davieG Posted 21 September 2008 Posted 21 September 2008 Sunday October 7, 2001 guardian.co.uk 1 Lasse VirenFell in the Olympic 10,000m final only to get up and win gold in a world record time. Munich, 31 August 1972 At the start of the Munich Games, Lasse Viren, a 23-year-old Finnish policeman from the small village of Myrskyla, was not widely known. Indeed, the heats of the 10,000 metres were his Olympic debut. But when he stumbled and fell just before the halfway mark in the final his chance of victory seemed to have gone. The Tunisian Mohamed Gammoudi (who had won the 5,000 metres at the 1968 Olympics) tripped over Viren and gave up two laps later. But the Finnish runner calmly got to his feet and chased his way back into contention, overtaking Britain's David Bedford, the long-time leader, to not only win the gold medal, but set a world record of 27min 38.4sec. Ten days later, he also won the 5,000m (in an Olympic record time) - a double that he repeated in Montreal in 1976. 2 HampshireBowled out for 15 and made to follow on, they went on to beat Yorkshire by 155 runs. County championship Edgbaston, 14-17 June 1922 Headingley '81 is the best known comeback in cricket history, but an even better one took place 59 years earlier. After Hampshire's collapse (they lasted 53 balls), they still trailed by 208 runs on the first innings. So confident was Warwickshire's captain, F.S.G. Calthorpe, that he suggested his team's amateurs play a golf match in the time left over once they had won the cricket. Lord Tennyson, the Hampshire captain, bridled at this and bet Calthorpe £10 his team would win - and won his money. In their second innings, Hampshire made 521 and then bowled Warwickshire out for 158. 3 Charlton 5-1 down with half an hour to go, having played most of the match with 10 men, they won 7-6. Second Division, The Valley, 21 December 1957 Huddersfield manager Bill Shankly watched in horror as Charlton's hero of the hour - dashing left-winger Johnny Summers (pictured) - engineered the most remarkable comeback in football history, scoring five and just for good measure setting-up the other two. From being four down, Summers's goals - including a six-minute hat-trick - gave Charlton a 6-5 lead with two minutes left. Huddersfield promptly equalised, only for Summers to lay on the winner for John Ryan, who scored with the final kick of the game. 'Amazing, incredible, fantastic...' as one reporter put it at the time. Summers later revealed that he changed his boots at half-time after his old pair had started falling apart. 5 Henri Cochet Almost overwhelmed by Bill Tilden in three sets - then beats him in five. Wimbledon semi-final 30 June 1927 FR Burrow, a famous Wimbledon referee, described this game as the most astounding event in his time at the championships. Cochet, a dapper little Frenchman, was being overpowered by the great American 'Big Bill' Tilden, who won the first two sets and led 5-1 in the third. Extraordinarily, though, Cochet, daring to take the ball earlier and earlier, won the match, 2-6 4-6 7-5 6-4 6-3. The spectators, said Burrow, were 'almost too spellbound to applaud'. Cochet, who had also come from two sets down to win his quarter- final, did so again in the final, saving six match points before claiming victory over compatriot Jean Borotra. 6 Hermit A 1,000-15 shot, nursing a serious injury, he races from the back to the front to win the Derby. Epsom, 22 May 1867 Barely a week before the big race, Hermit pulled up with a broken blood vessel running in a trial at Newmarket. However, the rivalry between his owner, Henry Chaplin, and the Marquis of Hastings (who stood to lose £120,000 if Hermit won) ensured the colt's appearance in the classic. But with unseasonal snow flurries blowing across the Downs, Hermit's starting odds of 1,000-15 appeared a little miserly as he remained at the back of the field approaching Tattenham Corner. Suddenly he took off under the driving of jockey John Daley and at the winning post stretched out to beat the 10-1 chance Marksman by a neck. The Marquis of Hastings, it is said, went deathly pale. 7 Dennis Taylor After losing the first seven frames of the world snooker final he goes on to beat Steve Davis. The Crucible, Sheffield, 29 April 1985 When Steve Davis made his first significant mistake in the eighth frame, it seemed irrelevant. The world champion had won the opening seven frames, and Dennis Taylor was in danger of losing ignominiously. But Taylor won that eighth frame and so began snooker's greatest revival. He levelled the match at 17-all, and then won the deciding frame on a respotted black. 