BBC Sports Personality

[ancientnloyal]

how did Jenson Button get a nomination? All this hype about winning his first race and finishing 6th (our of 20) drivers is stupid.

Monty Panesaar hasnt done much and someone has to take wickets in cricket, one time he did.

I would have voted for the female cycler because IMO the sport of cycling is underestimated and british riders never get to the top of road cycling... yeh we have David Millar who we see in the Tour de France but e's a speed specialist in timetrials and thats about it... she on the other hand dominates all fields of cycling, and British too.

Zara Philips? wtf has she done? won a horse jumping competition.

St Helens to win team of the year is good for Rugby League and were bound to win it after last season. THE ONLY THING THAT DISAPPOINTS ME IS THE LACK OF.. (oops, caps) coverage in todays newspapers about St Helens and the team award. It is pathetic.

[DaiJones]

Joe Calzaghe should have won but the Welsh never win these kind of things

[adrenalinxx]

DaiJones posted:
Joe Calzaghe should have won but the Welsh never win these kind of things

Here you go, Dai Rees won BBC Sports Personality of the year in 1957, and he was Welsh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Rees

[cpwigan]

The problem is the BBC heavily control who can get nominated and the voting process. A mnatch angler called Bob Nudd actually won it one year after winning his 4th or 5th World Title BUT the BBC wopuld not allow him to win it and changed the rules mid contest. The individuals who got votes represented sports suitable to the upper / middle classes and often those which the BBC still shows.

I personally would argue Phil Taylor and Joe Calzaghe are the 2 outstanding sportsmen/women of 2006. Ricky Hatton would have been another but was not as active.

Horse riders are farcical. It is a sport of the rich and wealthy. As somebody said, it is so dependent on the quality of the horse too. Tweedle at least is dedicated and works hard BUT she is not the worlds best gymnast, far from it. Panesar was a joke.

[JIMH]

Its intresting reading this post as i've discussed the winner here at work. Does anyone know anyone who voted for Zara Phillips? public opinion on this site along with my work does not put her top of public vote (yes i do realise millions would have voted not just the 10 people ive spoke to)

I've yet to meet or speak to someone who agrees she should have won and actually voted for her.

Does anyone know who voted for her?

[Wigan Watcher]

Like a lot of things that happen concerning the royal family, we will never find out the truth.

[DaveO]

cpwigan posted:
The problem is the BBC heavily control who can get nominated and the voting process.

Yes they do and for the team category you could argue they actually wanted to give it to Saints by putting in two other less than spectacular alternatives. If so at least they has decided they wanted RL to win but had they put a soccer team in there then tribalism would have won out and the soccer team would have won it without a doubt.

Tweedle at least is dedicated and works hard BUT she is not the worlds best gymnast, far from it.

It isn't supposed to be about being the best. It is supposed to be sports personality of the year and so someone dedicated with some success (as opposed to being worlds best) ought to have a chance of winning it.

However given it is a personality award who decided the winner qualified on that count? I mean just who is she (in a sporting context)?

Dave

[cpwigan]

Your right Dave re the personality asnd interestingly it happens in RL. The Man of Steel is meant to be the personality who had the greatest impact. Hence, Martin Offiah won it one year. However, that has now turned into the hardest working, most consistent. Paul Wellens has no public persona as far as I can see.

[DaveO]

cpwigan posted:
Your right Dave re the personality asnd interestingly it happens in RL. The Man of Steel is meant to be the personality who had the greatest impact. Hence, Martin Offiah won it one year. However, that has now turned into the hardest working, most consistent. Paul Wellens has no public persona as far as I can see.

Yes there is a tendency for these awards to be given to the best as opposed to what they were originally supposed to be for.

I still can't figure out how that applied to Zara Phillips. I know she has won a few medals but if you are basing this on "best" as opposed to "personality" I don't think she qualifies but then I know nothing about her sport.

Dave

[cpwigan]

My limited knowledge leads me to understand Dave that Equestrian Sport is virtually 75%+ down to the quality of horses. Everything goes into breeding them from specific lines etc. The riders simply need to be rich enough to be able to pursue the sport.