Open Champion Clarke No Certainty For BBC Sports Personality Of The Year

Despite his win at Sandwich, Darren Clarke is an opposable jolly for BBC's top sports award

An award for sporting achievement in a country which has a long tradition of sporting under-achievement... how exactly does that work?

Darren Clarke came 2nd in the 2006 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year awards

Every year since 1954 the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year (SPOTY) has honoured the great and the good of British sport. Crowning as champion the one individual who has performed the best, achieved the most or simply tried the hardest.

Trouble is... as a nation we don't tend to win a lot. Or try that hard.

As such the competition is often reduced to a popularity contest or a general reflection of what major sports the BBC just happens to have extensively covered during the past 12 months (or plans to promote during the forthcoming year).

The result is a rather bizarre roll of honour where some of the biggest sports receive very little recognition, whilst other 'minority' sports appear to take on huge significance to the population.

Past winners of SPOTY

To date there have been 57 winners of the prestigious award... and it comes as a surprise to see just how dominant one sport is. Athletics.

A total of 17 winners (30%) over the years. Almost three times as many as the next best (Motor Racing) with recent winners including Jonathan Edwards (1995), Paula Radcliffe (2002) and Kelly Holmes (2004).

But elsewhere in the list there are some strange results.

We find that Golf (Dai Rees 1957 & Nick Faldo 1986) has won the award as many times as Three-Day Eventing (Princess Anne 1971 & Zara Phillips 2006).

Or that Rugby Union (Jonny Wilkinson 2003) has only won the same number as Rowing (Sir Steve Redgrave 2000).

And that Figure Skating with three awards (John Curry 1976, Robin Cousins 1980 & Torvill and Dean 1984) has won SPOTY more times than all of them!

The supposedly popular sport of Cricket has just four wins... and only one in the last 25 years (Andrew Flintoff 2005).

And the nation's favourite, Football, has only bagged five awards since Chris Chataway took the first honour in 1954. That's right... for athletics.

Remember it's a popularity contest

Just like the X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing... it's not the highest achiever or best performer who comes out on top. The winner is decided by a public vote.

Tour De France 2011 green jersey winner Mark Cavendish is the 5/2 second favourite

To win you've just got to be regarded as a thoroughly decent guy or gal. Respected by your peers and admired by the public. No hint of any scandal, wrong-doing or personal issues.

All of which make the success of Ryan Giggs (2009) deeply ironic... and puts a final nail in the coffin of a footballer winning the award again any time soon. At least not until England win the European Championship or World Cup... whenever that may be!

Is Clarke such a good thing to win?

Granted his win at the Open Golf Championship at Sandwich was an emotional victory. And the struggles the Ulsterman has overcome in his personal life are well-documented. Moreover, it came in a sport/event widely covered by the Beeb - always a good thing.

Also, as a country, we've not won a great deal of note these past 12 months.

That said, golfers have a shocking record in this event. Clarke is a nice guy, for sure, but he came 2nd in 2006 when a lot of the same criteria applied.

For the value, in a very limited field this year, Mo Farah (9/1) looks a banker to be in the first three. Better than cyclist Mark Cavendish (5/2) who is second in the betting.

The naturalised Brit is an athlete, a recent world champion and London 2012 is just around the corner. He is a definite 'each-way bet to nothing' when the final 10 sportsmen and women are nominated.

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