreally wamr to her especially, but she is remarkable in her field.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Kirsty Harris

The World Championships are rather more than a 'money race' though Oliver - behind the Olympic's it is the most important atheltic event in the world.

Sorry Kirsty, I disagree.

The World Championships are exactly a money race. There is prize money and appearance money, just like the Olympic games.

I used to like athletics... now I don't. Ben Jonson ruined the whole thing for me (doubtless you can find a rather fuller version of why I hate athletics and particularly Ben Jonson in the WaT archives) running for the glory of good old Canada in the 100m in 1988.

The IOC claims at every successive Olympic games to be eradicating steroid (and EPO) usage from the sport... curious then that every year another superstar professional "user" falls out of the woodwork.

"Keep athletics clean" claimed Carl Lewis (a user) and Linford Christie (another user) and who is to say that any of the current bunch of "squeaky clean" track and field (or even road) athletes don't use as well.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Oliver

Linford Christie (another user)

I know he was accused of being involved oliver, but was it ever proved he was a user?.

Originally Posted by BBC

Even the fact that his results have come back negative in over 100 drug tests - a "virtual impossibility" for a persistent banned-substance user according to one sports doctor - a whispering campaign has continued throughout his career.

A whispering campaign was enough to plant doubt in my mind, and the fact that a miniscule amount of "pseudoephedrine" found in his system means nothing to me, "pseudoephedrine" used to be used as a decongestant in nose drops and cold remedies in those days..