The Greatest British Sportspeople 150-141

150. Wayne Rooney (Football, 2000s)

Wayne wasn't going to make the list. Something was telling me he didn't deserve it, that he hadn't yet achieved greatness. Then I looked at the facts. Five Premier Leagues, one Champions League, Player of the Season, probably player of the tournament at Euro 2004, on his way to being England's record goalscorer. The fact he's only 27 doesn't mean he hasn't had a full career.

Particularly about Rooney, and why I think he's a better player than given credit for, is that he's not a straightforward striker. He scores loads of goals (albeit not as many as Van Persie, say) but he also sets up huge amounts. He's already in the Top 10 in the Premier League's all time "Assists" table.

More than any other fantastic footballer, when he's off form, he looks like he's never played the game before, the ball bouncing off his shins, careering into opponents, raging at his powerlessness.

But he deserves credit. And, while I'm at it, he doesn't deserve something else. The abuse. It's not just that no one "deserves" abuse, it's the extraordinarily hypocritical ugliness of the sly abuse Rooney routinely gets. It's all good having a go at him for sleeping with a granny, cheating on his wife, smoking fags etc. I mean, it's nobody's business, but that's routine footballer abuse stuff. It's the fact that it has become acceptable for comedians, journalists, people on the street, to mock Rooney for being two things - and the fact that it is a combo is important - ugly and stupid. The way the two go together, the way he gets mocked as somehow subnormal (when he seems no less switched on than any other footballer, and hell, he got famous when he was 16 and didn't complete his education), apish, whatever, reveals so many ugly strands in British society. Maybe I'm particularly sensitive to his defence in my appearance as Wayne Rooney's slightly effete older cousin, but the way people talk about him, the way people write about him, is NOT ok. It's not racism, but it comes from the same place as racism, it's vindictive, small-minded bullying. So there.

149. Ken Buchanan (Boxing, 1960s-1970s)

There's currently a splendid Scottish lightweight boxer called Ricky Burns who is a world champion. Note "a" is the operative word. Ken Buchanan was "the" lightweight champion of the world. Boxing is the daftest thing, where a world champion can pretty much be anyone - maybe the 7th or 8th best boxer in that division.
Acknowledged as the best Scottish boxer of all time and a tough tough nut, Buchanan is best remembered for a brutal loss to the terrifying Roberto Duran.

148. Jimmy Greaves (Football, 1950s-1970s)

Jimmy Greaves is definitely the best ever England striker - a goalscorer with a quite unnaturally good international record (44 from 56) and the most goals of anyone in the top flight of English football. And he also has a World Cup winner's medal. So why is he not Number 1 on this long long list?
Well, we all know that, don't we?
We all know he didn't pick the medal up with his victorious team mates in 1966 but had to wait till 2009 when, after a petition, "squad members" were finally awarded the medals the winning XI had received 43 years earlier.
So, if we don't all know, Greavesy got injured, his replacement came in and played well, Greavesy didn't get his place back for the final and his replacement, Geoff Hurst, did very very well in the final. And Greaves only played three more times for England and spent the 70s as an alcoholic.
So he is defined by that injury, by his absence from the pitch for the main event. It doesn't define everyone. It doesn't define Dan Carter, who didn't play in the 2011 World Cup Final of rugby for New Zealand.
But, for all his brilliance, it defines Jimmy Greaves.

147. Lee Pearson (Dressage,  2000s)

Winner of 12 Paralympic medals, 10 of them gold, and a CBE, but, to his own open displeasure, not a knight. And he makes an interesting point. Why are 10 Paralympic golds seemingly not worth as much as 2 or 3 Olympic medals? Perhaps that gets to the heart of this blog. What's the level and density of the competition? How much is each achievement worth?
Michael Phelps has won 18 Olympic golds but does that make him 9 times better as an Olympic sportsman than, say, Daley Thompson, who just won two. Hell, no. They were all there available for the miraculous Phelps and he just lapped them up.
So Lee Pearson was the best paralympic dressage rider for several years, so he just lapped them up. He's also a top class dressage rider full stop. The fact that his placing is not higher on this list is certainly not related to my view on the standing of Paralympic sport, but more my view on the standing of dressage as a sport.

146. Ann Packer (Athletics, 1960s)

Retired at 22, but the achievement that preceeded it is the height of sporting awesomeness. At the 1964 Olympics, she was expected to win the 400m but got a silver. Great. Then her fiance only came 4th in the men's 400m. So she thought she'd have a go at the 800m, having hardly raced it before. And she won gold with a new world record and a time that would be very respectable to this day .

145. Jason Kenny (Cycling, 2000s)

In Chris Hoy's shadow despite having won three Olympic golds of his own. The winner of the individual sprint so, if you will, the fastest man on a bike. Still only 24  so goodness what he'll accrue in his career. Interesting, though, to compare the prestige in which he is held in the cycling world to Mark Cavendish. Track cycling very much the poor cousin to road cycling, it seems.

144. Ellen MacArthur (Sailing, 2000s)

 Some great sport is not for TV audiences and doesn't involve anyone else, but people don't find it hard to recognise. The fastest solo circumnavigation of the world. That's pretty badass.

143. Ann Jones (Tennis & Table Tennis, 1950s-1970s)

Further investigation of Ann Jones makes me think I may have underrated her - not only a World table tennis finalist in her teens, but a nine time Grand Slam singles finalist, with three wins, including Wimbledon, and not in some dark, half-arsed era, but against the likes of Billie Jean King and Margaret Court.

142. Dave Roberts (Swimming, 2000s)

11 Paralympic swimming medals, utterly dominant, and seemingly prettily unfairly not permitted to attempt more at London 2012 because of being ill at the trials.

141. Duncan Edwards (Football, 1950s)

This one is a bit about what was and more about what would have been. Bobby Charlton, and everyone else who played with and against him, said Duncan Edwards was the best they ever saw, the strongest, the fittest, the most versatile, and could have been the world's best. So two leagues and 18 England caps is worth a little, but I suppose people think of Duncan Edwards as a footballing legend because they imagine all the things he would have achieved if he hadn't died in Munich.