BBC Sport - Sports Personality of the Year - Eddie Izzard given BBC Sports Personality special award Eddie Izzard given BBC Sports Personality special award Special award for comedian Eddie Izzard Comedian Eddie Izzard has been honoured with a special award at the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year for his epic marathon feats for Sport Relief. The 47-year-old popular comedian ran an incredible 43 marathons around the UK, covering 1,100 miles in just 51 days and raised over £200,000 for charity. Izzard completed the endurance event following just five weeks of training. In 2006, fellow comedian David Walliams also received a special award for swimming the Channel for Sport Relief. 606: DEBATE BBC Sport - Sports Personality of the Year - Ryan Giggs wins 2009 BBC Sports Personality award Ryan Giggs wins 2009 BBC Sports Personality award Giggs named Sports Personality Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was crowned 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year in Sunday's award ceremony.

The Welsh winger, 36, is the most decorated player in English football with a record 11th Premier League winners' medal secured this year. Formula 1 champion Jenson Button was second with world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis securing third spot. "This is a shock as you can tell by the speech I've prepared," joked Giggs when collecting his award. "I grew up watching this programme. To see the people that have won it and to be here is unbelievable." A surprised Giggs is the first footballer to claim the prestigious trophy since England midfielder David Beckham in 2001, with Michael Owen (1998), Paul Gascoigne (1990) and Bobby Moore (1966) the only other football winners.

Giggs reflects on his prestigious career With the public choosing their favourite from the shortlist of 10 by phone on the night, Giggs received 29.4% of the vote (151,842 votes) ahead of Button (18.74% - 96,770) and Ennis (15.58% - 80,469) with a total of 516,473 votes cast. This year has seen Giggs win the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year award for the first time in April and the Wales Sports Personality of the Year award, and in a United shirt he has made his 800th appearance, scored his 150th goal and helping them reach the Champions League final. The Cardiff-born star added: "I am playing for the greatest manager that has ever lived and I'm playing for the greatest club. Perhaps I've become more appreciated as I have got older.

"It's unusual for a 36-year-old to be playing with a team like Manchester United for 20 years but I am enjoying it and long may it continue." After Ferguson revealed on Friday that his veteran playmaker had been offered a new contract for next season, Giggs said: "It was the first I had heard of it the other day so I was quite pleased. Hopefully there will be another year after that." 606: DEBATE I wish to extend my congratulation to Ryan Giggs on winning. Thoroughly deserved to a man who is a credit to himself, his family, football club and country. RedFAK One of the most emotional moments at the Sheffield Arena was Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros - watching on a video screen from home - being honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award. The 52-year-old, still recuperating from a brain tumour that required four life-threatening operations, received a standing ovation before receiving the award from a tearful compatriot and golfer José María Olazábal.

Other vote totals were: cyclist Mark Cavendish in fourth (55,960), gymnast Beth Tweddle (38,907), Daley (36,929), tennis player Andy Murray (19,936), Strauss (17,237), boxer David Haye (13,916), athlete Phillips Idowu (4,507). After the 10 contenders were introduced to a packed audience at the start of the evening, Major Phil Packer received the Helen Rollason award. The Sussex-born man was awarded for his extensive charity work - which included running the London Marathon this year - and revealed he would be setting up the British Inspiration Trust after leaving the army next February. The 15-year-old diver Tom Daley, who was already in the list of 10 for the main Sports Personality award, began the night in grand fashion by getting his hands on the Young Sports Personality trophy for the second time. Next up was comedian Eddie Izzard looking a little more refreshed than three months ago when the 47-year-old was finishing his 43rd marathon in 51 days in aid of Sports Relief.

Seve honoured at Sports Personality After being handed the BBC Sports Personality special award, Izzard said: "Everything was painful. People asked me if I enjoyed the running, but I enjoyed the stopping! I staggered, I ran and I crawled." The team award went to the England men's cricket team following their Ashes success against the Australians this summer, led by captain and top 10 Sports Personality contender Andrew Strauss. Strauss, in South Africa with the team, said: "What I am most proud about is that we have stuck together in some pretty tough times. That is what got us over the line in the Ashes and this award can act as a spur to achieve more in the future." Fabio Capello was named Coach of the Year on the back of the 63-year-old Italian guiding England to the 2010 World Cup, while Olympic and world sprint champion Usain Bolt claimed the Overseas trophy after his fireworks on the track. The 72-year-old swimming instructor Doreen Adcock from Milton Keynes won the Sports Unsung Hero award.

Bookmark with: BBC Sports Personality of the Year : definition of BBC Sports Personality of the Year and synonyms of BBC Sports Personality of the Year (English) The trophy for the titular award is a silver four-turret lens camera. The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award . Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008 [update] , eight awards are presented. The first awards to be added were the Team of the Year and Overseas Personality awards, which were introduced in 1960. [1] A Lifetime Achievement Award was first given in 1995 and again in 1996, and has been presented annually since 2001. [2] In 1999, three more awards were introduced: the Helen Rollason Award , the Coach Award , and the Newcomer Award , which was renamed to Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2001. The newest is the Unsung Hero Award , first presented in 2003.

