79 Sibley skipped school, broke records
A share of the credit must go to the head teacher at Whitgift School who
allowed Dominic Sibley to miss part of his first week of his final year in
September in order to play for Surrey against Yorkshire.
Without that generosity Sibley would not have become – deep breath – the
youngest double-centurion in the history of the County Championship,
Surrey’s youngest ever centurion, the second-youngest player to score a
first-class century in England, the 13th youngest first-class
double-centurion in history and the first 18-year-old to score a century for
Surrey since Graham Thorpe in 1988. Sibley’s reaction? “I’m chuffed to
bits.”
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78 Rickie Lambert: from beetroot factory to Wembley
Rickie Lambert’s winning goal against Scotland on his England debut was the
kind of football feel-good story that started to disappear some time shortly
after the advent of the Premier League. Here was a former beetroot factory
worker (what kind of beetroots are made in a factory?) who had plodded
around the lower leagues for many years before becoming a star. Lambert is
now on course to go to the World Cup where, if England’s recent major
tournament experiences are anything to go by, he may quickly wish he was
back in the beetroot factory.
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77 Sabine Lisicki’s Wimbledon odyssey
The German fulfils John Inverdale’s criteria for a female tennis star and this
year also showed her credentials on the court when she reached her first
grand slam final at Wimbledon, where she was ultimately beaten in straight
sets by Marion Bartoli.
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76 Michael Laudrup took Swansea to their first-ever trophy
Michael Laudrup is everything you would want in a manager: cool, classy and
unlikely to get caught up in the kind of undignified spat that some many of
his peers seem to savour. The Dane led Swansea to the first major trophy in
their history when they beat Bradford 5-0 to win the Capital One Cup.
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75 Kurtley Beale slipped and missed a crucial penalty against the Lions
That the British and Irish Lions won their first series in 16 years owes more
than a little to Kurtley Beale’s choice of footwear. With the final kick of
the first Test the Australia full-back had the chance to put the Wallabies
1-0 up in the three-Test series, but his standing foot gave way as he struck
the decisive penalty. The kick fell short and the Lions had the upper hand.
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74 Robbie Rogers came out as gay
In February, the US international and former Leeds midfielder came out and
announced his retirement from football at the same time. In May Rogers
returned to professional football, signing a deal with LA Galaxy, becoming
the only openly gay athlete in the MLS.
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73 Joe Root: adorable. Hard. Smoker
When David Warner punched Joe Root in the Walkabout bar in Birmingham he may
as well have been decking the baby brother of the entire England cricket
team. How could this animal use such violence against cherub-faced Joe? Well
it turns out Root is pretty hard – he is about the only one of the England
team with the nerve to face up to Mitchell Johnson’s bouncers. And his image
as the Milky Bar Kid was firmly consigned to history when he was pictured
smoking outside a Manchester bar.
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72 Bradley Wiggins’s crown slipped
Bradley Wiggins’s crown may have slipped in 2013, but at least he still has
his knighthood. The 2012 Tour de France champion targeted this year’s Giro
d’Italia, but then withdrew from the race due to a chest infection. He then
withdrew from the Tour de France, where he was likely to be asked to ride in
support of Chris Froome. The year ended on a slightly more positive note as
his long-running feud with Froome seemed to be at an end.
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71 Shahid Khan: Bought Fulham, forcibly removed Michael Jackson statue
He may look like one of the Mario Brothers but Fulham’s new owner showed the
fans he meant business by making it his first point of order to remove the
Michael Jackson statue at Craven Cottage. Sadly, on the field, the team
subsequently collapsed just as easily as that bizarre lump of plastic.
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70 Sergio Garcia tried the fried chicken
What is it with golfers and the food-based racism? In 1997, Fuzzy Zoeller
suggested that Tiger Woods would demand fried chicken at the Masters
Champions dinner. And then in May, Sergio Garcia said that he would invite
Tiger round for dinner, “and serve him fried chicken every night”. Do these
guys maybe need some new material?
