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Admittedly it isn’t a sporting trilogy as celebrated as the Ali-Frazier duels, but for pure sporting theatre, the Scottish League Cup finals contested between Rangers and Aberdeen at the end of the 1980s deserve a great deal of respect. Anything that you may want from a cup final was crammed into the three clashes between 1987-89. Late goals, agonising misses, extra-time, penalty despair, goalkeeping heroics. Perhaps the only thing missing was a red card or two, which was a little surprising given the growing animosity between the clubs. Read more »

Any Real Madrid fans with a particularly close affiliation to the Spanish national team may well have been sick of the sight of Gary Lineker during the early part of 1987. After netting an El Classico hat-trick in Barcelona’s 3-2 win at the Nou Camp on January 31, Lineker’s thirst for goals continued as England visited Spain’s capital eighteen days later. Read more »

Just like his fellow countryman Christy O’Connor Jr , the Ryder Cup had not been kind to Ireland’s Eamonn Darcy before his day in the sunshine. Making his debut in 1975, Darcy had also featured in the 1977 and 1981 contests, but held an unenviable record of played 9 halved 2 lost 7. Read more »

There are some football matches from the distant past that still leave you breathless when you watch them on YouTube. Matches played out in front of packed terraces, the atmosphere incomprehensible in relation to the sanitised experience of today, with both sets of players flying into tackles, as if their lives depended on it. The 1985 FA Cup semi-final clashes between Manchester United and Liverpool are a prime example of this. Another is the Old Firm derby of October 17, 1987. An afternoon dripping in tension, the match alone was full of drama, passion, and controversy. Yet for four men involved, the consequences of their actions on that famous Saturday would rumble on for months to come. Read more »

The warning signs had been there for Huddersfield fans during the 1986-87 season. Former player Steve Smith had just about managed to keep the Terriers’ heads above water, with three consecutive wins in May preventing relegation to Division Three. There would be no such escape during the following campaign, though. In fact, the 1987-88 season for Huddersfield would go down in history as their worst ever. The bare statistics of just six wins in 44 league matches paints the picture; but it was one of the 28 defeats that is still talked about to this day. Read more »

With the 2017 Rugby League World Cup about to start, this week I am taking a look back at the 1985-88 tournament, as Australia continued their domination of the sport. Although the Rugby League World Cup had been running since 1954, the irregular staging of the tournament had not helped the event establish itself in the sporting calendar. Indeed, after the 1977 tournament, it would be another eight years before the International Board decided to resuscitate the concept. A Paris meeting in May 1985 saw the five member nations of Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, and Papua New Guinea agree to take part in a ninth World Cup, although a change in format meant that it was now a three-year event. Read more »

Watching the recent World Cup qualifying match between Scotland and England, I turned to my son and started boring him, as usual, with tales of my sporting childhood. Recalling the era where the England-Scotland fixture was an annual event, and a match that was eagerly anticipated, I felt grateful that I had grown up during this period. With so little live football on our televisions, the England-Scotland match was not far behind the FA Cup final in terms of excitement. Read more »

Jeff Sluman looked set to win the 1987 Players Championship in a play-off against Sandy Lyle, before a drunk spectator plunged into the sporting hall of shame. It should have been a moment in the spotlight for Jeff Sluman. After seven years as a professional, the 29-year-old stood over a putt on the notorious 17th hole at Sawgrass to claim not just his first tournament on the PGA Tour, but the prestigious Players Championship, an event that despite being relatively new, had such a strong field that some had already dubbed it as the fifth major. Read more »

Lincoln City are on the verge of a return to the Football League, but thirty years ago they were not so lucky. When the Football League announced a series of structural reforms in the game during April 1986, one particular innovation appeared to be long overdue. Out went the antiquated re-election system that would decide whether a club remained in Division Four, the days of the "old boys network" thankfully at an end. In came automatic promotion and relegation between the Fourth Division and the GM Vauxhall Conference, with the champions of the latter replacing the team finishing rock bottom in the Football League. Read more »

Looking back at the 1987 World Snooker Championship, as Steve Davis gains some revenge over Joe Johnson, and the sport is dragged into a debate involving the usage of performance enhancing drugs. There were a number of players with a few points to prove as the 1987 World Snooker Championship commenced on Saturday April 18. None more so than the reigning champion, and the man he had beaten in the 1986 final. For Joe Johnson and Steve Davis, the next few weeks would go a long way to answering any doubts regarding their current standing in the game. Read more »

Thirty years ago Larry Mize shocked the golfing world by winning the US Masters. There may have been an element of luck involved in his winning shot, but does he get enough credit for his success? It seems that Larry Hogan Mize cannot win. Before the 1987 US Masters, the Augusta-born 28-year-old was known for the odd collapse or two, harshly called Larry D. Mize (demise, get it?) after a final round 76 at the 1986 Players' Championship saw him lose the title by one shot. But even after his finest hour, claiming the 1987 US Masters in a play-off against Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros, there were doubting voices. Trawl the web for articles on the worst or luckiest player to have won a major, and the name Larry Mize is constantly mentioned. Read more »

Jimmy Tarbuck joked that the Titanic and Lawrie McMenemy had one thing in common - both should never have left Southampton. After a turbulent time at Sunderland, McMenemy probably agreed. It looked like a marriage made in heaven. A sleeping giant in the North East of England, combined with a manager who had achieved great things at his previous club. In July 1985, a Messiah rode into Sunderland promising to bring the good times back, to restore some pride to an area that definitely needed a boost. Read more »

If Arsenal manage to beat Hull City in their FA Cup fifth round replay then it will set up a quarter final clash with Watford. For some Arsenal fans, this will bring back painful memories of a Sixth round match at Highbury in 1987 that still rankles. Read more »

The Rugby Union World Cup is now one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar, but it took years of negotiations and rejection before the tournament finally kicked off in 1987. Read more »

Following on from my recent piece on the top performances at the 1983 World Cup , this week I am looking back at the 1987 tournament. Featuring a typical one day innings from Allan Lamb, a superb knock in a losing cause by Dave Houghton, some explosive hitting from Viv Richards, top semi-final displays from Craig McDermott and Graham Gooch, and a contribution in the final that perhaps should get a bit more credit than it deserves. Read more »