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Steve Davis had not enjoyed the greatest season in 1988/89, yet at the Crucible he showed his true class, winning his sixth and last World Championship. Read more »

Nick Faldo shot a final round 65, helping him to win his first green jacket, but his victory owed a lot to Scott Hoch and his infamous missed putt on the first play-off hole.   Read more »

Not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes the boy doesn't get the girl and not everyone lives happily ever after. Sport is no different, the very nature of the beast meaning that more often or not there will be a tale of woe to be told, with plenty of visits to the hotel named Heartbreak. When the disappointment arrives after months of hope and expectation, it makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow. Take Dundee United's gruelling 1986/87 season. A nine month campaign comprising of 67 matches in four different competitions (70 in five if you include the Forfarshire Cup), the season saw the Tayside club bring joy to their supporters and provide Scottish football with a boost when it was needed. Yet during five days in May the dream turned into a nightmare, two final defeats leaving Jim McLean's side without a pot to show for their efforts. Sport hurts. Read more »

The first Grand Prix of the 1980 World Championship was anything but dull. Taking place at the Municipal Autodrome in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the number 15 version of the Oscar Galvez circuit, the track surface may have been far from ideal, yet it helped to create an entertaining spectacle, that just 13 days into the new year, gave a reasonable indication of what was to follow in an exciting decade for the sport. Read more »

This piece follows on from my previous blogs on the first, second, third, fourth and fifth rounds of the 1983/84 FA Cup, which you can view here , here , here , here and here . "The FA Cup that has overflowed with surprises is almost empty of quality. Among the unlikely sixth round survivors are a third division club that was 10 minutes away from extinction two years ago, a second division club facing a winding-up petition on Monday, and the poorest supported first division club that is expected to be relegated in May". The Times' preview of the 1984 FA Cup quarter finals was hardly endorsing. But if you looked closely enough you could make a defence for the competition and the surviving clubs. Everton were at the start of a run that would take them to a League title just over a year later; Southampton were enjoying a season to remember, many of their players hovering around in Bobby Robson's England thoughts; Watford were continuing their rise under Graham Taylor, ...