Sports Personality of the Year

Who's it gonna be?

Justin Rose has to be a strong contender.  How classy was his US Open win?  Absolutely bleedin' fantastic!

However ... better than Andy Murray's win?  I don't think so.  Breaking 'the duck'?  Aint nuttin' beats that .... surely?  Indeed, should he not win, I might even consider voting 'yes' in yon referendum next year!

As for the overseas winner ... it's gotta be Phil.  Do I really need to explain why?

A Murray win should be a no brainer but you never know Gael. He hasn't helped himself by not being there...which the anti Murray brigade have milked. Of all the ones I've watched I've seen worthy and unworthy winners. Murray most definitely falls into the former category but that in itself is no guarantee.

I don't think many in the golfing world would dispute Phil getting the oversees award but...we as golfers sometimes fail to see how minority a sport it actually is in terms of viewing figures....just saying!!

Why should Murray be there? He's training to win another major? Mo Farah ain't there, as he's training, no one seems to care about that.

Edit... Rose or Bell ain't there too...

Fair comment JAS.

Just watched the "fit and fragrant" Andy Murray.  In spite of Mum having to fill in (staged?), I think he did a pretty good job in his interview.  I know I certainly wouldn't jeopardize training after a back operation by sitting in a confined space for 9 hours so I hope viewers will remember this when voting.

The thing is, his win produced a genuine feel good factor throughout the length and breadth of Britain for several days afterwards.  I can't recall any event which quite managed to produce that effect.  When it comes right down to it, doesn't this win provide, in abundance, the very essence of what this competition is about?

Never really a doubt!!

Loved it when Murray apologised for his boring voice.  A good guy and humble with it.

Phew, I now won't have to vote for that fat wee barsteward!

As for Vettel ... it's the car that should get the trophy.

Last nights programme showcased everything that's been rotten within the BBC for the last decade. Everyone from the beeb was there, except for the late arrivals who were all still in South Africa justifying why we had to sit through 11 days of non-stop wall to wall coverage. Yes the man was awesome, and by far the most respected man on the planet, but the coverage we gave it was ridiculous and a huge junkett for hundreds of staff from all of the different BBC outlets.

Last night nearly saw me throw up with the embarrasing schmooze given to Ferguson who seemed peed anyway. Lets squeeze 16,000 people into the new Leeds auditorium, and advertise the fact that its sponsored by a well known insurance outfit. Lets try and fill a few hours showing some good, some bad and some downright embarassing stuff. I remember the days when the content, 100% of the content was relevant and entertaining

Doc wrote: I remember the days when the content, 100% of the content was relevant and entertaining

Agree with the rest of it but I'm afraid you are talking arse here, sir, complete and utter arse.

MontysMerkin wrote:

Doc wrote: I remember the days when the content, 100% of the content was relevant and entertaining

Agree with the rest of it but I'm afraid you are talking arse here, sir, complete and utter arse.

Monty so you don't agree with the final sentence? ok but you agree with the previous 10 sentences? ok yet I'm an arse

The miniscule nu,mber of votes for Justin Rose was emabarassing - he tweeted that he expected Murray to win but hoped for a podium finish - as it is, he'd just've sneaked on to a third podium.
Is this an indictment of golf, the fact that some still regard him as South African, because he lives in the States, or because Des and Sharon Public don't rate the US Open?

Edit: Shocking that Charley Hull didn't win the "Young"'un award . . . . . .

Doc wrote:

MontysMerkin wrote:

Doc wrote: I remember the days when the content, 100% of the content was relevant and entertaining

Agree with the rest of it but I'm afraid you are talking arse here, sir, complete and utter arse.

Monty so you don't agree with the final sentence? ok but you agree with the previous 10 sentences? ok yet I'm an arse

No, no, just talking arse (hardly relevant and definitely not entertaining!). A medical doc perhaps?

kwinigolfer wrote:The miniscule nu,mber of votes for Justin Rose was emabarassing - he tweeted that he expected Murray to win but hoped for a podium finish - as it is, he'd just've sneaked on to a third podium.
Is this an indictment of golf, the fact that some still regard him as South African, because he lives in the States, or because Des and Sharon Public don't rate the US Open?