8 France Overcame a 14-point deficit in a World Cup semi-final to beat the mighty All Blacks. Twickenham, 30 October 1999 New Zealand led 24-10 after 44 minutes, so in statistical terms not rugby union's greatest comeback, but what elevated this remarkable victory was the awesome reputation of the vanquished. A 14-point lead seemed more than enough for the All Blacks, but in a burst of exhilarating adventure and cool kicking by fly-half Christophe Lamaison, France retaliated with 26 points in 13 minutes to win 43-31. 'This,' said Bill McLaren, 'was the greatest game of rugby I have been privileged to see.' 9 Gary Player Down by seven holes in the world matchplay, he still wins. Wentworth, 15 Oct 1965 After 19 holes of his semi-final against America's Tony Lema, Player trailed by seven. From then on he was brilliant, but still two down with three to play. He retrieved one of these and then at the last hole hit a fantastic second, a wood that finished 15ft from the flag. He won a memorable match at the 37th. 10 Buffalo Bills Losing by 32 points, they still find a way to win. NFL wild card game, Rich Stadium, 3 Jan 1999 The greatest comeback in NFL history was all the more remarkable because it was masterminded by Buffalo's back-up quarterback Frank Reich, not Jim Kelly, their regular play-caller and a notable escape artist. Trailing 35-3, Reich threw four touchdown passes, the last three to Andre Reed, to propel Buffalo into a 35-35 tie. The game went into overtime, when Steve Christie's 32-yard field goal sealed a stupendous victory for the Bills. Jon Henderson justifies his selection One of the chief criteria for my selection - that the comebacks were not over an extended period - ruled out some spectacular recoveries, notably Manchester United's to reach the 1958 FA Cup final in the season of the Munich air crash and the Austrian Niki Lauda's to race again at Monza just six weeks after his near-fatal accident at the Nurburgring in 1976. Another was to exclude comebacks after retirement, which are another thing altogether and could (and might) make another complete list. In this list it was important not to favour comebacks in high-profile events over more startling instances of the tables being turned in lesser contests. This is the reason for Charlton's 7-6 win over Huddersfield being football's representative on the list rather than the more famous 'Matthews' FA Cup final in 1953 or Manchester United's European Cup final triumph in 1999 - or, indeed, United's rally last month to beat Tottenham 5-3. Finally, on the reasons for exclusion, there was no place for those comebacks that were facilitated by an opponent choking as, say, Jana Novotna did in the 1993 Wimbledon women's final against Steffi Graf. Lasse Viren receives my vote for performing the greatest comeback because the effect of a fall on a runner, particularly at the Olympics, is traditionally catastrophic - Jim Ryan's tumble in Munich in 1972 and Mary Decker's in Los Angeles in 1984 being prime examples. Viren's was not as bad as either of these but his feat in picking himself up and not only winning the gold medal, but breaking the world record, showed an extraordinary resilience. My favourite on the list is the racehorse Hermit, whose remarkable effort in winning the 1867 Derby at a snow-affected Epsom was pointed out to me by my colleague Graham Rock.
Guest Posted 21 September 2008 Posted 21 September 2008 Strikes me that this topic title could be copied as an idea for the music forum too
ozleicester Posted 22 September 2008 Posted 22 September 2008 Steven Bradbury...speed skating in winter olympics...last with one corner to go, everyone else crashed, he just calmy skated through for gold
Fox You Forest Posted 22 September 2008 Posted 22 September 2008 Steven Bradbury...speed skating in winter olympics...last with one corner to go, everyone else crashed, he just calmy skated through for gold
mancunianfox Posted 22 September 2008 Posted 22 September 2008 Surely the greatest comeback of all time is George Foreman defeating Michael Moorer to win a world title at 45, 20 years after his previous title win.
