I am Jimbo, armchair manager, dreamer, analyser and exuberant fanatic of all things sport. Except rugby. I don't understand scrums and as far as I can see, it's basically a punch-up with a ball.
My co-conspirator will undoubtedly make himself known to you at some point, and he has plenty of ideas of his own. But I'm here to talk about passion, about drive, about guts and a fairly distinct lack of glory. I follow football, cricket and a host of other events, including poker, though whether it's technically a sport or not is open to debate, given that I haven't seen it at the Olympics yet and those guys would give medals for tiddlywinks if there was advertising potential in it.
My top five moments in sport, in ascending order:
5) Five is an appropriate place for this moment, as that is the number of goals that England scored on that wonderful 2001 night in Munich. I watched the match in Cavan, where a jubilant Eire side had already defeated the mighty Holland 1 - 0 earlier in the day despite having been reduced to ten men partway through the game. If the locals were surprised by their own result, they were staggered by the scoreline in our game and celebrations of that one went on well into the night.
4) Goran Ivanišević winning the Wimbledon Men's Singles title as a wildcard in 2001, still the only player to do so. Ivanišević had already fought back from a seemingly impossible position against our own 'Tiger' Tim Henman in the semis, and showed amazing fortitude in the final after being broken by Pat Rafter in the fourth set. The giant Croatian eventually went on to win the deciding set 9 -7. It was an especially hard-earned victory, given that he had already lost in the final on three previous occasions.
3) Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton stepping up a class too far against the flying Filipino, Manny Pacquiao in 2009. Pacquiao is a true phenomenon, a fighter with seven different world titles in seven different weight categories, and Hatton never looked likely to cause what would have been a massive upset despite his unbeaten record and undoubted prowess. Before the match, Pacquiao entertained the media by holding a workout in which he worked a light-ball so swiftly, his hands seemed a blur. Hatton was utterly outclassed and knocked out in the second round.
2) That Ashes victory, 2005, heralding the power-shift in world cricket from Australia to England. With just two runs separating the sides, Steve Harmison jagged a short ball into the Edgbaston turf, Australian tail-ender Michael Kasprowicz fended it away with a hand not in contact with the bat and was subsequently given out caught behind on the leg side. The result brought England back to life in a series they would otherwise surely have lost decisively.
1) The 1990 World Cup final - a mere strip of a lad hid behind his family's sofa well into the night and watched Gazza cry, Lineker cement himself as England's greatest ever hero, and Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce...miss. Miss the decisive penalty that meant West Germany, easily the most cynical and torrid side to ever be crowned world champions, triumphed over our brave lads once again.
- J
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