YOUR 3 biggest Sporting upsets ??

1. Denmark winning euro 1992.
2. dennis taylor beats steve davis world snooker final 1985
3. nortons coin winning 1990 Cheltenham gold cup

Dawn Run beating Wayward Lad..............cost me 12K............If I watch it...................I still fink its won

John H Stracey being disqualified for a low blow (that wasn't) against Bobby Arthur in 1972 for the British welterweight title. Revenge came in 1973 when John knocked him out in round 4.   

David beating Goliath

West Ham winning anything

Some of these are below 10-1 shots. loads out there bigger than this.

Bartoli winning wimbledon is a 400-1 shot for starters!

and not losing a set either ^^^^

Miracle on Ice. US college kids beat the mighty USSR at the 1980 Olympic Ice hockey.

Miracle of Bern. West Germany beat favourites Hungary to win the world cup. A turning point in German history as it signifies their acceptance on the world stage.

Miracle of Villa Park. Crystal Palace destroy the last great Liverpool team in the FA Cup semi final. Probably the most important football match of all time. It ended Liverpools dominance forever. Had they won, Liverpool would surely have beaten Man U in the final and ended Alex Fergusons career.

If Betfair was around in 1992, Denmark would have traded at 1000.0

fred rescue. am I correct in thinking that Denmark were invited very late to play in euro 92 after the break up of the old Yugoslavia? most of the Denmark players were on holiday all over the place and it was a challenge to get them all together for the tournament? I also remember in 1981 England played Australia at headingley in a test match. Australia were in total control then ian botham played a miracle innings then bowled out Australia to win by 18 runs. ladcrooks had a betting tent at the ground and even some Australia players had a few quid on England at the 500-1 odds offered...

El Gran Senior getting beat by Secreto in the derby. still have nightmares. cheers.

you are correct conductor.

In Running..

1. The remarkable Headingly Ashes test of 81.
2. Spurs 3 Man City 4  (Man City comeback from 3-0 with 10 men) 2004
3. Liverpool 3 AC Milan 3 2005

Not in running

1. Stephen Bradbury wins Olympic Gold in 2002
2. Nottm Forest win League Title in 1978 year after getting promoted in 3rd place from Division 2 in 1977
=3. Joe Johnson wins World Snooker Champs as a virtual unknown 1986
=3. Keith Deller wins World Darts Championship as a virtual unknown 1983

(in running) Jean van de velde needing a double bogey to win the Open ? and Paul Lawrie winning at the start of play on the final day ?

joe johnson was 150 i remember that can't recall deller

wasn't it a triple bogey he needed Biscar although I may be wrong.

Sep 7, 2014 -- 11:27AM, Howdi wrote:

wasn't it a triple bogey he needed Biscar although I may be wrong.

he took triple to get into the playoff

could afford a double (6) but took 7 to tie. lawrie was 10 behind at start of play

Barcelona 2-2 10 man Chelsea.

Barcelona lead 2-0.

A triumph for spirit and belief.

yes multi million pound spending Chelsea, that's really an upset.

In 1963 .....

Newport beating the All Blacks
Newbridge beating Newport
Risca beating Newbridge

............ not that I'm suggesting Risca could beat the All Blacks ...... though my brother-in-law frequently does after a few drinks.

the bairn

El Gran Senior getting beat by Secreto in the derby. still have nightmares. cheers.

my first Derby visit to Epsom .. at around the furlong marker they flashed past in a bobbing of heads ........ no idea who the horses were .....
Mrs c-c picked the winner £5ew @ 14-1 ....... we were married later that year though I'm not sure there was any connection

greece 2004 feels a bigger shocker than denmark winning euro football, i still don't know how they did it

francis ouimet winning the us open as an amateur in a 3 way play off against 2 golf greats, so good they made a film about it

miracle on ice

just to add, ouimet did it with a 10 year old caddy as well

2014 Brazil 1 Germany 7 , not the result but the scoreline was disbelieving.
2014 Nishikori and Cilic beating Federer and Djokovic in US Semis.
2014 Mk Dons 4 Man U 0
2014 Lord Windermere winning the Gold Cup after being tailed off for 3 miles

Been a few this year for sure , the Brazil / Germany game for me personally is the biggest shock in 40 odd years of being a sports nut.

lord windermere bizzare race. either the pace upfront was wrong or he was the only one , that day, who truely got home

No-one mentioned the last day of the last Ryder cup, greatest ever golf comeback imo

Gothenburg winning the 1982 UEFA Cup at odds of 1000/1

USSR beating USA in 1972 Olympic basketball final, USA's first ever defeat, the last minute is a must watch if you have never seen it.

