BBC Sports Personality awards

How marvellous to see people like the 1960 Olympic showjumping gold medallist David Broome, even if it was a huge disappoinment that he's had his ears pinned back.

Yes, we all have to squeeze in our little pieces of titillating trivia in this dumbed-down age, but it was a shame that the BBC used the occasion to confirm that it is a market leader in promoting the superficial.

They must have spent half the annual licence fee proceeds in gathering so many sporting legends, yet it was felt necessary to break up recollections of their astounding deeds with banal padding. Lest those with the attention span of a gnat grew bored, presumably.

There was also time for us to suffer Leslie Grantham, who I believe appears in EastEnders and is a convicted criminal. He must be the latest in a list which includes Ian Wright, Vinny Jones and Phil Tufnell, who instead of being filed away under 'persona non grata' are turned into huge celebrities.

David Campese doesn't quite fit into that bracket, but Clive Woodward was right to slate the BBC for choosing the Australian supergob to present the Team of the Year award.

Still, there was more to enjoy than to lament in the show's 50th edition, particularly in the opening parade of all those past winners who were available.

It is interesting to see how the public's taste has changed over the years. We know that football has become an obsession only in the last decade, but it's hard to believe that speedway's Barry Briggs came second to Bobby Moore in 1966, ahead of Geoff Hurst. Briggs had just won his fourth world title and speedway was then the second biggest spectator sport in the country.

Snooker was popular in the 80s, when Steve Davis won once and was second or third four times, while Alex Higgins was second in 1982, yet darts has never featured at all.

Swimmers won in 1958 (Ian Black) and 1962 (Anita Lonsbrough), but since then only David Wilkie (third in 1975) and Adrian Moorehouse (second in 1988) have featured, and '75 was hardly a vintage year as cricketer David Steele won it with hurdler Alan Pascoe second.

You can almost hear Freddie Trueman spluttering into his pipe: "How come Steele won it and t' greatest fast bowler of all time never got in t' top three?"

Motorsport has been fairly constant going back to John Surtees' victory in '59, but showjumping's popularity has tailed off totally since Paddy McMahon was third in '73 and, surprisingly, the only jockeys in the frame have been Frankie Dettori and Tony McCoy, third in 1996 and 2002.

Rowing never featured until Steve Redgrave came along and now he's voted the biggest star in the firmament. To win gold at five Olympics is indeed incredible, but I'm not sure why it should rank so far ahead of Nick Faldo's six major championships that the golfer couldn't get into the top five ahead of Torvill and Dean.

THANKS largely to Redgrave we now lead the world in rowing, and next year's Athens aspirants had the first of three winter selection trials for the Olympics last weekend. There seems to be some doubt over what to do with two of Redgrave's Sydney crewmates, James Cracknell and triple gold medallist Matthew Pinsent.

They are lined up for the coxless pairs, but after finishing fourth in the World Championships could be switched back to the fours, disrupting a fairly settled quartet, three of whom were reserves in Sydney and are desperate for their chance.

IN SWIMMING, 43 years after her Olympic gold, Anita Lonsbrough was reporting the European Short Course Championships for a national newspaper in Dublin at the weekend before rushing back to take her place among the galaxy at the BBC awards.

England were second in Dublin with their best medal tally of 14, but their Australian coach, Bill Sweetenham, was quoted as saying there was no satisfaction in finishing second to the Germans.

Lonsbrough also reported that the swimmers had been putting in 75,000 metres a week in training and Sweetenham expects them to keep it up through the festive period. The day after the Dublin event he had them back in the water at 7am, prompting the thought that if there is not a substantial improvement in Athens on the Sydney medal tally of nil he will go off the deep end.

JUST when we thought Audley Harrison had gone away he reappears to beat another no-hoper in the third round of his first scheduled ten-rounder.

Yet he still seems to get more publicity than Manchester's Ricky Hatton, who retained his World Boxing Union light-welterweight title on Saturday with his 34th straight win.

Holding the WBU version of the title does not make him the best, but at 25 he is obviously getting there and has time on his side, unlike the ageing Audley.

FINALLY, heartiest congratulations to Jonny Wilkinson on his BBC award. After all the publicity he must feel like going to ground for a while. If so, I hear there's a recently-vacated hole in Iraq.

Published: 19/12/2003