Around Easter 2009, British weather forecasters predicted a barbeque summer. Although Wimbledon fortnight proved to be a sizzling heatwave, once again, their promises turned out into spectacular failures as for the third summer running, Britain endured a miserable July full of damp and dull rainclouds. Maybe that helped Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to dump the Manchester misery for the Spanish sunshine. At the Portuguese star’s request, Manchester United sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid for a world record £80million pounds. July saw BBC make their controversial decision to axe Arlene Phillips from the judging panel on Strictly Come Dancing for former winner Alisha Dixon. And Fern Britton made an emotional goodbye to daytime show, This Morning. She was to be replaced by Holly Willoughby. Pay-per-view company Setanta Sports went bust, unable to keep up with payments and the competitiveness of Sky. It left the FA in chaos, with half of its TV deals up in the air, but American broadcaster ESPN stepped in to pick up most of the rights available. Formula One once again was plunged into the headlines for the wrong reasons when Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was struck by debris in a freak qualifying crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Despite needing life-saving surgery, the Brazilian has made a very thankful and welcome recovery. Also, football said an emotional farewell to Sir Bobby Robson. Sir Bobby succumbed in his long battle with lung cancer, but the former England manager’s passion for the beautiful game will never be forgotten.
August saw the only man to be convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 to be given leave on compassionate grounds. The Scots released him and Gordon Brown backed them, much to the chagrin of Barack Obama and David Cameron. We were told that the man had only 3months to live with terminal cancer, but he was giving a sickening welcome home to Libya like a legend. The Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs received similar treatment. August saw football take a backseat and cricket take over. England regained the Ashes with a historic triumph over Australia, winning 2-1, thanks to a thrilling win in the final test match at the Oval. Ricky Ponting became only the second Australian captain to lose back-to-back tours in England ever and Freddie Flintoff bid farewell to Test Cricket. Usain Bolt ran an awesome 9.58 in the men’s 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, smashing his own record set in the Olympics a year ago. It was a positive summer for Athletics, despite South African Caster Semanya woman’s 800m win, which came under scrutiny when tests revealed ‘she’ might be a ‘he.’ Semanya was eventually cleared.
In October, Nick Griffin’s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time drew 8million viewers and the BNP leader was hung out to dry. Mass demonstrations took place on why Griffin was allowed onto the show in the first place. However, every answer he gave was cheap, pathetic and made look like a complete idiot. It didn’t do the BNP any good. On a more positive note, Jenson Button produced a stunning drive at the Brazilian Grand Prix to clinch his maiden World Championship. Button, who started the F1 season without a drive after Honda pulled out of the sport, persevered with Brawn GP to achieve his dream. He takes the No.1 plate to McLaren for 2010. Sadness gripped the celebrity world again with the tragic death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately at the tender age of 31. Gately was found dead in his apartment in Spain after a night out. Ireland mourned one of their prodigal sons and another death rocked the showbiz world. The world also said goodbye to Senator Edward Kennedy, German goalkeeper Robert Enke, Dirty Dancing icon Patrick Swayze, all three remaining survivors from WWI including Harry Patch, TV chef Keith Floyd and actresses Maggie Jones, Wendy Richard and Natasha Richardson.
Sporting scandals included Thierry Henry’s shameful handball in November left the Republic of Ireland with broken hearts in Paris. Henry’s intervention conned the Irish out of a famous win in their World Cup play-off, shaming his reputation and aiding the calls even further for video technology. His, wasn’t the only cheating to be caught in 2009. Lewis Hamilton was caught lying to the stewards after an incident at the Australian Grand Prix. He was promptly disqualified and made an emotional, wailing apology to his fans and family. Harlequins were caught out using fake blood on players during a Heineken Cup game but got off scot-free, as did Renault for fixing disgraced Nelson Piquet to crash during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. However, charismatic boss Flavio Briatore was given a lifetime ban for his actions, which was later overturned on appeal in a French court.
Although Britain pulled out of Iraq, we are still in Afghanistan and suffering more losses. Over 250 brave, heroic soldiers have lost their lives since the conflict in 2001, and over 100 in 2009 alone. Once again, the country paid their respects in fitting tributes across Remembrance weekend. In November, a £90million jackpot was shared between a British syndicate in the EuroMillions draw. Simon Cowell also received a barrage of criticism on ITV’s X-Factor, by saving the much-publicised ‘Jedward’ in a public vote, despite having previously called them ‘vile little creatures.’
December saw Tiger Woods private life exposed to the full truth. His downfall began when he had a minor car crash outside his home in Florida. Revelations were made that several woman had liaisons with Woods, who clearly was obsessed with the bedroom. He has lost many sponsors and taken an indefinite break from golf to try and save his marriage. Nice try Tiger! The winter battle for TV ratings was won again by the X-Factor over Strictly. Whilst BBC breakfast reporter Chris Hollins scored a quiet triumph on the BBC’s flagship show, ‘Strictly Come Dancing.’ Geordie Joe McElderry won the X-Factor series, but for the first time since 2004, the X-Factor winner failed to get the Xmas No.1. It went instead to ‘Rage Against the Machine,’ thanks to a powerful campaign on social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook.
So as we bid farewell to the end of 2009, what will 2010 bring. Well we have a General Election and the World Cup in South Africa. Will it be England’s year? Is the country heading back to the Conservatives? Only time will tell…
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