[3] In 2003, the 50th anniversary of the show was marked by a five-part series on BBC One called Simply The Best – Sports Personality. It was presented by Gary Lineker and formed part of a public vote to determine a special Golden Sports Personality of the Year . That year Steve Rider and Martyn Smith wrote a book reflecting on the 50-year history of the award and the programme. [4] The event was held outside London for the first time in 2006, when tickets were made available to the public. The trophy for the main award is a silver-plated four-turret lens camera , and for the other awards smaller imitations of the main trophy are used. All of the BBC local regions hold their own independent award ceremonies, which take place before the main ceremony and are used to compile a shortlist for the BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award . Other awards have been presented in the past.

Special Achievement Awards have been presented on five occasions: to jockey Lester Piggott in 1984 and 1994, [5] disabled marathon runner Dennis Moore in 1981, comedian David Walliams in 2006, and comedian Eddie Izzard in 2009. Sebastian Coe picked up a Special Gold Award in 2005 for his work in helping Britain obtain the right to host the 2012 Olympics . [6] Five awards have been presented once: Manager of the Year in 1969, a Special Team Award in 1986, Good Sport Awards in 1990, an International Team Award in 1983, and the Sports Personality of the Century Award in 1999. [1] In 2003, to celebrate fifty years of Sports Personality of the Year, two special anniversary awards were created to recognise the best team and Sports Personality from the previous fifty years. Rower Steve Redgrave was voted BBC Golden Sports Personality of the Year and England's 1966 World Cup -winning football team was chosen as Team of the Decades .

[7] Contents MediaCityUK, Salford ! MediaCityUK , Salford , Greater Manchester The BBC 's Sports Personality of the Year was created by Paul Fox , who came up with the idea while he was editor of the magazine show Sportsview . The first award ceremony took place in 1954 as part of Sportsview, and was presented by Peter Dimmock . [12] Held at the Savoy Hotel on 30 December 1954, the show lasted 45 minutes. It consisted of one titular award for the sportsperson judged by the public to have achieved the most that year. [13] Voting was by postcard, and rules presented in a Radio Times article stipulated that nominations were restricted to athletes who had featured on the Sportsview programme since April. For the inaugural BBC Sportsperson of the Year award, 14,517 votes were cast and Christopher Chataway beat fellow athlete Roger Bannister . [14] The following year the show was renamed Sports Review of the Year and given a longer duration of 75 minutes.

[1] [14] In 1960 Dimmock presented the show, and introduced two new awards: [14] the Team of the Year award and the Overseas Personality award, won by the Cooper Car Company and athlete Herb Elliott respectively. [15] David Coleman joined the show the following year and remained a co-presenter until 1983. [16] Swimmer Anita Lonsbrough became the first female recipient of the main award in 1962; females won it in the following two years as well. [17] Frank Bough took over as presenter in 1964 and presented Sports Review for 18 years. [18] In 1969, a new Manager of the Year award was given to Don Revie for his achievements with Leeds United , the only occasion it was presented. In the following year boxer Henry Cooper became the first person to win the main award twice, having already won in 1967.

During the 1970s Bough and Coleman presided over the ceremony alongside Jimmy Hill , [19] Cliff Morgan , [20] Kenneth Wolstenholme , [20] and Harry Carpenter , who also went on to present the show for much of the 1980s. [21] Des Lynam presented from 1983, [22] and presided over figure skating duo Torvill and Dean 's win the following year, when they became the first non-individual winners of the main award. Steve Rider co-presented the 1986 show with Lynam, [23] at which a Special Team Award was presented to Great Britain men's 4 x 400 m relay team. In the 1980s, Steve Davis finished in the top three on five occasions, including one win in 1988. In 1991, angler Bob Nudd received the most votes following a campaign in the Angling Times .

[24] However the BBC deemed this to be against the rules and "discarded all the ballots cast on forms printed in the Angling Times", allowing athlete Liz McColgan to win the award. [25] The following year racing driver Nigel Mansell became the second person to win the main award twice, having won his first in 1986. Sue Barker presented the show for the first time in 1994, [26] at which racing driver Damon Hill won the first of his two awards, the second coming two years later. Boxer Frank Bruno was the inaugural winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996, [27] and as of 2008 there have been ten recipients of the award. In 1999 the show was renamed Sports Personality of the Year, [1] and Gary Lineker joined the show as a co-presenter alongside Barker. [28] Barker and Lineker were supported by John Inverdale and Clare Balding that year. The ceremony introduced a further three regular awards: Coach of the Year , Newcomer of the Year , and a Helen Rollason Award for "outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity".

