Unlucky in their time.

[grecian]

Many people think Tories are the right people to run the government, both groups are wrong.

Fair enough, but it the thread is to have any point and it probably doesn't it's someone who doesn't have Massive fame in their own country or in the world because of one other athlete.

Hence Blake is a great answer, Ronaldo not. Maybe not Murray TBH, made a Sir and 3 times Sports Personality in the World, possibly because he has beaten the Likes Of Djokovic and Federer. Say 10 slams whilst beating Berdych and the like may rate less, who knows?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

What about someone like Dermott Monteith? Really excellent record for Ireland and Middlesex, but at a time that Ireland had very little international profile. If he was playing today, he'd be a star for the Irish.

 

[grecian]

Thought Hodgkinson might make this thread even more irrelevant than it already was, but nah, Athing Mu wins again.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah fair enough, still find it odd that the three best tennis players of all time play together, and it's not just that we have suddenly discovered professionalism and conditioning in tennis, so people can last longer.

Oh and if you pop in Murray than Wawrinka must be there, because he has won as many slams, I really hate the hagiography of the big 3 though, so I'm a tad biased. Roger is the only one that doesn't play attritional dull tennis designed to make stamina count rather than finesse, Murray plays that way too.

Speaking of Roger, chuck him in there for clay court tennis. The guy would've probably won 5 or 6 Roland Garros titles if he'd played in any other era.

 

[Line and Length]

If Moss had driven an Italian or German car of the era, he definitely would have won a title. However, he said, "Better to lose honourably in a British car than win in a foreign one"

Henry Cooper

Fighting Mohammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) for the world title, Cooper had Clay in trouble when his left hook ('enry's 'ammer) sent Clay to the canvas. Clay got to his feet and was immediately save by the bell. "Ali partly landed on the ropes, preventing his head hitting the canvas covered boards, but though up at the count of 3 he seemed hurt. In the corner Dundee was angry and slapped Ali's legs. Ali misunderstood and tried to get off the stool. It has been claimed that Dundee may have used smelling salts to revive Ali. This has never been confirmed and the film is unclear if this happened. The use of smelling salts was prohibited in British boxing, and their use would have led to Ali losing by disqualification if the offence was proved. Dundee later said that he put his finger in a small tear in one of Ali's gloves to demonstrate to the referee and told the referee that his fighter needed replacements, but none were available. Cooper insisted that resulted in a delay of a minute or more in addition to the regulation time between rounds, and denied him a chance to finish off Ali while he was still dazed."
Cooper's eyebrows were prone to split easily and Ali made these his target for the remainder of the fight and, when the bleeding became too much, the fight was stopped.

 

[Mike5181]

Nick Evans came through around the same time as Dan Carter.

 

[grecian]

If Moss had driven an Italian or German car of the era, he definitely would have won a title. However, he said, "Better to lose honourably in a British car than win in a foreign one"

Henry Cooper

Fighting Mohammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) for the world title, Cooper had Clay in trouble when his left hook ('enry's 'ammer) sent Clay to the canvas. Clay got to his feet and was immediately save by the bell. "Ali partly landed on the ropes, preventing his head hitting the canvas covered boards, but though up at the count of 3 he seemed hurt. In the corner Dundee was angry and slapped Ali's legs. Ali misunderstood and tried to get off the stool. It has been claimed that Dundee may have used smelling salts to revive Ali. This has never been confirmed and the film is unclear if this happened. The use of smelling salts was prohibited in British boxing, and their use would have led to Ali losing by disqualification if the offence was proved. Dundee later said that he put his finger in a small tear in one of Ali's gloves to demonstrate to the referee and told the referee that his fighter needed replacements, but none were available. Cooper insisted that resulted in a delay of a minute or more in addition to the regulation time between rounds, and denied him a chance to finish off Ali while he was still dazed."
Cooper's eyebrows were prone to split easily and Ali made these his target for the remainder of the fight and, when the bleeding became too much, the fight was stopped.

Wasn't a title fight though was it? Think Cooper lost too many more than Ali after and before, was possibly robbed there, but fairly beaten when they next met.

 

[Flem274*]

Roger Tuivasa-Scheck spent his prime at the Warriors.

Recent Sam Cane business made me think of Taine Randell. I was pretty young, but can't help but think he was unfortunate to be a young skipper who lost games during a time where our nation had very little emotional maturity.

