SPOTY

Is it too early to start talking about SPOTY?

I'm going to say no at this moment as otherwise this thread will be over before it's started.

Last night saw Andy Murray win his first grand slam title at the US Open. He won a five set thriller against hard court supremo Novak Djokovic. In arguably his best year; reaching the final at Wimbledon, winning Olympic Gold and Silver, and winning the US Open is he a good shout for SPOTY?

I'd like to think so but with the Olympics fresh in everyone's memory and some great performances by the cyclists in the Tour de France will he even make the top three?

Who do you think has a great shot at winning?

It's going to be an incredibly difficult decision GG - I wouldn't be surprised if the BBC somehow fiddle or reorganize extra categories to cater for such a year of incredible achievements

My choice would be either Jess Ennis or Bradley Wiggins, but there are so many other good contenders (Farrah, Weir, Simmons, Hoy, Murray and even Coco - I'm sure there are more) - BBC will have to do something to keep everyone happy (combined TeamGB and ParalympicsGB for team award?)

Too hard to call I think Grumps.

After last nights amazing win, in any normal year Andy Murray would have been a shoe-in but before the Olympics I couldn't see past Bradley Wiggins.

Once you start thinking about the Olympics and Paralympics though it gets even harder - Mo Farrah, Jess Ennis, Ben Ainsley (4 golds = 1 knighthood usually), Ellie Simmons, David Weir, the list goes on.

In other sports we might expect Rory to have some support and what if Lewis Hamilton nicks the F1 Championship just before the voting?

I just hope the Beeb give us a true shortlist (ie no footballers) and that there isn't an internet campaign like there was 2 years ago so that the public can decide.

Team of the year? Even harder, the easy answer would be simply TeamGB/ParalympicsGB but surely that is too much of a cop-out.

J

PS. Just noticed David has posted something very similar but I can't be bothered to retype

I will start by agreeing with everything posted so far, but would still have Wiggins as the stand out plus he has a personality as well.

Stand out performances as has been mentioned and can't disagree, but team of the year is a bit different this year. Yes Team GB had some outstanding performances by many, but also fell short on the track and in the pool. Only a few stood out on the track when there should have been more and in the pool we fell well short. So don't think Team GB as a whole should be included. Yet team GB's cyclists smashed the world yet again, even after the IOC changed the rules so we wouldn't win so much. Add to that the Team GB paralympic cyclists and you have one stand out team.

The beeb have to do some tinkering this year, just like the government are doing with the honours list for Olympians.

I'm on Wiggins team for the top honour, but how can I discount David Wier and his 4 golds in the paralympics - tough call I'm afraid.

As far as Murray is concerned, i didn't think I'd be too fussed as i always felt he was scottish and not British, but in truth I was chuffed for him this morning as in fairness he has been playing against the best ever group of players, and now think he's justifiably joined them at the pinnacle.

I wonder whether this year there are too many worthy and potential winners and that will mean the voting will be spread thinly across the top ten.

I've never liked the more recent idea of having it as a public vote anyway - always seems to be fixed or rigged by internet campaigns to get certain people voted in

I don't know exactly who used to choose it - presumably a team of distinguished ex sportsmen and/or sports journalists, but I'd still rather have that than the type of thing we saw the year Giggs won it

Also it would presumably largely negate the effect of having votes spread thinly when there are 2 or 3 from the same sport in the nominated 10 (as happened last year with the golfers)

Murray should not be considered on the basis that he is scottish. Nor do any of his wins move me as I'm English.

Hmmm so that rules out Murray, and Hoy too

Wiggins was born in Belgium so he's out; Jess Ennis's father is Jamaican so we'd better not pick her; David Weir is The Weirwolf and therefore presumably from Transylvania or somewhere similar; Ellie Simmons lives in Swansea; Mo Farrah was born in Somalia so I hearby declare the winner to be Ben Ainsley!

There - that should save some license fee money

Davie wrote:Hmmm so that rules out Murray, and Hoy too

Wiggins was born in Belgium so he's out; Jess Ennis's father is Jamaican so we'd better not pick her; David Weir is The Weirwolf and therefore presumably from Transylvania or somewhere similar; Ellie Simmons lives in Swansea; Mo Farrah was born in Somalia so I hearby declare the winner to be Ben Ainsley!

There - that should save some license fee money

Exactly. Now that can be spent in refunds to me as I hate paying that stealth tax.

"Jess Ennis's father is Jamaican so we'd better not pick her"

I'd pick her

Davie - I think it's always been chosen by the public vote. Originally by sending a postcard in, then we moved to phone votes, and now the Internet. Bloody hell - I'm showing my age by remembering the postcard vote!

Hopefully the programme can be a celebration of a great sporting year, without too much waffle from Garly Linekar.

So Team of the Year: the Sky cycling team? Wiggins and Froome winning TdF honours and possibly picking up something in the Tour of Britain

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:So Team of the Year: the Sky cycling team? Wiggins and Froome winning TdF honours and possibly picking up something in the Tour of Britain

I'd go with that, but also factor in the paralympic cyclists, as they are all part of the British cycling team under Dave Brailsford. Sarah Storey only just missed out on selection for the Olympics, and the girl that kept her out won 2 golds. The cyclists be they able bodied or not, were all on Brailsfords team, hence why they smashed all records again in both events.