AmericanScott Posted 23 September 2008 Posted 23 September 2008 I know not many of you probably even care about baseball but... This thread reminds me of a great comeback in the 2004 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees (scum) and the Boston Red Sox (also scum). The Red Sox were apparently plagued by the curse of the Bambino for 86 years. In those 86 years, they have ultimately failed to win a World Series (most memorable in 1986 against the New York Mets ). The fans, media, even the organisation blamed this curse. The Yankees were leading the best-of-7 series 3 games to none and looked certain for a World Series berth. Miraculously, the RedSox somehow managed to pull 3 wins out of their ass's and force a game 7* at Yankee Stadium. *If you're a baseball fan, hearing the words "game 7" sends a chill down your spine. No matter what, you can never be confident of your team winning. You sweat for 3 hours and it will always end in tears. Happy , or sad . Game 7: The RedSox had shattered the 26 time world champion's spirits over the last three games. This was the time to take advantage of a hurt and vulnerable Yankee side. And the Sox did such! They jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and had silenced the "Bronx Bombers". The Yankees never really got going despite creating a few runs but lost at 12:01am. The Sox were through and caused the greatest shock in American sports history. They're the first ever team to comeback after being 3 games down and win 4-3. They went on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to none and claim the World Championship after 86 years. Bye bye curse! Sorry to bore you all
Raj Posted 23 September 2008 Posted 23 September 2008 Very interesting read that DG. Although im glad to say i wasnt born for most of them(unlike you!!!!) Boxing wise one of the best comebacks was Nigel Benn V Gerald McClelland. Benn was getting whupped big time and ended up KO ing Mcclelland with devastating effect(as most will know that it resulted in McClelland being paralysed)
James_lcfc Posted 25 September 2008 Posted 25 September 2008 Sunday October 7, 2001 guardian.co.uk 1 Lasse VirenFell in the Olympic 10,000m final only to get up and win gold in a world record time. Munich, 31 August 1972 At the start of the Munich Games, Lasse Viren, a 23-year-old Finnish policeman from the small village of Myrskyla, was not widely known. Indeed, the heats of the 10,000 metres were his Olympic debut. But when he stumbled and fell just before the halfway mark in the final his chance of victory seemed to have gone. The Tunisian Mohamed Gammoudi (who had won the 5,000 metres at the 1968 Olympics) tripped over Viren and gave up two laps later. But the Finnish runner calmly got to his feet and chased his way back into contention, overtaking Britain's David Bedford, the long-time leader, to not only win the gold medal, but set a world record of 27min 38.4sec. Ten days later, he also won the 5,000m (in an Olympic record time) - a double that he repeated in Montreal in 1976. Great post! Pleased to see Viren at number 1 aswell. I'm into my running and this guy is an absolute inspiration. I've watched his 5,000 + 10,000 metre wins on Youtube loads of times, such a graceful runner but with blistering speed. Deffinitely one of the best ever.
Rocket-Ron Posted 25 September 2008 Posted 25 September 2008 I know not many of you probably even care about baseball but...This thread reminds me of a great comeback in the 2004 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees (scum) and the Boston Red Sox (also scum). The Red Sox were apparently plagued by the curse of the Bambino for 86 years. In those 86 years, they have ultimately failed to win a World Series (most memorable in 1986 against the New York Mets ). The fans, media, even the organisation blamed this curse. The Yankees were leading the best-of-7 series 3 games to none and looked certain for a World Series berth. Miraculously, the RedSox somehow managed to pull 3 wins out of their ass's and force a game 7* at Yankee Stadium. *If you're a baseball fan, hearing the words "game 7" sends a chill down your spine. No matter what, you can never be confident of your team winning. You sweat for 3 hours and it will always end in tears. Happy , or sad . Game 7: The RedSox had shattered the 26 time world champion's spirits over the last three games. This was the time to take advantage of a hurt and vulnerable Yankee side. And the Sox did such! They jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and had silenced the "Bronx Bombers". The Yankees never really got going despite creating a few runs but lost at 12:01am. The Sox were through and caused the greatest shock in American sports history. They're the first ever team to comeback after being 3 games down and win 4-3. They went on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to none and claim the World Championship after 86 years. Bye bye curse! Sorry to bore you all I had the pleasure of watching the American version of fever pitch. I think this was in the story or something like. All I know about baseball is Cal Ripken whom my freind thought his name was Ralph Pipkin! Sorry to bore you.
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