[29] In a one-off award, boxer Muhammad Ali was voted as the Sports Personality of the Century . [30] On 1 November 2003, BBC Books published "BBC Sports Personality of the Year 50th Anniversary" ( ISBN 0-563-48747-X ), written by Steve Rider and Martyn Smith, to mark the golden anniversary of the show. [31] [32] Leading up to the anniversary show on 14 December 2003, a series of five half-hour special programmes, entitled Simply The Best – Sports Personality, were broadcast. Hosted by Gary Lineker , the episodes were shown on BBC One for five consecutive nights during 8–12 December 2008; each covered one decade of Sports Personality history. [33] At the beginning of each special programme the public could vote for a past winner. The five most popular winners were announced at the start of the anniversary ceremony as a shortlist for one of two special 50th Anniversary awards . [34] From the shortlist, rower Steve Redgrave was voted Golden Sports Personality of the Year by the public.

[35] The England World Cup–winning team of 1966 won a Team of the Decades award, voted for by representatives from all previous Teams of the Year . [36] In 2006, for the first time in its 53-year history, the event was held outside London, in Birmingham 's National Exhibition Centre (NEC). For the first time, tickets for the event were made available to the public, and 3,000 were sold in the first hour. [37] That year, Adrian Chiles joined the show and co-presented alongside Barker and Lineker for two years. [38] [39] The 2007 ceremony was the first of a two-year sponsorship deal with Britvic 's brand Robinsons , and the capacity of the NEC was increased from 5,000 to 8,000.

[40] The event sold out, [41] but the sponsorship deal was shortened to one year after complaints by ITV and RadioCentre caused the BBC Trust to rule in June 2008 that "Editorial Guidelines were breached and the editorial integrity of the BBC compromised by giving the impression to licence fee payers via Sports Personality of the Year that part of a BBC service had been sponsored." [42] They decided that the 2008 awards should not be broadcast as a sponsored event, and no new sponsorship deal was negotiated after the Britvic deal expired. [43] [44] In February 2008, the BBC announced that the 2008 Sports Personality of the Year event would be held at the Echo Arena , Liverpool . One reason for the move to Liverpool was to allow greater numbers to view the show live, as the 10,600-seater venue in Liverpool had a bigger capacity than the NEC. [41] That year Jake Humphrey replaced Chiles as co-presenter. [26] The 2009 show was rumoured to be held in either Cardiff or Glasgow.

[45] However, it was announced on 30 April 2009 that the show would be staged at the Sheffield Arena . [46] In May 2010, it was announced that the 2010 ceremony would be held in Birmingham's LG Arena and will seat approximately 12,000 guests. [10] Trophy The trophy for the main award was created in the 1950s and cost about £1,000. It was first presented to the inaugural winner, Christopher Chataway , in 1954. It is a silver-plated four-turret lens camera , with the name of each winner engraved on individual shields attached to a plinth underneath the camera. The trophy originally had one plinth, but two more were added to create room for more shields. [47] A replica trophy was made in 1981 and sent to India in case Ian Botham won the award while playing cricket there—which he did. [48] The original trophy is still used for the ceremony, and is engraved after the show before being given to the winner, who keeps it for eight or nine months.

[47] The trophies for second and third place, and for the other awards , are smaller imitations of the main trophy, [49] [50] but have in the past been silver salvers . [51] For the two special awards celebrating the 50th Anniversary , and for the Sports Personality of the Century award, similar miniature trophies were presented but they were gold in colour. [52] [53] Regional awards The three BBC national regions of BBC Wales , BBC Scotland and BBC Northern Ireland each hold individual sports personality awards. Respectively, they are BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year , [54] BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year , [55] and BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year . [56] The 12 local BBC English Regions also have their own award ceremonies, [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] which are held locally in the region, before the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.

Fifteen regional winners comprise the nominees for the BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award . [13] Intermittent awards David Walliams won a Special Achievement Award in 2006 Alan Bond and his crew of Australia II (pictured) received the International Team Award in 1986. Muhammad Ali was voted Sports Personality of the Century in 1999 Sebastian Coe won the Special Gold Award in 2005 Manager of the Year In 1969, Don Revie was presented with a Manager of the Year award for his achievements while in charge of Leeds United A.F.C. Leeds became champions of the Football League First Division that season , having "lost only two games" and scored a "record number of points". [69] Year [5] Special Achievement Award In 1981, to recognise the year of the disabled , Dennis Moore received a Special Achievement Award for completing the inaugural London Marathon despite being blind since birth. [70] Lester Piggott won an award in 1984 for his achievements, including winning the St. Leger Stakes on Commanche Run that year, Piggott's record-breaking 28th British classic win.

[71] In 1994, Piggott won the award again for his "services to racing". [72] Comedian David Walliams received the award in 2006 "for his outstanding achievement of swimming the English Channel for charity", which raised over £1 million for Sport Relief . [73] Fellow comedian Eddie Izzard was presented with the award in 2009 after running 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief . [74] Year [86] 50th Anniversary awards Bobby Charlton , who collected the Team of the Decades award on behalf of England's 1966 World Cup winning football team As part of the 50th Anniversary of BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2003, two additional awards were presented. [87] [88] In the lead up to the anniversary show on 14 December 2003, a series of five half-hour special programmes, entitled Simply The Best – Sports Personality, were broadcast.

