Category: Sport

The sport of water skiing was invented in 1922 in the USA and Americans have certainly been dominant in the rankings ever since. However, it has spread to the UK and elsewhere and we can claim to have had half a dozen British world champions over the years.

Today it is joined by a variety of different water sports, such as wakeboarding, and there are plenty of clubs around. As islanders with plenty of lakes, reservoirs and coastline at our disposal, the only problematic issue is the weather! Indeed, most of our British champions have trained or taken up residence in the warmer parts of the USA, particularly Florida.

Along with world and European champions such as Jeanette Stewart-Wood, Andy Mapple OBE, Mike Hazelwood, Will Asher, Nicole Arthur and, most recently, Freddie Winter, Britain has the first person ever to water ski the entire 23-mile length of Loch Ness. He is David Scott Munro and he accomplished this feat on a mono-ski (single ski) in 1974.

(Image: Edward McMaihin at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Robert Frederick Chelsea (Bobby) Moore (1941-93) was born in Essex during a German bombing raid and was to become one of England’s best footballers. He is fondly remembered as a cool, calm, charismatic captain with great vision, exemplified by his pass to Geoff Hurst who then scored England’s 4th goal in the 4-2 win against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final at Wembley. This has been England’s only World Cup Final success to date. The image above shows Bobby Moore receiving the Cup from the Queen.

At age 22, Moore remains the youngest ever captain of the England football team.  His natural talent as a leader was also recognised early by the management at West Ham United, who made him their captain in 1962 . He joined the club as an amateur in 1950 and then full-time after leaving school in 1957 and spent the next 17 years with them. He played for a few more clubs and tried his hand at management, but he became ill and died of cancer at age 51 in 1993. West Ham United named a stand after him and have ‘retired’ the no. 6 shirt in his honour, as that was his number.

(Imag picryl.com)

The team game of hockey, or ‘field hockey’, has been played in its modern form in British public schools, grammar schools and universities since the late 19th century. It  is played with a small hard ball and long sticks that have a curve at the bottom end. In the 20th century it was associated more with girls and women than with men. The gleeful exclamation “Jolly hockey sticks!” became an adjectival phrase for a privileged young lady.

Nowadays, men’s and women’s participation is roughly equal in a thriving league system and in international competitions. In 2016, the British women’s hockey team won Olympic Gold and this inspired thousands more people to join their local hockey clubs. There are separate governing bodies for the UK’s constituent countries, as follows:-

• England Hockey
• Hockey Wales
• Ulster Hockey
• Scottish Hockey

(Image: Kenneth Allen at geograph.ie / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Isle of Man, a Crown Dependency, has hosted the world’s fastest and most dangerous road race for motorbikes since 1907. The Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) takes place every year during a fortnight in May/June. The circuit is called the Snaefell Mountain Course (or ‘TT Course’) and there have been almost 150 crashes resulting in deaths to riders and sometimes spectators and marshals.

One lap of the circuit is 37.73 miles long and the record average speed is 135mph (as at 2018). The races are time trials, with riders setting off at 10-second intervals. There are seven different classes, including Sidecar, and a new class called TTZero which is for electric motorbikes.

The TT continues to attract more spectators each year, many of them staying at camp-sites. The Sunday in the middle of the fortnight is known as ‘Mad Sunday’ as there is no racing on that day and spectators can try out the circuit for themselves, under the watchful eye of the local police.

(Image: Agljones at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Britain’s most successful athlete, Sir Mo Farah, CBE, was born in Somaliland in 1983 but came to live in England when he was eight years old. His running talent was spotted early on and one of his first ambitions was to play professional football for Arsenal.

Farah has the distinction of winning Olympic Gold medals in two events ~ the 5,000 metres and the 10,000 metres ~ at two successive Games, those being the 2012 and the 2016. He has run all distances from 800m to the marathon (IAAF, 2018). The photo above shows his trademark winning gesture of the ‘M’ for Mo (Mohamed). In 2017 he was voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

He ‘retired’ from track events in 2017 to concentrate on road races, but has said that he may compete in the 10,000 metres again in the 2020 Olympics. This amazing athlete could win it for a record-breaking third successive time and add to his very long list of titles.

(Image: Dept. of Digital, Culture, Media & Sports at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Sir Nick (Nicholas Alexander) Faldo was born in 1957 in Hertfordshire and is the most successful British golfer to date. He won the British Open in 1987, 1990 and 1992 and the US Masters in 1989, 1990 and 1996. This put him at the very top of the golfing world’s tree and his popularity in Britain soared. He was voted the BBC’s ‘Sports Personality of the Year’ in 1989. Perhaps the only blot on his career was his disappointing spell as Ryder Cup captain in 2008, when Europe were defeated.

