The Greatest British Sportspeople 70-61

70. Carl Froch (Boxing, 2000s)

Boxing is often all about hypotheticals, so rarely do the top people fight each other, and so varied are the weight classes. So and so would beat so and so etc. It has to be this way, sadly. So when Carl "The Cobra" shoots his mouth off a little about how good he is (in a way I find amusing and excellent, might I add), people say "Oh, he'd lose to Calzaghe/Eubank/Benn etc" and I'm not here to argue with such claims.
But the great thing about the career of Froch is that he has made hypotheticals irrelevant. He has fought everyone he possibly could. All but one of his last 10 fights have been against hardcore world-ranked opponents. He was won all but two, and one of the losses, was tight and (in my opinion) a bit of a hometown decision.
He is a thrilling fighter who is far more smart and athletic than he seems, and primarily, frankly, is hard as fuck. He was won over almost all doubters, has persuaded America of his qualities, and represents all the good things about the too often murky and overhyped sport of boxing.

69. Jack Beresford (Rowing, 1920s-1930s)

 The Redgrave of his day, winner of medals in five consecutive Olympics, including three golds. It should be noted that in 1924 this meant gold in the single sculls, which, I'm told, many see as the true blue riband of the rowing world, where you have nothing but your own ability and strength.
Having heard his name many times. I somehow had got into the habit of envisaging Tom Berenger, but he doesn't look like Tom Berenger - this is what he looks like.

68. Kenny Dalglish (Football, 1960s-1980s)

Dour Scots are all the rage these days, aren't they? Scotland's greatest ever footballer, Liverpool's greatest ever footballer, winner of huge numbers of league titles and European cups, excellent manager who won titles at two clubs (almost three). Not known to smile very much.

67. Claire Taylor (Cricket, 1990s-2010s)

 Wisden did a very smart thing making Claire Taylor one of their 5 Cricketers of the Year for 2009. Tokenistic or not, it set the stall for giving women's cricket a little bit of equivalence to the men's games. It said "Genuinely, what she has done this year is better than all but a few male cricketers" and you couldn't really argue. The best batter of her era, really a class above.

66. Wally Hammond (Cricket, 1920s-1940s)

Generally considered by cricket scholars as England's finest ever batsman, he was for a long time the record run scorer in tests, averaged 58, and would have got even more but for World War II. According to wikipedia, though, he had a reputation for infidelity. Boo, though that has not affected his ranking. His relative lack of success as a test captain has, though.

65. John Amaechi (Basketball, 1990s-2000s)

 Sometimes greatness in sport does have something to do with being a great person. John Amaechi won't go down as one of the great NBA players, though it was an outstanding achievement for a Brit (albeit a spectacularly tall Brit) to make an impact in that world at all. Very very few have, and Amaechi got to be a very good NBA player. His great impact was in 2007, when he was the first player of a major American sport to come out (he has recently been followed in NBA by Jason Collins). And Amaechi can be seen, if you will, as the Martin Luther King of this particular movement, rather than just the Rosa Parks. For he is one of the most tremendously articulate, intelligent, fearless men in sport, who simply does not trot out the usual cliches and truisms, and says more about racism and homophobia in sport in one sentence than most say in a lifetime.

64. Sally Gunnell (Athletics, 1980s-1990s)

The only female athlete to hold Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles all at the same time (to be fair, this is something that only a Brit or Maltese can do!) Sally Gunnell also broke the World Record when she won the 1993 World Championships.

63. Mary Peters (Athletics, 1950s-1970s)

 Like Jessica Ennis, won the Olympic multi-event (in her case pentathlon rather than heptathlon), in 1972, and furthermore broke the world record in doing so. Was also a shot putter and competed in the Commonwealth Games for a long, long time.

62. Roger Bannister (Athletics, 1950s)

I have ever so slightly mixed feelings about this one being placed so high, as Roger Bannister did not win an Olympic medal or achieve that much else in athletics apart from his one extraordinary moment. But that was what he set out to do, and what sports fans the world over remember. Goodness knows why the idea of a mile being run in four minutes had such impact, but it did, and the footage is super. He was also a distinguished neurologist but, again, no extra points for that.

61. Jim Clark (Motor racing, 1960s)

 Damn and blast, I seem to be including a lot of boy racers. Clark won two Formula 1 championships, died young, and has been considered by some as one of the very best, if not the best, racers of all.