Hosted by Gary Lineker , the episodes were shown on BBC One for five consecutive nights from 8 to 12 December 2008 and each covered one decade of Sports Personality. [89] Golden Sports Personality of the Year To celebrate the golden anniversary of the show, a special award was voted for by the public to recognise an all-time Golden Sports Personality from the previous winners of the last 49 years. [90] A shortlist of five was planned to contain one winner from each decade of the award; [91] however, the actual shortlist contained two winners from the most recent decade—rower Steve Redgrave , who won the award, and footballer David Beckham . The other members of the shortlist were footballer Bobby Moore , cricketer Ian Botham and ice skating duo Torvill and Dean . [35] Year BBC Sports Personality of the Year - as it happened! | Tom Bryant | Sport | The Guardian BBC Sports Personality of the Year BBC Sports Personality of the Year - as it happened! Eddie Jordan plays the drums. Badly.

Photograph: David Davies/PA Sunday 13 December 2009 06.01 EST First published on Sunday 13 December 2009 06.01 EST Share on Messenger Close Welcome to a rolling, live blog of the annual sportsman-pat-on-the-back beano that is the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. The red carpet has been unrolled, Lineker and Barker have rehearsed their in-no-way forced, slightly cringey, sexual-chemistry-free innuendos, while Jake Humphrey is wandering around just hoping the security guards actually recognise him enough to let him on the stage. The BBC budget has been stretched to breaking point (actually, I don't know that, but they have said the set inside the event's venue the Sheffield Arena is "spectacular" and, having been in the Sheffield Arena, it would take a fair old chunk of the licence fee to make anything in there "spectacular") and the athletes are variously clipping on their bow-ties, wedging over-developed thighs into the best Moss Bros have to offer, and clippety-clopping down the tunnel.

After medals, cups, trophies and riches galore, they will all be straining at the leash to get their hands on the tin camera on a bit of wood that is the SPOTY prize. It's not even a digital camera. Or one of those whizzy, super-slo mo ones. You'd probably still have to wind this fella. Last year, the readers of the theguardian.com/sport managed to predict the eventual winner of the Sports Personality of the Year when they voted that Chris Hoy would win the blather-fest. This year, those same readers say Mark Cavendish will win the prize , with Ryan Giggs and Jessica Ennis trailing some distance behind. This could mean one of two things. The theguardian.com/sport readers are a prescient, knowledgeable bunch whose opinion should be discounted at your peril. Or, the site's been attacked by a bunch of mad cycling nuts who got lucky last year and are flying in the face of the bookies this year, who have Cavendish at 33-1. 6.46pm: A brief and apologetic disclaimer.

The site is on a go-slow, working a bit groggily and failing to update as quickly as it ought. Much like me after yesterday's night out at that involved a pub quiz at the wonderful art editor of Kerrang! magazine's house, booze, booze and some booze. 6.52pm: The big favourite is Jenson Button, at odds of 5/6 in some places, who would win for, essentially, doing good steering, which seems like an odd thing to reward. It would be different if he'd actually made the car – Cavendish had to grow his own legs, didn't he? - but he didn't. Button didn't even have to run anywhere! And he had a seat to sit on! (Although, strictly speaking, so did Cavendish, while Andrew Strauss spent considerable periods in which he earned his nomination sitting in a building so luxurious it is called a pavilion, eating scones, jam and shovelling tea down his throat). 6.56pm: The full list of nominees, by the way, is as follows: Jenson Button Lifetime Achievement 6.59pm: I wonder if Andy Murray will bother to turn up this year?

7.00pm: There's a montage of exciting pictures of people doing their jobs - i.e. sport - well. And, with that, the lights come up and even the compere can't fail to sound a bit downcast when he calls Jake Humphrey onto the stage. He does a bit better with the names of Sue Barker and Gary Lineker. 7.02pm: "If this was truly Sports Personality of the Year, it would have to go to Haye on the basis that he actually has one (regardless of what you think of it - I happen to rather like him myself). After a number of bland years in the heavyweight category it's refreshing to see a bit of trash talking back in the game. And he's quite obviously doing it with his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek," writes Phil Sawyer. 7.03pm: Sue Barker makes a Sheffield connection, saying that, like the film, this show is "the Full Monty". Please, please, please, don't let her take her clothes off.

