• June 27 down the years

Wild Lion makes costly error

Ronan O'Gara senselessly gave away South Africa's winning penalty in the second Test © Getty Images

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2009
Heartbreak for the British & Irish Lions. Written off before the tour, they'd lost the first Test only 26-21 in Durban despite trailing 19-7 at half-time. Now they came even closer to holding the world champions away from home. After being murdered in the scrums in the first Test, they gave lock forward Simon Shaw a Lions Test debut at 35, and he made all the difference. Behind him, fly-half Stephen Jones scored 20 points, a Test best for the Lions, breaking the record set on May 31 29 years before. He landed five penalty goals and a drop goal as well as converting the Lions' only try, which he made himself with a pass to the impressive full-back Rob Kearney. At that stage, the Lions were playing against 14 men, Springbok flanker Schalk Burger having been sin-binned after only 32 seconds for putting his fingers too close to Luke Fitzgerald's eyes. Jones made the score 16-5 after 35 minutes and 19-8 after an hour. But South Africa had too much firepower in their backs. Supersonic winger Bryan Habana scored a try - then, after Jones had made it 22-18, sub Jaque Fourie scored another. Jones's last penalty made the score level with only four minutes left, but in the final minute substitute Morné Steyn kicked a penalty to win the match 28-25 and the series 2-0. They might well have lost it if Burger had been shown a red card instead of yellow: the Lions won the last Test 28-9 in Jo'burg.

1988
When Michael Spinks faced Mike Tyson, a great boxing career came to an abrupt end. Spinks had done it all. After winning the Olympic gold medal at middleweight in 1976 (July 31), he became one of the great light-heavyweights, winning three different world titles, the first in 1981, then giving them up undefeated, the last to go and take the IBF heavyweight title from Larry Holmes (September 21, 1985), who missed out on Rocky Marciano's record. Spinks was the first reigning light-heavyweight champion to win the bigger prize. But we're back to the matter of boxing styles. He was a superb mover, hitting you in ways you didn't expect before darting out of reach. It was enough against a 35-year-old Holmes who'd lost his knockout punch - but Tyson was a different animal altogether. Spinks was rigid with apprehension as soon as he got in the ring. Suddenly he looked a light-heavyweight again, slim and slight alongside a caged beast who appeared twice his size despite weighing only six pounds more. Spinks was rigid - but at least he wasn't in it for long. His height and reach advantage counted for nothing in the 91 seconds the bout lasted. A left hook followed by a big right to the body dropped Spinks to one knee, and the standing count gave him time to contemplate what was coming. He tried throwing a right hand, but Tyson hit him with a bigger one that left him flat on his back. No disgrace in that - and Tyson told him so when he got up. A great boxer had simply bitten off more than he could chew from his last course: it was Spinks's last fight and his only defeat in 32 pro bouts.

2010
Back in 1966, Geoff Hurst's controversial goal helped seal the greatest prize in world football for England, but Germany had their revenge with a 4-1 victory to reach the World Cup quarter-finals. While Hurst's famous Wembley strike 44 years ago was given by Azerbaijani linesman Tofik Bakhramov, the footballing gods frowned on the Three Lions as Frank Lampard's volley was disallowed by offiicials. Considered genuine contenders going into the competition in South Africa, England failed to hit the ground running with draws against the USA and Algeria. They snuck into the knock-out stages after beating Slovenia 1-0, courtesy of a goal from Jermain Defoe. But first-half goals from Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski and a second-half brace from Thomas Muller inflicted England's worst World Cup defeat to end their 2010 dreams.

1978
Kenyan superstar Henry Rono set his fourth world record of the year. After rewriting the books on the 5,000, steeplechase (May 13), and 10,000 metres, he now ran the 3,000 in 7 minutes 32.1 to take exactly three seconds off the time set by Britain's Brendan Foster four years before.

1998
A disastrous dropped ball by replacement hooker 'Naka' Drotské. If he'd held on to the pass with only seconds to go, South Africa would have scored 100 points against Wales! As it was, the visitors' 96-13 defeat in Pretoria was the heaviest ever suffered by a major country. Wales conceded 15 tries, to ten different try scorers, including Percy Montgomery who scored 31 points. Springbok coach Nick Mallett, who later took charge of Italy, called Wales the worst international team he'd ever seen, which was a tad harsh: many of their top players didn't make the trip, and new caps had to be handed round like sweets. Wales trailed 31-6 at half-time, then let in four tries in the next nine minutes and another seven in the last twenty. Eight of their players weren't capped again, including the captain Kingsley Jones. You could have got any odds you wanted on them beating South Africa a year later (June 26).

1906
The French Grand Prix was the first ever staged in any country. Held at le Mans, it was won by a Hungarian, of all people, driving a French car: Ferenc Szisz in a Renault. Those pioneering races were real endurance events. This one covered 769 miles, and Szisz did well to average 62.887 mph for 12 hours and 12 minutes, winning by 32 minutes from the Fiat of Italy's Felice Nazzaro, who finished first the following year.

1890
Boxing's first black world champion was one of the greatest. Canada's George Dixon had feet that were feline fast, with front paws to match. Incredibly hard to hit, he made even the best look foolish. He'd just become American featherweight champion when he came to London to take on Edwin 'Nunc' Wallace for the world bantamweight title. The records say Wallace had only seven previous pro bouts, including a defeat, but he'd almost certainly fought many others that weren't recorded (Dixon took part in hundreds) - and he was good enough to be English champion and give Dixon a good fight. At the New Pelican Club gym in Soho, Wallace held out until the 19th round before retiring. He had only four more fights we know about, losing three of them. Meanwhile Dixon went the other way. In his next two bouts, he won versions of the world featherweight title, which he held until 1896 then on and off until 1900. The predictable nickname Little Chocolate was the least he had to put up with. He died penniless 18 months after retiring in 1906.

1924
They use live ammo in shooting events. Stating the obvious, you might think. Buy you wouldn't have said that at the Olympic Games in Paris. The USA did well to win team gold in the free rifle three positions event: Sidney Hinds scored a perfect 50 despite being shot in the foot by one of his opponents! Surprising it hasn't caught on.

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