August 2025

Ann Jones 1969

Admin August 4, 2025

In 1969, tennis player Ann Jones was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of golfer Tony Jacklin, who won the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, thereby becoming the first Briton since 1951 to do so, Manchester United footballer George Best, and Jackie Stewart, who won the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship for the first time that year. Jones’ position at the head of the poll was due, in no small part, to her winning the Ladies’ Singles at the Wimbledon Championships, thereby ending the three-year reign of Billie Jean King.

Jones has previously beaten by King, in straight sets, in the final of both the Wimbledon Championships and the US National Championships in 1967, by scores of 6-3, 6-4 and 11-9, 6-4, respectively. However, reflecting on those defeats, Jones said later, “I soon realized Billie Jean wasn’t any better than I was; I had to stand up to her physically and mentally.”

Birmingham-born Jones, 30, was seeded four at the Wimbledon Championships in 1969, behind Margaret Court, whom she beat 10-12, 6-3, 6-2 in her semi-final, King and compatriot Virginia Wade, who lost in the third round. In the final, she again rallied from a set down to beat King 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to win her third Grand Slam singles title, after winning the French Championships twice, in 1961 and 1966. She became the first left-hander to win the Ladies’ Singles at Wimbledon, but did not defend her title, opting for commentary instead.

Indeed, Wimbledon 1969 proved to be her Jones’ last Grand Slam event. She would continue playing, albeit on a much-reduced schedule, until she was pregnant with her first child two years later. She said later, ” I knew winning Wimbledon at 30 years old was the pinnacle of my career.”

Jones was a founding member of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), subsequently chairwoman of the International Women’s Tennis Council and, in 2023, appointed a vice president of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1969 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2014, in both cases for services to tennis.

Anita Lonsbrough 1962

Admin August 4, 2025

In 1962, Anita Lonsbrough became the first woman to feature on the roll of honour for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, or Sportsview Personality of the Year, as the award was still known at the time. By that stage of her career, Yorkshire-born Lonsbrough, 21, was already an Olympic gold-medallist, having won the women’s 200-metre breaststroke at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome in a world-record time of 2:49.5. She continued in similar fashion in 1962, during which she won a total of seven medals.

In August, at European Swimming Championships in Leipzig, East Germany, Lonsbrough won a further gold medal in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke, beatung Klenie Bimolt of the Netherlands and Ursula Küper of East Germany in the final. She also collected a silver medal in the

inaugural women’s 400-metre individual medley and, alongside Mary-Anne Cotterill, Linda Ludgrove and Diana Wilkinson, a bronze medal in the women’s 4 x 100-metre medley relay.

Later in the year, at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Perth, Western Australia, Lonsborough won three more gold medals, in the women’s 110-yard breaststroke, the women’s 220-yard breaststroke and the women’s 440-yard individual medley. She also won another silver medal, in the women’s 4 x 110-yard medley relay.

In the eyes of readers of the ‘Radio Times’, Lonsborough had done enough to outpoint athlete Dorothy Hyman – who had won a gold medal in the women’s 100 metres at the European Athletic Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and two more, in the women’s 100 yards and women’s 220 yards at the aforementioned Commonwealth Games – in the public vote. Lonsborough’s teammate, Linda Ludgrove finished third in the poll, having won individual gold medals in the women’s 110-yard backstroke and women’s 220-yard backstroke at the Commonwealth Games, in addition to her relay medals.

Lonsbrough was further honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1963, becoming Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The following year, she carried the British flag at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, making her the first woman to do so.

Dai Rees 1957

Admin August 4, 2025

In 1957, Welsh golfer David James ‘Dai’ Rees was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. A leading British golfer on either side of World War II – he finished in the top ten in the Open Championship seven times between 1946 and 1961 – Rees was recognised, specifically, for his role as playing captain of the winning Great Britain Ryder Cup team. Racing driver Stirling Moss, who finished runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship, finished second in the public poll, while third place went to athlete Derek Ibbotson, who set a new world record of 3:57.2 when winning the so-called ‘Mile of the Century’ at the White City Stadium in London.

In those days, the Ryder Cup was contested between Great Britain (not Great Britain and Ireland, or Europe) and the United States and comprised four foursomes matches on the first day and eight singles matches on the second, each played over a maximum of 36 holes, for a total of 12 points overall. Great Britain had won the Ryder Cup just twice before, in 1929 and 1933, both times on home soil, and would never win it again.

Thus, the 7½-4½ victory at Lindrick Golf Club, near Worksop, South Yorkshire, under the captaincy of Rees was historic as it was the only occasion between 1933 and 1985 that the United States would be defeated on either side of the Atlantic. The victory was achieved in dramatic fashion, too, with Great Britain, who had trailed 3-1 after the foursomes matches on day one, recovering to win 6½ of the possible eight points available from the singles matches on day two. Indeed, Rees, himself, won his foursomes match, alongside Ken Bousfield, and his singles match, beating Ryder Cup rookie Ed Furgol by 7 & 6 to give Great Britain a 5-4 lead with three matches remaining.

Rees, 44, became the oldest winner, so far, in the short history of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and no-one older, male or female, has ever won the main award. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to golf in the 1958 New Year Honours.