Underdogs show the strength of their bite
APART FROM those with vested interests in the outcome, we all love to cheer on the plucky underdog.
The chancer or the bum that gets lucky, the unheralded journeyman that unearths the inner belief to bring their dream to life, or the future star that appears from nowhere to deeply etch their name on the sporting map.
Japan shocked the rugby fraternity in the 2015 World Cup when they overcame the mighty South Africa in a thriller, with most believing beforehand that the Sprinkboks merely had to show up to get the job done.
In boxing you’re always going to get upsets from time to time, whether it be as a result of a devastating punch from out of the blue or because of an ill-prepared favourite, with Mike Tyson being put on his backside by James ‘Buster’ Douglas, Lennox Lewis losing to Hasim Rahman, or Andy Ruiz Jr. embarrassing Anthony Joshua, being cases in point.
We’ve had a few shocks closer to home of late, such as Cavan claiming the Ulster football title last year, while Tipperary followed in the footsteps of Clare in 1992 by winning the Munster equivalent.
In hurling, Antrim produced a seismic shock in the 1989 All-Ireland semi-final by overcoming Offaly 4-15 to 1-15.
When the unseeded, freshfaced 17-year-old German Boris Becker won the Wimbledon crown in 1985 it also turned quite a few heads, while Joe Johnson, rated a 150-1 shot at the outset, winning the World Snooker Championship in 1986 certainly surprised many, most likely himself included.
The 33-year-old father of six had never previously won a game at the championships but defied the odds to land the title, beating Steve Davis in the final.
Greece winning Euro 2004 would have to go down as a mammoth miracle and one of the biggest bombshells in sporting history, mainly due to the fact that the 150-1 outsiders achieved their fantastic feat over the course of a tournament rather than in a oneoff game.
When you consider that Greece had only ever qualified for two major tournaments previously, the 1980 European Championship and the 1994 World Cup, where they failed to win a single match, it illustrates just what a turn-up it was.
Similarly when Denmark won the 1992 Euros it was a massive upset.
The Danes only qualified for the tournament at the eleventh hour due to the bitter break-up of Yugoslavia and managed to beat holders The Netherlands in the semi-final before overcoming Germany in the final.
Maybe not quite as big a shock as the Greeks though, given that only eight teams competed in the finals in those days in comparison to 16 in 2004 when Greece stunned the football world.
However, Leicester winning the Premier League crown in 2016 surely has to be the biggest upset of them all, the fairytale to beat all fairytales as the 5,000/1 rank outsiders managed the unthinkable.
While the other shock winners were either single or, at most, month-long events, what Claudio Ranieri’s Foxes managed was sustained form over the course of an entire nine-month season, having started the campaign at no-hopers.
A truly phenomenal achievement that will, in all likelihood, never be repeated.
Why am I recalling David versus
Goliath clashes you may ask?
It’s because Antrim’s Jordan Brown overcame odds of 750/1 at the start of the tournament to claim his first ranking title by edging out none other than the greatest snooker player the world has ever seen, Ronnie O’Sullivan, 9-8 in the Welsh Open final on Sunday.
I’m normally in The Rocket’s corner, simply because he’s a joy to watch, but even O’Sullivan himself looked pleased for Brown and was extremely gracious in defeat.
It goes without saying that the triumph would have meant so much more to Brown than it would to the world champion, who has a multitude of titles after his name.
Nobody could claim that the Antrim man didn’t deserve his success, having won the tournament the hard way, with five final frame deciders on his route to glory at Celtic Manor in Newport.
The 33-year-old’s surprise Welsh Open success was all the more remarkable given that he worked in a petrol station five years ago and came close to packing away his cue for good, but he will now be thanking his lucky stars that he stuck at it, having earned a cool £70,000 for his week’s work in Wales.
Now, after making a seemingly impossible sporting dream possible, the down-to-earth Brown will be determined to prove that he’s no flash in the pan, and if he can reproduce the form he showed in Newport, his standing, and his bank balance, will surely continue to grow.