Reckon it's the golf thing to be honest. Don't reckon des and sharon rate golf full stop. Or period as believe it's called there.

Kwini

I agree that Charlie Hull had a very good claim for the young un award but the girl who got it (Amber Hill?) is very deserving. She won an adult world cup event at 15 and is ranked no 1 in Britain. OK, it might be a minority sport but credit where it is due!

Kwini
 
I suspect Des & Sharon (assuming they're casual sports fans) don't watch the US Open because it's not on terrestrial TV.  And of those that do most probably think that golf isn't a "real" sport.  And of those that do appreciate the finer elements of our game, Justin probably flies a little under the radar over here with the media.
 
I reckon if Luke or Lee won the Masters or Open Championship they would garner significant votes, but there's just not enough exposure over here to the casual fan to the US Open.
 
The simple fact is that golfers have to do something extraordinary to have a chance in this public vote, maybe rightly so.  Not quite the same as preparing for an Olympics or Tour de France, is it?

Tiler,
Wondered where the coverage in GB was - nice tweet from Rose last night:
"Thanks for voting, anyone who did"!

Chris Froome must be a touch bummed also - guided SBW to his win and he got a SPOTY award + a sword on him. Won it for himself and has basically harvested bugger all, so far at any rate, tho' imagine it would be highly likely he'll get a minor going on Jan 1st.

kwinigolfer wrote:Tiler,
Wondered where the coverage in GB was - nice tweet from Rose last night:
"Thanks for voting, anyone who did"!

Chris Froome must be a touch bummed also - guided SBW to his win and he got a SPOTY award + a sword on him. Won it for himself and has basically harvested bugger all, so far at any rate, tho' imagine it would be highly likely he'll get a minor going on Jan 1st.

On the Froome thing I would hazzard a guess that it's got a lot to do with what he did when he was Wiggins No2 the previous year. He tried to userp the leader. Straight after he had his own PR machine working against Team Sky and Wiggins and even split Team Sky in 2. Since winning this years TDF his girlfriend who is also his manager is leaking and briefing all sorts of messages into the media and comes over as a tart and no team player. Wiggins would kick the Poopie out of him if he could get away with it, but Dave Brailsford has done this and can't stop the fallout.

Tiler your TV station theme is a good shout. I myself am a huge golf fan and up to this season have watched every event on any tour showing on TV. Somehow this season I have lost a bit of interest and have hardly watched anything. Did it get boring, too samey? I think I may have needed a bit of a break from watching. On the other hand there are loads of potential viewers who cannot afford Sky to get their fix because of other household bills. I'm guessing of course, but only one golf event on the BBC says something, unless everyone else got bored with the Dim Tim weekly slice

Also there has been a massive exodus of local talent who went to the PGA simply because of cash. Obviously a lot of good players are still here, but those that went have published photos of their fantastic homes in Florida etc and how much money it cost to get the Cinema room completed etc. You know things are changing when Westwood ditches his long time friend and caddy and ships overseas without him. (Know he was injured but he didn't want to go)

Justin Rose suffered because his win in the US Open wasn't covered on terrestrial tv.

I recall he'd won it but I didn't see it, and I don't know if he won easily with a welter of birdies, or ground out a win by avoiding big numbers.

Golfers who win the SPOTY need non golfers to vote for them, so it needs to be something that captures attention, which the the US Open on Sky doesn't.

Rose got bugger all votes because the public quite rightly dont see golf as a sport.
You wear slacks and a pringle, have someone carrying your bag and can smoke and eat sandwiches  for christs sake.
Not sure we need the token disabled athlete in there either (as positive and endearing as she is).
Is 10 nominations too many too?

Im also sick to death of hearing about Hillsborough as if it happened yesterday too.

Rose, Westwood, Donald or any of the other brits would have to win the grand slam in the year and still would be beaten by a bunch of unknowns.

