Who Deserves To Be Sports Personality Of Year?

Bookies struggle to find candidates for Sports Personality of Year and ask: Is this the worst year ever for British sportsmen?

Following Andy Murray's defeat at Wimbledon, William Hill lengthened his odds from 2/1 favourite to 6/1 to win the BBC TV Sports Personality of the Year, and promoted Colin Montgomerie to 5/1 favourite to win the annual award.

"We are struggling to find any British sportsman who has managed a significant achievement this year which would entitle them to consideration for this prestigious award" said William Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe. "The footballers had been dominating the market, but have come home with their tails between their legs .In fact we believe that the greyhound Westmead Hawk, who has a real tail, and who won his second successive William Hill Greyhound Derby before suffering a career-ending injury recently should be given special dispensation to be considered this year as his human rivals have under-achieved so badly."

William Hill make Steven Gerrard 6/1 joint second favourite. "But for his domestic, rather than World Cup achievements", and have boxers Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan all quoted at 10/1.

"Calzaghe's World Title win was a stupendous achievement and if there were any justice he would win the award, but it was seen by comparatively few tv viewers. No-one could justifiably argue that any members of the national football, cricket and rugby teams deserve to win the award this year, while our athletes and F1 drivers haven't set the world alight, and we are genuinely at a loss to come up with credible contenders. Still, if it persuaded him to smile in public it would be good to see Monty collect the award."