7.04pm: Jenson Button wanders up onto stage looking extremely dapper, at ease and does well not to look appalled by the choice of mawkish pop blaring out of the PA. Mark Cavendish follows him looking, well, smug. Perhaps he has read our poll results. 7.05pm: Tom Daley can't keep the smile off his face as he strides up onstage. Jessica Ennis wanders up too (to a big cheer from her hometown crowd) and stands next to him, which might be why he's smiling. Ryan Giggs ambles up for what what would be nothing but a sympathy vote if he wins. 7.06pm: This music really is dreadful. 7.07pm: David Haye and the red-haired Phillips Odowu get up onstage and, guess what? Andy Murray couldn't be bothered to turn up. At least Andrew Strauss is on a video-link from South Africa. What's Murray's excuse? Miserable buggeritis, that's what. Beth Tweddle completes the lineup onstage. 7.09pm: That's the second cringeworthy boxing pun. "David Haye had a knockout year," says Lineker.

"Let's get ready to rumble," said Barker, or SuBa as she perhaps ought to be known, earlier as Haye walked onstage. Stop it. 7.12pm: Here's the cricket montage: lots of slo-mo footage, Freddie celebrating and flaming captions scrolling across the screen to suggest, erm, Ashes. Stuart Broad, oddly left out of this SPOTY list, says a few nice things about his captain but I can't see Straussy, as he's no doubt known in the dressing-room, winning this. England might get the team prize though. 7.13pm: Flintoff walks onstage to the strains of The Source's You Got The Love. On the big screen behind, the England cricket team sit stiffly in what appears to be a conference room in South Africa. "He's alright, in'he?" says Flintoff of Strauss. 7.15pm: "Why aren't comments enabled for this Live Blog," says Nick Reid. "Almost as poor a show as Andy Murray's non-appearence." Ask and it shall be granted, Nick. See below.

7.17pm: And now a bit about the England's women's cricket team, presented in a slightly patronising, but nothing-you-can-really-put-your finger-on kind of a way. Guess what song they come out to, bearing in mind that they are girls and here they come? 7.19pm: It's swimming next and here comes "Britain's talent pool". Pool. Pool. Get it? 7.20pm: Tom Daley says his life has changed massively and talks about the pressure of his final dive in Italy. It was a dive that earned him the World Championship at the age of 15, though, so he more or less lived up to that pressure. 7.21pm: And now Jake Humphreys is interviewing young Tom. He's been to the Olympics, he's the World Champion and now this. He may as well retire. 7.24pm: The chap the BBC have hired to do all the voiceovers for the montages has The. Most. Dramatic. Voice. In. The. World.

You can replicate this at home by saying such things as, "The tension was mounting," while inserting a full-stop after every word, frowning as heavily as you can, speaking from the back of your throat and thinking about something very serious. 7.27pm: Ryan Giggs strides down the giant stairway in the middle in much the same way as Eric Morecambe used to in the Morecambe And Wise show. Unfortunately, that's where the comparison ends as what comes tumbling from his mouth is not a long series of family-friendly comedy, but more the sort of bland platitudes that you'd expect of a footballer on the receiving end of questions from renowned interrogator Gary Lineker. 7.29pm: "I agree that the 'personality' bit of SPOTY has been missing in recent years, but surely the lovely Ms Ennis has as much as Haye?" reckons Philip West. "As for Button; he may only have to sit down and turn a steering wheel, but turning those steering wheels requires a physical strength few of us posess! Have you seen his triathlon performances?

I think you might judge him in a different light!" I know there's a lot of G-Force involved in but, really, Formula One should be considered a team-sport as it's the pit crew, the tacticians and the engineers are almost as responsible for victories as the driver - far more, say, then the manager of a football team. 7.32pm: The Helen Rollason Award goes to Major Phil Packer who was extremely severely injured while on active service. Told he would never walk again, the paraplegic who has suffered heart and spinal injuries somehow completed the London Marathon in 13 days by walking two miles a day after refusing to use a wheel chair. Sir Steve Redgrave hands him his well-deserved award. 7.34pm: Packer vows to walk the marathon in 26 hours for 26 different charities next year and gets a stirling round of applause in return. 7.36pm: Apparently there's some kind of singing and dancing contest on the other side. We've got that sort of stuff here too ... well, we've got gymnastics. Daniel Keatings is onstage and appears to have forgotten his tux.

Making little of it, he does a few jumps, twists and cartwheels. Beth Tweddle turns up to do more of the same, flinging herself down a catwalk to the assorted whoops, woos and ahhs of the crowd. Beat that Olly and Joe. 7.38pm: "Phil Sawyer has a point about the lack of personalities here, but maybe that explains Murray's absence," emails Robin Hazlehurst. "He is demonstrating that he has a real personality, albeit a miserable and unfriendly one, and therefore he is staking his claim to the trophy by displaying it. He's saying 'I have the most personality here tonight, because I'm not here tonight'. I think." 7.40pm: Usain Bolt and Roger Federer's exploits this year are shown on the big screen. Those are exactly the kinds of world-conquering, massively famous, transcendent sports stars who aren't here tonight. Ah well. There's normally some golfer fella who's included alongside those kind of great sportsmen too. Wonder where he is? 7.41pm: Andy Murray has deigned to be interviewed though. "Blah, blah, blah," he says in a flat monotone.

