2015 - a good year for sport

To add to the Ashes win earlier, unexpected successes at Boxing and Tennis:

GB now have a World Heavyweight champion;
and we win the Davis Cup !

Who'd have thought it ?

[NigelS]

Yes we now have 11 boxing world champions more than any nation.

We should not forget Lewis Hamilton – now a triple world champion. Chris Froome winning the Tour de France. And Jessica Ennis-Hill who came back to become World Champion again.

But the Davis Cup is the big one to me – they say it’s a team effort but for Andy Murray to win 11 matches out of 11 is just awesome, even Djokovic, Federer and Nadal didn’t have to win that many matches when they won for their respective countries.

Yep a great year for British sport!

[BigPhilMac]

But didn't Scotland win the Davis Cup? %

Nov 30, 2015 11:33:19 GMT NigelS said:

But the Davis Cup is the big one to me – they say it’s a team effort but for Andy Murray to win 11 matches out of 11 is just awesome, even Djokovic, Federer and Nadal didn’t have to win that many matches when they won for their respective countries.

Andy when interviewed afterwards had the grace to hint that this was probably a high point in his career and might be difficult to repeat. Switzerland were minus Federer and Wawrinka this year but an incredible achievement for Team GB nonetheless, the belief 'we' could do it probably stemming from James Ward's win over John Isner when playing the USA.

Nothing more could be asked of Murray, but we need someone to be firmly established as number two - glimpses of brilliance from Kyle Edmund in going 2 sets up against Goffin, lets hope he can keep the momentum going.

[NigelS]

Nov 30, 2015 12:12:39 GMT tommo III said:

Nov 30, 2015 11:33:19 GMT NigelS said:

Andy when interviewed afterwards had the grace to hint that this was probably a high point in his career and might be difficult to repeat. Switzerland were minus Federer and Wawrinka this year but an incredible achievement for Team GB nonetheless, the belief 'we' could do it probably stemming from James Ward's win over John Isner when playing the USA.

Nothing more could be asked of Murray, but we need someone to be firmly established as number two - glimpses of brilliance from Kyle Edmund in going 2 sets up against Goffin, lets hope he can keep the momentum going.

It won't be repeated, not in the near future anyway. Murray said he will play the first match v Japan, but has already hinted that Wimbledon and the Olympics will take priority this year. From an article I read it seems he wants to add the other Grand Slams and do the Career Slam - and that seems the right thing to go for. It was a great opportunity this year that opened up and he took it. I can't really see how they can win a top level tie without him - our other singles players are not good enough.

Nigel, your quoting is up the shoot: it looks like you're quoting something I said as your your own, and that something you've just said as my invention !

(I'll delete this if you can sort it out !)

[NigelS]

I had a couple of goes at that quote Tommo.....couldnt get it right :(

This topic has made me think a bit.
We have seen some great British sporting achievements I never thought I would see in my lifetime
- A British player win Wimbledon
- Britain winning the Davis Cup
- A British rider winning the Tour De France
- A British runner doing a 5k/10k double at the Olympics
- England winning the Rugby World Cup (ok that was a few years ago!)
- Britain hosting the Olympics and finishing 3rd in the medals table!
But I was thinking what would I still like to see happen – the big two for me would be England winning the Football and Cricket World Cups (maybe waiting forever for those to happen!)

Great post Nigel,
I was around in 1966 when England won the World Cup and doubt if it will be done again in my lifetime. We came close again in 1990 but have been going backwards ever since.
I see you missed the moon landing in 1969 as well.

But back (or forward !) to modern times.....Reckon there's more to come from Murray, and Lewis Hamilton, and as for Mo Farah - the guy is awesome.