We know how Team GB did in the medals table at London 2012 – but how did Britain’s journalists do?
Two years after Press Gazette published its first top 50 sports journalists list we are repeating the exercise.
In 2010 those covering football dominated the rankings – but in the wake of Olympics mania, I wonder if that will still be the case today?
Press Gazette is looking for votes from journalists to compile our list and I’ve embedded an online form below so that you can cast your ballot in seconds.
The results will be published in the autumn edition of Press Gazette – Journalism Quarterly, which is due out at the end of the September. And afterwards on this website.
Below the form you can see the full 2010 Top 50 Sport Journalists’ List, published online for the first time.
The UK’s Top 50 Sport Journalists (as published in Press Gazette magazine in July 2010)
Number 1 – Henry Winter
Daily Telegraph football writer was the clear winner, but he sounded genuinely taken aback when Press Gazette called him in South Africa to let him know he had been voted top.
He said: “The top two sports journalist for me are Paul Hayward [at The Observer] and Martin Samuel [at the Daily Mail]. Just to be mentioned on the same list as them is a delight.”
While many of the other names in Press Gazette’s top 50 are columnists, Winter has made his name as a master of the match report. He was inspired to become a sports journalist, and specifically a football writer, by reading the work of Geoffrey Green in The Times. Green started writing for The Times in the Thirties and died in 1990. He is considered by some to be the godfather of football reporting.
“At school I was obsessed with him… He fired my imagination because I’m a football nut and because he used football as a basis to write travelogues and other types of articles as well. I fancied doing a bit of that.”
2 – Martin Samuel
Daily Mail, sport columnist
3 – Patrick Collins
Mail on Sunday, sport columnist
4 – Paul Hayward
The Observer,chief sport writer (now at the Telegraph)
5 – David Conn
The Guardian, sport writer
6 – Patrick Barclay
The Times, chief football writer (now a columist with the Evening Standard)
7 – Oliver Holt
Daily Mirror, sport columnist
8 – Michael Atherton
The Times, chief cricket correspondent
9 – Stephen Jones
The Sunday Times, rugby correspondent
10 – Charles Sale
Daily Mail, sport columnist
11 Matt Lawton
Daily Mail, chief football correspondent
12 James Lawton
The Independent, chief sport writer
13 Hugh McIlvanney
The Sunday Times, sports columnist
14 Gary Lineker
BBC sport presenter
15 Jeff Stelling
Sky Sports Soccer Saturday presenter
16 Shaun Custis
The Sun, chief football writer
17 Paul Kimmage
The Sunday Times, sport interviewer
18 Oliver Kay
The Times, football correspondent
19 Tom English
Scotland on Sunday and The Scotsman, sport columnist
20 Simon Barnes
The Times, sport columnist
21 John Murray
BBC Radio 5 Live, football and golf commentator
22 Richard Williams
The Guardian, chief sport writer
23 Jonathan Agnew
Test Match Special commentator, and BBC radio cricket correspondent
24 Neil Fissler
Daily Express, rugby news correspondent
25 Des Kelly
Daily Mail, sport columnist
26 Ian Dennis
BBC Radio 5 Live, senior football reporter
27 Kevin McCarra
The Guardian, football correspondent
28 Martin Johnson
Sunday Times, sport writer
29 Owen Slot
The Times, sport writer
30 Paul Kelso
Daily Telegraph, chief sport reporter
31 Kevin Mitchell
The Guardian, sport writer
32 Peter Jackson
Daily Mail, rugby writer
33 Christopher Martin-Jenkins
BBC Radio 4 Test Match Special commentator, contributor to The Times
34 Mike Ingham
BBC Radio 5 Live, chief football presenter
35 Graham Spiers
The Times, Scottish football writer
36 Neil Harman
The Times, tennis correspondent
37 Stuart Barnes
The Sunday Times, rugby union writer
38 Paul Ackford
Sunday Telegraph, rugby union writer
39 John Etheridge
The Sun, cricket writer
40 George Caulkin
The Times, sport writer
41 Gabriele Marcotti
The Times, European football correspondent, also writes for The Herald
42 Adrian Chiles
Formerly Match of the Day 2 and radio presenter, Chiles on Saturday for Radio 5 Live, now with ITV Sport
43 Neil Ashton
News of the World, chief football correspondent
44 Chris Hewett
The Independent, rugby union correspondent
45 Stuart Bathgate
The Scotsman, sports writer
46 Dan Roan
BBC News, sport correspondent
47 David Hopps
The Guardian, cricket writer
48 Matt Dickinson
The Times, chief sport correspondent
49 John Cross
Daily Mirror, columnist and football writer
50 Ian McGarry
The Sun, football writer
A note on the methodology: the top 50 sports journalists list was compiled by asking as many sports journalists as we could find to rank their favourite journalists from one to five. We also used information from a weighted survey of 1,000 members of the public carried out for us by ICD research.
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