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Turbulent could be one way to describe the start of Alex Higgins’ 1983/84 snooker season. First round defeats in both the International Open and Professional Players Championship illustrated his struggles on the green baize, with the situation in his domestic life hardly helping matters. Read more »

If David Coleman was right, and indeed goals do pay the rent , then there would have been plenty of happy landlords on Saturday October 29, 1983. Up and down the country, defences dozed, forwards frolicked, and nets bulged, as 135 goals were scored in the 44 league matches played in the top four divisions. Read more »

The Boomtown Rats and Surrey County Cricket Club might not have a lot in common. But I think it would have been safe to say that on May 30, 1983, anyone associated with the county would have agreed that they really didn’t like Mondays. We’ve all had bad days at the office, yet we ordinary folk at least have the benefit of displaying our inadequacies in front of relatively few people. Read more »

Sometimes it can be a struggle to explain to an outsider just how hard it is to be a supporter of a football club. The emotional roller coaster we all board when we nail our specific colours to the mast can leave you drained. We all love the highs, but the crushing lows often take a long time to flush out the system. Indeed, they sometimes never leave us. Take the example of Fulham in the 1982/83 season. Promoted to the Second Division during the previous campaign, the club were flying under the management of Malcolm Macdonald. A team full of quality – keeper Gerry Payton, defenders Tony Gale, Roger Brown, Jeff Hopkins, midfielders Ray Houghton, Robert Wilson, Sean O’Driscoll, and Ray Lewington, along with strikers Gordon Davies and Dean Coney – it appeared as if back-to-back promotions was a serious possibility. Read more »

The Second City derby is still a passionate affair, but it is unlikely that any fixture in the modern era can match the one contested between Aston Villa and Birmingham City in October 1983. It was never likely to be a quiet affair. When ex-Aston Villa manager Ron Saunders took his Birmingham City team to Villa Park on October 15, 1983, he wasn't taking many shrinking violets with him. Tony Coton, Pat Van Den Hauwe, Noel Blake, Robert Hopkins, Howard Gayle, and Mick Harford are individuals that are often mentioned in a Who's Who of football's bad boys. But it wasn't all one way traffic. Colin Gibson and Steve McMahon would give as good as they got. Read more »

A look back at the 1983 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, and a tale of varying fortunes for Nick Faldo, Hale Irwin, and Tom Watson. Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the warm-up matches, first, second, and third Tests of the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 1983: http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-british-and-irish-lions-warm-up-matches.html http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-first-test.html http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-second-test.html http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-third-test.html Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the warm-up matches, first Test, and second Test of the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 1983: http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-british-and-irish-lions-warm-up-matches.html http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-first-test.html http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-second-test.html   Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the warm-up matches and first Test of the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 1983: http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-british-and-irish-lions-warm-up-matches.html http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-first-test.html Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blog on the warm-up matches of the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 1983: http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/1983-british-and-irish-lions-warm-up-matches.html Read more »

The first of a series looking back at the 1983 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand. Read more »

Scotland's record at Twickenham left a lot to be desired, but in 1983 they were able to take advantage of a mentally fragile England. Michael Jackson was number one in the hit parade with Billie Jean; Britain was slowly getting used to waking up to breakfast television; the press were extremely excited that Prince William had two new teeth; and Arthur Scargill's call for a miners' strike was rejected by NUM members. March 1983, seems a million years ago. To any die hard Scottish rugby union fans that yearn for success at Twickenham, this date, from a different age, represents the last time their country won at England's headquarters. Read more »

When the sad news of Graham Taylor passing away broke on January 12, naturally the tributes came flooding in. Whilst many noted that his time in charge of England was troubled, a lot column inches and html paragraphs were dominated with the successes Taylor enjoyed at club level, and in particular his glorious spells at Watford. When you see what Taylor had previously achieved at Lincoln City, and later at Aston Villa, it wasn't hard to see why England came calling in 1990. Inevitably this blog will focus upon his heyday at Watford in the 1980s, and in particular Taylor's remarkable first season in the top flight during the 1982/83 campaign. To achieve three promotions in five years was one thing, but to then lead an inexperienced set of players to second place in Watford's debut season with the big boys was something else. Watford may have received a lot of criticism for their approach, yet for Taylor and Chairman Elton John, this was a victory for substance over style. Re...

There were a number of memorable displays at the 1983 World Cup, during a tournament in England and Wales that saw the West Indian champions finally toppled. This week I am looking back at some of the key performances during the tournament, covering the story of an inspired Zimbabwean, an unlikely West Indian hero, struggles for Sri Lanka, an inspired Indian skipper breathing life into his team, and the subsequent successes of India's seamers who took their team all the way to the ultimate prize. Read more »

England had not won in Cardiff since 1963, but they came desperately close in 1983, even during a Five Nations campaign that turned out to be a nightmare. It can quite a nice feeling when on the odd occasion the bookmakers get things spectacularly wrong, but if you were an England rugby union fan in 1983 then you probably would not quite agree with this sentiment. Installed as the Five Nations favourites before the tournament kicked off, the 9/4 odds offered on England were looking more and more inaccurate as the weeks progressed. As Ireland (5/2) and France (9/2) battled their way to a shared championship, England were left with only the wooden spoon and plenty of time to have a sit down and think about what they had just done. Read more »