Joe Frazier - old school proud tough man who helped Ali when he was skint and got nothing but insults back. Joey Dunlop - did it all himself on a wide variety of machines. Used to travel to Romania in a transit full of gifts for the kids - and not shout about it. Kelly Holmes - achieved double Gold after years of missed opportunities, severe injuries & mental anguish.
Close run contest with some Italian bloke narrowly edging Barry Sheene! C'mon boys & girls our own Number 7 needs a few more mentions, & may the great smell of Brut always be with you!
Sorry, but I don’t think he was that good ! Now Hailwood on the other hand, what a talent on 2 and 4 wheels, and gonads the size of elephant testicals to come back in 77, and win
Harsh! Bazza was a world champion twice, and through his efforts brought track safety to the bike racing scene. A national hero in the UK, and arguably led to a resurgence of Brits on bikes throughout the 70's and early 80's. He also shagged the most beautiful girls and partied harder than anyone (well except maybe James Hunt but it was close!). Leaving aside all that he helped millions of young lads to smell less bad by promoting aftershave. Seems to me he should be on the £10 note and the postage stamps! Now Hailwood was great, maybe even more successful on bikes, but Mr Sheene was the whole nine yards. Hell even the housewives had a polish named after him...
1) Joey Dunlop.... He's the reason i started going to the island, so many great memories of that yellow helmet flashing past on vee four Hondas. Down to earth bloke, no airs, no graces, did it his way. 2) Valentino Rossi.... He made gp's fun to watch again and an hard as iron competitor. 3) Foggy.... Gritty, arrogent (i liked the self belief arrogance), determined and responsible for the absolutely incredible atmosphere at brands wsbk, you truly had to be there. Good lad on the roads too. I've got to give a special mention to Kevin Schwantz too, his battles with Gardner, Doohan, Rainey and co on the unrideables was a sight to behold.
Barry Sheene Rossi Joey Dunlop But there are some close runners up James Hunt, Nicky Louda Mike Hailwood & Pele’
John Surtees. Jackie Stewart. Jack Nicklaus. All immensely talented sportsmen who could be looked up to not just for their achievements but also how they conducted themselves.
I got it on the second attempt. The hardest ones to spell are those Tamil names that go on forever and Polish names which don’t have any vowels and contain enough Zs to make you a world champion at Scrabble.
Good point. I meant “vowels”. I have a bad toothache and so I’m ripped to the tits on codeine tablets washed down with Aldi brand knockoff chocolate flavoured Baileys Now edited.
Ha! - but I'm gonna nag you to get that sorted as soon as possible... from experience ignoring tooth ache just lands you in worse trouble later on. I've now reached the point where my gums are failing apart and I need to have a deep gum cleanse every 3 months or so to stop me teeth falling out and ending up looking like Steptoe. Although it has to be said the deep cleanse is nowhere near as jolly as the pain killers & alcohol combo...