He won thirty titles on the European Tour and was picked to be on Europe’s Ryder Cup team for eleven successive series from 1977 until 1997, a testimony to Faldo’s complete dedication to the sport. In addition to playing, he operated a golf course design business from 1991 and has set up tournaments for young aspiring golfers. After retiring from playing in 2015, he focused on his career as a golf commentator and analyst in the USA until 2022.

(Image: Steven Newton at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

Horse racing is a sport largely enjoyed for its betting possibilities. It is subject to the regulations of the British Horseracing Association (BHA), whose comprehensive website gives all the details of races, riders, trainers, owners, 60 racecourses and 14,000 horses.

The BHA has a system of ‘handicapping’ horses, which means that each horse is judged on a scale of ability, age, experience, etc., and then they can be entered into handicap races to give more horses a chance to be winners. Almost two-thirds of races in Britain are of this type.

The history of professional horse racing in Britain goes back to the early 1700s. The majority of British racecourses, including the famous venues at Newmarket, Ascot, Cheltenham and Aintree date back to the 18th and 19th centuries, and their showpiece races are major events on the British sporting calendar. The sport as a whole contributes billions of pounds to the UK economy.

(Image: Carine06 at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Wimbledon tennis championships take place in the first two weeks of July every year. They began in 1877 and only halted during the two World Wars, making them the oldest tennis championships in the world. Wimbledon is one of the four prestigious ‘Grand Slam‘ events and the only one with outdoor grass courts. Due to the unpredictable nature of British weather, a retractable roof was installed in 2009.

Public demand for tickets is so high that they are allocated by a computer after the close of applications in December, with only a one-in-four chance of being successful. However, there are debentures available for sale every five years, which guarantee a ticket for every day of the championship for those five years. For a Centre Court seat this costs a mere £50,000… or £31,000 for Court no. 1… nice!

Of course, one must have a bowl of strawberries and cream during the interval, as this is all part of the Wimbledon scene.

(Top image: Squeaky Knees at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0)

After World War 2, there were numerous disused airfields and they were ideal for testing racing cars. As a result, in 1958 the London-born driver, Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (1929-2020), was the first to win a Formula One (F1) Grand Prix race with the engine situated behind the driver’s seat (they had previously been in the front). This gave better handling, less wear on tyres and enabled the chassis to be smaller.

With the adoption of rear engines by all the other teams, this innovation provided the starting-point for the dominance of British engineers, designers and drivers. Most of the F1 racing teams have their bases in the UK. A useful benefit to them is the tax allowance they can claim for ‘research and development’, which is an essential, never-ending part of their operations.

Over the history of Formula One, there have been ten British driver champions, including seven-time champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton (1985-) from Hertfordshire.

(Top image [cropped]: Rick Dikeman at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Francis Morgan “Daley“ Thompson was a record-breaking decathlete in the 1980s. He was born in London in 1958 and won his first major championship in 1978 in the Commonwealth Games. He won it twice more, in 1982 and 1986.

He won the gold medal in the Olympics in 1980 (see video below) and 1984, and came 4th in 1988. By winning the World Championships decathlon in 1983 and the European in 1982, he became the first man to hold four major titles at the same time. He won the European gold again in 1986.

The decathlon consists of ten events:-

1. 100 metres running
2. 400 metres running
3. 1,500 metres running
4. Pole vault
5. Discus
6. Javelin
7. 100 metres hurdles
8. Long jump
9. High jump
10. Shot put

In retrospect, Thompson thinks he could have done better at the hurdles and discus, indicative of his high standards. He retired from competitive athletics in 1992 but remained a popular personality with the British public.

(Image: Andy Wilkes at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The game of snooker was devised by a Colonel in the British Army whilst based in India in 1875. ‘Snooker’ was the term used for a 1st-year cadet, so if someone missed a ball, they were called a ‘real snooker’, hence the name, allegedly.

Snooker has had phases of popularity but it was the BBC that gave it its first boost in 1969 when it televised games in the brand new colour format. With its fifteen red balls and one each of white, black, pink, blue, yellow, green and brown, it was a perfect showpiece.

The diagram below shows the starting positions of all the coloured balls. The white cue ball is then positioned anywhere inside the D by the first player.

(Top image of Steve Davis: Joni-Pekka Luomala at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)