Roberto beating Brigadier Gerard in the Benson And Hedges. A demolition job.
Foinavon winning The Grand National. He should have been 1000/1.

I've never been able to work out why Clay beating Liston was such an upset.  Clay was unbeaten as a pro, winning all fights easily and an olympic champion. Surely people had to have seen that he had a lot of talent ??

Clay was 8/1

personally i'd have the 1995 ryder cup as a bigger last day comeback than 2012

that team was massive underdogs at the start and to win from 7-9 on the last day was incredible

The 1877 Dead heat boat race.

Greece winning Euro 2004

Mr Francis Ouimet winning US Open Golf

Real Sociedad beating Real Madrid 4-2 last week after being 2-0 down after half an hour

Had it happened you could have closed the book at Buster Edwards beating Tyson. Now that would have been the biggest sporting upset bar none.

Not national sports, but east London darts league.

Long post

Me, losing the East London Darts League Cup Final by a score of 5-4 or 5-3, I can't remember now, after being 3-0 up. I was the only one of what were regarded as 4 'certs' that night to get beaten, and some punters weren't happy. I was quoted at 1/5, and some punters had big trebles and accas.

The following season, in the early stages of the singles championships, I took a fair bit of money on a treble that looked like 3 certs at 1-7, 1-4 and 1-2, which would have paid roughly 6/5.  I was in a club in Silvertown, where one of them was playing, and he had cruised home 3-0. Somebody phoned the Shakespeare in Canning Town, and he had also won 3-0, which left the third player, who was from my team, playing a pisshead scot in The **** at East Ham.

I told the blokes I'd be back the next night as I didn't have enough on me to pay them out. I had a few more drinks, and as I went to leave one of them came over and said 'Don't bother coming in tomorrow night, fack knows how, but Bob got beat 3-2.' 

Bob was the 1-7 shot.   

An upset for a few dart punters was when they backed a bloke called Johnny Larkin, who only appeared for that one season, to win the singles championship. This was the year after Bobs shock exit. I had layed him at 5/1 for £120 to the guv'nor of the pub, and a few small bets to others at the same price.

He beat everybody in the early rounds and never lost a leg.

Come semi-final night, a lot of good players who were virtually unbacked, who I'd hoped would save my skin, had been knocked out. The pub was cram-packed and I couldn't get near the board to get a look, as I had to score the other semi-final on the other board as a secretary hadn't turned up.

It was level pegging on legs, and Johnny Larkin needed 32 to win the semi-final. His opponent was up next, and he needed the maximum outshot of 170.

I heard the caller say 'Player requires 170' but couldn't see anything.  It went quiet and the first dart thudded in, it stayed quiet. I whispered to the bloke in front of me, John Montgomery, as he was about 6 feet 6 inches tall and could see the board 'What did he hit?' He said 'Treble top.' The second dart thudded in, and you could have heard a pin drop. JM turned and whispered 'Another treble, needs the bull', (as if I didn't know) and by fack, the place went absolutely mental when he hit it.

And the best part was, is that it was my team mate Bob, who had cost punters a lot of money the previous year, who had just turned Johnny Larkin over.

I know a few photos were taken and somebody contacted a Darts Magazine, but due to one thing and another, and going on holiday, I never saw the publication when I came home.

No bets of thousands of pounds at stake, but you can't hedge bets anywhere with a darts league, once you take 'em, you're stuck with 'em.

I'll nominate John Daly winning the 1991 PGA champs.  The week before, he was 9th reserve to actually play so probably about a million to 1 at that point but by the stars aligning everyone ahead of him dropped out for various reasons so the evening before he accepted the invite and drove overnight to the event.  No practice round, never even played the course before and had to borrow someone else's caddy. Won by 3 shots

good shout goballistic

good shout goballistic

England winning the Headingley '81 Test v the Aussies when Ian Botham was written into folklore after 500-1 was offered by the bookies. England were reduced to 135-7, still 92 runs shy of making Australia bat again but Dilley & Bothams heroics gave Australia a total of 130 to chase but were skittled out for 112.

Boris Becker, 17, became the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon at 17 years old.

Phil Taylor once doing an interview without mentioning money, namedropping or saying the next game 'will be a cracker.'

Becker was not really an upset, certainly not of huge proportions, I backed him for Wimbledon after he won Queens, he was best priced 20/1 just before Wimbledon Started.

1999 Rugby World Cup. France scored 43 points against the All Blacks to win the semi final.
I had the pleasure of watching it live in a pub in London with a large contingency of Kiwis.
They were certainly very upset.

