Saturday 25 January 2014

1980: France v England (Rugby Union)

Sixteen years. Sixteen long years. By 1980, this was how long the England rugby team had waited to taste victory in Paris, a period of time that had seen England lose six matches and draw one against their French rivals. However, it was not just the French that England had a problem with. Since their last outright Five Nations title win in 1963, the state of the English rugby team had fluctuated between poor and embarrassing.

Sunday 19 January 2014

1986/87 FA Cup: Fourth round

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first, second and third rounds of the 1986/87 FA Cup, which you can view here, here and here.

The fourth round of the 1987 FA Cup may have been relatively kind to Division One clubs - only one would lose to lower league opposition - but it was still full of enough drama to keep the competition ticking along nicely. A couple of shocks, an eye opener for Alex Ferguson, an horrific injury to an England Under-21 international which sparked legal action; own goals, thrashings, and growing unrest at Chelsea. Enough incidents to fill a blog at least.

Sunday 12 January 2014

1988 Australian Open Tennis

This week I have decided to take a look back at the 1988 Australian Open, a tournament staged at a spectacular new complex, involving epic matches, stifling heat, one final dart at glory for a past great, and the true beginning of a new era in the women's game.

Monday 6 January 2014

1986 World Darts Championship

The 1986 World Darts Championship may have been played at a different venue, but it was very much a case of the same old story come the end of the final. Eric Bristow celebrated his fifth world title on the stage of the Lakeside Country Club, and his period of domination looked set to continue for years to come. The fact that this would be his last world championship may have been surprising, but his march to a third consecutive title had a chilling inevitability about it from the off.

Thursday 2 January 2014

1986/87 FA Cup: Third round

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first and second rounds of the 1986/87 FA Cup, which you can view here and here.

One of my many bugbears about the modern form of the FA Cup is the disappearance of the traditional Monday cup draws. Yet after investigating this piece, I was slightly startled to discover that the draw for the Third round of the 1986/87 FA Cup was actually the first time since 1976/77 that this had taken place on the supposedly traditional day. Bang goes another childhood memory that I had obviously invented in my head.