It was the infamous “White Horse Cup Final”; an occasion saved from postponement by the actions of a mounted policeman, PC George Scorey, and his mount Billy. Together, horse and rider shepherded hundreds of ticketless fans off the Wembley pitch just minutes after they’d spilled through the turnstiles and down the terracing. There were apparently 250,000 in the ground.
 

Now, after 40-odd years of my own, I’ve spent a morning cobbling together five of my own great sporting memories; recollections of events that I too am proud to have witnessed.
 

1) I was only 12 when I went to the fifth Test at the Oval between England and the West Indies. It was the summer of ’76 when hardly a drop of rain fell and the wide expanse of the Oval outfield was parched. The tourists were in their pomp; Fredericks, Greenidge, Rowe, Lloyd, King, Murray, Holder, Roberts, Daniel and the two men whose performances over the five days would be remembered as the greatest of their careers – Viv Richards and Michael Holding. Back in those days most of my days were spent running up ‘n down the pavilion stairs with an autograph book in-hand but at this Test match I spent rather more time looking on in awe as Richards batted for almost eight hours accumulating 291 runs in a first innings West Indies total of 687 for eight declared. Dennis Amiss made a double hundred for England over the third and fourth days but, even then, it was Holding who took the honours with eight wickets for 92. The West Indies then made 182 without loss in their second innings at a run a ball to set England an unlikely victory target of 435. But it appeared equally onerous for the tourists who went into the final day needing all 10 England wickets for victory. It was a lifeless pitch yet Holding (six for 57) helped skittle them out for 203, bowling with pace, accuracy and venom. The late Chris Balderstone lost his middle stump with his bat yet to complete the backlift. Awesome.
 

2) In July 1979, I begged my father to take me to The Open at Royal Lytham. We stayed in Preston and ate each night out of newspaper from the same fish ‘n chip. By day I witnessed the arrival of one of the game’s greatest champions. There has never been a more natural or flamboyant talent to grace the fairways than Seve Ballesteros. At Lytham he hit just a dozen fairways over four bitterly cold and blustery days. Yet it was enough to overpower the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson to win the first of his three titles. His closest pursuer on the final day was the former US Open champion Hales Irwin who dubbed Ballesteros the “car park champion” for his miraculous, if slightly lucky, escape at the short par four 16th. The Spaniard carved his drive away to the right of the fairway, over the thick rough, and into the sanctuary of the temporary car park where he was granted a free drop. He duly recovered to hit his wedge to the green and then rolled in the putt from 30 feet to effectively seal victory.
 

3) “Villa … and still Ricky Villa … what a fantastic run … he’s scored …amazing goal”. The words are Motty’s and, like the BBC’s voice of football, I too was at Wembley that Thursday night to witness one of the greatest goals ever scored in a cup final. It was May 1981 and the Falklands War was still 11 months away when the Argentine Ricky Villa danced and skipped his way around and through the Manchester City defence before slipping the ball beneath keeper Joe Corrigan to give Spurs victory in the cup final replay 3-2. The previous Saturday Villa had been in tears after being substituted in the 100th FA Cup final. But his manager Keith Burkinshaw had reinstated him for the replay.
 

4) Sebastian Coe’s victory in the 1500m final at the 1984 Olympic Games was truly memorable. As a team mate of Coe’s, albeit a fairly ordinary one, I had the luxury of a front row seat just behind the finish line. Throughout the week I had the privilege of trying out the track and atmosphere myself in a heat of the 400m hurdles before settling down to watch Carl Lewis win four gold medals; Daley Thompson take the decathlon title; and Mary Decker fall over Zola Budd’s feet.
 

5) One team, one nation, one drop goal. It was the story of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final when Madiba wore the No.6 jersey, Joel Stransky kicked the winner, and Francois Pienaar lifted the trophy. If ever a game has transcended sport this was the occasion. Sixteen months earlier South Africa had been teetering on the brink of civil war, now black and white were linking arms in the streets of Johannesburg and celebrating a national triumph. In my experience, no sporting victory has ever been so raw with emotion.

 

The last memory is just about my favourite. Perhaps you’d like to share one or two of yours?

Martin Gillingham represented Great Britain in the 1984 Olympic Games and 1987 World Championships at the 400 metres hurdles. Since retiring from the track he spent 12 years in South Africa where he was a radio talk show presenter and writer for a Sunday newspaper. He returned to the UK in 2003 and can now be heard commentating on athletics for Eurosport as well as rugby for Sky Sports, ITV and Setanta.

 

Comments

Mine has to be Cathy Freeman winning the Olympic 400m in Sydney
in 2000 before a crowd of 110,000. Geez, I felt proud to be an
Aussie that night.
By Rick, Melbourne

15 April 2009 at 07:14am

I am amazed, Martin. I was there at The Oval for all five days 33
years ago, and I well remember Balderstone trudging back, having
got a pair, a grown man in tears. I swear to this day he never
saw the ball that dismissed him.

Holding was majestic athleticism - "whispering death" indeed. As
a former 400m runner turned into the most graceful pace bowler
ever, makes you wonder what sort of speed another Jamaican, Usain
Bolt might bowl at.

That Test match was also notable for an athletic diving catch by
the present chairman of selectors - you'd be hard-pressed to
imagine Geoff Miller capable of such today.

Think you've got the wrong dropped goal, and the wrong rugby
World Cup final, by the way.

And as far as great middle distance races go, Ovett v Rono over 2
miles at Crystal Palace was awesome and Steve Cram's Dream Mile
in Oslo in 1985, when he beat Coe, Steve Scott, Abascal and
Maree, took the breath away. And yes, I was at both.

But the 1923 Cup Final was not "infamous". It is very famous.
Infamous means something else altogether - where did you do your
journalistic training???
By StevenD

21 April 2009 at 10:21am