No idea how the Lions got team of the year, coach of the year, and probably counted a lot towards the second place for Lee Halfwit

The BBC should put a stop to the public telephone/text/internet vote and go back to a panel of respected journalists (i.e. not their own)

The Solheim Cup team should have won the team award by a mile ... Farrah and McCoy should have tun Murray much closer (even if he was a worthy winner) and Halfpenny should go back to being a Harry Enfield lookalike

No way should Gaitland have got coach of the year. Lendl and Brailsford (sorry Sir David Brailsford) do the job year in, year out for little recognition. I would have given it to Sir David myself. He has turned British cycling into a world force both on the track and on the road - amazing achievement and a model other sports are trying to emulate.

golfermartin wrote:No way should Gaitland have got coach of the year. Lendl and Brailsford (sorry Sir David Brailsford) do the job year in, year out for little recognition. I would have given it to Sir David myself. He has turned British cycling into a world force both on the track and on the road - amazing achievement and a model other sports are trying to emulate.

I'd tend to agree, I think it's astonishing how quickly we've become blasé about our cycling success, almost as if it's expected now. If it is expected then that is most certainly down to Brailsford. A Brit winning the TdF was inconceivable not so long ago...Poor old Froome, flogs himself in support of Wiggins historic TdF win the year before then wins it himself...and he's nowhere in the SPOTY vote. As for Sir David I think there will most certainly be a lifetime achievement award awaiting for him when he retires but that shouldn't stop him getting recognition now. Small point tho Martin...the Sir prefixing his name means that he's at least had some form of recognition

Dave Brailsford has also had Coach of the Year before I think after Beijing. They tend to spread it around a bit.

gaelgowfer wrote:As for Vettel ... it's the car that should get the trophy.

Yeah, because Webber ran him so close in his Red Bull  

Ii don't like F1, but Vettel is way ahead. You could say it's an engineering competition, and to some degree it is, but to finish with twice as many points as your TEAM MATE proves you're in a different class.

super_realist wrote:Dave Brailsford has also had Coach of the Year before I think after Beijing. They tend to spread it around a bit.

Actually to be fair, just checked he's already won it twice, if he'd won last night he'd have got to keep it!!

It seems the BBC want it both ways, they want to have every sport have a chance to win it, but really only want winners to come from sports shown on the BBC? The show would be only 20-minutes long though.

Mo was brilliant as he did the double double so should have been ahead of Murray.

Brailsford can win it every year for me if he deserves it and yet again he deserved it with back to back TDF wins and world records on the road and track, fantastic.

The girls Solheim team.

Ben Ainsley fete was spectacular and got world wiode media coverage, yet snubbed really

The phone voting earns the BBC millions that they can spend on junketts and pay-offs

Who won the overseas award?

For me the other awards should have been Farrah, Solheim Cup team and Brailsford

Vettel.

gaelgowfer wrote:As for Vettel ... it's the car that should get the trophy.

Not really, show me the last time the Championship wasn't won in the best car, probably 2005 when the Mclaren blew up every season race meaning Alonso just had to stay patient. If it was the car Webber being highly regarded in F1 before he teamed with Vettel would have finished second every season by a distance? Like Barrichello did with Schumacher and Prost with Senna, But he never did it once in four season's and usually finished with about half the points, Vettel's an exceptional talent! He could win ten plus championships.

Who knows if Kimi, Hamilton or alonso would be so dominant in the red bull. What is for sure is that vettel has learned to exploit the aerodynamics of the modern f1 car through his driving style in a way that - at least - mark webber hasn't.

He rotates the car more quickly in the corner allowing him to plant the throttle and use the aero effects from the exhaust for longer in each corner. It seems he can do this better than anyone in the medium to slow speed corners. Not only is this quicker but it does not damage the fragile tyres in the same way other driving techniques do.

The red bull is by far the best car, but only it seems if the driver can drive in a way that fully uses the aero tricks it has.

I am no vettel fan but you would be stupid to say it is all down to the car. It is clear the car needs the correct method of driving, for which vettel deserves a lot of credit. I am pretty sure button for example would have similar issues to webber in a red bull.

McLaren wrote: I am pretty sure button for example would have similar issues to webber in a red bull.

But be quite a bit slower...