The Greatest British Sportspeople 190-181

190. Shirley Robertson - (Sailing, 1990s-2000s)

Sailing is another horrible spectator sport, and it's also rather a minority sport which nevertheless seems to have a lot of different gold medals available. But that's not to sound sniffy. Two gold medals and female World Sailor of the Year in 2000. As recent events have shown (and as anyone who's ever tried it knows) sailing is hard, requires great strength and a fair bit of bravery.

189. Damon Hill - (Formula 1, 1990s)

  

Always a little damned if he did and damned if he didn't, Damon Hill got to be World Champion but I'm not sure many people ever thought he was the best driver in the world. And if you're not a petrolhead, there are always suspicions about Formula 1 - that it's the car that matters, not the driver, that it's a procession, that selection to a car is not entirely meritocratic, that it's barely exactly sport, more extravagant showing off. Still, the Brits love the Formula 1, and it plays a massive part in our sporting culture and even to the unbelievers, a great race can be terribly exciting, so he won't be the only driver on this list, that's for sure.

188. Andrew Strauss - (Cricket, 2000s)

There are many, many finer batsmen than Andrew Strauss who haven't made this list - cricketing purists will be outraged at the exclusion of Ken Barrington - but he has been, I think, England's greatest captain, if not of all, then certainly of my lifetime. He should really have been captain almost from the day (I was there!) he made a century in his first test in 2004. That he had to wait till 2009 was absurd, but what a job he did when it came. Two Ashes series and Number 1 team in the world - he took over a team in turmoil, took it to the top and knew exactly when to quit. Integral as batsman as well as skipper to three Ashes wins, he was actually a really fine opener, who deserved a better average than he ended up with. England have had a lot of really, really useful cricketers in recent years, but Strauss, though not the best player, was the right man for the big job.

187. Liz McColgan (Athletics 1980s-1990s)

The Paula Radcliffe of her day, this proper bad-ass dour skinny Scot could hardly have achieved more success - a world champion, a London Marathon winner, a Commonwealth champion and Olympic runner-up. My natural sympathy and admiration for long distance runners tempted me to place her significantly higher, but maybe a world record would have been needed for that.

186. Lillian Board (Athletics, 1960s)

Dead from cancer shortly after her 22nd birthday, Lillian Board might have gone on to be Britain's greatest ever athlete. Already an Olympic silver medallist (at 19) and double European champion, extravagantly gifted in the long jump and every distance from 100m to the Mile (can you imagine that now), the potential was completely unlimited.

185. Sarah Taylor (Cricket, 2000s)

Currently the best cricketer in the world, part of the England team that has generally dominated women's cricket for the last few years, and a real trailblazer in terms of competing successfully at a high level of men's club cricket, Sarah Taylor has a good chance of becoming a real star of British sport if the profile of women's cricket continues to rise.

184. Shelley Rudman (Skeleton bob, 2000s)

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It may not appear to make much sense that the skeleton bobsledder who won silver in 2006 goes higher than the skeleton bobsledder that won gold in 2010, but this is a reward not just for coming first but also for longevity - the Olympic medal was 7 years ago, but she's the current world champion and has won multiple medals down the years. A weight of achievement is usually the key to sporting greatness.

183. Andy Farrell (Rugby league/Rugby union 1990s-2000s)

He never quite got the hang of rugby union as a player (a bit late in his career, though he's certainly succeeded as a coach) but he was the best rugby league player in the world for a while, a place-kicking forward, a national captain when he was 21 and a general record breaker. Also very good at having an equally talented son.

182. Louis Smith (Gymnastics, 2000s)

When I grew up watching the Olympics, there was never any chance of Great Britain getting even one medal in Gymnastics. Now Louis Smith has three of them on his own, and was spectacularly unlucky that one of them wasn't gold. Always a spectacular sport to watch, my feeling has always been that any sport that relies on judging which is basically inexplicable to the layman suffers in terms of sporting purity. But Britain now loves its gymnastics, and Louis Smith is the biggest reason for that.

181. David Platt (Football, 1980s-2000s)

Again, the image sums up why most people think David Platt was great - that goal against Belgium in 1990. But apart from that, he's rather the forgotten man of English football, and it's easy to forget how good he was. The prolific goalscoring midfielder that neither Gerrard or Lampard has ever quite been for England, he was unfortunate to be captain of England in a pretty grim era. Unlike Gazza, he was a massive success at three different clubs in Serie A when Serie A was the best league in the world. Far more than just Roberto Mancini's sidekick, Platt would have been a superstar if he'd been born a few years later.

There we go. Got those 10 done pretty quickly. More to come soon.