MARK OF HONOUR

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Nov 23, 1997 | by PETER SHAW

pounds 25 STAR LETTER

The BBC want votes on their Sports Personality of the Year and no doubt the winner will come from Greg Rusedski, Lennox Lewis or Prince Naseem.

However, I hope an invitation is sent to our most successful motor racer of the year. No, not Coulthard or Hill, but Mark Blundell - who has won three IndyCar races in the States and come second twice.

Whereas in the sanitised world of Formula One a race is usually won or lost by the speed of the pit crew, Indy races still rely on the cunning and skill of the driver.

If Blundell is ignored it will be a disgrace, so here's hoping the BBC read your column and act on this letter.

M Lord, Westcliff-on-Sea.

Relax, man! Of course the BBC read this column. Doesn't everybody?

WHEN I see John Barnes on TV I wince. It's not what he says, but what he wears.

He has the weirdest array of clobber imaginable. It is as if he dresses in the dark in a fancy-dress outfitters.

Will someone please educate him in sartorial elegance?

Janet Whiteley, Eastbourne.

I know what you mean, luv. Mind you, I don't suppose he's too keen on your twin set and pearls.

I WAS dismayed by the reluctance of some of England's young footballers to sing the National Anthem before the game against Cameroon.

What a contrast to our Rugby lads who, to a man, sang out with pride.

I wonder if, in the greedy ways of today's football, our well- paid lads expect more to sing the anthem.

Christina Pearce, Frome.

That's the kinder view. Some cynics might wonder if they know the words.

THANK goodness for Mike Langley! He kept England's win against Cameroon in perspective by correctly drawing attention to the team's midfield inadequacies.

When I was a lad (I'm 72) a 2-0 win against a team from Africa would have been treated with dismay, not satisfaction.

Vic Baxter, Northampton.

Times have changed, grandad. The days when Africans played in bare feet with a bundle of rags are long gone.

AS it was past your bedtime you wouldn't have seen Sports Minister Tony Banks on They Think It's All Over. But take my word for it, he was awful.

If this man remains the government's voice of sport it will be to the detriment of all of us.

H R Carter, Retford.

Hang on, pal. I'm no Banks fan but what do you expect on such a silly show? The Epilogue?

Many happy returns, Boom-Boom!

Boris 'Boom-Boom' Becker was 30 yesterday, one birthday nearer retirement and living happily ever after tennis on a fortune close to pounds 70million.

It is a lot of money, some would say an obscene amount merely for banging a ball over a net.

But at least Becker was of the tennis generation - along with McEnroe, Connors and Lendl - who earned their money by entertaining, exciting and, yes, occasionally outraging the fans.

The current lot of automatons are overpaid similar vast amounts merely for going through the motions.

Anyone who caught a glimpse of the recent ATP World Championships in Hanover - allegedly involving the best eight players on earth - would not argue. It was numbingly dull and revealed that tennis is on the brink of boring itself into oblivion.

Becker is the last of the great adventurers, and when he has gone who is left? Anyone mentioning Rusedski and Henman will be treated with ridicule.