The thing is, though, he is a winner. And, if you're a sportsman, you can be forgiven for being a surly so-and-so if you win. A bit. 7.45pm: Hurrah, Lineker brings out the Tiger jokes: "His driving's a bit wayward and there were birdies galore." He moves on quickly to Tom Watson's exploits at The Open. Poor old Tom. What a story it would have been if he could have won. He's exceptionally dignified, eloquent and sensible in his interview on the big screens. What a gent. 7.46pm: Here comes the second gong: Young Personality of the year. Tom Daley v tennis player Heather Watson, and sprinter Jodie Williams. 7.46pm: And it goes to ... the only one anyone's heard of! Tom Daley strides up. 7.47pm: "It really does mean a lot, I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me all year," says young Tom, who - it has to be said - looks a little bit gutted that this award probably means he hasn't got a chance of getting the main one.

7.49pm: Want to know where Andy Murray is? He's at Andy Roddick's charity do. Or at least that's what his Twitter page says. A chap called Archibald Blunderbuss emailed to tell me that. Did your parents lose a bet? 7.52pm: A year after missing out on the Olympics with injury, Jessica Ennis lead the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships from start to finish to win in Berlin, and it was quite the performance. She's onstage now, praising her hometown Sheffield for getting her through her injury. They applaud her back. A neat reciprocity there. 7.52pm: "Why were the BBC using the music from The Dark Knight in the background of the Tom Watson montage?" asks Phil Sawyer. "It rather seems at odds with his friendly persona. Does he don a rubber suit of an evening and throw himself off tall buildings?" 7.54pm: James Corden and Paula Radcliffe come onstage to make the most mismatched couple of all time. Unless Corden empties his bowels in public too, what possible connection can there be between the marathon runner and the fat comedian.

7.57pm: Eddie Izzard ran 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief earlier this year. Making him the more famous equivalent of Guardian Sport's Gregg Roughley . He wins a special award for his efforts. Izzard, not Roughley. 7.58pm: On this blog there is one comment. On the X Factor blog there are nearly 500. I might just go home, to be honest. 7.59pm: There is a band onstage, featuring Formula One's Eddie Jordan on drums. They are playing Fleetwood Mac's The Chain. They are playing it really, really, badly. Jordan came in out of time while whoever's playing bass is making a hash of one of the simplest bass riffs of all time. Thank god there's a professional orchestra behind them to add some semblance of quality. 8.00pm: "Re. 7.49pm. Presumably Archibald Blunderbuss' parents didn't have much choice about the surname. Or if they did, they only chose it because Turbo100 was already taken," writes Robin Hazlehurst.

8.03pm: Jenson Button talks about how great his team was and how much he owes them for his World Championship win. He doesn't mention why he subsequently left them for another team, though. Perhaps now's not the place. There seems to be a feeling that Jenson Button's not very likeable. I don't really understand it, he seems like a fairly urbane sort of a chap. It might be his habit of hanging around with models but, to be honest, wouldn't you? Certainly he's got to be more interesting than Lewis Hamilton. 8.06pm: SuBa is back. She's punning on about cycling and how the Tour de France turned into a tour de force for Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish. That's a point, why isn't Wiggins on the SPOTY list? Still, in fairness, Cavendish ought to win this. His achievements were fantastic. 8.08pm: Six Tour de France stage wins, winning on the Champs-Elysees, winning (then being robbed of) the Green Jersey and leading the Giro d'Italia is truly impressive. 8.11pm: Here comes the Unsung Hero award.

The award is being presented by Rebecca Adlington and Jimmy White. They stride out onstage much as if they don't know who on earth each other are. 8.14pm: The winner is Doreen Adcock, who has been teaching people to swim for the last 30 years. "Would you like to say a few words," asks Lineker. "Pardon?" she replies. "It gives me a lovely warm feeling to know what I've done to help these people," she says when Lineker does hand her the mic. 8.16pm: Philips Idowu's montage is unveiled alongside footage of a rocket being launched, and the music to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The man skips, hops and jumps into a sand pit for a living, albeit very well. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," goes the voiceover. But it's not, is it? 8.18pm: Actually, to be fair, Idowu's efforts this year were impressive. The World Champion triple-jumper leapt 17.73m in Berlin.

It's more the BBC decision to make out that jumping a long way is the equivalent of being the first man on the moon that rankled. 8.19pm: "Horse. Racing. Speed. Strength. Beauty. Kauto. Star. Incredible," says Dramatic. Man. In. A. Voice. Over. 8.22pm: Anna Pickard is apparently breezing her way through the X Factor final live blog with such consumate ease that she's found time to rub in the fact she's getting 3,00000000000 times the readers I'm getting by posting below. Pickard, you stick to your blog and I'll stick to mine. 8.23pm: Here comes David Haye with his actual personality. SPOTY might not know how to react to a sportsman with an actual personality. Frank Bruno is in the audience looking very, very moody indeed. 8.26pm: "I yabbered on so much that, if I were to lose, then I would have been a laughing stock," says Haye of his fight with Valuev.

