Look Back 2009 Sport
by Baron Halpenny, LincsMag Editor-in-Chief.
Date: 1 January 2010
For sport, 2009 has been a great year and also an amusing one in some cases.
It has been a lot more uplifting for me to write the Sport 2009 Look Back than the General overall one and I am always more comfortable writing about sport than politics – sport has a better class of people.
Formula One
A good year for Britain in the Formula One as Jenson Button, having been in my opinion far too long in the waters, finally showed in 2009 his right to the title of world champion.
Snatching an impressive six victories in the first seven races with Brawn GP, Button thereafter kept his head just enough in front of his competitors in the points list to win the prestigious title with even a race to spare ...
result: 1st place, 95 points.
Good driving and well deserved as Button had been seriously training for this season for some time. The New Year Honours List saw Button awarded an MBE while the head of the Brawn team, Ross Brawn, was honoured with the OBE.
Tennis
Showing that there are famous Belgians, Kim Clijsters pleasantly surprised many after her return in August after having been out of the game for just over two years. Her early results were impressive as she warmed herself up for the US Open.
Blitzing four top ten players she won her second Grand Slam title becoming the first unseeded player and wildcard to win
the tournament. Clijsters has also been awarded the title Belgian sportswoman of the year for the sixth time.
Serena Williams purse is now bulging after 2009 let her win a record amount of prize money, and I’m sure her sister is delighted.
And 2009 finally was the year that Roger Federer won the French Open, enabling him to add it to his impressive list of wins. Roger has rightly been elected European Athlete of the Year 2009, making it his fifth overall title. As far as I know, I don't think he's cheated ... poor old Gillette ...read on!
Football
With our local teams doggedly trudging on, 2009 has seen a change of management … Boston United Football Club in May had new managers Rob Scott and Paul Hurst who took over from Steve Welsh.
Over to Lincoln City and Peter "Lord of the Imps" Jackson parted company with the club in September as he slipped on the ring and disappeared, his position being taken later that same month by former Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Celtic and England striker Chris Sutton … Precious.
In October Grimsby Town FC sacked Mike Newell, due to an "irretrievable breakdown”, and Youth Team Coach Neil Woods plugged the gap as Caretaker Manger. Six disastrous and best-forgotten games later, Woods was made, incredibly, the permanent manager. Obviously the board at Grimsby Town know something we don’t?
Broader a field, Henry became a bad name if you were Irish and I think croissants are now banned in Dublin (only joking). It really was a shocking result that have many shaking their heads … even the French themselves and it seems very fishy with FIFA.
Didn’t anyone tell Thierry Daniel Henry that it’s called cheating? Henry used his hand not just once, but twice to control the ball, so he knew exactly what he was doing.
Henry was named as one of the three ambassadors of Gillette's "Champions Program," featuring three (Roger Federer and Tiger Woods were the other two) of the "best-known, most widely respected and successful athletes competing today", but more of that later … Gillette sure can pick ‘em!
On to more skilled players who don’t need to cheat, and Ryan Giggs won the PFA Player of the Year award in April which was a surprise result to many … even to me, but 2009 has certainly been Giggs year as he made his 700th start for Manchester United, played his 800th game for them and scored his 150th goal. He’s certainly been firing on all cylinders.
Racing
My choice for Sports Personality of the Year 2009 has to be Tony McCoy, though sadly he was not chosen for the BBC award, nor was he even in the short list and I cannot understand why the BBC have effectively “snubbed” him? He has over 3,000 Career wins and is one of the finest jump jockeys to date.
But anyway he’s ended 2009 on a high, winning the Jockey Club Catering Beginners' Chase on the Roger Brookhouse-owned gelding Leo's Lucky Star trained by David Pipe, then for JP McManus, McCoy won on Jonjo O'Neill's Afistfullofpebbles, before his final winner on another of Pipe's horses, Prince Geeno in the Help For Heroes Novices' Handicap Hurdle.
Golf
Then there's been the Tiger Woods fiasco casting a cloud over golf, where it seems Woods can’t help jumping on anything that moves.
Some say his private life is his own affair and we should look at only his sporting achievements, and I would agree with that if that is all he did, but he has, for lots of money (estimated to earn about $100 million a year in endorsement deals) been promoting products so that the ordinary Joe Bloggs can be just like “Tiger”.
This has not been for only sporting goods, but with Woods, virtually everything if they paid him. Sponsors included: Accenture; AT&T; Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf (Electronic Arts); Gillette (Proctor and Gamble); Nike; Gatorade (PepsiCo); TLC Laser Eye Centers (obviously to see the girls better).
But according to two economics professors from the University of California, shareholders of companies endorsed by the world's number one golfer could have now lost up to $12 billion (£8.35bn) due to their connection to Woods.
And remember Gillette and their "Champions Program,"? of their three "best-known, most widely respected and successful athletes competing today", two have been shown to be cheats in one form or another this year … one handling the balls when he shouldn’t and I guess you could say the other doing the same.
Poor old Roger Federer is the odd man out … in many ways!
So what’s the new advertising going to be? Gillette as used by cheats! Serves them right for not picking a British sportsman. If they want a good upstanding sportsman dedicated to his sport and a family man, then once more, I suggest Tony McCoy.
Well girls, look in the bathroom to see what he uses... I use Wilkinson Sword, just in case the girlfriend looks! ;-P.