As a matter of interest, has anyone been watching the 'Road To Glory' TV show on Sky. Its a 3-part programme showing Brailsford managing Team GB cyclists and at the same time juggling his other job as Team Principle for Sky Pro Cycling, and the preperations for the TDF. A great watch and great insight into a huge figure in British sport. Last part of it is tonight or tomoz, and sees his team with Wiggins have just done what nobody else has ever done, by winning the 3 big events back to back going into the TDF. The last episode will show behind the scenes stuff from the tour, at the same time Brailsford managing it from a lap top in Manachester because he needs to work with Team GB, and then criss crossing between both. Fantastic insight into his cyclists personalities, and what the back up team have to do. Like carry their own bedding for each hotel, and air conditioning and food, so that each cyclists sleeps in the same bed with the same pillows, has the same comforts, and all just to make them relax faster than other teams, so they can recover quicker. Their own chef who prepares each cyclists food and supplements for the day, with nobody else allowed to go near him, so that it can't be contaminated with anything.

Mary_S wrote:Davie - I think it's always been chosen by the public vote. Originally by sending a postcard in, then we moved to phone votes, and now the Internet. Bloody hell - I'm showing my age by remembering the postcard vote!

Hopefully the programme can be a celebration of a great sporting year, without too much waffle from Garly Linekar.

Yes you are right Mary - I'd completely forgotten about the old postcard vote! I'm old enough to remember it too though

Still think though that in those days it was much harder to "rig" the voting. So much easier to campaign and skew the vote these days now it is online

Talking of the para lot I was disappointed that there was no midget fighting.

Now that the shortlist has been published who do we think will win?

I will go for Wiggins, Ennis and Murray as the top three with Mo Farrah close behind.

J

I think your list is about right, Jethro (for what WILL happen). My own choice would be Farrah/Ennis (hard to split them) then Murray and Wiggins, but I reckon your list will prove more accurate

Wiggins for me, as not only has he won many Olympic gold medals, but to decimate the field in 4 grad tours last season, including the TDF was amazing and never been done before.

It will be a really tough one this year because there are so many worthy winners.

We can rule out McIlroy, because all his wins were on Sky. A golfer needs to win the Open to stand a chance of making the top 3.

Similarly you have to discount Murray's grand slam, the only one that matters is Wimbledon on the BBC. If he had won in the final I would have had him favourite to win SPOTY, but as it is he might scrape 3rd place.

Wiggins only won one gold medal. Although personally I believe he has been outstanding and a worthy SPOTY winner, the Tour de France is not on BBC and not high profile enough to get him many votes. His other wins are invisible to most voters. Hopefully should still be in top 2.

Farah was brilliant, and the mo-bot during prime time tv will go a long way to him capturing the imagination of the public. Could win, should make top 2.

Ennis was poster girl for the Olympics, and after no women even making the short list last year, there may be pressure for her to win to even things up. I reckon it is between her and Murray for 3rd.

I'd like to see Weir or Simmonds in the top 3, but there are just too many contenders this year.

The others are just there to make up the numbers.

Ray I appreciate what your saying, but on the Wiggins front, he was lauded as our greatest ever Olympian after his gold this summer, and even Steve Redgrave acknowledged it. So a really tough call on the greatest Olympian front as Chris Hoy also went into that category. Too many people were left out for me, but I appreciate how tough it must have been making a shortlist of 12 (usually 10) but Brownlee as an example was world champion and then blew the field away to win gold, and he's not even listed

You can take the boxer and taikwondo off the list, what are they doing there?

The short golf segment on SPOTY tonight was pretty vomit inducing - particularly all the oirish people saying they wanted to be like Coco. Loved seeing them include the Mickelson applause for Rosie's putt on 17 though. I've never been a fan of hefty-lefty and doubt I ever will be but credit where it's due, that was pure class

Team of the year award is a bit of a cop-out in my opinion. Giving it to a combined Team GB and Paralympics GB encompasses probably 90% of the high profile performances we've seen this year - and yet the swimming team, and even the athletics team (apart from a couple of individual performance) were not what was expected.

It should have been split into individual sports teams (cycling and rowing come to mind)

Also interested to see the Ryder Cup team mentioned in the run up to the announcement even though I thought they were ineligible (being European rather than British).

Team GB don't compete as a team, they are a bunch of individuals. Think the BBC are taking the Olympics "love in" too far.

SPOTY rules said that Team GB were not eligible, although teams such as cycling team would be, but the Ryder Cup team would have met the criteria of "significant British involvement". The boyz was robbed!

I stand corrected - apparently if the decision is unanimous, they can change the rules!

Wiggins was well deserving and so was Brailsford as top coach, but Team GB was a cop-out and looked ridiculous, because the cyclists should have won that too, or the rowers who had their best ever results. the swimmers and other disciplines actually failed at the Olympics, but were part of Team GB, crazy.

Anybody else think the program was disjointed because they insisted on having football thrown in from time to time. Yes Chelsea deserved a mention, but to have interviews with 2 City players and Drogba coming back from China to ramble for a couple of minutes and mention of Woy and his England team ....... Then we had 1-minute on formula 1 slipped in. Why couldn't the BBC just not even bother with football as there were too many highlights in sport this year and football was non deserving. I'm a massive football fan, but sorry they should have been well down in the pecking order this year.

Agree Doc - Chelsea were the only football team who merited a mention for achievement this year. Maybe the Beeb are trying to curry favour with the FA, for when the bidding rights are up for dibs again.

Apparently Lennox Lewis did not have an ear-piece, so was not aware of his cue for presenting the trophy to Murray.

Quite happy with the Wiggo win - superb achievements, in a great year for GB sport.