• August 13 down the years

Monty misses out

It was as close as Colin Montgomerie got to a major © Getty Images

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1995
The nearest Colin Montgomerie came to winning a Major. At the US PGA, he shot 68-67-67 before showing real big-match temperament in the last round. He birdied the last three holes, finishing with a 20-foot putt at the last, for a score of 65 which left him 17 under par. Unfortunately for him, it was a very low-scoring tournament. Even on pock-marked greens, dozens of players broke par, and Monty had company at the end. Australia's Steve Elkington undercut him with 64 on the last day, then broke his heart with a 30-foot birdie putt at the first sudden-death hole. Poor Montgomerie shot 267, the joint lowest score in any Major at the time - but went on to become the only golfer to finish runner-up five times while never winning one (June 18, 2006).

Scottish-born Tommy Armour won the US PGA in 1930. It was a matchplay tournament at the time, and in the final he won at the last hole against the great Gene Sarazen (born February 27, 1902). Armour, who had metal plates in his head and arm after the First World War, won the very next Major too, the British Open in 1931 (June 5).

1983
In Helsinki, Daley Thompson won the decathlon at track and field's first ever World Championships. In one of his famous duels with West Germany's Jürgen Hingsen, he was ahead after the first day as usual, this time with the help of an opposition error. Hingsen was a head taller than Thompson but he passed at 2.03 metres in the high jump, then failed three times at 2.06, giving away an extra 25 points. He sprang a major surprise by edging Thompson in the last event of the day, the 400 metres - but although Daley tied up badly, he still led by 120 points. Even a groin injury didn't hold him back. He matched Hingsen in the sprint hurdles, then beat him in the discus and pole vault to make the last two events a canter. His 8666 points (worth 8,714 later) won gold by more than 100. As in the 1982 Europeans, Hingsen had lost to Thompson after going into the competition as world record holder. He completed a grim hat-trick at the 1984 Olympics (August 9).

1997
Seb Coe's world record at 800 metres was broken at last. His 1 minute 41.73 seconds was ludicrously fast in 1981 and still a monster today. In 1997 Wilson Kipketer, a Kenyan running for Denmark, equalled it in July and broke it today in Zurich, running 1:41.24. Eleven days later, he set a world record that looks likely to last at least as long as Coe's.

1971
A 19-year-old Scot became the youngest winner of a men's individual event at any European Championships in athletics. Big David Jenkins seemed to have little chance in the 400 metres. Drawn on the outside, he had the favourite two lanes inside him, South-African-born Italian Marcello Fiasconaro, plus defending champion Jan Werner of Poland. Well then, said the young Scot, it's going to be a fast and lonely race. No-one suspected quite how fast. Blasting the first 100 metres in 10.9 seconds, he reached 200 in an impossible 21.3. Hanging on down the home straight, he reached the line in a Championship record 45.45, four hundredths ahead of the dipping Fiasconaro, who'd kept too close an eye on Werner, who finished third. It was Britain's only gold medal at these Europeans. Two years later, Fiasconaro set a world record at 800 metres. Jenkins (born May 25, 1952) later spent time in jail for smuggling steroids.

1913
Fred Davis was born in Chesterfield. Always referred to as overshadowed by his brother Joe (born April 15, 1901), Fred was a great snooker player in his own right. Genial and avuncular as the grand old man of the game, he was a tigerish competitor at his peak. He lost the 1940 World Championship final to Joe - then, when big brother retired, won the title eight times, including the last six in a row up to 1956. He was still playing for the Championship in 1966, reached the semi-finals as late as 1978, then won the world billiards title twice in 1980, when he was 67.

1898
Jean Borotra was born in France and became one of the top tennis players of his generation, a symbol of the Roaring Twenties. The great Bill Tilden didn't rate him, and Tilden was never wrong about such things. Borotra's rudimentary groundstrokes sometimes let him down against French team mates René Lacoste and the genius Henri Cochet. He lost Grand Slam singles finals to both of them, at Wimbledon, the US, and the French. But maybe Big Bill had a personal agenda: Borotra was his great rival as the star of the decade, a smiling glamour alongside Tilden's lordly cool, his berets against Bill's full-length coats. And anyway those powderpuff groundstrokes were just a way of getting Borotra to the net, where his agility and volleys ('The Bounding Basque') made him a matchwinner. He also used charm and gamesmanship to cover his deficiencies. Tilden saw through all that and never lost to him outdoors - but Borotra was particularly good on wooden courts indoors, and he wasn't bad on outside surfaces, winning Wimbledon and the French twice each (beating Lacoste in two finals) and even making the long trip to take the Australian title in 1928. He won the Wimbledon doubles four times, the mixed in 1925 with the great Suzanne Lenglen (24 May 1899), and beguiled every other woman at the Championships. He even knew the words to the Star-Spangled Banner, which really pissed Tilden off! Technical weaknesses and all, Borotra was a crucial part of the French Musketeers who won the Davis Cup six years in a row. Crucial and infinitely most likeable. He played at Wimbledon in 35 different years, more than any other player, the last when he was 65.

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