A big cardboard cut out of the big man is dropped in behind Haye onstage and the boxer, for a second, looks genuinely concerned that it's actually Valuev. Lineker then, sort of, offers SuBa as a sparring partner for Haye - which is exactly the sort of comment Alan Partridge would have made, as my colleague Tom Lutz points out. 8.26pm: "The connection with Corden and Radcliffe is that they are both unfunny," writes Mike Ollier accurately. 8.26pm: "Anna Pickard might be getting 3 grillion times more hits on her blog, but on the other hand she has to watch the X-Factor. I'd say you win," writes Oli Watkins. 8.28pm: Voice. Over. Man. has been replaced by ever-so-whispery-gentle-Irish-whispery-whisperer-woman. She followed a run down of the Welsh rugby team's achievements with a run down of the Irish team's grand slam efforts. And never does she raise her voice above a whispery-whisper. I miss Voice. Over. Man. 8.28pm: Here comes team of the year.

Joe Calzaghe and Dame Kelly Holmes (who appears to have styled her hair like David Beckham) are out to present. 8.30pm: The nominees are: Brawn GP (constructor's championship), England cricket team (the Ashes), England women's cricket team (won everything), Ireland rugby team (grand slam). 8.30pm: ... And the England cricket team win. 8.32pm: That wasn't much of a surprise but is, nonetheless, well-deserved. Andrew Strauss says something about team-spirit, sticking together and all the sort of blather you'd expect. There's some laughter in the studio audience about something. I have absolutely no idea what. Perhaps Freddie, who was onstage, to collect the award did something. Who knows. 8.34pm: Yes! Voice. Over. Man. Is. Back! Back. In. Your. Box. ever-so-whispery-gentle-Irish-whispery-whisperer-woman. He's talking about football in big capital letters. Meanwhile the cameras cut to James Corden, who's on the phone in the crowd.

8.35pm: "Why isn't Phil 'The Power' Taylor or John Higgins, or Ronnie O'Sullivan included in this list? Why is it that when we have 'athletes' who genuinely dominate their fields rather that occasionally win we don't celebrate that fact?" says Chris Otter. "It seems to me that all of the sportsmen on this list seem to recognised for winning in surprising circumstances, isn't this a bit odd?" 8.37pm: Don Fabio is wheeled out and he very much doesn't look like Eric Morecambe as he strides down the big, glittery staircase. He refuses to play along with Lineker's banter too, which gives him another plus in my book. Mostly he looks like he'd rather be somewhere else. His biggest insight? "In South Africa, I hope our players will be fit," he says of the 2010 World Cup. Next, someone laughs at something he says that wasn't funny, nor was it intended to be. He fixes them with an icy stare that puts them firmly in their place.

8.38pm: "Happy as I was to see the men's team win the Ashes, that award really should have gone to the women's cricket team. A phenomenal year for them," writes Phil Sawyer, and he's probably right. 8.40pm: Here's the emotional bit where all those who died are honoured. And quite rightly so. 8.41pm: Here's an inappropriate email with which to follow that post but, hey, that's how we roll. "SPOTY is like soft porn in that real sports/porn fans don't like it, but it still annoys those who hate sport/porn," writes Gary Naylor. "Make this the last - please!" Let's not liken anything featuring SuBa and Lineker with porn. 8.42pm: It's coach of the year now: Don Fabio (impressive World Cup qualifying campaign), Sir Alex Ferguson (who it would be hilarious to see win, since he won't speak to the BBC) and Andy Flower (Ashes).

8.43pm: And it goes to Fabio Capello, which is absolutely not a surprise at all, really, given Fergie's anti-BBC stance and the fact England's cricket team have already won something. "I'm very proud to win this award," says Capello, and he actually looks it too. Briefly. Andy Flower looks a bit gutted. 8.45pm: "Surely Sea The Stars coulda been a contender. Or as he's not a person does he not have a personality but a horseality instead and is thus excluded from the contest? Isn't that horseist, or at least speciesist? Can the Guardian stand by and not condemn this?" writes Robin Hazlehurt. Being the Guardian, Robin, you can rest assured we've been wringing our hands in guilt all week. 8.46pm: Seve Ballesteros is being given a special award. You've got to love Seve. Onstage are the great and the good of the world of golf, all of them looking like a bunch of blazers on a beano. 8.48pm: Even Seve has managed to get in front of a video link camera to speak to the awards show.

And he's battling death itself! Andy Murray, have a word with yourself. He gets a standing ovation. "It looks like they like you," says Lineker. "I like them too," he replies. 8.49pm: Colin Montgomerie hails Seve's contribution to the Ryder Cup and wishes him a speedy recovery. "We hope to see you at St Andrews in 2010," he adds. 8.51pm: Jose Maria Olazabal is there to present the award to Seve. "You belong to a group of golf professionals who changed the image of golf around the world," says Olazabal and he's right. "This is very emotional for me," he adds and then starts sobbing. "You're doing OK," says Seve. I love Seve. 8.52pm: The pair stand and embrace as Olazabal hands Seve the award. "Thank-you to you all," says Seve. "It's a greaty pity I can't be there." He then kisses the trophy. Good old Seve. 8.53pm: Voice. Over. Man. Is. Reading. A. Poem.