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69 One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson was chopped down by Gabriel Agbonlahor
In a charity match! Perhaps the oddest foul of the year, and it certainly
proved that Agbonlahor isn’t too smart about the Internet: if he was, he
would have known that One Direction’s fans take the wellbeing of their boys
very, very seriously indeed. In a charity match at Celtic Park organised by
former Hoops star Stiliyan Petrov, Agbonlahor mystifyingly chose to clatter
the slightly-built popstar, who was then sick as he left the pitch. Cue
online death threats for Agbonlahor. Ah, charity.
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68 Serena Williams showed that she has still got it
She first topped the list in 2002, and then in February, returned to the
summit of the rankings for the sixth time by defeating Petra Kvitova in
Doha, becoming the oldest woman in the Open era to hold that position. She
also won the US Open and the French Open this year; her performance in the
semis at Roland Garros was described by Chris Evert as “the finest female
performance on clay she had ever seen”. Not bad for an oldie.
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67 Union Jack Wilshere
The issues of nationhood and identity are multi-faceted and complex… and
probably best left alone if you’re a footballer with only 140 characters at
your disposal. Or at least, that was the impression one was left with after
Jack Wilshere tweeted that “The only people who should play for England are
English people. If you live in England for five years it doesn’t make you
English.”
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66 Misbah-ul-Haq: leader of difficult men
Pakistan cricket needed a great leader after the spot-fixing and in-fighting
of the last few years, and Misbah has been that man. He took the team to
India at the beginning of the year and left with an ODI series win,
repeating the trick when they travelled to South Africa. Has galvanised a
talented rabble into an outfit with purpose in his own unflappable style.
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65 LeBron James
Led his Miami Heat side to NBA Finals glory over the San Antonio Spurs,
notably taking charge of a thriller to level the series at 3-3. Lost his
headband dunking in the fourth quarter and did not put it back on; fans and
the media dubbed the game, regarded as one of the finest in history, “the
Headband Game”. Inspired the Heat to a come-from-behind overtime win in
that, and then bossed the deciding game seven to be named Finals MVP for the
second year running.
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64 Michael van Gerwen: the coming man?
To do anything in darts you pretty much have to get past Phil Taylor, and the
24-year-old Dutchman confirmed his status as the most promising young darter
on the circuit by finishing top of this year’s Premier League – the first
man other than Taylor to do so. He beat Taylor in the final of that, and did
so again in the final of the Players’ Championship, winning seven legs in a
row to win from 6-3 down.
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63 Adnan Januzaj was revealed to be Kosovan for Adam Smith
With a family background so complicated he may as well be a member of the
Royal Family, Adnan Januzaj seemed to be “just another foreigner coming over
here and showing our young players how to play football” when the
18-year-old scored two stunning strikes in Manchester United’s win at
Sunderland. Not so it seemed, as it emerged that the FA is hoping to get the
youngster to declare for England, meaning he would be available for
selection for national team some time in the autumn of 2048. His two goals
at the Stadium of Light also earned the winger a nomination for BBC Young
Sports Personality of the Year.
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62 Richard Hannon prepared to hand over the reins
The great flat-racing trainer announced in November that this would be his
last years at the head of his Salisbury Plain operation, and that son
Richard Junior would be the main man from January 1. Richard Senior has
enjoyed a magnificent 43-year career, being named Champion Trainer three
times and training several superb horses – including five-time Group One
winner Canford Cliffs and 2013’s 1,000 Guineas winner Sky Lantern.
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61 Sir Ben Ainslie sailed to Americas Cup glory
Okay, we admit it: not that many people on the Telegraph Sport desk
know too much about sailing, but we found ourselves surprisingly gripped by
the September Americas Cup when Sir Ben’s USA Oracle team produced one of
the sport’s greatest comebacks (so we learned) to overturn an 8-1 deficit
with some really, erm, top sailing. Yay Sir Ben!
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Numbers 100-81: 100-81
Wednesday 60-41
Thursday 40-21
Friday 20-1