 

[wpdavid]

Wasn't a title fight though was it? Think Cooper lost too many more than Ali after and before, was possibly robbed there, but fairly beaten when they next met.

No, it wasn't. Lovely man, Cooper, but if he was born in the USA nobody would have heard of him. Kind of opposite to what the thread's about, I suppose.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Nick Evans came through around the same time as Dan Carter.

Very good shout; if he'd been any other nationality he'd have had 3 or 4 times the number of caps he got.

Was an absolute beast for Quins up here, would definitely have been our first choice stand off until Farrell came along.

 

[wpdavid]

Norman Hunter would have played in the 1966 and 1970 WCs instead of just being a squad member had he not been competing with Bobby Moore. And yes, I know that he came on as a sub in the 1970 quarter final, but he'd have been a regular starter if not for Moore.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

Barry Richards

 

[Everton Seymour]

From Cricket :

Mike Procter
Barry Richards
Clive Rice
Graeme Pollock


Football :
Netherlands Football team of the 70's
Brazil 1982
Newcastle United of the 90's

Rugby :
The French Team

Boxing : Joe Frazier

Tennis : Alexander Zverev

 

[sledger]

Tim Henman, seriously

Not that he was ever super top tier, but he was a lot better player than is often made out, just always ended up running into the brick wall that was Pete Sampras

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Henman’s record is quite poor aside from his three Wimbledon semi-finals. He had a decent year after he’d turned 30 where he reached the semi-final of the French and US Open in the same season, but aside from that he didn’t ever get beyond the 4th Round of the other Slams. A God by our standards pre-Murray, but not great globally.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Mike Procter
Barry Richards
Clive Rice
Graeme Pollock

At least they played Tests. What about Vince van der Bijl, Garth le Roux or Ken McEwan. Fantastic players, but no official Tests.

 

[grecian]

Henman’s record is quite poor aside from his three Wimbledon semi-finals. He had a decent year after he’d turned 30 where he reached the semi-final of the French and US Open in the same season, but aside from that he didn’t ever get beyond the 4th Round of the other Slams. A God by our standards pre-Murray, but not great globally.

As a grass court player he deserved a Wimbledon, if Kraijek, Cash and Stich got one. Was beaten by the best grass court player ever in my humble opinion, Sampras many times, no idea how he would have done in different eras, but was weird how Wimbledon started making the grass court more homogenous during his career, bizarre even, but they needed to stop just servers winning I guess.

Oh and it was 4 at wimbledon.

He was perfectly adequate elsewhere was a consistent top-10 player.

But I agree he probably doesn't quite deserve to be here, because he blew his chance against Martin and Ivanisevic when Pistol Pete was knocked out.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

As a grass court player he deserved a Wimbledon, if Kraijek, Cash and Stich got one. Was beaten by the best grass court player ever in my humble opinion, Sampras many times, no idea how he would have done in different eras, but was weird how Wimbledon started making the grass court more homogenous during his career, bizarre even, but they needed to stop just servers winning I guess.

Oh and it was 4 at wimbledon.

He was perfectly adequate elsewhere was a consistent top-10 player.

But I agree he probably doesn't quite deserve to be here, because he blew his chance against Martin and Ivanisevic when Pistol Pete was knocked out.

He wasn’t particularly adequate in the other Slams. To have 4 semis and four quarters at Wimbledon and just two late career semis and no quarters elsewhere is a strange imbalance. His defeat to Hewitt in 2002 is one he might look back on with regret if prone to such things. Hewitt was very much a baseliner. The Final against Nalbandian was probably the worst ever.

 

[grecian]

He wasn’t particularly adequate in the other Slams. To have 4 semis and four quarters at Wimbledon and just two late career semis and no quarters elsewhere is a strange imbalance. His defeat to Hewitt in 2002 is one he might look back on with regret if prone to such things. Hewitt was very much a baseliner. The Final against Nalbandian was probably the worst ever.

3rd round means last 32 in a Tournament, I'd call that adequate, 4th round moreso, anyway I agree he doesn't deserve to be here really.

 

[Line and Length]

Charles "Jack" Russell

A fine opening bat who averaged 56.87 in just 10 Tests. Unfortunately he was around at a time when Hobbs and Sutcliffe were playing.