Maybe not in terms of worldwide impact but Maoi Chinn Tire winning The Wensleydale Juvenile Hurdle at Wetherby in 2010 at 200-1 was as unexpected as the price suggests.

This is a Listed contest, not some seller that a shrewdie could plot one up at huge odds for.

I remember it since I know the owner fairly well and he had a few quid on.

I didn't though!

^^ cant recall too many 200-1 winners in racing, was this a record sp?

Must be close.

I'll check with the Googles and see what they say

Stand by....

'Equinoctial is the longest priced winner in British racing history, having won a novices' handicap hurdle at Kelso on November 21, 1990 at odds of 250-1.'

So there you go.

I once worked with a bloke who would probably have 'heard a word for it' and 'was going to back it'.

Surely the death of chit chat, not one response to sdk's op.
Buster Edwards?
The great train robber?
Would have been around 60 at the time that Buster Douglas lost to Tyson.

If I was a modest man I wouldn't dream of pointing out that I commented on that being the biggest by far.

Seabiscuit beating Triple Crown winner War Admiral

Freuchie Cricket Club (Fife) winning the National Village Championship at Lord’s in 1985

soderling beating Nadal at RG

13/5/1988  Wimbledon 1 Liverpool 0

Sheffield Eagles beating Wigan 98 Challenge cup final.

Good post, Call me a taxi.

Buster Douglas is my No.1. Easy to forget the type of fear which most opponents used to display getting in the ring with Tyson.

Think someone already said Honeyghan, that's the biggest shock involving a British boxer, apart from the occasion - not confirmed but rumoured - when Chris Eubank actually threw a punch at an opponent.

Finally, Berwick Rangers beating Glasgow Rangers in the 1967 Scottish FA Cup.

Greece 2004 has to be N°1 for me, literally nobody saw that coming. Would have loved to have been on at whatever price they were.
Journeyman Barry Cowan in 2001 taking not one but TWO sets of Sampras 2nd Rd Wimbledon
Britain 4x1 relay gold in Athens Olypmics 2004, the shock not winning and beating the American's but the fact they never dropped the baton

pixie
11 Sep 14 15:50   
Good post, Call me a taxi.

Ta, was it the darts post?

It was probably your West Ham winning anything jibe

Are you kidding?

biggest shock of all time was England winning the World Cup. The stuff of pure fantasy that

That was no shock in my opinion, not sure what price England were to win the world cup but it must have been single figures, how many teams would have been shorter in the market, maybe two possibly three if any at all, England by 1966 had a decent team & would have been competitive in another european country, playing at home & every Match at Wembley was a massive advantage which they took advantage of.
They actually had a better team in 1970 imo & really should have made the final, which I'm sure they would have lost again to the best team I have seen in my lifetime.

pumphol - England by 1966 had a decent team

England had a terrific team in 1966. The 1970 team was better imo too. Brazil back then was the best team ever. Just bought Nobby Style`s biography and it`s a fantastic read.

Brazil had a poor world cup in 1966, I'm sure after winning the two previous comps they were expected to go all the way, Germany had never beaten England by 1966 after seven attempts in which they had lost the last six, I suspect England were odds on to win in 90 come the final.


As for Nobby this is one of my all time fav footie photos

.
http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/67/590x/nobby-377152.jpg

pakistan refusing to come out after tea in that test match and the game being awarded to England got a few fingers burnt

Knew they should have used Tetley's

Just to mention something different.

Akabusi running down Pettigrew in the 1991 4x400 World Championship final.

That was an amazing finish, I screamed him home.

And me, I couldn't believe it when he actually won.

Washington Generals (then known as New Jersey Reds) beating the Harlem Globetrotters to end a 2,495 game winning streak.

The 2004 4x1 relay gold was closer after just watching the akabusi clip, Maurice Green's leg was over the line before Lewis-francis chest was, really it should be first body part imo, although happy it benefited Britin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDmYQ6WUvw

Rosol knocking Nadal out of Wimbledon was pretty shocking at the time too, world N°100 v N°2, but it was the nature of the way h won, going for every single shot and winning, first time I'd seen Nadal without a clue

Sep 9, 2014 -- 4:20AM, pumphol. wrote:

Becker was not really an upset, certainly not of huge proportions, I backed him for Wimbledon after he won Queens, he was best priced 20/1 just before Wimbledon Started.

It was when he lost to Peter Doohan in the first round 87 though having won the previous two years.

Was there that day on court 1. Electric atmosphere.