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Sports personality of the year tonight. Two poxy hours of listening to Sue Barker patronising people.

If McCoy doesn't win, it will be a fucking travesty!

Come on the Champ!!!

I'd like to see Swann win it, but it'll be either Haye or Westwood IMO.

Can't see Swanny winning it, but Westwood is fully entitled to a shout.

With the BBC's record on racing, I expect Tom Daly will win it!

McCoy will win it......just a formality.

Jessica Ennis in with a shout possibly.  The way sentiment works, I'd say Swann could have been in the running had England not just been humped in Third Test...but given the manner of the defeat (and the fact that he managed just 2 wickets in both Australian innings) rules him out, I would expect.

i'm on ennis at 30/1.
i want g-mac to win but he will split the votes from golf fans with westwood.
amy williams is fucking georgous by the way....

Amen to that.

I expect McCoy to win even it will be more a lifetime achievement award but not a farce like last years award.  Phil Taylor would have a chance if it wasn't on the BBC.

Just as along as that teenage prick doesnt win.

Double amen from me.

I see Sven's in the audience...I bet he's on the prowl !!!

I see Mark Cavendish has brought a page 3 girl with him. Lucky bastard !!

I appear to be the only person who thinks this is a complete waste of time

No you aren't. It is.

It always has been. It's background noise as there's nothing else on - Jonathan Ross talking about toys doesn't interest me.

on the prowl for an ageing female tv personality or another foreign board about to 'take over' a football club??

Spar are the real winners tonight.

Sue Barker? Surely not!

What a waste of time, calling McDowel british before he was introduced; saying the best team in the uk is a european one with one of the recieving members being german, and the coaching award going to a captain.

Nice one bbc, i'm glad i don't pay the tv license fee

Beckham Lifetime Achievement. He's not even fucking retired from football yet.

Edit: and stop cocking applauding.

Amen to that - only slightly over the top wasn't it!

Beckham dragging on so long they're going to have Alan Sugar announce the actual SPOTY during the Apprentice.

1) The bored little Beckham amused me.

2) Beckham's genuine nod of thanks to Preston North End produced a reaction on laughter from the audience. That also amused me.

Fabregas is a bit of a random choice of a person to present it, isn't he?

Taylor 2nd?! WTF.

McCoy nearly mentioned Sky there. Giggle.

They should have swiped it from him :)

McDowel is British aint he?

Cant believe he didn't make the top three......every leprichaun in Ireland and the UK rang in.....and also backed him to win it.
The bookies were bashed on this.

no.

britain is england, scotland and wales.

not northern ireland.

Shall we not be pedants? Northern Ireland is in the United Kingdom and therefore counts.

To give it it's full name, Great Britain is known as the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain AND Northern Ireland.

I reckon that makes both G Mac and AP british.

yes...ok.

I think you missed the point.

Wasn't saying McDowell shouldn't have been there, or McCoy (because they do qualify as you say) but at least introduce them correctly.

Ah fuck it, who cares anyway?

Best man won, although G Mac should have made the frame.

Can someone tell me who the fuck AP Mccoy is? Never heard of him. I mean first Ryan Giggs and now him. It gets shitter every year. Totally pointless.

Steptoe's fiancé I think

Jockey. Won the Grand National this year.

Did he ride Crisp? ( OK I know Crisp never won the GN)

So another lifetime achievement award then.

BBC Sports Personality voting results:

1. Tony McCoy 293,152 (41.98%)

2. Phil Taylor 72,095 (10.33)

3. Jessica Ennis 62,953 (9.02)

4. Lee Westwood 58,640 (8.4)

5. Graeme McDowell 52,108 (7.46)

6. Tom Daley 50,763 (7.27%)

7. Mark Cavendish 44,170 (6.33)

8. Amy Williams 43,056 (6.17)

9. Graeme Swann 13,767 (1.97)

10. David Haye 7,538 (1.08)

I stopped watching in 71...when Princess fucking Anne won.....you should have done the same when her daughter won.

More people voted for Tom Daley than Swann and Haye combined, jesus fucking christ.

I didn't watch it.

Its a chame that its not done on 'personality'. Top candidates would then possibly be:
- Swann for his blog
- Holloway for his bizzarre interviews
- Phil Taylor for his cheekiness
- David Haye for his arrogance
- Jeff Stelling for his Saturday antics

Some people are fuming that AP won it, how sad. Sport is all about opinion. Absolutely fair enough if you thought someone else should win. But at the end of the day, just because people don't understand AP's achievements, don't dismiss them. The most worthy winner for some time.

Don't get me wrong I have nothing against AP winning, but to say he deserved to win it fir his achievements THIS year is crap.

He is an absolute legend in racing, but other than winning the worlds biggest sporting lottery, he hasn't done anything else that he hasn't done many times before.

If it was just because of the Grand National win, why isn't the winning jockey in the running for this every year

Or more to the point, why isn't the winning horse up for the award instead?

no complaints about the winner from me.also nice to see taylor get some recognition for his total dominance of darts(how happy was the bloke too?)
there were a few worthy winners there, which is how it should be....

I agreed with the top 3 for once this year as well.

Should have been Cav.

Cav's sprint to take the Champs Elysees stage win in Le Tour was utterly incredible. First man to ever win that stage two years running.

Bizarre that the BBC chose not to highlight his green jersey win in the Vuelta.

I thought Stalin had finished a speech.

Probably due to the fact that the BBC don't own the TV rights.

I'd have given it to Amy Williams... and the award, way ohhhhhh

Rant alert:

SPOTY used to be one of my favourite programmes growing up as a kid. That was when they used to review what had gone on in each sport during the year (in fact, was it called Sports Review of the Year before?). There was no sense at all this year of the drama that takes place in any sport - the Premiership, the World Cup story, the tennis slams, the Six Nations, the cricket Tests. Just a couple of seconds shot of a dramatic goal, a good putt, a winning shot. So there is no sense of narrative at all. We don't even see of the nominees how good their year has been, it's often instead some gushing tributes from their friends and family about how good all round blokes and lasses they are, about how early they get up to train, how they are last to finish training once all their competitors have gone home, and other tedious platitudes that you would assume if people were talented and dedicated sportsmen and women. The only hint this year of a narrative was a few clips from the Ryder Cup, but sport ebbs and flows, and there was no sense whatsoever of a story arc about the dramas of sport in 2010 for the two hours of this programme.

The Personality thing used to be an add on. I suppose they have to milk every last vote out of it now, but the bookies have it sown up anyway with who is going to win. I think AP McCoy was a worthy winner, particularly given the career he has had.

A lifetime achievement award to Becks? Please! The award given earlier in the evening to Frank Williams would have been much more fitting. The most moving tribute I can remember was given to Sir Bobby Robson three years ago, that is truly a "lifetime achievement award". That was the last time this programme impressed me.

Fitting 12,000 people into an arena with fireworks, stage smoke, getting Catherine Jenkins on to sing during the obituaries tribute when they should just put a CD on - so much razzamatazz but when you look at what the programme offered, for me it was a real disappointment.

I'll probably watch it next year though, just because a) there's nothing else on and b) to see whether it improves.

Good post.  I'll always watch it, I must admit.  But there were several occasions this year where I nearly threw a shoe in Sue Barker's general direction.  Questions such as...

Tell us how important your parents have been in supporting you over the years?

Can you remember what you were you feeling immediately before the final putt?

should trigger an automatic refund of the licence fee.  Shoddy, banal and boring.