Mostly about all the minor sports that no-one really cares about unless Britain happens to be doing quite well at them. Like sailing, BMX, canooeing and curling and that. 8.54pm: "Re. Sea the Stars: Didn't Red Rum win SPOTY in the 70's?‏" asks Euan Philipps. I don't think he won it, but was wheeled out into the studio. About 1977 if memory serves. 8.57pm: Michael Johnson does a very good impression of Voice. Over. Man. as he injects far too much drama into his presentation of the Overseas Personality award. Usain Bolt talks up Roger Federer (by video, obviously) and Roger Federer talks up Usain (also by video). No sign of Tiger, though. 8.58pm: And Usain Bolt wins it. "Unfortunately Usain can't be with us tonight," says SuBa, before anyone in the crowd can get too exctited. 8.59pm: The current comments standing. Pickard: 736. Bryant: 54. Sigh.

9.00pm: Right, here comes the main event. The tension is almost unbearable. Almost. Out come Sir Chris Hoy and Andrew Flintoff to reveal third place. 9.00pm: It's Jessica Ennis! Hurrah. Come on Cavendish. 9.00pm: She gets a big cheer. Here comes second ... 9.00pm: Second is Button. Hurrah! 9.01pm: And the winner of the 2010 Sports Personality Of The Year is ... 9.01pm: Ryan Giggs! What? 9.02pm: He has the good grace to look extremely sheepish. And so he should. 9.03pm: He's a wonderful sportsman, a model pro and he has had a sensational career. But this, surely, is a sympathy vote based on the fact he's nearing the end of his career. Were his achievements in the last year better than anyone else on the list? No. "That is a shock," he says. 9.04pm: "This is a shock," he says again, "As you can tell by the speech I have prepared".

He is genuinely moved and genuinely humble but, if I was Cavendish, I go out and kick something. That is as ridiculous as him winning footballer of the year. 9.08pm: And that, more or less, is that. Feel free to carry on chatting below. There must be a lot of Manchester United fans with big phone bills. That's all I'm saying. Follow the much-better-at-this-than-me Anna Pickard on her brilliant X Factor blog here . I'm off to wonder at the mentality of the sort of people who pick up the phone and vote for these things. Like a bitter, bitter man. A sad bitter man. Ryan Giggs named BBC Sports Personality of the Year - Wikinews, the free news source Ryan Giggs named BBC Sports Personality of the Year From Wikinews, the free news source you can write! Writing an article Welsh footballer Ryan Giggs was named as the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year in a ceremony Sunday night. The 36-year-old Manchester United and Welsh international player has won a record eleven Premier League titles in his career, and made over 800 appearances for his club.

Giggs holding the Premier League trophy in 2008 The award is given in December each year to a British sportsman or woman, and is voted for by the public. Giggs is only the fifth footballer to win since the award started in 1954, the most recent being David Beckham in 2001. Formula One driver Jenson Button was runner-up, and heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis came in third. Giggs said that winning came as a shock. "I grew up watching this programme. To see the people that have won it and to be here is unbelievable," he said in his acceptance speech. "I am playing for the greatest manager that has ever lived and I'm playing for the greatest club," Giggs said. "Perhaps I've become more appreciated as I have got older. It's unusual for a 36-year-old to be playing with a team like Manchester United for 20 years but I am enjoying it and long may it continue." Through his career United is the only club Giggs has played at. This year he made his 800th appearance and scored his 150th goal, and in April he also won the PFA Player Of The Year award.

Seve Ballesteros won the event's Lifetime Achievement award. The Spanish golfer, who is suffering from a brain tumour, was unable to attend the event, but received a standing ovation. His award was presented at his home in Padrena by fellow golfer José María Olazábal. "It's a pity I'm not there. I'm very sorry, I know I'm missing a good show, thank you very much to everyone," Ballasteros said. 15-year-old diver Tom Daley won Young Sports Personality of the Year for the second time, as well as being one of the ten contenders for the main award. "It's been a good year for me and I would just like to thank everyone who has helped me," Daley said. Comedian Eddie Izzard received a special award for his contributions to the charity event Sport Relief. Earlier this year he completed 43 marathons across the United Kingdom in 51 days, running a total of 1,100 miles. Izzard said that he decided on the challenge as "a health idea". He trained for only five weeks before setting out. "Everything was painful. People asked me if I enjoyed the running, but I enjoyed the stopping!

I staggered, I ran and I crawled," he admitted when accepting the award. His efforts netted over £200,000 for charity. The awards were presented at the Sheffield Arena, in front of 11,000 people. Full list of awards

Question: Which comedian received a Special Achievement Award at the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year event?
Answer: Eddie Izzard